The Rock Adventure Cruise in the Bay of Islands – Day 356

Today is day two of our rock adventure cruise in the Bay of Islands.

This morning we are waking up on the Rock Adventure Cruise. That’s right, it’s our second day of this overnight cruise in the Bay of Islands and after watching a stunning sunrise we are tucking into some breakfast.

If you guys remember yesterday we did shooting, fishing and kayaking in the dark that was really awesome so check it our the card is right above but today day two of this cruise we have much planned first up though, we need a big breakfast, we’re having Weetbix, some muesli some fruit everything is healthy-ish and the whole team is getting some strength in cos it’s going to be a full-on day.

While we’re having breakfast we’re moving form Matauwha Bay to our next destination in the Bay of Islands where we’re gonna do a little bit of morning snorkelling and when I say we, I actually mean just me cos if you haven’t noticed Robin has a broken arm.

Although it looks like the middle of summer, it’s actually the middle of winter so everyone is a little bit apprehensive about jumping into the freezing cold water but the team of the Rock Adventure Cruise say it’s definitely worth it so we go in for the stride.

Sure the water is pretty cold but we’re actually super distracted from the get-go cos there’s so much to see down here and we’ve been set a mission to collect some kina.

Kina is a sea urchin in New Zealand and it’s actually a local delicacy so we are collecting a big bunch of them to try later on the boat.

Although they have a spiky shell, kina are actually pretty easy to grab off the sea floor and the team from The Rock cruise tell us that there are actually too many of them in the Bay of Islands eating away at all the kelp forest, there are too many of them around so we are helping out with the conservation effort as well.

While we’re collecting lots of kina, one of the guides is showing us a huge eagle ray that’s tucked up between the rocks, so we go over to check it out and sure enough we get super close to it. It’s amazing to watch it for a while until it eventually swims away so we decide to swim away too and collect some more of that kina.

After about 20 minutes snorkelling and seeing so many amazing things, a few of us are starting to feel that winter chill so we’re heading back onto the boat feeling super refreshed.

Yeah there were loads of fish but every time I tried to swim toward them they swam away but hung out with a sting ray which was pretty cool and collected a few kina.

So got all this.

It looks like the catch was really good but we don’t have time to check it out just yet cos we’re already hopping onto the boat toward our next adventure.

This particular bay we call Twin Lagoons so when you do the hike to the top and you look down you’ll be able to see the two lagoons that fill up during high tide.

Yep, that’s right we are heading to Motuarohia Island or Robertson Island and this island offers amazing views of the Bay of Islands after only a very short walk so we can’t miss it.

The whole group is following the guide up the hill through beautiful kanuka and manuka for est all the way to the viewpoint. It’s definitely a very short walk but so rewarding the views as soon as we arrive on top are seriously mind blowing.

Our guide is taking the time while on top of the island to tell the story of the Robertsons which is the family that used to own the island. it’s a really scandalous story that if you guys want to hear about just Google it cos I can’t remember all the details.

Nevertheless, the views are what we are here for so everyone is taking pictures and taking in the gorgeousness of the area. the Bay of Island comprises of 144 different islands and we can see a tonne of them from up here.

After Laura has taken literally over 100 pictures from the top of that island, we are already making our way back down we still have plenty of time on the island so we take some time to relax on the beach and who says relaxing on the beach says obviously beach games, so after a bit of a chit chat we are taking the frisbees out.

The rock cruise has an awesome set-up of equipment with kayaks for us to use we also have loads of beach games like volley ball, rugby balls and frisbee and we decide to take on the frisbee but a lot of us a lot better than others.

After playing some games, we get the time to do more of our own thing, whether that’s taking a nice long walk on the beach, just sunbathing in the nice Bay of Islands’ sun or even doing a little bit of bird watching. We see some really rare wildlife on the beach known as New Zealand dotterels and team actually told us all about them on the way over here so we make sure to keep our distance.

Adam comes to collect us off the island from the motorboat while some people decide to kayak their way back to the Rock boat and what’s waiting for us is an awesome lunch platter of make-your-own sandwiches.

The fact that we actually did a two-day tour with the Rock cruise made it for the perfect opportunity to make some awesome friends. We met people from everywhere in the world but mostly from Australia cos that’s what the group is mostly all about.

After that we are moving onto dessert and dessert is kina that the guys were fishing this morning.

Kina is a Maori delicacy, it actually used to be a celebratory dish and it is actually quite easy to get from the sea, once you have collected all of those you just need to slice it in half and eat the eggs which are inside that’s this really brown paste that you can see us eating right now. It tastes really delicious it’s like the New Zealand version of Caviar and once the degustation is over we are making our way back to Paihia town. It’s the longest activity we’ve done yet it went so quickly.

That was deep bro.

This activity wraps up our adventure in Paihia, oh my God I can’t believe how much we did in the Bay of Islands hub but we are now moving onto another destination which is gonna be Ahipara which is gonna be the northern town where we’re gonna be spending the most time there’s heaps of more to come.

Oops.

What have you found? Some New Zealand sealife?

Yeah, can’t wait to cook this up.