Vinaka Vakalevu Fiji, Kia Ora New Zealand!

As I returned to First Landing after my cruise, I was pleased to catch up with my sailing buddies Peter (retired architect from Melbourne) and Mike (retired teached from San Diego) and while chatting, Peter mentioned that he had a bottle of rather nice champagne on board his boat and invited me to join him for sundowners the following evening, suggesting that it would be a very nice way to end my stay in Fiji. So after a quiet day planning my accommodation in Auckland and a boat trip at the bay of islands (and doing my laundry), I headed next door to the marina.  Peter and I were joined by a couple of the other yacht owners.  They were drinking beer, Peter and I enjoyed the a bottle of Moet.  And it was a perfect way to end a fabulous couple of weeks in Fiji.

It was an early start the following morning to the airport and before I knew it, I was touching down in Auckland.  I could tell from looking out of the window of the plane that I would be needing a jumper, brrrrrr!   In the shuttle from the airport, I sat up front and as I was listening to the radio, I was reminded of New Zealand's most popular band, Crowded House as their hit 'Weather with you' came on.  Well that's very true, 'Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you' and I really wished that I had brought a bit more Fijian sunshine, there was a definite chill in the air.

Now Auckland isn't a city that inspired me when I was there in 1998 and I have to say it didn't partcularly inspire me this time either.  I took myself for a long walk to remind myself of the places I had visited all those years ago and found myself at about 1pm at the foot of the Sky Tower and ready for a spot to eat.  My Cousin Grace had started something which I fear has become a trend on this holiday, to have dinner in revolving restaurants, so it seemed fated that I should do that in Auckland too.  Pan fried snapper, salad and a glass of chilled white went down a treat, once I had overcome the vertigo experienced in the lift with a glass floor and glass wall.  I was shaking when I stepped out at the observation tower!  But it was all worth it.  And coming from someone who doesn't really like fish, the Snapper was de-lish!

The following morning was another early start as I had booked an overnight boat trip to the Bay of Islands. The bus collected me at 7.30am and by 11.30 I was in Paihia for a little wander around until 1.30pm when I was to join the boat which had 30 cabins, much like the Mystique Princess I had travelled on in Fiji.  But this time, there were only 7 of us for the overnight cruise.  Yes 7, not 67!  So we were in for a treat.  The sun was shining as we departed the harbour and made our way towards the outer islands, learning a little bit of the history of the area, of Captain Cook, the Treaty of Waitangi and of some of the early settlers to the area. In the afternoon, we anchored off one of the beautiful sandy beaches and had some free time to explore the island, sit on the beach and kayak around the rocky coves. Ichose to kayak to the beach and  Shane, a Pom living in Sydney who was cramming the cruise into a business trip to Auckland did take photographic evidence of me in my kayak on the platform at the stern of the boat before we were lowered into the water.  However, it wasn't long before it was made very clear that no matter how careful you are, cameras and kayaks don't mix and the camera went over the side never to be seen again.  So as he said, that photo of me is immortalised somewhere at the bottom of the beautiful clear ocean.

Once back on the boat, the skipper moved us on around more beautiful islands while we all got cleaned up and dressed for what we had been promised would be a very special dinner.  Ordinarily it would have been a buffet, but I think it was a treat for the chef as well as for us that we were such a small number that he decided to prepare a 5 course feast for us.  Yes, rather a lot of food but it was as special as promised.  So as we anchored for the night and the sun set on the beautiful bay, we were served 70s style prawn and shrimp cocktail, roasted vegetable stack, dorey stuffed with prawns and smoked salmon and then finally steak with vegetables, roast potatoes and salads.  Desert was then a choice of several delicious looking puddings, but not many of us touched it as we were already quite full.


The following morning while we were having breakfast our skipper set off in search of Orca.  And we were in luck, its not by any means a guarantee and in fact we were told how unusual it was that we found a pod feeding in one of the bays.  So we were able to get fairly close to them without upsetting them as they surfaced from time to time, a large male of about 9 meters and among the group at least a few babies too.  I was on the top deck getting quite chilly with my camera and at the end of it, had rather a lot of photos of fins sticking out of the water but the experience was just out of this world, such graceful creatures.  I did feel very priviledged, it made it a very very good trip.