Bay of Islands - Hole in the Rock

Monday & Tuesday 29th & 30th January 2007

After a quiet weekend in Auckland we thought we had best get in another trip before Jes starts work on 1st February. We opted for a long drive up to Bay of Islands. We stayed in Bay Cabinz in Paihia in a fabulous and compact little cabin. After unpacking we went in search of the beach - not too hard to find and spent a lovely afternoon relaxing with the other 6 people there. As we said before, Kiwi beaches have a different sort of "busy" to UK beaches. This one was busy with only a handful od people there. Millie and Joe spent time in the water, on the beach, in the playground. They were in their element.

We took the advice of Belinda, owner of our accommodation, and took the Kings Cruise out the next morning to the Hole in the Rock and a search for dolphins along the way.

The ferry left about 9.30am and we boarded with many other tourists. On the voyageto the Hole in the Rock the captain spotted a pod of maybe 20 dolphins. They were extremely playful and were not camera shy at all. They were swimming next to the boat, in front of the boat, in the wake of the boat... It was a wonderful experience. After about 20 minutes the captain moved the boat on but then another boat just ahead of us had sighted a family of Bryde's whales, so we headed in that direction. That was just amazing. They were not as playful as the dolphins but they did surface enough times for everyone to get a good look.

The scenery on the voyage was superb - again! Clean beaches, clear water, virtually no people. Idyllic.

The Hoel in the Rock is basically a large rock inthe middle of the bay with a hole right through it. The hole was so big the captain managed to manouvere the ferry through the hole. As we can out of the hole the captain pointed out the Profile of a Princess.

Check out the photo and see if you can see it!