Where's Grayleen?

As soon as we drove into the Bay of Islands area, we knew we had to spend a few days there. It is absolutely gorgeous, its turquoise waters speckled with islands large and small. Every guidebook and website we encountered said that the only proper way of experiencing the Bay of Islands is by getting out on the water. We considered a fun (but rather pricey) overnight boat trip featuring snorkeling, fishing, and kayaking. But when we learned that the kayak rental guy had touring kayaks and would throw in snorkel gear and a fishing line at no extra charge, we decided we could put together a better snorkel/fish/kayak trip ourselves and for less! We were especially psyched since we had been wanting to do another overnight kayak trip since having such a good time on our first overnight kayaking trip last summer in British Colombia.

Lunch spot on Motuarohia Island

We had a relaxing morning paddle on the first day, setting out mid-morning after loading up our kayaks. We started out by joining just about every watercraft in the bay in gawking at the huge and luxurious Queen Mary 2 that had just dropped anchor, the third-largest passenger vessel in the world. As if we didn’t already feel like tiny boats in a big pond! We continued on, and after a couple of hours of easy paddling, we stopped on a beautiful beach on Motuarohia Island for lunch, a siesta, and snorkeling. Gray ended up skipping snorkeling, not wanting to brave the cold waters, but my fortitude was reward with my first ever manta-ray sighting in the wild: so pretty and graceful!

Soon to be our dinner

Our project for the 2nd half of the paddle was fishing. Gray hadn’t wanted to fish since neither of us really knew what we were doing, and we definitely didn’t have experience cleaning a fish. But I was feeling adventurous, so I told him that I would kill, clean, and cook anything we caught. We dropped in the trawling line, but didn’t get so much as a nibble by the time we neared the beach on Urupukapuka Island where we would be spending the night. I honestly felt a bit relieved as we started to paddle in. But just then, we saw a big flock of seabirds nearby, diving into to water for bait fish; we had been told that trawling in the same area was a sure way to catch something. We kayaked over, seeing huge splashes as the big fish fed. Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later, we had a big fish on the line! Now for the tough part.

This was the first time I killed my own food, other than shellfish and plants, which can’t look back at me. I was surprised to find that I felt a connection to the fish that I don’t normally feel to my food. As I clumsily cleaned and fileted the fish on our beautiful little deserted beach, I felt primitive and self reliant: a great feeling. Later that evening, we cooked it up with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and it was absolutely delicious. Certainly the freshest fish we had ever eaten.

The view from our tent in the morning

We woke up the next morning to clear blue skies and calm water: perfect paddling weather. By the time we put in, a light drizzle had started, but we weren’t worried since there had been no rain in the forecast before we left. We figured we could handle a little sprinkle. By the time we got out of our little bay, it was driving rain, very windy, with big waves jostling our little boats. Wowsers! The fun of practicing our rough-water kayaking skills wore out pretty quick, and we didn’t want to set back up our tent in the rain. Luckily I remembered hearing about a little restaurant on the island, a couple of beaches up from the one where we had slept. With a strong wind blowing out of the bay, we crouched down in our kayaks as we powered in. We made it and were rewarded with delicious hot chocolates. The storm was a lot more fun to watch from the warmth and dryness of the restaurant! (And we learned that it was the first squall they had had since November.)

An hour later, the storm had passed and we had no trouble kayaking back. After stopping in a cute little seaside town for fish and chips, we paddled home, tired and satisfied. Two great days.

More photos from the our trip here.