Bay of Islands Adventure!

    Last Thursday (Feb 6th) I headed up to Bay of Islands with seven other au pairs. Thursday was Waitangi Day (a national holiday giving us the day off). It is the celebration of the signing of a treaty between the British and the Maori. The treaty was signed near Pahia where we were staying. There were some Waitangi Day events there but by the time we got to them most of it was over. The weather was also not ideal for out door activities. We walked over to the Waitangi day celebration. There were lots of Maori boats and cultural exhibits up. Unfortunately we didn't spent much time looking at them because it was very rainy and windy. None of us had enough rain gear to stay dry in it.

We went up the East side of the country to get to Pahia and
came back the long way so we could see some more things.

    On our way to Pahia we stopped at the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves. These are actually maggots of a type of fly. They live in caves over water. They created a sticky string beneath them and use their light to attract small bugs that will fly up from the stream. According to our guide, the brighter the glow worm is the hungrier it is. They glow by combining an enzyme with oxygen. We were unable to take photos because the flash can hurt the worms. If you want to see some photos here is the link to the tour http://kawiticaves.co.nz.

    We were staying at a really cool hostel. They called it a backpackers resort which was exactly what it was. All eight of us crammed into a small apartment. It was nice that they gave use the apartment when we had reserved/paid for dorm rooms. Having a kitchenette and bathroom made everything so much easier. The hostel also had a swimming pool, hot tub, e-mail and laundry. It definitely made the trip nicer to have such a nice place to be staying.

   The day after arriving we took the ferry to Russell. It is a 10 minute ferry ride from Pahia. It was a very quaint old town. It was once the capital of New Zealand. It also has the first hotel licensed to sell liquor in New Zealand. It was given its license in 1840 after the British took over and changed the law to require licenses for alcohol sales. It was still raining so it was difficult to see all of the historic sites in Russell. While in Russell one of the girls picked up a pamphlet for a twilight kayaking trip. I'm so glad that she did because it was awesome.

All seven of the au pairs!

 
     Seven of the eight of us went on the Twilight Safari Kayak trip. We got on a large motor boat and started up the river. Part way up we got into kayaks and kayaked to Haruru Falls. Then we got to kayak into the falls. We also hopped out of the kayaks and swam into the falls right next to the rocks. It was so much fun. The rain made it easy to get in the water too. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Here is the link to the trip we did http://kayakcruises.co.nz/site/day-twilight-safari/

Ninna (my kayak partner) and I

      On Saturday we had a great stroke of luck because the sun came out! We had scheduled a dolphin cruise and sailing tour. The dolphin tour was fun but a little unfortunate. Due to the weather lots of the tours had been rescheduled so our tour was so packed. Most of the boat was covered and only twelve people could be outside on the bow at a time. It made it hard to get good views. We saw one pod of dolphins. It was quite cool to see them in the wild. We had hoped to be able to swim with them but were unable to because they had a baby with them. New Zealand has very strict rules about proximity to marine mammals. Their Department of Conservation says you can't swim with a dolphin pod if there are any juvenile dolphins, you can't have more than 18 people in the water with a pod at a time, you can't follow a pod in a boat for more than 30 minutes if they have juveniles with them and other things. It was quite fun to see the dolphins. They were very playful. I found it incredibly difficult to get a good picture of them. There were researchers from the University of Auckland on our boat that were cataloging the dolphins using their dorsal fins like finger prints. I thought it was quite cool that you could track pods and movement of dolphins between pods with photos.
   The second half of the day we spent on Lion New Zealand. It is a 80 ft sailing yacht that has sailed around the world multiple times. We transferred off the Dolphin boat the Lion New Zealand then had some time to explore one of the many islands. We got to swim from the boat to the island. The water was so clear and beautiful. It was surprisingly cold though. We took a short jaunt up the hill to see the view. It was absolutely amazing! After our time on the island we had lunch on the boat then set off sailing. As "crew" it was our job to work the grinders which helped us tack and raise the main sail. With a boat so large you can't pull the rope to tack like you can on the J-40 that I"m used to. It was tons of fun to be on such a big boat. They gave everyone a chance to drive the boat for a bit. We saw the dolphins again on the sail boat. According to the skipper (Tom) the dolphins like the sail boat because the keel is so deep that they can dive underneath the boat and be pushed along by the keel for a free ride. It was more exciting to see them from the sail boat than on the dolphin cruise.  We were much closer to them and had a better view. I also wasn't expecting to see them so the surprise was great.

Our group at the top of the island were we hopped of the sail boat. 

Steering an 80 ft yatch

      On the sail boat I got a really bad/weird sun burn. Apparently I need to work on putting sunscreen on evenly. I have all sorts of little spots that are really burned and turning brown. I didn't have any aloe vera and my burn really hurt so Ozmene told me that her mom puts plain yogurt on it to cool a sun burn. So we tried it and it worked quite well. I looked silly laying on the floor with yogurt all over my back but it was so helpful. Yay for Danish sun burn tips!

     On Sunday we drove back down the West coast of the country. We stopped to see the top of Haruru falls (where we kayaked too). It was nice to see it on a sunny day from the top! Then we stopped at a scenic lookout point near Omapere. It was cool because while it was on the coast it was so different than from where we had been that morning. The Bay of Islands is very green and lush while Omapere was very sandy and desert like. Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the trip home because I packed my camera and my bag ended up on the bottom of all of our bags :( About thirty minutes from the lookouts are the Kauri trees. We saw Tane Mahuta which is the oldest Kauri. The signs said it is estimated to be about 2000 years old. It was phenomenal!

    We didn't stop much after that (except for coffee and directions!). The drive through the Waipoua Forest where the Kauri trees are was a huge test of my driving skills. The road was incredibly windy. I could never see more than about 50 yards before the next turn. The road was also quite narrow. My car has corner sensors and when cars passed me going the other direction my sensors would ding. I now feel like a very successful driver.

   We got back to Auckland around dinner time. It was a great trip but it was a long day of traveling on Sunday and I was glad to be home.