Paihia isn't as pretty as Russell but it serves it's primary function as a base for the hoardes of tourists booking cruises to the Bay of Islands and the 'Hole in the Rock'. On our first day Steve recuperated in the van whilst Beth walked through the Waitangi Forest in glorious sunshine to the Huraru falls and Mongrove boardwalks in the ongoing hunt for a kiwi bird. She was eluded once again.
Beth's Dad had talked about the 'Hole in the Rock' in the Bay of Islands since he first visited New Zealand since she was a teenager and it had gained legendary status for us when the day came for our cruise to see it. So it was with a touch of regret that the first day of spring, the day of our trip, was blowing gale force winds. But donning our waterproofs and with Steve's face on the mend, we felt invincible and boarded the boat with the other 10 passengers. The Fullers cruise delivers mail to some of the 150 islands and after the skipper was almost blown clear from the jetty after the first mail stop, passengers started turning green. A couple had to be escorted off to an island, unable to stomach the huge waves and displayed what must be an Olympic record for projectile vomiting. At the island we stopped to take a picture of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's house only for our digital camera to promptly break. Well, we're sure her voice is high pitched enough to shatter glass, but cameras? We continued on, knuckles white as we gripped the seat, feverishly repeating like people possessed 'must see hole in the rock, must see' whilst staring into our sick bags. Trying to fix our gaze on the horizon, only to discover that it had started rocking too, the Captain's voice over the loud speaker assured us that 'life was full of small adventures and this was one of them'. He had us almost believing that until a passenger began throwing up creating
a domino effect that within 2 minutes saw the boat alive with the sound of barfing. Almost loosing the contents of our stomach on several occasions too, we finally arrived at the famous 'hole in the rock' which, sheltered a little by surrounding islands, was fortunately a lot calmer and allowed us to marvel at the size of hole that nature had created in an island 300m in height. We couldn't go all the way through because of the weather but seeing the islands and islanders, stopping for lunch at the top of another and finally seeing the hole in the rock made the day totally worthwhile and really, really enjoyable. Honestly.
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