New Zealand - Part 2

On Wednesday we got up early and drove an hour or so north to Opua, where our sailboat awaited us. The Mystique IV was docked, waiting patiently for us to climb aboard and steer her into the Bay of Islands.

This was our basic route through the Bay of Islands. Of course there were more twists and zig-zags, but red is day one, blue is day two, green is day three:

Day one was a calm day... so we didn't catch much wind and I was definitely feeling the swells :( But we sailed to a big sunny beach for some shell collecting.

Can you see Dad in the pic below??

The Mystique IV:

 

We were also surrounded by characters.

Sometimes you just gotta let it all out:

The whole beach was full of gorgeous shots...

We sailed over to Otehei Bay for the night. Kylie decided to row our little dinghy, Dorothy, to shore.

Then we left her there.

Ha, no we couldn't lose her, she cooked our dinners!

She didn't stay long on shore, since the tide was coming in.

After a pleasant night in Otehei Bay, we had a nice little breakfast in our tiny kitchen (the stove even made toast underneath!)

... and we watched the sunrise before heading out for some more sailing.

We sailed out into the main part of the Bay. We were the only sailboat out there, and Dad said all the other sailboats anchored in the surrounding bays would be watching us as they sipped their coffees to see how much wind we were getting. So he made us all sit on one side of the boat to make it tilt more and look like we had really good wind!

Kylie and I took turns sailing... she looks like an old pro!

Meanwhile, Dad never took his hand off the rudder for me!! Oh well, I'm a rookie.

Eventually the wind really picked up, and boy, did we ever have fun ...

 

At the end of day two, we anchored in Pipi Bay, a popular little nook. Unfortunately, our female neighbour in the boat pictured below enjoyed long topless swims. So Kylie and I call it Titty Bay now!

But we did have some more polite neighbours... a wee penguin!!

Day three also had great wind. We sailed around and eventually anchored at Russell Island for lunch. A sailboat from Alaska even cruised by! What a long journey that would be...

Russell Island is all beach and grass on one side, and a hidden lagoon on the other. Kylie and I had a great time exploring.

Soon it was time to lift anchor and head for home. As we were making our way back towards Opua, we cruised right through a pod of dolphins. It was absolutely incredible. Man, can those guys really speed through the water! They were hard to catch on the camera.

And then, magically, one was just 10 feet off the back of our boat:

What a fantastic farewell to our sailing adventure in the Bay of Islands, where my Dad grew up on sailboats. I loved seeing how familiar the place was to Dad. He knew all the best spots like the back of his hand.

We sailed peacefully back to Opua, just as the skies started to cloud over for the first time in three days. 

One day I'll come back!