Adventuring in the Bay of Islands

I spent the past few days north of Auckland in the Bay of Islands which, accurately enough, is a bay with a ton of islands. It is both gorgeous and warm, an excellent combination.

My first adventure was a day-long Catamaran sail on On The Edge, a huge Catamaran. Basically all I had to do was relax on the Catamaran's trampoline, watch the islands pass by, and put on sunscreen every 45 minutes or so. (I've been very paranoid after I got burned badly on day 3 of my Central America trip). I had a great time chatting with all the other people on the boats, although the Canadian couple may have reminded me once or twice who won the gold medal hockey game. Eventually we dropped anchor and I was able to do some kayaking, hiking, and riding the "biscuit" - basically a float attached to a powerboat by a rope. Despite my incredibly weak upper body, I managed to avoid being thrown off the "biscuit" and into the ocean - once I was done I was sore, but had had a blast. The clear highlight of the trip was when we had dolphins come up and play around our boat, twice! I wanted to go swim with them, but sadly it was against the rules (the boat we were on didn't have the appropriate permit).

That evening I intended to go write up a blog post, but instead I got sidetracked by some fellow backpackers who convinced me to hang out with them in the hot tub for a couple hours instead. They really had to twist my arm there. After a barbecue dinner, I hung out at the outdoor bar with some other backpackers until they shooed us inside (where it was much more crowded, and louder). Then we headed over to another bar where we listened to a cover band, and tried to avoid the incredibly drunk guy who was getting a bit overly-friendly with all the girls at the bar.

The next day I did not intend to go on a cruise. In fact, I thought I'd be on an evening bus en route to a weekend trek further South. However, due to a schedule change where I decided to do a bus tour which would eventually do that same hike, I changed plans. With a free evening I was now able to do the overnight cruise on The Rock! (I had actually wanted to do this the day before, but they hadn't been running a cruise that night, so I was very excited that I ended up being able to fit it in).

This post is already getting lengthy, so I'll go over the highlights in bullet form (and of course there are pictures at the end).

• target practice off the stern, where we shot at a fake duck to win a free drink. Sadly I did not win


• fishing for our dinner at sunset. We didn't catch anything big enough to keep, but luckily they had some other food as well, so we didn't starve


• chatting with all the fellow travelers over beers, and playing a crazy electric shock game, connect four, pool, set, and more


• going for a night kayak and marvelling at the millions of stars, as well as the phosphorescent creatures in the water


• diving for sea urchins, and getting a big fish (parrot fish, maybe?) to eat an urchin out of my hand

Needless to say, I had a blast. AND I didn't get sunburned! As promised, here are some pictures of the adventure:

Dolphins!

Another dolphin plays with our boat, swimming in between the two pontoons

I hold on for dear life as I get whipped along the shore on "the biscuit"

ready, aim, fire! Best shot gets a free beer!

I caught a fish! Unfortunately it was too small, so we had to throw it back

Our view of the sun rise from "The Rock" - The Rocks' smaller powerboat is silhouetted

Sky shows us how to harvest "Uni" - I decide I prefer feeding it to fish over eating it myself