May 2

It was a go for our Ocean Leopard boat tour today. The swells died down overnight, so the seas were favorable for our two-hour trip. We’re fortunate that we have the flexibility in our itinerary to push the tour to today. We departed the Whitianga Wharf and entered the marine reserve to start the journey.

Out on the water, we saw black-backed gulls and pied shags, birds we’ve seen frequently throughout our trip.

The tour was a bit of a repeat of what we saw yesterday from land. It was nice to gain a different perspective from the sea.

We cruised out to Shakespeare Cliff and got another glance at the alleged profile of the famous playwright.

Shakespeare Cliff (Do you see him at the end of the cliff?)

In my opinion, Captain Cook was hitting the rum a little too hard when he named the cliff because all I saw was a jagged rock. Let me know if you spy Shakespeare’s profile?

Another view

We zoomed to Lonely Bay, a secluded beach accessible by a short walk from Cooks Beach. It was deserted on this chilly Thursday morning. It’s a beautiful spot fringed by old pohutukawa trees, aka the NZ Christmas tree, which blooms with bright red flowers during the holiday season.

Lonely Beach

Cooks blowhole was around the bend. It needs a tidal wave for it to actually blow, which we fortunately didn’t experience while out on the water.

We swang by Cathedral Cove and thought it was much more exciting and dramatic from the beach yesterday. Then again, we didn’t break any rules for this boat tour.

We saw snapper and blue maomao and a couple of fur seals napping on the rocks on Goat Island.

Goat Island

We stopped at Snakehead Cave next and got a close-up peak to see the double vision snake head coming down from the cave’s ceiling.

Near Hahei, there’s a mansion atop the cliffs owned by an ex-race car driver named Rod Millen. For the past 10 years he and his wife have hosted the annual Leadfoot Festival, a weekend long event of classic cars, vintage motorcycles and motorsport legends. He built a race track around the property that’s still used today for test driving and the filming of commercials.

The Orua sea cave is on their property and it’s the second largest sea cave in NZ at 50 feet high. It’s been shaped by millions of years of erosion. The rhyolite (volcanic rock) has softened due to the fault line running through it and has been battered by the sea, salt and wind. We took a ride inside.

We went further down the coast to what used to be an extremely large blowhole. It toppled into the sea, so since it was vast, our skipper drove us inside and around it.

There were also interesting rock formations outside the cave. Locals named it Champagne Rock since they say the rocks look like an upside down champagne glass. We couldn’t see that but maybe you can?

Storm clouds started forming and our skipper decided it was time to make a run back to the harbor. We were pretty far out at sea, so it was a rather unpleasant final 15 minutes of the boat ride back to the dock as the wind picked up from the pop up storm. We were glad to see the shore!

Time to get out of here. Here comes the rain.

We grabbed a great lunch at Blue Ginger, then drove three hours south down the east coast to Mount Maunganui. We enjoyed the sights of yet another rainbow along the drive.

Needing a break from Suits, we started bingeing Baby Reindeer. We’re hooked!

Our current location

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