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Published: March 12th 2009
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Having been back at Dan’s house in Auckland for the past week, chilling, relaxing and watching TV getting over the past 3 months of work, it was about time get off my big fat ass and head north to the Bay of Islands.
I had bought myself a ticket on the ‘Magic bus’ which is a independent travelers network that goes all around New Zealand and is perfect for people just like me. I got a great deal on the ticket having got the Southern bus circuit for a dollar when I bought the Northern pass, saving myself over 500 dollars! I thought that I would enable me to meet a lot more people compared to the intercity buses that I had used before.
It was like being back in Asia again as we were meant to be picked up at 6.45am but as that time came and went, by 7.15 I was I little concerned they has forgotten me, so I gave them a call and they had indeed mucked up so sent for a taxi to pick me up and take me to a YHA hostel that was one of the last to be picked up from.
Supposedly around 7.50 pick up, but yet again that time came and went so did the next ¾ of an hour!! Although this time I was actually standing with other people which always makes it feel a bit better when you’re not the only one stood there looking like an idiot waiting. Finally we did get picked up and started to head north out of the city, a couple of hours later than expect but none the less we were finally on the move much to everyone’s joy.
Considering that the Bay of Islands is only 3 hours north of Auckland none of us could believe that we didn’t arrived till 2.30 in the afternoon!!! We had so many un-necessary stops on the way including one which stopped at this toilet of some significance, but surprisingly enough held zero interest for me - it’s a bloody toilet for Christ’s sake! Everyone was getting off the bus taking pictures!!! But I happened to miss its importance due to the fact I was sleeping when it was getting explained (yeah I know you’re probably not surprised).
All was forgiven as we came over a hill and were greeting with this
magnificent view of the beautifully blue sea, green mountains and islands in the distance peppered in-between with many yachts and boats. It automatically reminded me of some of the places I had seen in Australia and instantly knew I was gonna love it here.
By the time we got off the bus we were pretty relieved to have finally got here, so quickly checked into our hostel and a group of 5 of us that had met on the bus decided to go for a small walk to a waterfall that wasn’t that far away so that we could get some much needed fresh air and stretch our legs.
The following day I had booked myself on to a dolphin explorer boat trip in the morning followed by a cruise around on a sailing boat in the afternoon. We had a really early start and headed off out in to the bay on the boat and couldn’t believe how calm and flat the sea was. Within about 20 mins of leaving the harbor we managed to see a pod of dolphins playing around in the distance, so headed straight out to them. This was a huge pod of probably
30 big bottle nosed dolphins jumping out of the water and playing about. Even though I have seen dolphins before it is still awesome watching them playing around they are to sleek and fast in the water and just so mesmerizing to watch. The main reason for going out on the boat trip was to swim with them, but unfortunately we were told that they had little babies in there group and that meant that we would not be able to get in the water with them , much to everyone disappointment.
We cruised off again in search of another pod and 15mins later found an even bigger number of dolphins which got all our hopes up again but then after spending some time here it was noticed once again that this pod also had babies - what a bummer!! But we did manage to hang around here for quite a while and I had an opportunity to lean out over the front of the boat right above the one playing around on our bow wave. They felt so close that I could nearly touch them, one of the dolphins kept surfacing right under and covering me and my
camera in water as he blew out of air hole, this was awesome even though it felt like he had just sneezed on me. I just couldn’t get over how smooth and graceful they swam through the water.
We left these pod and went in search of another pod that we could swim with but unfortunately after an hours cruising around the islands we didn’t manage to find any we could swim with, which was real unfortunate as I was really hoping to be able to do it especially after having seeing so many dolphin over the 4 hours, but we did however have an incredibly beautiful day and the views around were stunning.
At lunch time around 10 of us were transferred over to a big catamaran sailing yacht, were we had a lovely buffet dinner followed by some snorkeling around one of the islands which was pretty cool. We anchored here for a while and took turns jumping and diving of the side of the boat and one of the crew took turns dragging people around on the sea biscuit which was attached to the back of a speed boat - this was awesome fun and so
hard to hold onto especially through the tight turns as he was trying to make us come off as we had been giving him shit about driving like a girl - bad mistake!!!
We sailed around some incredibly beautiful islands (there are around 150 islands in this area) and I was really happy to find that this boat had loads of room to lie around on and relax, especially compared to the racing yacht I went on in the Whit Sundays which had zero comfort and zero space to sun bath!
So while sailing around it gave me plenty of opportunity to relax and take in the sights and look back on the last 3 months of work and think it was all worth it now of this moment ha ha.
A few of us were dropped off at a small town called Russell which was across the bay from where we were staying in Paihia. Russell was known as the ‘hellhole of the pacific’ for a while as it was one of the first settlements of European people and Russell seemed to attract many fleeing convicts, whalers and drunken sailors, which as you can imagine caused a lot
The Little town of Russell
Doesn't look like this little place could be discribed as the 'Hell hole of the pacific' of drunken debauchery and many fights. Luckily that’s all history now and it a beautiful little seaside resort but can imagine the kind of shenanigans that must have gone on here during that time.
The following day I walked around the Waitangi treaty ground which is a very important area as it was where the Engilsh and the Maori’s signed the much contested and disputed ‘treaty of Waitangi’ which basically made our Queen of England the ruler of New Zealand in 1840. This was quite an interesting place to walk around and to think of how history was made right on the spot that I was standing but other than that there wasn’t much else to see, so decided that the rest of my time here should be to sit on a beach and enjoy the hot sunny weather while I could.
I really loved the Bay of Islands, it was such an incredibly beautiful place and since taking the Magic bus up here I have met loads of people and had a great laugh with them. Surprisingly enough I have been very good lately and not been drinking a lot at all so unfortunately I haven’t any
The dolphin swim right under me
This was the little git that kept soaking me!! funny drunken stories yet, but I have another month to go and have just started so you never know what the following weeks might bring ha ha. My first experience off the Magic bus was good and I am now really looking forward to travelling back down south on it and meeting more people.
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Sarah
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Lyricsdigs
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often. Sarah http://www.lyricsdigs.com