After an uneventful time in Whangerai we headed North to the Bay of Islands for 2 nights before making our way back to Auckland.

We stayed in a town called Kerikeri, famous for its orchards. There wasn't much else to report about the town itself save for the fact that it holds NZ's 2 oldest buildings if you're into that sort of thing.

We used the town as a base only and arranged a trip the following day to the Bay of Islands itself. This is a Coastal area with in excess of 100 islands, some inhabited and others not. It is famous for dolphin and whale sightings at certain times of the year. We joined a catamaran trip out into the bay in the hope that we would catch sight of some of the dolphins. Within about half and hour we were in luck, spotting a pod of bottle nose dolphins. We got really close to them in the boat and they were eager to show off, one of them doing belly rolls in the sea. They were much bigger than I was expecting and they had a baby with them. Unfortunately this meant that we could not swim with them which was a bit of a shame for Stephen as he was keen. There was no way I was getting in the water though, far too cold and deep and who knows how many sharks were lurking there waiting to grab us by the feet and take us into the murky depths....

After our dolphin sighting we moved further out into the bay listening to the commentary about the various islands we passed. We eventually reached the Hole in the Rock which has been carved out of the cliff by the sea over thousands of years. This area was really rough and we stood outside at the front of the boat feeling the full impact of the waves propelling us up and down. I felt like I was in Alton Towers! Anyway, it was really impressive and scenic and we thorough enjoyed.