Paihia: Day 4

** I realise I am so behind on these posts. Don't worry if you're feeling confused. Writing them two weeks after they happened is confusing me as well! For your reference: this is about Paihia (the second place we visited), and I'm currently on our fourth day there. Enjoy! **

Saturday morning began with Finn and Emily moving into Room 13 with us. Yay for roommates! And roommates that won’t snore and disturb us, or stop being social after we give them a cold! 

Being in the same room made it much easier to all get ready for the same time. Finn and Emily had booked tickets for the dolphin cruise as well, which was the third part of the combo tour me, Tom and Meryn had bought. The trip was to the Hole in the Rock and back, with a sort of detour around some of the islands that make up the Bay of Islands, and guaranteed dolphin sightings on the way. Dolphins! 

We were really excited. We got there about 10/15 minutes before the boat was due to leave. Apparently, everyone else on the trip was more excited than us because we arrived to the back of a really long queue. Surprised, we made our way slowly to the boat.

Our plans of sitting on the top deck were quickly stopped by one of the boat workers (sailors? staff?) politely but firmly suggesting that we sit on the main deck. He said they would be opening the front of the boat and that the views were much better from there. 

I think the views would have been as spectacular no matter where you were sat. 

Slightly sceptic of this (it seemed like a nice lie to get the young people to sit in the available seats), I still followed the other 4 at their breakneck speed to the very first row of seats inside. We had a nice view of the bow of the boat, and the two doors that had “CREW ONLY” stamped across the front. Doubt started to creep through our group. Had we just been tricked out of good seats?

I’ll say now so that I won’t repeat myself for the rest of the post (like I did that morning) but I don’t understand why we didn’t sit by window seats. Not one of us thought to sit by a window seat, to save it for the trip. WHY?!

You might be thinking “well that’s because the front of the boat is much better than a silly window” and yeah, that’s probably what we all thought as well. 

Until they opened up the doors and we stood outside. 

In the wind. 

Do you know how windy it is on the very front of a boat in open water? And how bloody cold you become if you’re stood in that wind? 

WE COULD HAVE SAVED JUST ONE WINDOW SEAT. WE COULD HAVE HAD A VIEW AND BEEN WARM BUT NOOOOO. 

I spent 15 miserable minutes pressed against the railing outside, my hood up to stop my hat blowing away, trying to tuck every bit of exposed skin into my coat. At one point I went and bought a coffee (black - I drink that now) in the hopes that it would warm me up. 

It didn’t.

In the end, I resorted to wandering around the boat trying to avoid going back to the front. I discovered that the back of the boat, though still windy and cold, was less windy and cold than the front and still had great views… 

This was obviously where I spent the rest of the 2/3 hours of our boat tour.

Seeing the different islands really was worth being as cold as we were. Especially as they were surrounded by water that was at one moment a deep blue and the next, clear enough to let you see the rocks on the sea floor. 

The best part of arriving at the hole in the rock was definitely when we drove through it. Like Tom said, I’m not sure it was necessarily the safest part of the journey (Tom felt like he was moments away from being part of a headline), it was definitely one of the best moments!

Unfortunately, the only thing missing from our cruise was the dolphin sighting that was (usually) guaranteed. When we spoke to someone at the ticket desk after the trip, she said she thinks it’s because one of the dolphins had died (it was acting strangely a few weeks before) and the pod had swam to an isolated spot to let it die, or do what dolphins do when one of them is sick. 

Since the sightings are actually guaranteed, the company gave us all tickets for a free cruise at a later date. The best part is that these tickets have a lifetime use-by-date. As in, I could come back in ten years and as long as the company is still in business, I can hop myself onto a dolphin cruise. And I’ll hopefully see dolphins next time!

We didn't see dolphins, but we did see these little guys dotted around on the sea floor. We spotted a sting ray as well! 

Our afternoon after that was pretty lazy! Tom went out on his bike, and after about an hour, the rest of us forced ourselves to go out for a walk. It’s surprising how tiring it is standing on a boat getting frozen by the wind. 

We walked for about an hour, to the Waitangi Treaty grounds and back. We bumped into Tom along the way, who was very tired and a bit disappointed at how many gravel roads he had encountered on his way. 

I have no way of describing how the sky and the water looked as we walked home, because words just wouldn’t do it justice. The sun was just beginning to set and so everything was tinged with an almost lilac light, with pinks dusting the clouds and waves as they were cresting. I didn’t take any photos (stupid me forgetting my phone!) and I’m gutted. It was by far the prettiest Paihia had looked. 

I was definitely glad we had booked our extra days. There was no way I would have been ready to leave the following day. 

We weren’t quite done with Paihia yet!