Nov 27 - 30
So my first day didn’t go quite as planned… Breakfast was fantastic, but I forgot the bike needed petrol, so I missed the cruise I had planned on taking for the day. Instead, I bought a ticket for the next day and wandered up to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. The Waitangi Treaty was made between the British and 40 Maori tribe leaders in 1840, bringing New Zealand into the British Empire. On the grounds, they have the largest Maori war canoe, built for the 100th anniversary of the Waitangi treaty - it can carry 80 paddlers and 55 passengers! The grounds also afforded a wonderful view of the bay. After I finally tired of the treaty grounds, I geared up and took the bike inland a bit to check out one of the Kauri forests. The northern island is “sub-tropical”, and I believe the forests are actually considered to be rainforests, though I certainly didn’t get wet. Although the forest I visited does not have the largest Kauri trees known, there were still some pretty big ones… I tried to take a few photos with my widest lens, though I’m not sure whether any will be worth posting when I get back.
I spent my second day in the Bay of Islands on the Cream Trip Supercruise, out of Paihia. Basically, we spent the day cruising around to various islands in the bay, in some cases making deliveries (mail, newspapers, boxes) to island residents. There were a couple dogs who have developed a special relationship with the boat. One has been taught to wave to passengers (after a very long sprint down to the dock). The other sits patiently at the end of the dock waiting for the boat to arrive. When the captain toots the horn, he then sprints back to the house to alert his people that the boat has arrived. I think I tried to take a couple photos of him sprinting down the dock, but I won’t know how they came out ’till I get home. After taking lunch on one of the islands and a short stroll past sheep and goats to the top of one of the hills, we headed out to the famous “Hole in the Rock”. It was a very windy day, and the waves crashing through the rock were absolutely spectacular, which of course means we weren’t able to actually take the boat through the rock, but I did try to take several pictures (of course, I had set the camera down briefly when we saw a particularly spectacular crest… :(). The rest of the cruise was fairly relaxed - we mostly hugged the coast on the way back, stopping in one bay for scones and tea. I got off across the bay from Paihia in Russell, and spent a couple hours wandering around town. I walked up a very steep slope to the top of Flagstaff Hill (where a series of flagstaffs were cut and/or burned down by various Maori upset with the British, until finally a group of Maori erected one themselves - I believe part of this flagstaff is still part of the current one standing on the hill). There was a very large sundial nearby, which I spent far too long figuring out how to read (another tourist and I tried to read the wrong edge of the shadow…). Back in town, I visited Christ Church, New Zealand’s oldest surviving church before taking the ferry back to Paihia, and riding back up to Kerikeri for dinner and sleep.
Wednesday morning, before hitting the road for Waitomo Caves, I stopped by Rainbow Falls, and took a couple photos. The sun came out a few times, and I actually caught a bit of a rainbow in the mist. I waited as long as I could for the sun to really peak out from behind the clouds for a better shot of the rainbow, but pretty soon it was too high in the sky. At around noon, I finally got on the road for my 6-7 hour ride down to Waitomo Caves…