Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is north of Auckland on the east side of New Zealand and we have just finished spending 3 wonderful days exploring and touring the area. First, we found a great place to stay, Beachside Holiday Park, outside of Paihia (Pie He a), nestled in a bay with a small private beach. The first day we walked part of the Paihia Coastal Track and explored the town.  

The following day we got an early start, being picked up at 7:00 AM by Fuller Great Sights Tour Company for our full day, and I mean full day, tour up to Cape Reinga.  Stops along the way included morning tea by the beach, a walk through an ancient Kauri Forest, driving at 100 km/hr up 90 mile beach, clam digging, driving up a river bed to the sand boarding dunes, arriving right up on the tip of the peninsula at Cape Reinga, lunch, afternoon tea and a visit to the Ancient Kauri artist centre.  

Digging for clams on 90 Mile Beach.

Ready to sand board at the top of the dune.

The view from Cape Reinga. The Tasman Sea meets the Pacific as can be seen on the right hand side of the photo.


Our final day started early again but this time to swim with dolphins. Our boat set off in search of the dolphin pods that are always around the Bay of Islands. Soon after leaving the harbour we spotted 4 dolphins, a mother, 3 day old baby, the midwife (auntie) and one other swimming protectively around the baby the whole time. When there is a baby or juvenile present you cannot swim with them, but it was an incredible sight to see as we followed this small group for 10 minutes. 

Look carefully for the baby dolphin's fin directly beside the mother on the right. 

The tour guide and captain thought it was better to move on and not stress the mother dolphin, so we headed out in search of another pod. We were lucky and found a pod of 12 to 15 dolphins willing to play with us. In we jumped; right away the dolphins were swimming under us, jumping in the air and the picture tells the rest of the story. What a great day!

All good things have to come to an end. We celebrated our last night in the caravan as we did every night with good food and wine!