A boat trip is an absolute
must when in the Bay of Islands, so for our second day in Russell, we just
needed to decide which of the cruises to choose. We opted for the so called Cream Trip also
known as Day in the Bay. This looked
like much better value than the various half-day tours especially with the
weather set fair and calm. Our
membership of Top 10 was worth a discount too.
The Cream Trip Catamaran
The catamaran starts out
from Pahia just across the bay from Russell, so if you want to compete for the
prime top deck seats then this would be a better option. But in any case, as we guessed, at the first
sight of dolphins everyone is moving around to get the best shots so it isn’t
that important.
The Cream Trip refers to
the historic route used to transport cream and other goods to and from the
islands. Tourists began to accompany the
boat and the tour was born. We actually
had a delivery to make on our trip so the purposed designed tour boat is keeping
in touch with its roots.
Many fellow cream trippers
had paid the premium to swim with dolphins.
But the pod of dolphins that we quickly found included juveniles and
calves. Strict rules observed by the
tour boats do not allow interaction in this case. Despite this we were treated to a fantastic
show of diving, bow riding and even tail walking.
For lunch we berthed at
Otehei Bay on the pretty island of Urupukapuka.
After lunch it was out into the Pacific Ocean for the run to the end of
Cape Brett Peninsula for viewing the Hole in the Rock. With the favourable sea conditions, we were
able to successfully navigate through the narrow gap.
Otehei Bay
The Hole in the Rock
On the return trip some
enjoyed Boom Netting.
Essentially the boat deploys a trawl net and drags a group through the
water at speed.
Boom Netting
Our day in the bay is
likely to be remembered as one of the overall highlights of our trip. It is hard to capture the beauty of the
scenery in any photograph and the encounter with the pod of dolphins was truly
memorable.
We now turn the van around and
head south for the next three weeks.
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