Day 80: Blues match and Kodaline

Over the weekend we got to watch the Blues against the Highlanders, where the Blues won. The warm up to the match definitely didn't have anything on the Crusaders match which was amazing, but it was a pretty good match (from my vague understanding of rugby and according to the people next to us!). We also had a pretty funny evening on Saturday at some Irish bar. Then on Sunday we had a bit of a nightmare as we are both using travelling cash cards to try and save some money with ATM fees etc, but they decided to block us from getting any money out today so we had about $5 between us for the majority of today which was interesting to say the least. Then both our cards randomly unblocked themselves this evening to our relief. Anyway this evening we went to see an Irish band called Kodaline, and once we got there I realised I only really knew one of their songs and definitely didn't know what any of them looked like. But they turned out to be incredible, and we almost considered trying to get tickets to see them in Melbourne as well!! They were so so good and it was definitely one of our better "planned" ideas we have had so far. (Usually when we plan things they turn out to go really badly, but when we don't plan anything something exciting usually happens!!)

 

Good cure for a bad headache!

This is what appeared when we tried to get $20 out

Packing time-not going well

This video was NOT filmed by me, it was a super crazy fan, hence the loud screaming and appalling singing

Day 78: Last day with Percy!

We drove down from Whangerai to Auckland today and dropped off Percy, our van, back at the garage and said our farewell, sad times!!

Day 77: Dolphin watching round 2

So yesterday we saw zilch "sea mammals" so we re booked with our free tickets, and this time we went on the boat where you have the chance to swim with the dolphins. Only problem was we had to wake up much earlier to do this trip, Clemmie was not happy with me when I woke her up this morning. Anyway we made it on time and got onto the boat and soon were out going around the Bay of Islands again. It took about an hour and half of searching but we soon found a huge pod of dolphins with a little 2 week old baby with them, which was so amazing to see, but meant we weren't allowed to swim with them. To be honest I wasn't tooooo upset as the weather wasn't amazing and the sea looked seriously cold. We spent around half and hour cruising next to the pod whilst the swam along and played around in the water next to us. Animal conservation laws state you are only allowed to spend a certain time with a pod of dolphins before you must leave so we moved on in search of a pod we could swim with. We were travelling for another good hour before coming across some more fins diving through the water, but by this time it was almost 12, and another conservation law lets the dolphins have a "lunch break" from 12 until 1.30 where no boats are allowed to be around the dolphins. So sadly (or not so sadly as the sea was freezing) we didn't get to swim with the dolphins but we got to see them finally!!

this morning's sunrise!

Day 76: Dolphin watching round 1

So today we are in Paihia and in the  morning we took a boat trip around the Bay of Islands and got to see the hole in the rock and various other islands, but sadly no dolphins or whales etc, so we think we might go tomorrow as they give you another ticket if you don't sea any sea mammals, which doesn't ever expire! But we did get to see lots of beautiful views!

Day 73: Spirit Bay and Cape Reinga

We drove a little bit further up the Cape today to a place called Spirit Bay and camped at a really nice campsite. We spent the whole day on the beach with basically no one else on the beach, and had some pancakes for breakfast as well. Clem got slightly burnt today and in the afternoon we drove up to Cape Reinga and sat for about an hour trying to look for whales but seriously failed.

Cape Reinga (below), Spirit Bay (above)