Paihia

The 29th of July was going to be nice and sunny. At 9am I was ready to board the "Dolphin Seeker" for the Bay of Islands Cruise. We were on the boat for quite some time, our final destination the famous Hole in the Rock. It was pretty impressive but unfortunately the wind out there was too strong to actually drive through it. So we kept our distance. Apparently I didn't choose the best of days because although we saw some seals it took a long time to find dolphins and by that time it was too late to go and swim with them. Also included in the tour was a half-hour stop-over on one of the islands where we climbed a hill to enjoy the view and warm up again.

When we got back to Paihia I had to hurry up to drive to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds past the Haruru Falls. They were nothing really special but nice for a quick glance. At 2pm I joined the last guided tour of Waitangi for that day. It was very informative and I learned a lot about Maori and missionary history. If you are interested in that, definitely go and have a look! After the tour there was even a traditional Maori show for us in their meeting house with singing, Poi swirling and of course the Haka.

That evening I took the ferry to historical Russell but I found it was very very small and after watching the sunset from the historical pole mast I returned to the hostel.