Around the world in 108 days: February 25 - Bay of Islands, Kauri Cliffs & Auckland

Rick and I are doing well; just so busy I have not had time to work on the blog. Sorry, but thank you to those who have checked in with us since the last posting on Feb. 14. Rick has taken so many amazing pictures, it takes me hours to go through them all.

The last I wrote, we were making our way to Bay of Islands, New Zealand having not been able to go ashore at Roratonga. Well, that cruise-by ended up leading us to a wonderful surprise. We sailed in to Bay of Islands on February 18. (We have crossed the International Dateline, so we are now a day ahead of the US.) What a beautiful sight! The water was dotted with 150 islands of all sizes as we cruised into the bay to anchor. Some are uninhabitable boulders rising just above the waterline; others are mounds of lava cooled by the cold water, and others that are populated, wooded water mountaintops of 50 acres or more.

Bay of Islands is in the Northland of New Zealand and where European colonization of New Zealand began. There were battles between the local tribes as well as warfare between the Maoris (who had been in this region since about 1350) and the white settlers. Church missionaries converted the islanders with fervor. The town of Waitangi, where we went ashore, is the actual birthplace of New Zealand where the historically significant treaty was signed which ended the warring and ensured the Maoris of the rights to their lands and began New Zealand’s entry into the British Empire.

The excursion director was able to put together a few tours. Most involved the history of the Maori people and the treaty signing. Rick and I elected to take a boat tour of the islands. (I know, weren’t 18 days on water enough???) We were not disappointed. One of the “must see” sights is the Hole in the Rock; which, as you will see in the photo, resembles an elephant getting a drink of water. Our Captain sailed us right through the hole! It was awesome.

Entering Bay of Islands, NZ

Looking toward Waitangi, NZ & Russell Pennisula

One of the beautiful 150 islands

Sheep on the beach!

Approaching Hole in the Rock...nice catamaran!

Entering the hole

Inside

Made it through! The water inside the hole can be rough at times,
so not everyone gets to go through it. We were lucky!

An example of a small island

My favorite....new vacation house??

Black rocks. A series of mostly flat lava mounds.

We were so excited when we realized that our plans would bring us back to this part of New Zealand the following day. We had already booked a little “get-away” at Kauri Cliffs Lodge when the ship sat in Auckland for 3 days. So on Feb. 19, after we docked in Auckland, we headed to the airport and flew back to Bay of Islands.

Kauri Cliffs is one of a trio of New Zealand lodges owned by American, Julian Robertson. It’s sister properties are Cape Kidnappers in Hawke’s Bay and Matakauri in Queenstown. It is also a working sheep farm. It has an amazing David Harman designed golf course built along the cliffs. You can tee off with sheep grazing right in front of you! Unfortunately, we didn’t have an extra day for golf, because we had booked a deep-sea fishing trip on our only full day, but we would love to go back someday and play a round or two. We fished on Friday and caught a lot of snapper (but only 1 “keeper”), king fish (which didn’t meet the exact length to keep) and Rick caught a beautiful parrot fish which also had to go back. It was a great day and the scenery was amazing. The lodge had a BBQ dinner on their pink beach that evening so we donated our catch to the chef for everyone to taste. We joined the ship back in Auckland the next afternoon and sailed that evening for Tauranga.

Cheers!