Dolphins and drinking

No wireless at the little b&b, so these posts won't be going up until we get back to Auckland airport probably. I'm on blog duty again because Ian is in charge of driving. So, yesterday was our dolphin day. We woke up early to catch the 9am cruise with Dolphin Discoveries.




It was a beautiful day with really calm seas. The Bay of Islands reminded me a lot of the Thailand islands - so picturesque!




And within 15 minutes of leaving port -- DOLPHINS!!




They came right up to the boat - probably 10-15 in all. There was a calf with them, so sadly no swimming today. The juvenile dolphins feed with their mothers once every 3 minutes, and if they miss even one or two of those, they could die of hypothermia, so the Department of Conservation is very strict about not letting tourists disrupt their feeding.




Someone's about to blow...




Post-spray. :)




We chose not to go with the Fullers boat - they saw the dolphins too, but we couldn't help thinking that they looked like packed sardines. Dolphin Discoveries was definitely the superior outfit.




Ian got a nice shot of some birds catching the sea breezes.




After we left the dolphins, we visited some seals sunning themselves on a nearby island. So cute!










After the seal visit, we sped off towards The Hole in the Rock, not exactly the most creative of names:




Here's our tourist shot to prove we actually went and didn't just paste a bunch of stock pictures here.




The seas were really calm, so the captain was able to take us right through the hole.




There's the Fullers boat again following in our wake.




We stopped at Urupukapuka Island on the way back - got to do a short hike up the hills to get some panoramic views. Check out all the little islands:




Really love the big trees in NZ. (that's Ian down there)




Some attempts at artistry for me:




That's our boat out there in the harbor.




Some nice beaches - wish the weather were just a little warmer! (high in the low-mid 60s).




See the sailboat?




And with that, it was time to head back to Paihia. Definite trip highlight thus far.




Finding ourselves with a few hours to kill before dinnertime, we head out to Kerikeri and the vineyards of Northland.




Also couldn't pass up the chocolate factory! :)







Final stop was at the Fat Pig Vineyard:




Where we got to chat up Jenny Craig, the resident chubby porker.








She got a little feisty. Apparently she could smell the leftover chocolate aromas on me.




The wine was pretty good - and the owner, Bruce, gave us a great dinner recommendation. Free corkage!




Great day - we lasted until 10 pm this time. Daylight savings time coming up on Saturday -- lucky us, we get to spring forward again for 2011.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bay of Islands, New Zealand