Bay of Islands Boat Trip

Having chatted with the very friendly and helpful motel manager (from East London!) about what to do whilst I was in the area, the fairly poor weather was a factor in deciding on the order of the two trips I was about to make:
Do I go for 'The Hole in the Rock' and the historic town of Russell first or Cape Reinga (Maori word meaning 'Underworld') where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and '90-Mile Beach' at the far north of the North Island?

It's going to be the boat trip first - we set off from No1 Paihia, and the captain takes the boat around the main visiting points in the order he considers safest in the prevailing weather conditions ...

And here's some blurb on each of the 14

That's our boat for the day

Here's a couple of shots of the Paihia waterfront area ...

That's 'the competition' ... Booooooo!

Paihia from a distance

The Hole in the Rock - stolen from a poster because we didn't actually get there - it was a little too rough and the skipper wouldn't risk it :-(

That's just silly!

Delivering and taking The Post at Moturoa (No 3 on your guide)

Just some more photo-detail around the jetty

Spot the Electricity Board Poles? That's the mainland on the left, and one of the co-owners of the island is ... ... ...

... a senior member of the NZ Electricity Board!!! Some things are the same wherever you go.

and the remaining photos here are just random vistas as we make our way through the numbers ...

These last two are the approach to the Black Rocks at 4 on your tour map :-) ... ... ... you'll see them in more detail in the next entry ... ... ...