Tuesday 18th
written (wed morning at 7.28am NZ time after an almost full nights sleep!!!!) only 2 wake ups!

Yesterday was what I'd call a mooching day. We rose lateish around 10am and sorted out our bags for the day then walked into
Russell and along the strand to the whalf. As you enter the town on the left is Pompellier House and Russell Museum.
Russell was a whaling station and also the seat of power in the Bay of Islands so the museum was really interesting and the
their pride and joy is a replica 1/5 version of the 'Endevour' the boat used by Captain Cook to discover New Zealand. She
was built 200 yrs after the discovery of NZ in only 12 weeks as part of the Cook celebrations and she toured Austrailia
and New Zealand explaining the story of Cook. She was then given to Russell as a gift at the end of the tour. Mark was
amazed that she only took 12 weeks to be built as the detail was incredible.

The museum also held a fantastic electronic photo archive of Russell through the ages, which I looked at. There were
pictures of Whaling ships in the 1800's which reminded me of Ships in Porthcressa at that time. Russell and near by Kerikeri
are also home of the Blue Marlin so there were loads of big game fishing images, both past and present.Aparently a chap
called Zane Grey was a huge big game fisherman although I think he got munched by a shark in 48 (Sophs look up when i get
home) there were two sets of sharks teeth! One from a great white and the other from a Mayo? shark.
There were also old ointment bottles, maori culture, and just loads of cool stuff.

We continued mooching looking at local galleries and shops before having a brunch in the local cafe in Traders Whalf, a tiny
shopping precinct with around 14 shops. We heard other English accents and it was clear that Russell had attracted a few
visitors that day.

The focus of the day really was the 'Explore NZ Bay of Islands Dolphin Discovery' a trip which not only we were recommended,
but gaurantees you Dolphins or the opportunity to go again for free (boatmen I see potential marketing ideas and serious
puffin similarities!!!' Our seats were booked on the 1.40 4hr afternoon trip which promised a tour of the bay of islands.
Taking in the famous hole in the rock and also a stop on one of the islands. It all sounded great. They'd just bought a new
boat and so it seemed like a super choice. As the 60 ft catermeran arrived and dwarfed the whalf (tall and wide like a mini-
channel ferry powercat) I smiled to see a maori woman at the helm Who manouvered her well. It was a fantastic breezy day
with clear blue skies. If we wern't sailing this was certainly the next best thing.

We were welcomed on board and luckily got seats on the very top deck ( there were about 50 on board, and it later transpired
that the boat can hold well over 200 ) so the seats were a lucky find. (Well I say that because at this point I still
thought I would be observing dolphins!) We got underway at around 18 knots and headed out around the bay of islands.
The scenery was beautiful, without question, I understood exactly why people thought it was like Scilly on a bigger scale.
We were sat next to some very chatty austrailians and we proceeded to look hard for dolphins as we headed out towards Cape
Brett and the Hole in the Rock.

Now I was watching Mark interact both with the environment and the boat and it was facinating, he clearly loved the beauty
the bay of islands but this was Mark doing what Mark does: boating and as he listened to the commentary he was amazed with
their perception of the weather conditions it was blowing 3-4, and they clearly felt this was near stormlike. As we
continued to the island for landing we both saw slack in the mooring strop of their tender, they attempted twice but deemed
it too unsafe!!! Mark laughed at this and then said louder than I would have liked, you could do that couldn't you babes!
'Their boat handling skills leave a lot tto be desired!

I almost offered them Marks' assistance!
So 3hrs in, conversationally exhaused by the Aussies and still no dolphins- I took the opportunnity to head down and take
a look around the boat. I went to the Wheelhouse and had a look around speaking to the skipper Phil who I have to say seemed
genuinely gutted not to have seen any dolphins. I asked him if I could bring Mark down for a look around whicch he was more
than happy for so I went back to get Mark who I thing was a smidge embarrased although it did get him away from the Aussies
for five.

We chatted with the skipper and crew for a while then headed back to Russell said goodbye to our new friends and to the possibility
of seeing Dolphins here. We walked up
to Motel Russell although en-route I did check every restaurant for a dolphin based special!

Dinner was home made butties on fresh bread in our Motel room.
We then headed down to town to use the internet connection as we'd bought some wi-fi access the previous evening.
After sending a couple of e-mails to check whether we could stay with Steve and Liz tonight we updated the blog and
checked our Bank accounts. We then headed home looked for any vouchers in our guides for the Parrot Place which we intend to
visit today en-route to heading north. And packed up our goods and chattels. We then crashed at a respectable 10pm hoping
for a good nights sleep on the comfy pillows and rock solid bed!!!