These last few posts have been super aggravating – I strongly DO NOT recommend using WordPress if you’re wondering what platform to use for a blog/website/whatever.

I didn’t have to get up quite as early this morning as yesterday. The Hole in the Rock cruise I had booked through Stray was going to leave at 9am from the dock that was about a 5-10 minute walk from the hostel. When I woke up I saw that it was pure sunshine outside! Yay! Going to be such a beautiful cruise! This cruise was also with Fuller’s Great Sites.

I got to the pier early so that I was near the front of the line in order to get choice of prime seating. Initially I went to the top deck front row near the right-hand corner close to the railing. I stayed there until we had left the pier and were cruising out into the Bay and came upon a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Then I couldn’t contain myself anymore; I got up and went down to the lowest first level deck out to the very front of the boat and got THE prime spot and didn’t leave it for the rest of the cruise.

After we let the pod of dolphins swim away, we continued cruising through the Bay of Islands out towards the Pacific Ocean and the Hole in the Rock. The views were completely brilliant and beautiful! Again, I tried to capture them with my phone but I don’t think full justice is done with them. You have to be standing there, with the ocean wind blowing through your hair, feeling the rise and fall of the boat with the big ocean waves. Completely amazing.

Before we got to the Hole in the Rock, we saw a spot where the surface of the water was occasionally disturbed. It was a school of fish swimming near the surface that swam towards the boat. These fish were such a brilliantly color blue that you could easily see them in the water. They were so beautiful!

The captain positioned the boat in front of the hole for a few minutes while she studied the waves behavior and then she carefully drove the boat into and through the hole in the rock. Also a beautiful amazing experience. She said that she can usually hold the boat in the arch (“hole”) for a longer time but the waves today seemed to be a bit stronger and were pushing the boat around and so deemed it best to skedaddle out of there. I agreed with her decision and gave my approval. (LOL). I’m such a back-seat driver. I’m just kidding by the way. Ay-ay, Captain!

After that, we had to head back to the pier at Paihia. I stayed in front and when most other people had left the very front, noticed another middle-aged woman nearby on my left-hand side that seemed to be enjoying the view from where we were just as much as I was, and I don’t usually see that. So we got chatting; her and her husband were from the UK and were on a long holiday. She had already been on the southern island of New Zealand and gave me some tips on what to do and see when I get to Abel Tasman and Fox Glacier. I told her I was traveling solo and she said “You’re really brave.”

Near the end of the cruise, it started raining and so I went into so as to not get my down-jacket wet. She was the last one inside the boat and that’s so like me! When I went inside, I ended up sitting in the row right in front of her husband and we got chatting after he said “I knew she’d be the last one inside.” 😀 I gave them my name and blog address so that they can follow my travels. I really enjoyed chatting with Frank and Gaynor; it was lovely meeting you both! I had to wait for a few minutes once we got off the boat for the rain to stop. Once the rain had cleared, I walked back to the hostel. The rest of the day couldn’t compare (and I didn’t do much else) with the cruise and so I don’t have anything else to write about.