Feb 9, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Pulling into the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. First of six New Zealand ports

One of the over 100 islands in this bay

Not all of the islands are big

New Zealand Navy Inshore Patrol Vessel

Getting closer to docking

View of a few islands

Tickets for the Glow Worm Cave and Puketi Kauri Forrest

Tender boat dropped to take us to shore.

View of the boat as the tender brought us inshore

Glow Worm and Puketi Kauri Forest Tour

A meteorite that landed nearby in the village that was brought to the caves

Rob was one of the lantern holders

No pictures are allowed past the first section of the cave because the caves in this area were used as burial sites and are sacred. Pictures that Toni took before we weren't supposed to take pictures.

Some people didn't listen and then posted them on the World Cruise Facebook site

Close up from the brochure that the cave gave out.

Outside the cave, there were a certain type of tree. The said there is always one near the burial caves. These trees have both male and female trees that will be near each other. Rob is in front of the mail tree with in single trunk. Toni is in front of the female tree that splits into many trunks and branches.

Our great tour guides

While at this point of their summer things are usually turning brown but with all the rain they have had it is all green.

Besides driving on the other side of the road, their signs are different also.

We then went into Pukepukerau, a local town, with time from a drink and snack.

Toni and I went into a store. I really like this book.

Then a bakery for a cookie to take back to the bus. There were a lot of good looking things

Next Stop was the Forest for a guided walk

Many of the us on the bus were trying to talk the bus drive/tour guide for a detour to get ice cream. Didn't work

Heading back to the Bay of Islands

Once back in town, we visited a Fish and Chips shop that the Tour Guide recommended. Hoki is a local fish. We got the C5 with an extra oyster so we had 2 of everything. One New Zealand dollar us equal to 63 cents US.

In most of our Maryland seafood places, they cover the tables with paper. The food here comes all wrapped in paper. You take to the table, unwrap, and you have a covered table and feast. It is a good thing we only got one because this was a lot of food! Actually the two of us couldn't finish. But it was all local seafood!

The town had an outdoor market. It is not an every week market but they do one every time a cruise ship docks.

When we got back to where we would take the tender back to the ship, we found that there was about three hundred passengers in line. It was about 45 minutes before the latest time for us to get there. I guess everyone was enjoying the town.

Finally on the tender and on the way back to the ship.