The sun rose this morning on a gorgeous day in the quaint town of Russell. Knowing that rain is back in the forecast tomorrow we knew this was our one window to get out on the water and experience a bit of what the Bay of Islands is all about.
We hit a local coffee shop called Oso for some great Eggs Benedict, and were joined by a local Russell couple who settled in to the other end of our 8 seat outdoor table. They were in their late 80's or early 90's and clearly everyone knew them - so I suppose it is likely we had inadvertently taken their normal table as the other outdoor seating was all bar stools which they likely could not have easily managed. They were very nice and gave us some tips on Russell. The woman clearly had a strong personality and when Sharyl asked if they knew all 800 people who lived in the town she replied "they all seem to know us" and that some people refer to her as the Queen. Having breakfast with the Queen was an unexpected but fun addition to a great breakfast.
Just after 10 am we hopped on board the tour boat Sharyl had booked last night. We need to take a moment to acknowledge the excellent guidance we received from our neighbors Kevin and Laura who recommended we stay in Russell rather than the larger town of Paihia across the bay. The tour boat we boarded - which came from Paihia - had 45 people on it, whereas our family of 4 was the only group getting on board from Russell - which indicated right away to us how much busier the experience 10 min across the bay would have been had we booked our stay in Paihia. We are very happy that we ended up here in Russell!
The boat set off toward the eastern side of the Bay of Islands, where the majority of the islands are located. Everything we had read said that the bay boasted 144 islands - but according to the captain of the boat the number is actually 88 - simply due to the definition of an island, which is
1. It must be above water at high tide and
2. It must have some type of vegetation on it, otherwise it is just a rock.
Whether it is the 144 land bits of terra firms that you could stand on in the middle of the ocean, or the 88 true islands, what is certain is that looking out from the boat you see spectacular views in all directions, and lots of places to be explored!
We cruised past Motuarohia also known as Robertson Island, a gorgeous island where Captain Cook had anchored the Endeavor in 1769 before going on to map the Bay of Islands over the next 10 or so days. We continued on past Moturua Island, which is a wildlife preserve and has a 4.6 km (2.8 mile) hiking track on it, Motukiekie (a privately owned island), Okahu Island a 53 acre scenic reserve, and Waewaetorea Island which is 115 acres in size and known for having some of the best beaches of any of the islands. Along the way the captain spotted some dolphins, which everyone got excited about except us - we were much more interested in the little penguin that swam along side the boat about that same time - it was the first penguin any of us have seen in the wild!
Finally we pulled up to the dock at Otehei Bay, and we got out for an hour to check out one of these many islands for ourselves. Orupukapuka at 520 acres is the largest island in the Bay of Islands, and the only one which allows overnight camping (with a permit). They have a little cafe on the island, fronted by a number of picnic tables each of which has a pretty unfortunate view.
I believe the cafe only opens when a boat arrives, except possibly during their busier summer season when more people might be camping and would give cause for it to remain open for a longer stretch. Other than the cafe the island has about 3 houses on it for the park rangers who caretake the island and for volunteers of Project Island Song who come out to help restore native habitat and reintroduce native birds. The entire eastern Bay of Islands is part of Project Island Song which has eradicated predators and successfully reintroduced many native birds to the islands.
River was thrilled to get out of his carrier and run free on the island. To no one's surprise he headed straight for the beach, and though I managed to keep him from going more than ankle deep for about 15 min, he did eventually slip past me and flop himself backwards into the ocean. The water was only 6 inches deep where he chose to perform his back flop, so there was no risk, but his sweatsuit simply was not appropriate swimming attire. So Sharyl stripped him down to just his diapers and he ran wild for the next 30 minutes on the beach with Reef. The water was not as cold as I expected, and with the sun out (mid 60's) it was reasonably warm - which is to say we didn't feel like negligent parents for allowing our 15 month old to wear only a diaper in the weather conditions - what others thought, I can't say.
The island has hiking trails, and various beaches that can be walked to - but given the recent rains, all the trails were muddy so we stuck to the shoreline and let Reef find shells and River throw sand until it was time to load back onto the boat. We quickly put River into a wetsuit now that he was leaving the beach (the wetsuit had become his dry clothes the second he went swimming in his sweatsuit), snapped a photo by the picnic tables, bought a few choc chip cookies and an amazing guava sparkling drink (Bundaberg, Australian family owned) and headed back to the boat for the return trip to Russell.
River had done a good job of tiring himself out on Orupukapuka Island and he was out cold before we were back on dry land. The crew showed Reef how to open the swinging door on the side of the boat to let us disembark once we reached the dock, which might have been the highlight of the trip for him.
While River took a nap back at the house, Reef continued his diligent research efforts selecting a cone of “gum drop” flavored ice cream for today’s consideration.
We finished out the day with dinner at a local bar called the Nauti Penguin- which had surprisingly good middle eastern food, and caught the first 15 minutes of rugby between the New Zealand All Blacks and Ireland in the second of a three game (called a “test match”) series being currently played here. Unfortunately Ireland pulled out a win on New Zealand soil tonight, marking the first rugby match they have won in New Zealand against the All Blacks in 117 years! Next week will be the tie-breaking game (NZ won last week), so we’ll see how the All Blacks perform then. Despite the loss it was pretty cool to be in New Zealand watching the All Blacks perform their iconic Haka at the start of the game.
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