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Published: March 10th 2014
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Bottlenose Dolphin
jumping in Bay of Islands Greetings from the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand. This area is named the only thing which really makes sense. This is a large salt-water bay which is ringed by a vast number of islands (some large and hospitable and many pretty barren). The whole area was first mapped by Lt James Cook in about 1679.
Our ship arrived in the bay around 6:30 and by 7:30 the pilot had us anchored and ready to go ashore. That means we had to have gotten up pretty early this morning (6:00) to get dressed and have breakfast. We reported to the tour location (Wheelhouse Bar) at 7:00 and were directed to a waiting area until our tour was ready to begin. Ours was the first group off the ship and we were loaded into a lifeboat for a 20 minute ride to the pier (referred to as “Tendering”)..
When we disembarked from the tender, we immediately boarded a large multi-level catamaran for a boat tour of the bay. We chose seats inside although many went topside for an open-air view of the scenery. We had ample room and the seats were comfortable. However, David was
Sun Princess
in Bay of Islands, New Zealand able to go outside to the bow of the boat whenever he wanted to take pictures. It got pretty windy for him when the catamaran scooted at high speeds across the bay, but it wasn’t too cool to make it uncomfortable.
The first thing we saw was actually a pod of bottlenose dolphins occasionally jumping out of the water. The boat stopped and we got to watch them for about 10 minutes (and even caught a few in pictures). We were told that these dolphins spend 20% of their time eating, 20% sleeping, and 60% enjoying a very promiscuous lifestyle with dolphins of the other gender.
We sailed past many islands and with the boat stopping frequently to tell us some of the history about each location. One place was Cook Cove (named for James Cook) and there is a plaque there on a rock just above the waterline. We saw a beach called honeymoon beach, named that because at high tide there is only enough sand exposed to accommodate two people. We saw the historic Cape Brett Lighthouse which had been manually operated to safeguard the entrances into the bay, but which are
now automated. Housing can be built on the islands if you own the land, but they must be unobtrusive in color and style, so the landscape looks quite natural until you get very close to the shore and can see the dwellings.
The highlight of the boat tour was visiting the “Hole in the Rock”. This is a channel which has been eroded by wind and sea through the Piercy Island, so sometime boats can actually sail through. In Cabo San Lucas we had seen something similar, but not nearly accessible. Being able to sail through actually depended upon good weather, but happily we had good conditions today.
After coming out the channel on the ocean side, we were shown the naturally occurring formation which resembles the face of a woman who overlooks the ships as they approach the bay. We also sailed past Cathedral Cave, which is a notch in the rock where the wind has eroded a large opening inside. We could only sail up to the beginning, but in a smaller boat they said you could get inside and see the enormity of the cave.
About 11:30 the
Hole in the Rock
as we prepare to sail through it boat returned us to the pier in Piahia where we had the chance to explore the shops and restaurants. We bought a couple of post cards, but nothing else, although they did have lots of interesting things. Then we caught a shuttle boat back to the tender pier and we returned to our ship by about 1:00
We ate lunch up on the Lido Deck. Instead of having the buffet today, we went to the Terrace Grill. Janet got a couple of hot dogs and David got a couple of cheeseburgers. Then we got some dessert in the Horizon Court and went back to the cabin. Janet was able to take a little nap and David examined the pictures from today to see if any were successful.
At 3:30 Janet went down to the Regency Dining Room for High Tea and Scones. David went up to the Riviera Deck (#12) to search for the fitness center and then went to the Swirls Ice Cream stand for cookies and ice cream – maybe he will go back sometime and actually use some of the fitness equipment. We met back in the cabin about 4:30. Janet
Woman's Face
watching over the ships came back and said she had been sitting with 8 Australians, who said she had a strange accent. Ha – that certainly is a matter of perspective!
To summarize our opinion of Bay of Islands is that it’s very picturesque. We had comfortable weather (slight breeze, only partially cloudy and about 70 degrees temperature). The primary industry here appears to be tourism, but even with 2 ships here today, it was not crowded, the locals were friendly and not pushy, and we did not feel any pressure on the tourist. We enjoyed a fairly restful but interesting boat cruise followed by a half day back on the ship. We could have pushed for even more things ashore, but this was a nice way to ease back into touring activities.
Dinner this evening was “casual dress”, so we did not need to get fancy today. Unfortunately we were gthe only ones to come to our table tonight (just a really large table-for-two). For our meal, Janet had shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, Prime Rib w/ baked potato, and “floating islands” for dessert. David had seafood skewers, chilled mango soup, prime rib w/ potato, and strawberry shortcake.
David
in the catemaran We also got a bottle of wine and the leftover will be waiting for us tomorrow.
This evening’s show was by the productions singers and dancers and was called “Shimmy”. It was a set of songs popular from the summer of 1962. Last night the cruise director had introduced this show as being something we might not remember, but your parents probably knew the music. The trouble is that we knew most of the songs ourselves.
Then the late night Movie-under-the-Stars is Captain Phillips. David would like to stay up and see it, but it will not end until after midnight and we have a morning excursion tomorrow. He will just have to find it on the TV in a day or two. That’s about all for our first day in New Zealand.
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