We awoke to a beautiful morning and a fantastic breakfast with homemade croissants, jam from fruit trees in the yard and lovely conversation, even Crabby and Crabette joined the table. Those crabs do seem to always be around for meals.
We booked a boat trip to see dolphins and the bay. The catamaran is 60 feet long, 18 tons, powered by 2- 800 hp Cat diesels that will jet her along at a comfortable 20 knots with a top of almost 30.
It lived up to our expectations; we saw a pod of the small common dolphins that the guide estimated at 300!
Then out 20 miles to a rock formation that creates a hole we took the boat thru.
Crabby & Crabette took the trip with us.
4 hours later we got off on the other side of the bay and walked to the Mauri Treaty Signing Museum. The place tells a remarkable story of what is best described as a marriage between the natives and the English with no possibility of divorce- it is a work in progress after almost 170 years. We spent 6 hours on that side including a lovely Chinese dinner and a ferry ride back to La Veduta and an early night. Here are some of those photos.
Ceremonial grounds and Captain Cook Christmas tree:
Mauri ceremonial canoe:
Mauri dancers:
Teaching Bill the Mauri dance (verdict's still out on that one, but A+ for effort):
Yay! Great to see both of you. Sorry, all four of you.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the Crabstons are joining you for meals and even the excursions. I thought the newlyweds might pass up on going out and about.
The geek in me is curious if you'll be seeing any of the sites where Lord of the Rings was filmed (or perhaps the spots where The Hobbit is currently being filmed). So cool that you're technically in MiddleEarth.
Is this twice now that Uncle Bill has been pulled up to dance?