Today is a big day — I get the privilege of touring the Bay of Islands with Explore NZ!

Paihia is the gateway to Bay of Islands. But from the shore in Paihia you can’t actually see any of the 144 islands — in order to do so, you need to get on a boat. Explore NZ has a special combo cruise: tour the Bay of Islands AND swim with the dolphins, weather permitting.

We depart Paihia and head across the bay to pick up passengers in Russell.

Passengers are given these facts on dolphins:

And we come across a pod fairly quickly!

They frolic around our boat and pose for all those cameras. Dolphins are quite playful creatures and they seem to be putting on a show for us.

There’s a marine specialist on board who determines that this dolphin pod is swim-friendly (meaning there are no babies — we can’t swim with babies because they need to feed every three minutes in order to stay alive and humans distract them). However the choppy waters are NOT swim-friendly, so we are sadly not permitted to enter the water and swim with this pod of dolphins. Bummer!

Onward to the Hole in the Rock. We pass through several islands en route, including Roberton Island.

The island with the Hole in the Rock is on the left in the distance (you can’t see the hole itself from this perspective).

On the left is Cape Brett, which reminds me of the stark and green fiords of Norway.

The Hole in the Rock island is straight ahead!

The weather conditions are good enough for our vessel to squeeze through the hole. Check out this quick video of our voyage through the rock:

…and we make it to the other side!

These rock islands are majestic. I love the bold green and blue colors.

Look closely — there are thousands of fish in these waters:

Time to move towards Otehei Bay, the crown jewel of the Bay of Islands. Good-bye for now, Cape Brett!

Here’s the entrance to Otehei Bay:

We dock at the wharf and have about 45 minutes to explore the beach.

A few of us hike up the nearby hill for an overlook of the bay.

We reluctantly climb back on board for the return trip to Paihia.

One last stop in Russell to drop off passengers staying there.

Parasailing is a popular Paihia activity and we get to see the adventure in action while crossing from Russell back to Paihia.

That wraps up my Bay of Islands experience! Many thanks to Explore NZ for a fantastic tour filled with perky dolphins, colorful islands, and a trip through a giant hole in a rock.

Explore NZ graciously sponsored my trip to Bay of Islands. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.