Bay of Islands

After a long and very busy week at work, I decided to take Friday off. I went on the Bay of Islands cruise to The Hole in the Rock. I got on the coach, leaving from Sky City at 7.15am, and we drove for around 4 hours to get to a place called Paihia. We had a running commentary from the bus driver the entire way, and although informative, a little break from his voice would have been nice! Paihia is located on the north-eastern coast, and is apparently a tourist hot spot. It wasn't too busy today as it's autumn now so most of the holiday makers have been and gone. There were still some Japanese tourists though, taking pictures of anything they could find of course! I got off the bus and had a wander round Paihia until the ferry was due to leave. It's pretty small, but has lots of restaurants and souvenir shops to keep the tourists happy. The boat left the harbour at 1.30pm and we travelled a short distance to Russell - a small township across the water from Paihia. It took about 10 mins by boat, but apparently the journey takes over an hour by road.

After picking up a few passengers from Russell, we headed off into the Bay of Islands. It comprises of 144 islands (so the ferry guide says), most of which are either uninhabited or privately owned. We had a look for some dolphins on the way out to the Hole in the Rock, but unfortunately didn't see any. There was some really amazing scenery on the journey, it had clouded over a bit by mid-afternoon, but it didn't detract from the beautiful islands (you can see a little lighthouse on the top of one of them in the picture).

The sea was very calm all the way through the bay, and then we hit the full force of the Pacific Ocean. By the time we reached the Hole in the Rock, the Japanese tourists had replaced their cameras with sick bags, and there were quite a few making regular trips to the toilets! Unfortunately it was too rough to travel through the Hole in the Rock, but we got quite close and took some good photos. This is one of the better ones - it was quite difficult to take with the boat bobbing up and down vigorously!

While at the hole in the rock we heard reports from another boat that they had found some dolphins. We rushed back to where we had been dolphin searching originally, and found a large pod of bottlenose dolphins, They apparently weren't very active as they were about to feed, and were concentrating on herding the fish into a good feeding position. They weren't jumping out of the water like you see on TV, but I got a video of a few of them surfacing every so often. I tried to upload it, but Blogger isn't having any of it for some reason. I'll have to have another go some other time. You'll have to make do with a picture of an interesting ship I saw on the way back to Paihia instead!

After returning to Paihia harbour it was time to get back on the coach to return to Auckland. Another 4 hour journey and we arrived at Sky City. Auckland looked lovely from the Harbour Bridge, it was all lit up, and the Sky Tower was really cool. A definite photo for the future! Despite a lot of sitting down, I am absolutely shattered. It was well worth it though, and something I would certainly do again.

Rangitoto Island

Today, since I didn't really do much over the Easter weekend, I decided to take a trip to a small nature reserve off the coast of Auckland called Rangitoto Island. I got up nice and early and walked down to Auckland Ferry Terminal and caught the 9.15am ferry to Rangitoto. I got a lovely snap of downtown Auckland while departing the port.

The ferry then stopped at Devonport and picked up a few more passengers, then headed on to Rangitoto. Rangitoto Island is basically a dormant volcano; it doesn't have any soil, just lava fields, but still has thick forest covering it. There are a lot of walks you can do to see various things, your only limit is the last ferry back to Auckland!

The first walk I completed was a trek on a nice smooth and quite flat road out to McKenzie Bay and the Beacon Lighthouse. It took me through the mangroves for about an hour but was well worth it in the end. The beach at McKenzie bay was gorgeous, but I didn't have my bathers :( Something to remember for next time though!

After stopping for a drink I took the summit road to the peak of the volcano. This track was steeper,  the scenery wasn't quite as nice, but it was the only way up. Once I got to the top (after a lot of hard work) the views were breathtaking across to Motutapu Island. You could also see the islands of  Motuihe and Waiheke. 

Just when I thought I'd reached the summit, I noticed more steps! I followed them right up to the top where there is a lookout over the volcanic crater itself (which is covered in bush). There was also a great view of Auckland and the Harbour Bridge, so I'm quite glad I found more steps!

After taking in the views I went back down to the main track and headed off towards Islington Bay and Yankee Wharf. Again, the scenery consisted of black lava fields, forest, and traps (they're trying to eradicate the rats, mice and hedgehogs from the island), but Yankee Wharf was great. I decided to stop and have my lunch and take in the scenery looking across to Motutapu Island. I saw a few people on the boats, but nobody invited me aboard for a glass of wine :(

After a brief rest it was time to head back for the ferry. I took the coastal path (about 2 hours) which was pretty tough going. It was quite rocky, undulating, and covered in thick forest. I did see quite a few skinks though, and some weird looking mosses, so not all bad!

I got back to the ferry at about 3pm, absolutely exhausted and ready for a sit down! There are still some things that I need to do on Rangitoto as there just wasn't enough time to complete everything. There are some lava caves which you can wander round (I didn't have a torch, so didn't really want to risk it), and there is Boulder Bay which has the nickname 'Wreck Bay'. I don't know whether you can actually see any shipwrecks, but I'll have a look next time. I'd also quite like to look at the Mine Base - a WWII military site, and possibly walk across to Motupatu via the causeway. 

Anyway, my limbs are aching and I'm absolutely shattered so it's definitely bed time for me. Pity I don't have any deep heat, as it'd be REALLY useful right now!

Feijoa and Swordfish

At the weekend I was supposed to attend the New Zealand Beer Festival down by the quay. I'd been invited to join another of the anatomy demonstrators and some of her friends, and she'd told me to get myself a ticket online, which I did. A few hours later I get a panicked text from her asking if I knew of anywhere she could get a ticket as they'd all sold out. We spent ages looking in different shops and on the internet but to no avail. I decided the nicest thing I could do was give up my ticket and spend the afternoon/evening in the town with her instead. So I advertised my $40 ticket on Trademe (Ebay) and it eventually sold for $120, gotta love karma! We then spent the evening in one of the local bars and had dinner (a delicious pesto, pepper and parma ham risotto) and a keg of beer. It was great :)

As many of you will know I am a huge fish fan, and have pretty much been addicted to sushi ever since I got here. On Sunday I decided that I would cut back on the sushi a little and eat more fish with my evening meal instead, so ordered some fish from a company online. I had a voucher for some money off and delivery was also going to be free so I decided to take the plunge. It's all freshly caught, and really cheap compared to the UK. So cheap in fact that I ordered 1kg of turbot, 1kg of salmon steaks and 1kg of swordfish steaks which came to roughly £15 - BARGAIN! I unpacked the box today and divided up the salmon and turbot into freezer bags. I did have a little problem however with the swordfsh.... when I ordered 1kg of swordfish steaks, little did I realise that it would be a SINGLE 1kg steak - fit that in your frying pan! I'd have loved to have seen the size of the original fish, the steak alone was the size of a dinner plate! I cooked up a small chunk this evening and it was delicious. Money well spent.

This morning my supervisor came in with a small carrier bag, handed it to me, and said 'I thought you might like these'. I looked in the bag, looked up at him and smiled and said 'ooooh, thanks very much'. I spent the rest of the day trying to work out what it was that he had given me! It was a small green fruit, but I had no idea what it was called or how to deal with it.

After much 'Googling' I came up with the name 'feijoa' (pronounced fay-ho-a). It is apparently grown in the highlands of southern Brazil, parts of Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay and northern Argentina..... oh yeah, and New Zealand!

I had two this evening (may live to regret it a bit later), and they have a really unusual taste. I can only describe it as germolene, the antiseptic cream. I found it quite delicious. The very centre contains the seeds and is soft, a bit jelly-like, and really sweet. As you move further out from the centre towards the skin it becomes a bit more gritty and harder, kind of similar to a not-quite-ripe pear. If tonight passes without incident I may eat a couple more tomorrow....