Bay of Islands and having fun with Plan B
Sometimes the weather is not as beautiful as the postcards you see on the sidewalk. So far, New Zealand has been incredibly kind to us - we had beautiful days in Fordland where it rains most days of the year, on our Routeburn great walk, which allowed us to see some amazing vistas, as well as on our visit to Franz Joseph Glacier which was great luck for taking a helicopter ride and going ice-climbing.
Our visit to the North Island in January was a bit more of a mixed bag weather-wise. The Bay of Islands turned rainy the day after our arrival and the mountains in Tongariro enshrouded themselves in thick milky rain clouds a few hours after we rolled in. However, I have to say that hiking in the bush when it rained and listening to the chorus of birds, and smelling the scent of the moist earth, the moss and the underbrush was an experience that left me feeling like I’ve gotten to experience the real New Zealand, not just the New Zealand of the tourist brochures. True to form, in all the cases, our Plan B in both cases ended up with fun and entertaining experiences.
Waitangi Holiday Park - our waterfront camping spot. Note the absence of neighbors courtesy of the rain.
Our second morning on the Bay of Islands Brent went mountain bike-riding and did the Twin Coast Trail, which connects Paihia, where we were staying, to Hokianga Harbour on the West Coast of the North Island on the Tasman Sea. The tail is 87 kilometers and the Paihia Mountain Bike Rentals guys told us that people normally do it in two days and that the record speed for that is about 4.5 hours. Well, Brent had a strong reserve of energy after his hangi dinner and ended up matching and even beating the time estimate!
Brent's bike at the end of the Twin Coast Cycle Trail from Paihia to Hokianga Harbour
On the Bay of Islands side though, it was quite windy and my “swimming with dolphins” hike got cancelled. I knew I had to drive to Hokianga Harbor to pick up Brent, so I didn’t reschedule and instead ended up taking the Happy Ferry to Russell - one of the oldest towns in New Zealand. I took a “Russell Mini Bus tour”, which was led by John - a long-time resident of Russell who entertained me and four other American stranded tourists with an hour’s drive around the town. Everyone in town knew him and waved at him as we passed and on our drive we learned as much about the inhabitants of different homes and juicy bits of local lore as we did about the historical Pompallier Mission, the Christ Church that still has musket ball holes visible on the sides (from the battles of the British with Hone Here), the oldest tree in New Zealand and various other parts of Russell’s history as the “hellhole of the Pacific” as it was known in the early 19th century. Far from a “hellhole”, Russell struck me as a beautiful colonial town with cute white-washed British architecture and lots of character.
After a couple of days of rain, during which we visited the Kerikeri town and Mission Station, we managed to grab a few rays of sun in Paihia and head out on the water. Our “swimming with dolphins” trip had only a dozen people due to the mass exodus of tourists from the bay in the preceding days of rain. The lack of crowds was just one aspect of a beautiful afternoon. We ended up sailing all around the Bay of Island, around various beaches, harbors and volcanic rock outcroppings. We sighted a group of dolphins, each of which has been named with cute names like Flipper and French Toast. The dolphins recognized the boat and came to play with us, entertaining us with air flips and belly flops. Because there were a few baby and youngster dolphins in the group, we couldn’t swim with the pod.
Our guides on the boat were also quite sun- and beach-starved so they were only happy to indulge the few guests who were asking to go on a swim. Our captain found a beautiful beach on one of the islands and we anchored there for half an hour of gorgeous swimming in the turquoise waters and walking on the sandy deserted beach.
The boat view of the Bay of Islands gave me a unique appreciation of the chart-mapping skills of Captain Cook and his officers. On his fist visit to New Zealand, he managed to quite precisely map almost the entire bay in just under a week’s time. An impressive accomplishment given the scale of the bay and the 144+ islands that it contains, not even mentioning the hundreds of rock and lava outcroppings!
We finished the day in Russell, which was much more tropical than the rainy morning when I took the tour. Having a beer at the deck of the brothel-turned-upscale-hotel "The Duke of Marlborough" was a relaxing day to finish a beautiful summer afternoon on the bay.
