Up early for a busy day in and around the Bay of Islands starting with a "swim with the dolphins" boat trip. The skipper quickly found a pod of dolphins, decided that they were not in the mood to have us join them, and then found another pod that he thought could be up for it. By this point we had all changed into our swimming costumes and into the summer wet suits, goggles, snorkel and flippers supplied as part of the trip. So, into the water we all go. A totally breathtaking experience. Literally. The water was freezing! This is spring, after all. Lots of splashing about to try to warm up. By this time the dolphins were long gone. So, out of the water, shivering, we come. This experience was repeated with two more pods of dolphins. By the end of this our wet suits had warmed up but none of the dolphins had been in the right mood to spend any time with us.
Next up: a fast ride around the eastern side of the bay until we were just out onto the South Pacific Ocean at Piercy Rock. Why come here? Well, Piercy Rock has the unusual feature of large hole running all the way through it that is just big enough for our boat to drive through. So that's what our skipper did, and made it look a lot easier than it deserved.
At the rock we also saw, right next to our boat, the amazing sight of a shoal of snapper in a feeding frenzy on krill.
We were then delivered to a small island where we climbed up to a lookout point to enjoy the fabulous views around the bay. On our walkabout we had some close encounters with a number of native birds: oyster catchers, dotterels and fantails.
Next: a trip about the bay on Lion New Zealand an iconic, 80 foot yacht that in 1985 came second in the Whitbread Round The World Yacht Race. The yachtsman behind the success of the Lion, Peter Blake, is one of NZ's national heroes: he went on to win the race in 1990.
For the next few hours we all enjoyed the experience of gracefully sailing at speed around the bay on a sunny afternoon. This was no passive experience though; we were the crew! So, when sheets (ropes) needed pulling in to reset the various sails it was us doing the grinding (energetically turning the winches) that made it happen. Tiring, but good fun. We also all took turns at the helm. A brilliant experience.
Dropped off at the jetty in Russell. As we walked back to our B&B we were amused by the notice on the Methodist & Presbyterian church: "Don't follow strange cults, practice safe sects"..