Countdown weekend #7 – trees and dolphins!

As we drove north out of Auckland to start our weekend, we realized that we had only ever been north 2 times before. We have done heaps of road trips, but most of those had focused south of Auckland. We also realized that each of these previous trips, we had tried to do exactly what we were setting out to do this weekend, the Cream Trip. It is an all-day cruise of the Bay of Islands that traces the route of the old cream collection and mail distribution boat. The first two attempts we were foiled by terrible weather, and since Brendan was sick for one of those, it is a good thing that we did not pre-book. This time though, determined to do it, we bought tickets a few months in advance. Weather be damned, we were going cruising!

Not caring to do anything the easy way, we opted for an 11-hour road trip on Saturday (to cover the 4-hour distance between Auckland the Bay of Islands). Why so long, you ask? Kauri trees. Big ones. We saw the ‘lord of the forest’ measuring almost 14m in circumference (4.4m in diameter) and suspected to be 2000 years old. Also, in preparation for our time in Seattle, we hugged a Yakas.


Incredible trees and definitely worth a visit if you ever get the chance. We did make ourselves a bit nervous towards the end of the day though when we almost missed our ferry to where we were staying. There was just too much fantastic stuff to see! We made it in the end (before dark even) and ate dinner on a deck overlooking a harbor listening to a band playing at the local yacht club. We were treated to another stellar star-gazing night and learned that neither of us have figured out how to spot the southern cross.

Sunday was the Cream Trip. It turned out to be a brilliant day on the water. Calm, sunny conditions. Not even 10 minutes into the cruise we spotted our first dolphins about 100m away from our boat. And then within the first 30 minutes we had seen dolphins swimming alongside our boat and under our boat.

We had paid a little bit extra to swim with the dolphins, so we were given snorkel gear and told to jump into a boom net on the side of the boat. We both had a lookout for dolphins while the boat was getting into position and had a fantastic view of a dolphin swimming alongside the net with us. Getting everyone out of the net and to the dolphins was a bit crazy, so this actually turned out to be my best underwater dolphin encounter, which was so worth it.

To swim with the dolphins though:  the boat, with 18 people in a net, cruises up alongside the dolphins. When the boat is slightly ahead, the engines are cut and the captain yells for everyone to swim out of the net. This is usually where I got taken out with fins to the facemask and such. But for the few swimmers out front (like Brendan one of the times), you are then in a mad dash to keep up with the dolphins enough that they notice you and want to play with you. On one hand it seemed a bit cruel for all of these people to go crashing towards the dolphins at once. But once I realized that there is absolutely zero chance of anyone catching up to them unless they want to be caught, I felt a bit better about it. Similar to how all of us will entertain ourselves with stories of what the dolphins did that day, I imagined them kicking back and laughing at their humans-in-a-net stories. My only other encounter was when I had given up the chase and fallen behind the pack. I turned around to head back to the boat, and a dolphin swam right by me! Other highlights of the cruise were spectacular bays, islands, rock formations (including a tunnel), birdlife, marine life, sunshine…. I would definitely recommend the Cream Trip to visitors.

After the cruise, we grabbed some battered fish for a quick snack (when in Russell…) and then hit the road back to Auckland. We were reminded just how much Northland mirrors West Virginia – beautiful but a little crazy. We looked at some maps Sunday night to see how we’ve done with our NZ travels, and I must say not too shabby. I will save that for another post though. :)