17th February 2008, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
After an overnight cruise from Auckland, we awoke to find ourselves in Waitangi harbour, the site of the treaty between Britain and the local Maori folk. The scenery was stunning and not too dissimilar to Falmouth harbour in that it was a drowned river estuary. However, unlike Falmouth, this area was studded with many islands, some tiny, others medium sized and inhabited. All the surrounding towns, such as Paihia and Russell were really overgrown villages only and the whole area was fabulous.
We had elected to do a tour with the ship because we were tendered off - we didn't know to where - and had been advised that the only way to see this area was by boat. Hence we selected the boat tour. Fortunately, there were less than fifty of us and we all fitted easily into a 165 seater catamaran which was to be our home for over four hours.
Our guided tour included a newspaper delivery, two jettys, flash landing wharfs (with tunnels to pricey properties) and even a bucket where the paper was pulled ashore from a pylon by electric motor. Some of these second homes were stunning. We saw many islands, New Zealand's answer to the Giant's Causeway - the area, too, was volcanic - and a huge hole in the rock on Motukokako through which the cat passed to much cheering. We finished up on Urupukapuka where we walked to the top of the highest hill and took a 360degree panorama. Photos are better than words for this day.
In summary, New Zealand was a big hit.
