New Zealand Day 1: Bay of Islands

28 April 2014

We arrived in New Zealand the night of the 27th and then woke up early to go on a coach bus tour up to the Bay of Islands--about a 3-hour drive north of Auckland. As we drove out of the city we saw a rainbow! We actually saw a rainbow almost every day we were there.

Here's a marina on our way out of Auckland.

Views from the bus:

Scott's new hat:

We took a ferry boat tour of the Bay of Islands for about 2 hours. It was so beautiful. We took about 400 pictures...

Bobby and me smiling on a boat.

Views from the boat.

We got a camera for the kids to use...

Me smiling on a boat again. I really love being on a boat!

This is a red version of the New Zealand flag... I looked it up and I guess it's what you call a "red ensign" flag which was flown by the royal navy. Cool.

Matt, smiling in his new hat!

Hole in the Rock. This was the final destination of the boat tour. On a good, calm day they would go through the Hole, but the ocean was pretty choppy (by this time we were out of the bay and getting to ocean waters), so they just backed into the hole and back out again so we could get the idea.

It was really windy in the Hole.

Matt making Bobby laugh!

The company whose tour we were on also had a tour you could take to swim with dolphins. Our boat got a message from their boat saying they had found a couple of dolphins if we wanted to come see, so we did! They put on a little show for us.

Matt, Scott, and I at different times during the day each independently said the words, "I want to live here." Maybe someday!