Bay of Islands, New Zealand

We had a beautiful sunny day in the Bay of Islands. Our tour was in the afternoon. We took the tender in early. I wanted to go to a park with Māori artifacts. The Viking rep on the pier told us it was a $60 entrance fee which included a museum, and performance. If we’d known we might have chosen that instead of the free tour. We didn’t have the time to do it anyway. So we took the shuttle to the nearby village. It was full of gift shops, of course. We bought a couple of gifts and I got my New Zealand tee shirt. We found a cafe on the water to have lunch before our tour. It was right next to the helicopter landing pad for tours. I got a good picture of one through the open window as it took off. While we were eating, a cute little dog came to our table and sat looking at us very longingly. He really wanted us to feed him but we didn’t. After 10 minutes of begging quietly, he gave up on us and moved on.
‘We took the shuttle back to the pier where the tenders arrived to meet our tour. It was a panorama tour of the area. Our driver was wearing a cap that said “!’m Kevin and I’m 60.. He looked several years past 60 but was a friendly bloke. He was formerly a dairy farmer, retired to driving tour busses. We went to Rainbow Falls. It was a very pretty waterfall with a rainbow at the bottom. Below the falls was a really nice swimming hole with several people enjoying it. From there we went to the oldest structure on the North Island. It was called the Store House. We only saw from a distance. There was also a long Māori canoe under a shelter. There was a rooster roaming around the parking lot. Then we went to a small town where we had the usual 20 minutes to explore. You’ll see what we discovered below. There was a quaint old train that went right down the middle of the street. We went to a market and ended up getting ice cream bars…delicious on a hot day. There was a young boy in front of us in line to pay. I asked him how old he was and he looked at like I was speaking a foreign language! Then he said today’s my birthday. He put his drink on the counter along with a $5.00 bill. The clerk said it’s not enough. So I told the clerk to put it in my bill. The boy looked at me and I said Happy Birthday. He was silent. I said what do you say? He said thank you and ran out the door. We enjoyed our ice cream before we got back on the bus. From there we went to a beautiful overlook where we could see the whole bay. It was actually a golf course with the road going right through the middle of it.
Then back to the ship. We were tired but happy campers. Bunny rested while I met our friends at the aft pool to cool off. It was delightful. We met the other set of friends for sail away on the aft deck, then went to the cafe for dinner. The entertainment in the evening was the violinist. He is a red haired young man with an English accent who lives in Australia. In the middle of the show he played an Irish song. Mid song the Irish cruise director ran up to the stage and did Irish dancing, as did the violinist. She is also a red headed lass. When we came back to the room, I tried to do the blog but had a few glitches. The photos took forever to upload from my photo file, then when I tried adding the feature photo at the top, the Media file wouldn’t open. So here I am giving you yesterday’s activities today. I’ll double up on the Auckland activities tomorrow. We’re here for 2 nights.

Photos: I forgot to upload the exotic tile bathroom photo in the town where we got ice cream. Sorry.The rock formation was on the way out of the Bay of Islands. It’s very similar to the rock in Cabo San Lucas but it’s on the opposite side of the rock. Sorry about two canoe shots.