Joined the dolphin tour which we had booked last evening, and took the early boat ride out from the harbour. The skies were gloomy when we left the dock, and got rather chilly as the boat headed out into the open sea.
The boat made a stop over at Russells, which wasn’t very far from Pahia, to pick up some extra people who were joining the tour. Finally we were well on our way to spotting the dolphins.
As the grey clouds started to make way for the clear blue skies ahead, everyone was in a happier mood, made better when our guide asked us to look overboard as the dolphins were already starting to show themselves to us humans.
I suspected that the dolphins themselves actually loved the attention they get from all the tourists. Pretty soon they were skipping in and out of the waters, putting on a free show of dolphin tricks while we watched, clapped and took pictures in delight.
Our next stop was the hole in the rock. From far, it looked too small for our large boat to squeeze through, but the fun part was just starting. Among exclaims of ‘whoas’ from the people on board, the captain steered the boat through the hole, even stopping for a while for us to take some pictures.
The guide seem to be very amused at all of our reactions, especially how we cheered and clapped after the boat made it safely out the other end, he requested for the captain to steer through the hole for a second round, earning an even louder applause of agreement from everyone on board.
Left the hole in the rock and made our way for a short island stopover to walk around and stretch our legs. Got ice-cream as the sun was out and shinning, and ice-cream felt perfect for the weather! Also took a short stroll in the shallow end of the waters which were crystal clear.
The island was the last stop of our tour, and soon we were back on boat heading back to mainland. Thanks to the cold wind out on the open seas, I did not realised that I had gotten myself a sunburn, because it did not crossed my mind to put on any sunblock early during the gloomy morning.
We hit the road down south after getting back onto mainland. Made a short stopover at Auckland for dinner and also parents wanted to visit a temple because it was the first day of the Chinese lunar year, but I must say, the noodles were dreadful…
At the suggestion of our family friend, we headed for Hamilton, but a snap decision made halfway, we decided to make use of the time we had and headed for Rotorua instead. Also, for someone who hails from a country without any four seasons, I was pretty amused when I noticed that the skies around us were still bright despite that it was already 9pm at night.
We finally reached Rotorua around 11pm at night, and had a hard time trying to find a place to stay, as most of them were occupied. Luckily for us one of the motel we asked, helped us to contact another motel a little further down the road which had a room for all of us, so we didn’t have to sleep in the car for the night. Nice people are everywhere!
この長い旅で 