After Auckland we traveled north, to the beautiful Bay of Islands. This area of the east coast is, as the name indicates, full of small islands. If your wealthy enough you might own a whole island, which you reach either by sailing in your very fashionable catamaran or by flying in your even more fashionable helicopter. These people have such a tough life...
Almost all activities around here are water related. Tom decided to finally succumb to his inner fisherman calling and went on his first ever fishing trip. In preparation for a fish-feast, I got the frying pans ready to roll. Given that I didn't know which size of fish was coming back, I just hogged all the pans available in the hostel. Unfortunately the fish were very elusive and we had pizza for dinner.
In fairness to Tom, the local aquatic life wasn't at its most co-operative that day. I had gone on a Dolphin Watch Cruise only to find out that the dolphins were nowhere to be seen. As the guide said, sometimes orcas travel through these waters, sending the dolphins into hiding for a few days. Annoyingly we didn't see any orcas either, so the trip turned into a Spot-The -Rich-People's-Islands Cruise instead. Humph.
The good thing is that the absence of dolphins in one day entitles you to go back the next day. This time I took Tom along for good luck (dolphins like slightly weird people, surely they couldn't resist two of them on board)! And behold, suddenly there were about 50 bottle nose dolphins, jumping around behind the boat! They clearly enjoyed the foam trail the boat was making as they spent a lot of time surfing it, treating us to an amazing close up view of their acrobatics. It even looked as if the dolphins challenged each other to make bigger or more jumps. It was great to watch them clearly having fun! And this time Tom agrees with me: we both want a dolphin. Do you need ideas on what to give us for Christmas?...
The next day we went on a diving trip. It was the first time we dived since doing our Open Water Padi course back in Honduras so we were a bit worried about how much we'd forgotten. Actually, it's amazing how much you remember when your life depends on it (fortunately)! The diving conditions however were very different: instead of the clear tropical waters we had clear freezing waters. Diving suits were obviously necessary, and nice thick ones. And boots. And hoods. And if you ask me an underwater personal heater wouldn't have gone to waste either, but I suppose the fish wouldn't like it...
The Poor Knights Islands were chosen by Jacques Costeau as one of the top ten places to dive in the world. In them the hot water currents coming from Australia warm up the otherwise cold waters. Furthermore the currents transport here species that are usually only found in much warmer climates. It's that weird mixture of cold and warm water life that makes the Poor Knights so special. At least that's what we've been told by our dive master but to be honest, as a really inexperienced diver, you wouldn't have noticed it. All you care about is that there are cool things swimming around you, regardless of how often they come together across the oceans. And it was worth it! At this time of year, there are loads of tiny jellyfish. The instructors told us they didn't sting, although when descending I managed to almost bump into an absolutely huge one. The instructor grabbed me out of the way, so maybe they weren't so sure after all about them!
Here's a photo of two really weird creatures looking at ease in their natural habitat:
Bye for now,
Vania
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