We've found the place we would most like to live in New Zealand (not that we will be leaving the UK any time soon).  The Bay of Islands is in the winterless North and is a beautiful spot.  The sun was out and it was hot for the majority of the two weeks we were there and we've picked up a tan to prove it.  We stayed in Paihia, which, although a little touristy, is a small, quiet and pretty village right on the water.  Our hostel had views of the Bay and out to some of the 150 islands beyond.  A perfect place to unwind after all of our travelling and put our feet up.

We took a tour to visit Cape Reinga - the northernmost tip - and the 90 mile beach - a beach that is (strangely) 64 miles in length which is also a state highway!  On the way we visited a Kauri forest.  The NZ Kauri trees are the second largest in the world and were just huge!  The ones we saw were apparently tiddlers in comparison to others that stand and yet more that have since been cut or have fallen down.  From Cape Reinga we could see the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet.  The two masses of water differing in colours and clashing in front of us.  A pretty awesome sight that must be even more impressive when the seas are rough.  We then tried our hand at body-boarding down sand dunes that must have been about 30 metres high.  Great fun!  By the second attempt we had mastered it enough to avoid getting a mouthful of sand when flipping over at the bottom.  Our bus then cruised along the beach giving us some great views and photo opportunities.

We tried in vain to swim with dolphins.  Our Day in The Bay trip was great fun and we spotted a pod of around 50 dolphins that played around the boat for 30 minutes and performed some spectacular jumps and flips that were a nightmare to try and take pictures of!  Unfortunately the pod included some youngsters that precluded us from getting in the water with them.  Never mind - this gives us another reason to come back.  The rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun on one of the islands and being dragged through the water in a large boom net(!)  We must have swallowed enough salt water to float a boat but it was good fun.

During the next week we went scuba diving.  Tom completed his PADI Open Water diving course and Elle completed a refresher course.  We dived a total of 6 sites in the Bay and up near the Cavalli Islands where we explored the Rainbow Warrier - the original Greenpeace ship that was sabotaged in NZ waters by the French back in the '80s.  It was very eery exploring the ship which was laid to rest near the Cavalli Islands about 20 years ago.  Since that time it has turned into an artificial reef so there was loads of aquatic life to see.  During the dives we saw a stingray, loads of fish (big and small), crayfish, a moray eel, the list goes on...  We've both caught the scuba diving bug and will definitely be continuing back home and around the world on future trips.  The freedom of exploring underwater is hard to describe and is just something else

Next stop Auckland again and then homeward bound via Hong Kong.  Tom & Elle  x

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