Russell, Bay of Islands

View of the Bay of Islands from the top of the hill at Urupukapuka island
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We decided to hire a car and head for the Bay of islands. Our sister in law dropped us off at the car rental office and left with a tearful Rac'el in tow. Rac'el was crying because her uncle Jeremy was leaving and she had got quite fond of him during the previous 2 days (she hadn't become too attached to her auntie Maria because said auntie had not paid her that much attention, busy as she was sending e-mails and making phone calls to London to try to find out whether her house was going to be sold or not. Not that auntie Maria felt left out or anything for not getting any drawings from Rac'el, as opposed to the dozen or so that uncle Jeremy got. Honest).

The beach were we stopped for lunch with our catamaran on the left
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It took about 4 hours to drive to Paihia, where we booked an excursion for the day after and did some shopping (I bought a jacket that would prove most useful later on, as summer in NZ is not all that warm and I had only brought summer clothes). We then got the ferry across the bay to Russell (the alternative was an extremely long drive around the bay along deserted and not all that safe roads, as we experienced a couple of days later) and checked into a motel to spend the night.

He kept following me every time I went anywhere near the bags

Pilot whales
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We walked to the centre of town (Russell is not very big, so you can walk from one end to another in about 10 minutes) and found a restaurant to have dinner. We went into the Duke of Marlborough Tavern and after a very long wait during which we watched the people eating at the restaurant of the same name being served promptly (we were separated from them just by a glass door), we eventually were brought our meals. They were nothing to write home about and definitely not worth the wait. We left with the distinct impression that if you want decent food and service you should go to the restaurant and not the tavern.

Jeremy on the catamaran Carino
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The following morning we headed for the port, as we were going to spend the day sailing on a catamaran called Carino, looking for dolphins (see www.sailingdolphins.co.nz). On the way there we stopped at the 4 square supermarket in town and then again at another one of the same chain on the waterfront to buy some drinks and discovered that the prices at the second one were higher. Very cheeky, don't you think?. I forgot to take a sea-sickness pill, which was not such a great idea, especially bearing in mind that I do get very sea-sick and we were about to spend the next 6 hours on a boat.

Just after getting on the boat everyone had to leave their bags (rucksacks) in a downstairs storage room. I went to get some biscuits and a bottle of water from ours and while I was unzipping it someone said to me: 'what are you doing with my bag?'. I looked around me in confusion, as I actually had not recognised the contents when I opened the bag. Then I realised that I had opened the wrong bag and that ours was actually in the far corner of the room. It was an easy mistake to make, as the bags were pretty similar, so I apologised and headed for my bag. Unfortunately the owner of the other one must have thought that I was up to something, because he kept following me every time I went anywhere near the bags. Never mind.

Still, it was a sunny day and we headed out to sea in our search for dolphins. It took quite a while, but we finally found them, although first we came across a pod of pilot whales. After following both pods until our skipper decided that we needed to head back for lunch, we found a deserted cove at Urupukapuka island (a mouthful, isn't it?) and proceeded to go to shore while our lunch of barbecued sausages was being cooked. Jeremy decided to swim to the shore while I took the easy option and went on a small boat. The result is that he froze his arse and I didn't *self-satisfied smile*.

We went uphill to explore the island and discovered that each step we took was a real effort, as we were sinking to our knees in the grass (I've never seen grass like that before but it's not what you would find on a British lawn). Our bare legs were getting scratched and the slope was pretty steep, so it was hard work to climb to the top of the hill. Still, the view from there was worth the effort.

We went back down to have our lunch and then sailed to Russell (this time we did use the sails instead of the engine).

It was a nice sunny day and I managed to get a very sunburnt nose as a result even though I had put sunscreen on.

When we got back to Russell we went for a walk and took a look at the art galleries in town (they had some lovely oil paintings there). We then went to find a place to have dinner. As our experience at a restaurant the previous day had not been too good we decided to get a pizza from a 'gourmet' take away where lots of locals were queuing up (that seemed a good omen). The pizza itself wasn't bad, but the garlic bread we ordered was disgusting. It was covered in huge pieces of salt and garlic and after taking a bite we could not bring ourselves to eat it. I've never tried anything so salty in my whole life, so the garlic bread ended up in the bin. Shame because we were hungry.