Destination - Northland - A Day on the Water

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So it is pointless to go to the Bay of Islands and not spend some time on the water so we booked ourselves on a boat tour with Fullers to the hole in the rock. After a filling breakfast at our B&B we headed down into Russell to wait at the pier for our boat. You have to check in at the Fuller's office first to get your proper tickets. The weather looked a bit iffy but thankfully the tour goes out in pretty much most weather and coming from Scotland we had seen worse anyway. The sun did try to shine in the beginning but it did not last but that was not to spoil a beautiful day on the water.

The highlight of course is seeing the dolphins! Everyone on the boat goes a bit crazy when a sighting is announced and I think that is probably the main reason why people head out there. My husband had been keen to go swimming with them and I was not up for it this trip so I was very thankful when we saw them and so many. The best bit is that they love jumping in the surf of the boat and a group of about four put on the most amazing display for us. It is extra special seeing the dolphins in the wild!

Seeing the Bay of Islands from the water is beautiful and dramatic as well and so the scenery is also worth the trip. Once we left the safety of the bay the water gets a bit rough and I don't handle rocking boats very well but I was easily distracted by the coolness of a hole in a rock. There were also hundreds of birds on the water so there must have been a lot of fish hanging about. The boat gets pretty close to the hole in the rock and we got some great pics...I did have to hand the camera to hubby at this point due to the rocking.

On the way back in we all had to hide inside under cover as we were more than likely to get wet but once back in the harbour things settled down. We did have the option to spend time on Urupukapuka Island but the weather was not on our side and there was no shelter on the island so we decided just to head back to Russell.

At Russell we visited the small museum they had there to learn a bit of history and then a short trip to Christ Church across the road completed our tour before lunch and heading out onto the Russell Road back to Auckland.

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