New Zealand--Bay of Islands--Part 3

The Bay of Islands was BEAUTIFUL!!! We were so fortunate to have good weather nearly the entire time we were there.





We stayed at the Copthorne Resort, and this is what we saw when we opened the back sliding door of our room. We found the cutest little shells just right down there on the beach.



That first day we went on a cruise around the bay. Ours was called a dolphin cruise and they guaranteed that we would see dolphins. Boy did we ever.




This is Mark and me on the boat before the cruise started. We had front row seats on the very front of the boat.




Here is the rest of the gang just chillin' before the cruise started.



And we're off! Here is just a look at the bay.

Here I am, hanging on to dear life. It was a fast boat.

And then there were dolphins. A lot of them. Here is a mother, a baby, and an auntie (at least that was what we were told).

Many of the dolphins swam right up to the front of the boat (where we were), and tried to race us. When the boat stopped, a few of them came right up to the boat and started "talking" to us. Unfortunately for me, this is when I got a little sea sick. I ended up losing my lunch, but after that I was good to go!! Sorry, TMI.

We got out pretty far in the bay and came to the "hole in the rock."

Here we are actually going through the hole in the rock. The water was too rough our first attempt, but as soon as it settled down a bit, our boat made it safely through!

This was our island stop called the island of caves. It was even more gorgeous than the picture.

We hiked up a little trail and here we are on the Island of caves (do I look a little sick?? I was mostly over it by then...)

On the way back, we saw this ship and wanted to take a picture of it for our boys. Doesn't it look like a pirate ship? They thought it was pretty awesome.

Here we are after the cruise ready to go get some dinner (I was starving!!!!). We ate at a fun pizza/pasta place.

The next morning Mark and I got up early and we went out to explore. We found some neat shells, and a ton a little starfish. Aren't they cute? They were all over.

We also saw a few crabs.

Then we went to do some beaching at another beach just a little bit north and I can't remember the name of it, but I know it started with an "M." Here we are in the waves...doing a little bit of swimming.

Now, if you look at the hill behind me, Mark and I saw that there was another beach at the bottom. It's hard to see from this picture, but it looked fun so we went to explore. There was a little trail that went right up and around and took us to this awesome secluded little beach. This hike was impossible to do in flip flops, so we did it barefoot. I felt like a hobbit, hiking around NZ in my bare feet!! Mark and I found some paua shells here and some other really neat shells. Paua shells are very popular in NZ. They make a lot of jewelry out of the shells and the Mauri people use the shells a lot in their building and decorating. The beach was amazing. The only problem was, we forgot to take our camera with us on our little excursion. We really wanted to stay longer, but we thought the others would be worried about us, so we didn't stay too long. We went to a eat at a little diner. Mark ordered a bacon burger. We were fully expecting there to be a hamburger with the bacon, but no, it was just bun with bacon and a few toppings. We thought is was hilarious!

We drove back to the Bay of Islands and did a little shopping and resting (nap!!!). Then we went to dinner.

Here we are at a little Swiss restaurant. I ordered the seafood pasta. It came loaded with calamari, mussels, and other pieces of unidentified seafood. I have to admit, it was pretty good.

The next day we took a ferry over to Russel. It is a peninsula on the other side of the Bay of Islands. It was a cute little place with some fun shops. There are only about 500 people that actually live there, but it is very touristy. This is Mark and me hiking down to "long beach."

It was an over cast day, so we didn't want to swim, but we did a lot of exploring. We found this bright blue jellyfish. Mark touched the top of it. We learned from the movie Finding Nemo that one can touch the top of the jellyfish and not get stung. :)

Here is my honey. It really was a long and rocky beach. We could have explored there all day. We saw quite a few crabs. It would have been a great place for snorkeling if it had been a bit warmer.

After that, we took the ferry back, and left to go back to Hamilton. On the way back we stopped in Auckland for a little break and to do some shopping. We ran into some ward members (and our friends parents) who are missionaries in Auckland. It was such a coincidence seeing as they arrived in NZ the day before.

Coming up....our final days in NZ.