Anchoring in the "City of Sails"

Saturday morning, we arrived back in Auckland, the "City of Sails", around noon. This was the official concluding point of the tour, but most of us stayed in Auckland for at least one or two nights after that, so not much changed. A few of us ventured out for lunch with intentions of sightseeing that afternoon, but napping won out, and oh did it feel great!


Skye with our bus driver Malcolm


I'm feelin' the love from our tour guide T

Everyone mulled around the lobby for ages before being willing to venture off to the next lone destination. After repeated goodbyes...

We all met up at 7pm that evening and headed to the waterfront viaduct for dinner and one final night of partying to follow. We hit up Cargo, The Carpark, Waterfront, and Four Seasons, and even ran into T while we were out.

Amazingly, we easily found seating for our big group at a lovely restaurant on the harbour, where Alex treated all the ladies to a couple bottles of wine.

Hamish treated us to comic relief in his animated telling of past experiences.

A quick glimpse of the Auckland tower before continuing on to the bars.

We hit up Cargo, The Carpark, Waterfront, and Four Seasons, and even ran into T while we were out. How was no one surprised when we bargained with the bartenders for bulk jagerbomb shots?

Alex, Catherine, Kate, and Sarah lined up for tequila shots. Will the madness ever stop?

No! Me, Flick, Liz, Catherine, and Sarah put on our pouty faces at Alex's command.

My new BFF who happens to live in Melbourne! This is Flick.

"Sweet as bro!" Liz and I practice our new essential kiwi phrase.

Hamish, Liz, and Flick get their groove on at The Carpark, who lei'd us upon entry.

As if this place wasn't hot enough (we were all sweating bullets!), I turned it up a notch with this party mask. Don't exactly know what it is or why it was here, but we took turns passing it around.

One final stop of the night, back at the harbour. What posers!!

NZ Explorer

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.

Bay of Islands Parasailing

We drove through lush Waikato countryside en route to Auckland, where we did a passenger drop off and pick off as well as a lunch stop before continuing north to the semitropical region of Northland. These are my few artistic shots of the foggy countryside.

We stopped to be tree-huggers at Parry Kauri Park, then traveled onto our resort in Paihia at Bay of Islands.

Not being one to let a day pass without some adventure, I went on the Flying Kiwi Parasail boat with five others on New Zealand’s highest parasail.

It was a nice way to see the bay from 1200 feet.

I'm excitedly getting geared up in the harness.

I started from a sitting position on the platform at the back of the boat, then just lifted up and off, similar to a helicopter. I kept floating up, higher and farther from the boat. I tried to tip upside down and backwards, but as far as I got was horizontal with an upside down view of the coastline behind me. It was a gentle, smooth ride – not exhilarating, but peaceful and relaxing.

As they reeled me in, they dunked my feet in the water which was surprisingly warm.

I landed in a standing position back where I started.

We had a big kiwi bbq dinner at the hotel and drinks on the balcony before venturing off to the Pipi Patch on the main drag for some quality nightlife.

Malcolm and Bridguet didn't take long to start dancing on top of things.