On Tuesday we went on the Best of the Bay cruise, also known as the original "Cream Trip". It is run by Fullers, and involves a cruise around a large part of the Bay of Islands, including a stop at Urupukapuka Island, and a trip out to the Hole in the Rock just past Cape Brett in the Pacific Ocean.

First of all we headed out towards the western side of the Bay, and went around a lot of the little islands there. This is one of the two private islands in the bay, and this one even has real power. The power line you can see in the photo spans across to the mainland.

Around the back of that island were some black rocks, formed a long time ago when the bay was still volcanic.

After some time going around all the various small islands, we headed towards Urupukapuka Island for lunch. However, we were intercepted by some Dolphins that were keen to surf in the wake of the boat.

On Urupukapuka Island we had lunch, and went for a walk up a hill for a view of the bay.

Finally (for now anyway), we went out to the hole in the rock. It was a little rough - the rest of the Bay of Islands is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by all the islands - but we still went through it which was a lot of fun.

Posted by Dave Bryant at 2:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)