Yet again I'm posting yesterday's words today - but this time not because I'm slack but because the ship's internet has been hopeless for most of the day. So, anyway, this is what I wrote last night about yesterday:
OMG. Today we were at the Bay of Islands and we had booked a tour called "Bay of Islands Hole in the Rock". The way it's described is like a gentle cruise around the Bay (I assumed mostly or completely sheltered from the ocean) to see the islands and wildlife and also a feature of one of the islands - a hole in the rock; like a big natural arch bridge that the catamaran could sail through.
But, this is always dependent on the weather and in fact it turns out that the trip always involves spending at least part of the time *not* sheltered by the islands. And unfortunately today the weather was overcast with drizzle / rain (so no wildlife in sight, in fact you could rarely see the tops of the island hills), and the seas were quite rough in parts - up to maybe 3 metres high which isn't a drama on a cruise ship but makes for a really uncomfortable trip in a (significantly smaller) catamaran. Paul was fine and I wasn't too bad since I took a travel sickness tablet before the excursion, and another one when the waves got really high - although it did knock me out a bit, at least I wasn't sick. However, not everyone did it this way - the staff on the catamaran handed out a LOT of sickness bags and it seemed to me that most of them got used.
This is the catamaran for our trip out to the Hole in the Rock
View of the Carnival Spirit moored in the bay - so all those poor seasick people had yet another ride in a small boat to get back to the ship.
The hole in the rock - it actually looks more impressive than this when you're there for real
Then, because of the weather we couldn't go through the hole in the rock So instead, they took us on an alternative path through the islands, including an unexpected stop at an island which had a small hotel and resort. And, while trying to buy some lunch, we've probably flagged our credit cards as stolen because of the amount of trouble we had making them work - so tomorrow's job is to call our banks and tell them that all those failed attempts to buy stuff really were just us and not some Kiwi thief!!
They don't ever promise that you'll see wildlife on these tours, which is a good thing because the only thing we saw was a few birds.
I think that I have to start making rules about shore excursions. And, my new number 1 rule will be - if you need to get onto another water craft of any sort as part of the tour - DON'T DO IT!!
The picture above is from a walk we took after the tour. The catamaran originally picked us up at Waitangi - the drop-off and pick-up spots for the Carnival Spirit's tenders - but at the end of the tour they dropped us at the town of Paihia which is maybe a 20 minute walk south. There were free buses between the two, but like a lot of other people we decided to walk. It would be beautiful scenery if the sun was shining - even in the drizzle it was an attractive little place.
Hopefully tomorrow will be less of a drama - we're in Auckand (and we've already been here twice before) and the ship docks right basically in the city. Our plans for the day consist of a bit of shopping and then a self-guided tour around town.
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