Day 61: Bay of Islands, NZ

This day, March 6, marks the halfway point of our journey. Each country seems to be getting better, and after to northern part of the north island, we will be heading to the South Island. The Bat of Islands was to be our first stop in new sea, but due to cyclone Alfred, to stops were altered to keep us out of the storm. It’s due to finally make landfall in Brisbane tonight as I write this, and I believe it is a category 2 typhoon. Where we are, on the west side of the north island now, it’s pretty windy, but not as bad as we’ve encountered so far.

We booked a tour to see three sites around the Bay of Islands: the glowworm cave, the Regentag public restrooms and a forest walk. We were forbibben from photography in the glowworm cave, so all I got was a picture of the meteorite that you can see above. In the cave, there was a wooden walkway constructed and several in the group was given lanterns to light the way as we walked into the cave. When we got to the points to see the glowworms, we shut off all of the lanterns to completely darken the cave, and they looked like

stars in the night sky. It was pretty remarkable, and they were different colors depending on their stage of life.

Ok, I seem to have mangled the placement of the last gallery, but the next set is of the amazing work of Regentag. So cool that his work permeates the entire town. So glad we were able to see his work!

We went to a forest where the old trees are endangered by a fungus, so we had to walk through a gate that sanitized our shoes with an antifungal treatment. We were showed the amazing flora of this place and saw a tree that is 2500 years old. Not the oldest in NZ, but the oldest in the forest. The towns surrounding the Bay of Islands were idyllic, attracting a lot of retirees.

Delightful Māoris