'Oh wow, you're staying with us for quite a while!'
Translation: 'What the heck are you going to do here for that long, you crazy fool?'
Action: Slash stay by half. And I'm glad I did because there's not an awful lot going on in Paihia, the little beach town where most people base themselves to explore the Bay of Islands. Day 1 of 2 was thrown into disarray by my third and final attempt to swim with dolphins - turns out they'd cancelled the morning trip and not bothered to tell me, and when I got onto the boat for the arvo session they told us there's only a 50% chance of swimming with dolphins normally, and because the swell was so big (6ft waves) there was practically no chance. Ruuubbish. I got outta there, got a full refund (woohoo) and did a couple of walks instead, one 6km return coastal trail to Opua:
...and a 14km return bush walk to Haruru Falls:
Not quite the day I'd envisaged but got a decent workout and more of a feel for the area. Day 2 was much better: I went on a sailing trip around the Bay in beautiful sunshine. We took it in turns to steer and pull on various ropes to hoist the sail and whatnot until we got to our skipper's favourite island, where I went sea kayaking for the first time. Super fun and a lovely place to chill out for a couple of hours:
On the way back to Paihia Wharf we sailed past Mr Sky TV's pad (it's rather swish) while the sun coloured my face in an alarming red. Yes, I really should know better by now. And yes, I look like a muppet. All in all, Paihia is nice but not the paradise it's made out to be: in actual fact the ocean is a bit murky due to the surrounding farmland, and while it's better on more distant islands it's hardly crystal clear as promised in the brochures (funny that) and by our skipper.
My next stop is the Tutukaka Coast, about an hour south of Paihia, and apparently it's one of the top 10 places in the world to snorkel and dive. That's not what I'm most excited about though...I'm staying in a hotel! Private room, swimming pool, did I say private room? Ooooo ja.
