Around The World Without Flying: The Bay of Islands Part 1 - Some Beautiful Countryside & An Historic Harbour

The Bay of Islands on the north-east coast of New Zealand is one of its most well-known beauty spots. The first time I went there, in November 2011, I had booked into a shore excursion that included a launch trip around many of the islands, culminating in seeing seals and dolphins and passing through the famous ‘Zane Grey’s Hole in the Rock’ - seas permitting. Well, it rained much of the time and the seas were really rough, which meant it was almost impossible to take photos. I was just so seasick as the launch lurched up and down, all I wanted to do was to get off. So while I did see the famous Hole in the Rock, the experience was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

The next time I went to the Bay of Islands, at Easter last year, I decided in advance I was not going on any boat trip after the previous experience, so I booked into a visit to a forest and a glow-worm cave. However, when we arrived I was still suffering from a 24-hour bug that hit me on the way to Rotorua, so I gave away my shore excursion ticket to my friend who travelled with me on that occasion, and just visited the local village and market. (At least I assume it was a bug. All I know is it gave me a whopping headache and made me feel extremely tired.) The market, I might add, was fantastic - full of beautiful hand-crafted leather goods, jewellery, skin products and soaps, and all kinds of other handcrafted goods. Let me say I really supported the local economy there, buying quite a few gifts for family and friends, as well as a leather handbag for myself.

So this time round, which will probably be my last visit to this area, I decided to go on an all-day tour that included a long drive through much of the countryside, a walk in forest to see a famous 2000 year-old kauri tree, and a visit to an historic mission house. It even included an early lunch and a delicious afternoon tea. And we were extra privileged to have a Maori driver-guide and a Maori guide in the forest.

The drive through the countryside was rather like driving through the well-known Yarra Valley back home, except I only saw one vineyard. Over the lush green hills and valleys were many dairy farms and the occasional sheep property or market garden. Early on we also saw a more swampy area where mangroves were growing.

Eventually, after driving for a couple of hours, we reached our first destination - Hokianga Harbour - where there are high sand dunes on the north side of the entrance to the harbour. This is where Kupe, the first Maori explorer, arrived about 1000 years ago. When he left to go back to Polynesia, he left perpetual burning fires to guide Polynesians back to the bay, and special ‘spells’ to protect them when they entered or left the harbour. These ‘spells’ or blessings seem to have worked, because no Maoris have been caught by dangerous shifting sand bar at the harbour entrance, while many white men were lost in shipwrecks at that spot. The harbour is very large, so several Maori settlements were founded along its shores.

We had a pleasant early lunch at a resort located at the harbour, and even had time for a stroll down to the pier just in front of the resort, then headed off to see the ancient kauri tree. I will talk about that in the next post. On the way back we saw a view of the harbour from the hilltop behind it, and then headed to the mission house, which will be the subject of yet another post.