.jpg)
Today we arrived at the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand, expecting (as forecast), a warm sunny day. We drew back the stateroom curtains to find yet one more grey, rainy, cloudy and unlike previously, a cool temperature day.
Click here for the detailed Bay of Islands Photo Gallery.
Our sense of adventure got the best of us as we’ve missed too much adventure so far due to inclement weather. We put on long pants and long sleeve shirts, took our camera gear and computers and headed down to the tender launch on deck 3.
After the rather long tender ride to shore, we got on a shuttle bus to town. It’s amazing how some of our fellow cruisers, 30+ years our elder, are able to get around to see the sights. They put a lot of effort into climbing on a tender or a bus to see sights that are sometimes not so great, but they still do it! And seem to have a good time. God bless.
Once in town, we embarked on our never-ending quest for a good Internet connection! On our way to find it, we walked through the small downtown area. It was very nice, pleasant and clean. We heard that the water here is beautiful…unfortunately when it is overcast you can’t experience the deep blues and greens…and that is our fate today. But it is still very nice.
After getting our Internet fix, we find a place for lunch (where my prawns were served with their heads still on their bodies!), and we do a bit of shopping. We also checked out the local tours and found that there are a lot of things to do here. Unfortunately for us, we are a bit too late to take one of the more detailed tours as the cutoff was fifteen minutes ealier. It turns out the last tours depart at 1:30.
We ended up going on the fast ferry to Russell, which is the oldest city in all of New Zealand…nicknamed “the hell hole of the South Pacific”. It seems that, back in the 1800’s, the whalers and other sea-based characters were hanging out in these parts doing things that weren’t so good. You can use your imagination to figure out just why they called it a “hell hole”.
We found a nice seaside café, where unfortunately, light rain showers soon found us. We moved inside where we had some local oysters (so local they were picked that morning from the sea just 4 miles from the restaurant!) and some local sauv blanc. New Zealand is well known for their wines…which we hope to learn more about in the coming days!
After, we walked around the small downtown Russell area we made our way back to the fast ferry. We decided to check Internet one more time, when on the way there, Dale spotted a wallet lying in the street! We checked the ID and saw that it belonged to a young, local guy named Gregory. We looked around and called out his name, but alas he was not to be found. Another local-looking guy was walking by just then and he told us there was a police station up the road.
We didn’t have a lot of time (shuttle was getting ready to leave and we had a “hard stop” for the last tender), so when Dale saw a local Fed-ex-like courier, he told him what happened and fortunately, he offered to take the wallet to the police station for us.
We got our quick Internet fix and on our way back to the shuttle bus, Dale saw a police office. He went over to tell him about the wallet, and low and beyond, he had it in his hand. He was looking to see if he could find Gregory!
Back on ship, we opted for a relaxing Italian dinner in our suite as we contemplate the end of the journey on Oceania and look forward to the upcoming voyage on Regent.