Farewell to Oz and on to New Zealand

Fran goes swimming 'with' Dolphins!, originally uploaded by Frickley.

It was quite sad leaving Oz - after three months it had begun to feel familiar and homely - and of course, had provided us with many excellent adventures and memories. But our 90-day visa had run out, and it was time to move on to something different - New Zealand! Our flight took us to Auckand in the North Island, where we picked up our hire car and drove to our city centre based hostel - Base Backpackers. It was a pretty grotty place to stay but it was only for 3 nights. On our first full day we took the free city orientation bus and visited various sites incuding the imposing 328 metre Sky Tower (as the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere, it makes a great place to watch people sky-dive from the top), an historic Maori dwelling, Mt Eden (Maungawhau) from where we could look down on a 360 degree view of the city sprawl, the Harbour and Mission Beach. We found that, although Auckland itself it a pretty average city centre much like any other, there are lots of interesting things to do just a stone's throw away.

Leaving Auckland, we headed North to KeriKeri and the Bay of Islands. We booked a day trip to explore the islands, view the famous 'hole in the rock' and - most importantly - swim with dolphins. It wasn't long after leaving the harbour that we saw the first group of dolphins - there were six in total. They swam around the boat for a while, allowing us spectators to get some photos. The scenery was beautiful in the bay - there are 150 or so islands in total, some of which provide a home to small townships, others which have escaped any kind of development. We sailed through the 'hole in the rock' before stopping at a beach for lunch. After that, we boarded the boat again in search of more dolphins.

Unfortunately, the captain explained that at this time of the year each group of dolphins contains juveniles - and the law states that we are therefore not allowed to swim freely with them. I was gutted - surely they knew that before we booked the trip?! Anyway, they did allow us to have a go at swimming 'in the net', which I decided to have a go at. It's basically a net that is lowered into the water alongside the boat and is dragged along - the splashing entices the dolphins to swim nearby. I joined about 30 others in the net - it was a bit of a scramble and was hard work holding on while getting dragged along. However, some dolphins did approach us about 10 metres from the net, so I guess I can say I did manage to swim 'with' the dolphins, albeit not as close in proximity as I'd hoped!

So far, we have found it difficult to find available places to stay as it is peak season here at the moment, so we've decided to plan all our stops for the 3 week stay and book all accomodation in advance...next stop....Papamoa Beach near Tauranga!