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After two days of sailing across the ditch, we arrived in our first port of call, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. This is an area on the North Coast of New Zealand, home to more than 140 subtropical islands.
It is world renowned for big game fishing. While we wouldn't be fishing, we were transferring to a boat for our excursion. But first, we boarded one of the ship's tender boats to Paihia.
This tour was one of the highlights of our New Zealand cruise adventure. The crew made sure that everyone had the opportunity to get any photos that they wanted. When the boat was speeding across the bay, the front window was closed, but they would open it up when we approached our destination for up close inspection. The final highlight was getting pictures of our anchored ship as we returned to the tender boats.
A specially designed speed boat was waiting for us as we departed the tender boat. It would take us out on an exciting boat ride into the Bay of Islands, and around to the wilder, seaward side of the outer islands. Watch this video to get an idea of how we explored deep caves and viewed majestic cliffs.
Following our close up view of the cave we stopped off at one of the bay's best islands, Roberton Island. The front of our boat got close to the island and then one of the crew lowered the stairs for a wet landing. There was a path to hike to the summit of the island. We didn't do so, but wish that we had since the views from there were stunning.
Tip: Take off your shoes and roll up your pants legs if you don't want to get them wet when landing on the beach. The island's "sand" is volcanic rock, so you'll want to have water shoes or good hiking shoes to put on once you land on the beach.
Following our close up view of the cave we stopped off at one of the bay's best islands, Roberton Island. The front of our boat got close to the island and then one of the crew lowered the stairs for a wet landing. There was a path to hike to the summit of the island. We didn't do so, but wish that we had since the views from there were stunning.
Tip: Take off your shoes and roll up your pants legs if you don't want to get them wet when landing on the beach. The island's "sand" is volcanic rock, so you'll want to have water shoes or good hiking shoes to put on once you land on the beach.
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| More pics in our Bay of Islands photo album |
Additional photos can be found on our Australia & New Zealand Shutterfly page
Bay of Islands
Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.
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