February 3 – Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Our tour today doesn’t leave until the afternoon so we hung around the ship most of the morning.  We did go into town a bit early to walk around Paihai is a pretty small town.  The bus driver said it was a one street town.  It is really more of a one block town (plus a harbor).  We walked the block and peeked into a few of the shops.  

Among other things we saw what must be one of the world's smallest lending libraries.

Everything was pretty much either eateries or souvenir shops.  We had lunch at a kabob place and then took a short walk along the waterfront.  

We had great views of our ship out in the bay.

It started misting and raining almost immediately after we got on the boat for our tour.  The boat’s captain came on the intercom to warn everyone that the water was likely to be rough and anyone who thought that they might not be able to handle the seas were invited to disembark.  No one did (and several ultimately should have).  We both did fine.  And the water inside the bay wasn't too bad.

The cruise was to take us around the Bay of Islands with hopes of seeing dolphins…and we saw quite a few.  There was one pod, estimated at 15 or so, that we watched for quite a while.  Some were pretty close to the boat.

They often swam packed together and a couple did a fair amount of aerials and tail slapping.  They are so fun to watch.

After some time watching the dolphins we then headed out of the bay and along the coastline.  It was a good bit sunnier along the coast, and also rougher.

We stopped for a bit to take pictures of a lighthouse…

and then headed out to see the Hole in the Rock.  The captain said that this is the largest sea arch in an island in the world (couldn’t confirm this on the internet).  Most of the sea arches are in coastal cliffs.  

On a calm day the boat is able to navigate through the arch.  However, the waves were exceedingly rough and there was no way we would be sailing through that hole.  But it was beautiful to see.  We had a few pretty sick people on the boat by the time we headed back.  We both did fine.  

Back in the bay it was still dreary and rainy.  We made it back to the ship with time to spare and enjoyed another great dinner before the show.  The entertainment was a singer from Australia.  He has played Phantom, in Phantom of the Opera, as well as a number of other major Broadway equivalent roles.  Somehow Mary wasn’t really that impressed.  Tough critic.