Most of us on the Contiki tour signed up to do the NZ Explorer on our last full day of the tour. The morning portion of the tour consisted of a Dolphin Discoveries cruise in which we cruised around several of the 144 islands in the bay.
Liz from our Contiki group spotted a huge school of dolphins (probably around 20 or more). We were hoping to be able to swim with the dolphins, but because there was a baby dolphin, we were not allowed. We stayed for about half an hour and watched the dolphins swim right up by the boat, jump, and entertain us. We continued to search for other dolphins we may be able to swim with, spotting only two others.
These are the highlights of the 100+ dolphin shots I snapped. Be grateful there are this few...
Mid-day we switched over to the “On the Edge” sailboat.
They kept us busy straight away, allowing us to help raise and swing the sails.
There was a net trampoline at the front of the boat on which we could lay while the boat was moving, with water flying up below.
Liz and I were most excited and spastic about being on the sailboat.
I later steered the boat for about 20 minutes. I’m a pro now but still wasn’t allowed to sit on the captain’s seat. The boat is New Zealand’s fastest commercial sailing cat capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots, 22 m in length with a 30.5 m mast.
Liz, me, Sarah, Sarah, Amanda, Niv, and Gemma - we're just missing Kate of those that stuck around for the afternoon sailing venture.
The boat crew prepared a traditional kiwi barbeque just as we docked at one of the bays; then it was time for some activities!
First up was biscuiting behind the tenure (i.e. tubing behind the skipper boat).
After a good first ride, wipe out, and exhausting climb back into the tenure, I climbed aboard the biscuit for a second ride. The driver told me to keep my weight forward on the biscuit which I did a little too well because when the tenure moved forward, I nose-dived into the water. After all that work to get back onto it, I was not letting go. I kept waiting for the biscuit to pop back up out of the water… waiting… waiting… and as I continued to delve deeper into the ocean, I finally let go and floated to the surface.
That was followed by kayaking around the corner and into a cave.
It poured rain on our way back to Paihia, which didn’t bother me a bit as I was already soaked.
The rain didn’t let up all night. The entire group shuffled over to a nearby Italian restaurant for our last dinner on tour. A core remnant continued onto Bonfire, the closest bar. Felicity (Flick) and I made fast friends with a couple kiwis and Turkish guys (Cory and Vedat), and put back a few rounds of tequila (and chartreuse) while Alex, Liz, Skye, and Bridguet made abstract videos on my camera.
