Pahia

Sunday 2nd March

What a lovely day we had in Paihia with Martin and Carolyn.  We started the day with brunch, which consisted of an egg and bacon bap and coffee. And then caught the ferry across the bay to a little heritage village called Russell, all very twee and more than enough time to have a walk around before catching a boat trip out into the Bay of Islands for 4 hours.

The skies were a bit grey unfortunately, but the sea was flat calm as we wandered in and of bays and around islands.  We only had time to see a few of them, but and the whole place is beautiful.  Some of the islands are run by the conservation agency and you can get water taxis across and walk, some you can freedom camp as well, all very basic, but so calm and quiet.

We were then beseiged by a pod of dolphins, swimming, jumping and buzzing the boat for about half an hour, absolutely wonderful, they were huge, and gave you the impression they were enjoying themselves being with us.  What a treat.  When we left them, they continued to buzz the boat for about 5 minutes, keeping up with our speed and ducking under bow.

We also saw Little Blue Penguins, lovely little things, plus the most enormous gulls, and whole shoal of blue fish at the surface jumping around.  We were very lucky.  We stopped off at one of the islands to stretch our legs.  A good day had by all.

Honest! they are little blue Penguins

Carolyn and Martin were staying in the apartments next door, and that night we had a BBQ at their place. After a trip to the supermarket we spent the evening with salad, prawns and steak.  Lots of good talks.  So pleased we managed to catch up with them.