We started up in Paihia in the Bay of Islands on a +Hole+in+the+Rock.jpg)
dolphin watching day cruise. During the morning, the dolphins proved rather elusive, so we enjoyed a leisurely cruise around the many pretty little coves and islands that make up the Bay. We followed the coast out to Cape Brett where the boat crew proudly showed us the "world famous" hole in the rock - a natural tunnel through Piercy Island. The swell on the sea was too high to allow us to pass through the hole safely in our boat, but it did look pretty dramatic with the ocean crashing through it.
We then moored up in a sheltered bay on Urupukapuka Island for lunch and a fun hour snorkelling in the FREEZING cold waters - we spotted a few fish and a lot of kelp - and not a lot else! But thankfully, whilst we were snorkelling, the boat got word of some dolphin pods moving into the Bay, so we all rushed back onto the boat and back out onto the Bay. It didn't take long before we found them - several pods of dolphins in a sheltered bay - maybe 30-40 in total. 
They played around the boats for what felt like an eternity - jumping in tandem, swimming under the boat, racing under the water so we could just see streaks of silver beneath the clear waves. Several of them dolphins had tiny babies with them, which meant we couldn't get in the water to swim with them, but it was such a treat to see the babies that we didn't mind that at all.
Still grinning about our dolphin experience, and all a little pink from the sun and wind on the boat, we drove down to Ngunguru for a delicious dinner of fish and chips (pronounced "fush and chups" by the Kiwis) and an early night before our next nautical adventure.
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The next morning we were up early and at the Tutukaka dive shop being kitted up by the most professional diving outfit I have ever experienced by 8am. Our dive boat headed out to the Poor Knights Islands in the biggest seas I think I've seen! Managed not to get sea sick during the one hour crossing, but was very glad to arrive in the sheltered bays of the Islands! After a brilliant briefing by the skipper, we jumped into Cleaner Fish Cove for one of the best dives of my life. The water was clear and calm as we descended to about 20m and the marine life was fantastic. Early in the dive, we were lucky enough to sea a turtle swimming along in
front of us (captured on film by Jo). We’d been told to expect to see lots of stingrays but we spent most of the dive enjoying moray eels, demoisels and plenty of schools of colour fish (and of course kelp). Just as we were turning around to head back towards the dive boat, we spotted a single ray gliding along the reef. As we looked down at the graceful creature, we realised that sandy bed was covered in 10 or more huge stingrays. It was spectacular - we kept seeing more and others came swimming in. What a treat for our first New Zealand dive.
For our second dive, we headed to a bay locally known as "Good sh!t reef" because it is apparently full of "Good sh!t" !! And indeed it was. We spotted another stingray, plenty of scorpion fish, more moray eels, leatherjacket fish, nudibranchs - but
unfortunately not any seahorses which was a possibility - although Matt and Jo did try very hard to find some as they buried themselves head-first in the kelp!
Thankfully, the journey back to Tutukaka was a little calmer and after a nice warm drink at the dive shop (where we met a guy from the West of England who'd moved to New Zealand, but worked captaining a ship in Azerbaijan), we drove South to Whangarei. There we picked up the car we will be driving to the South Island on behalf of a doctor friend of Jo who's moving to Christchurch in the New Year. We drove in convoy back to Auckland to Jo's brother's place where we just about managed to stay awake long enough to eat some dinner and do a spot of laundry before we continue our journey. Tomorrow we head South….
Pamela
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