Bay of Islands

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The Twilight Zone - Episode 2
After staying at Wheelhouse Marina, back in Malawi, we thought we'd already had our Twilight Zone experience for the trip, but no it came back to haunt us. We were travelling North from Auckland to the Bay of Islands, and decided to overnight half way up at a little place called Sandspit. We arrived at the campsite which was situated right next to the beach. We checked in and had a wander around, amused by the strange little frontier town shop fronts and homes that had been bizarrely recreated in the park. There was also a donkey braying but after walking around a couple times we couldn't find an Eeyores. That evening we treated ourselves to a meal out at The Salty Dog, which reminded us a little bit of an English Country Pub - ahh, homesick for The Rodney. We got back to the camp after dark and we felt compelled to walk to the loos together because all the frontier model shops were eerily illuminated after dark. There were scary ladies sitting motionless in windows, and in the garage a guy's legs were poking out from under a car. It reminded us of that cheesy movie House of Wax, so we hurried back to the van.

Bay of Islands
We escaped the scary campsite and headed North to Pahia. We arrived in the afternoon just in time for the dolphin cruise with Kings, for which we had vouchers from Ezy Rentals. Unfortunately it transpired our 2-4-1 vounchers had just expired, so we decided to go with another company, that offered the chance to swim with dolphins if the opportunity arose. We were to set sail the next morning, so we chilled out that afternoon. The next morning, we fought our way through the fogie crowds on the jetty and were relieved we hadn't gone for Kings, because the boat was rammed with tour groups. Our vessel was relatively quiet and had two friendly skippers, Graham and Phil, who were very informative. We soon found a large pod of dolphins that were very playful, twisting and turning as they flipped in the air, but they had little ones with them, so swimming was prohibited. We pootled round to Russell, where the harbour was full of yachts that had been racing as it was Labor Weekend. The Kings boat following us decided to charge through the moored yachts in pursuit of another dolphin pod we had spotted, but we respected the dolphins and yachts and skirted around the outside of Russell. The Kings boat must have incensed one of the racing sailors because he started yelling abuse at them, much to our amusement.

Next we visited the Hole in the Rock, a formation in a small island in the sea. The sea was really surging through the hole, so unfortunately the conditions were too rough to pass through the hole in the boat today. So we cruised back to Pahia, seeing a few more dolphins, but all had babies in tow, so no swimming was on the cards.

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Photos

spooky wax mannequins!
on the camp site!

hole in the wall
we couldn´t sail through it due to the rough seas

Comments

[Debra]

A pod of dolphins
The town looks spooky especially with the mysterious braying non-donkey, reminding me of the bit in that scary movie where the boys are turned into asses. (Pinnochio) I didn't know a pod of dolphins are called 'a pod.' I wonder why? (they are called a pod, not why I didn't know.) The hole in the rock reminds me of the hole in King Kong. More movie references, acht! I watch too much tv!!