I've had a long standing goal of finally compiling my entire music library on my Ipod, and with the anticipated down time impending upon planes, trains, boats and other forms of transporation, I knew this was one thing I had to finish before I departed, which I was able to do successfully. I am well impressed with the advancement of technology in recent years. My entire library of a couple hundred plus CDs filled up about half of my Ipod. Gone are the days of massive CD binders; now it all fits in the palm of my hand.
One other particularly dreadful item to accomplish was filing my taxes. With a return date later than the federal filing deadline, it was one more thing that I had to finish before leaving. I've been fortunate enough to have several successive years of returns, but for some reason this year I had to write out a check to Uncle Sam. Ah yes, just the thing I wanted to do before leaving for the trip.
Alright, I am packed and ready to go. One question I have got from a few different people is "are you excited?" The answer is yes, but I am also left pondering so many things...will it be everything I have made it out to be? Will the experience leave me wondering how I could have survived wihout knowing the things that I will come to learn along the way? Only the time and the journey ahead will provide an answer. Off I go...
Upon my arrival at the hotel, I was happy to see a moderately sized congregation of people from our tour loittering outside of one of the hotel rooms with an assortment of alcoholic beverages in their hands and a decent amount of empty cans and bottles of the social lubricant at their sides. So, while I was out pounding on a keyboard, the rest of the tour was having their first happy hour together and getting to know each other.
So of course, I was destined to be that guy in the cafeteria, with may eyes darting across each table hoping for a friendly face. That was until I heard a "hey, you want a beer?" come my side on my way into dinner.
Quite a few of us opted for a sailing trip around the Bay of Islands. We had a full day and one more night in this place and this particular activity would consume about 6 hours out of our day. It seemed to encompass a good amount of activity in one bundle with snorkelling, hiking, lunch and sailing on the intinerary. There was also the possibility of seeing whales and/or dolphins, and if we were lucky, we could even jump in for a swim with the dolphins.
We set off into the Bay of Islands and the view was marvelous. Something I didn't know at the time that I chose this particular activity was that this area of New Zealand is well known for the high quality scuba diving available all around the bay. The local dive shop said it was one of the top 10 sites for diving in the world. So, here I was, my second day in New Zealand, and I was already thinking that I'd have to come back sometime to check out the dive. The trip inside the dive shop made me realize that there was one rather important thing that I forgot back home: my dive log, and more importantly my dive certification card. I am hoping this won't be a problem when I get over to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.
I digress. The view was quite marvelous as we cruised around the bay and weaved between the islands on our way out toward the open sea. The boat doesn't venture very far out into open water, if at all, but it goes just far enough to where the whales like to hang out. Within a few minutes of arriving to the outer fringes of the bay, the captain's radio came alive crackling with a report that was unitelligible to me but revealed obvious excitement on other end of the mic.
After we gave up on the whale, we turned back towards the bay and charted a course to Urupukapuka Island, the largest island in the bay.
One of the things that was particularly striking about the Urupukapuka Island (and its neighbors) was the color of the grass. It was the extraordinarily bright green. In fact, it was almost a little too green. You know when they add color to an old black and white movie and it looks a little bit off? It was something like that. Nevertheless, green is my favorite color so I still found it exciting. It only got better once we took a hike to the the top of the island. The captain's promises of splendid 360 degree views for those willing to take to make the trip proved not to be overstated. The bright brilliant green grass in the foreground with the turqoise water of the bay and whispy white clouds dancing on a blue sky was simply breathtaking.
On our way back into Paihia, we shut off the engine and pulled up the sails. I am relatively certain that I've not ever been sailing before, and I quickly realized why it's such a popular pastime. Sure, it's easy for me to say as I lounged on the deck of the boat while the crew ran around pulling this rope and tying another one down; but once the sails were set and the wind took over, the trainquility was palpable and unavoidable.
That was until the radio crackled alive once again with the voice of a man speaking in a familiar tongue with a funny accent. A word about the Kiwis here (Kiwi = someone from New Zealand). I've never met a Kiwi I didn't like. They are, in my experience, a friendly, helpful, obliging and enthusiastic bunch. And this radio traffic was no exception. What was happening is that captain/crew from other boats were letting us know where the wildlife were hanging out. I'd say that's pretty freindly competition. This time around, a group of 3 dolphins had been spotted swimming on the surface around one area of the bay. We quickly lost the sails, fired up the motor, and made our way over to the reported location.
We weren't the only ones who had heard the broadcast. When we arrived, a couple of other boats loaded with eager dolphin-trainers-in-the-making were closing in on our position.
Maps
People
Photos
My Stuff
trip feed
trip kml