February 10, 2014
I've been struck again and again by how friendly people are here in NZ.

Alice and I decided to go to Opua this morning - there's a ferry for the 300m crossing (costs $1). On the ferry a girl approached us and introduced herself as Ngaire. This is a Maori name, common here in NZ . People in Hobart don't generally wander up to other passengers on public transport and introduce themselves... but of course they could if they wanted to. She said she worked on a motor yacht owned by a super-rich family, working 3 months on, 1 month off. She offered to drive us to Pahia, the next little town 7km away (in the Bay of Islands all the towns are little - Kerikeri, Pahia, Russell and Opua). Although we hadn't planned this, it sounded like a good idea - so a little later we were shopping in a much better supermarket than the little general store in Opua. There was a craft market and art exhibition here too, so we had a look around.

We could have walked back to Opua, but Alice decided to thumb a ride, and the first car she signalled pulled over - apologising because they were only going 2km. We took the ride and Alice did it again - the first car stopped for her!

Anyhow, we bought our stuff and got back to Ocean Child, and set sail across the Bay and headed towards the ocean. A shark cruised by, it's dorsal and tail fins breaking the surface. Then a group of dolphins... we hoped they would stop to say hello but apparently they were in a hurry... then a group of about 30 gannets, diving into the water from maybe 50 or 100m up. It was a great sight, they were hitting the water one after the other - spectacular. ?There was obviously an unfortunate school of fish at the surface.

For a couple of seconds the depth sounder showed 1m in 30m of water, and we wondered what large creature had cruised past underneath the boat, picking up the signal from the depth sounder sensor....

It was an interesting day..
 

Ocean Child at Motuoi Island (from Moturua Island):

Motukiekie Island from Moturua Island looking towards Cape Brett

Ocean Child at Moturua Island, Alice Kamperschroer

Kerrie Seccombe's amazing dolphin photo

Ocean Child moored west of Cape Brett

Home