The Land Down Under: Towards Bay Of Island

My apologies to all the friends who enquired about the next article in this series.  I was too tied up with family and work commitments this month and hardly had a chance to spend time on Gather. Now that I finally have a bit of time to spend on myself, I will continue from where I left of. Those of you following this story would know by now that our friend (Riyadh) and his other half (Rupa) flew down to Auckland from Sydney giving hubby and me an opportunity to show them around. Riyadh & Rupa could only stay for five days; our focus was to cover as much ground as possible.  Auckland weather is famous for its instability, so we ended up traveling in all sorts of weather - rain, shine, hail & gale. Our initial plan of visiting fifteen locations in five days was closely followed except for a few places narrowly missed due to extremely bad weather.  Five days, almost fifteen locations, thirteen hundred photographs (thank God for digital cameras) and around two hours worth of video clips later, our friends are safely back home in Sydney. I am in front of the computer reminiscing our time together.  Over the next few months I will share my experiences about each of these locations. All welcome aboard and Bon Voyage!

If you are interested in reading the earlier articles, please click the links below:

Part 1  and  Part 2

Fifteen Locations in Five Days

Day Two:  Towards Bay of Islands (Part 1)

As my cat's soft meows and scratches on the door woke me up earlier than the rest of the household, I spared a glimpse outside the window while walking towards the bathroom.  Despite all our intentions of calling the previous night an early one, we stayed up well past 1 am just chatting, watching movies and being silly in general. 

The sky looked slightly overcast with dark clouds and darker ones loomed in the horizon. I hoped morning did not show the day in this case. We were planning to spend a night at Paihia near the Bay of Islands.  On our way there we would also visit Goat Island and the Whangarei Falls.  I have visited both these locations before, more than once and each time was different from the previous.  I was eager to find out what this visit would reveal. 

However, it was the day long cruise around the Bay of Islands that I was looking forward to the most.  The same went for our friends.  Riyadh and Rupa actually read up on this before flying to Auckland and Riyadh informed us that the Bay of Islands is one of the top 50 destinations you should visit at least once in your lifetime according to a highly applauded travel journal.   

The cruise would start at 10 am the next morning and would continue for the rest of the day.  We were all booked and set to go as far as tickets went. Bay of Islands consists of almost 150 small islands. The ship would dock at a few major islands to let us have a wander around.  We just need to keep our fingers crossed that the weather does not betray us at the last minute.

I opened the door to the front deck and a gush of early morning breeze stumbled in. It brought with it that fresh sense of morning, like an unpeeled orange - fragrant, pure, alluring and complete.  It looked so peaceful outside, the dew drops only just settled on the grass tips. Branches of the gladitsia tree in the garden swayed while the leaves covered in early morning moisture glistened as the sunlight cast a brief spotlight on them before hiding behind another patch of cloud.    

I started to set the table with huge boysenberry Danishes that we got from a bakery the previous night; I also made some Indian dishes.  Usually we don't have time for breakfast so I try to make the most of my holidays where food is concerned.  Everyone was up and ready by the time breakfast was served. After leaving plenty of food for my dear cat Mr. Bill Clinton and giving her an enormous cuddle, we were on our way.

We managed to avoid the pick hour traffic by starting a bit later than the usual mad rush. Despite the weather's persistence to remain gloomy we were in high spirits.  Goat Island was our first destination.  Adeeb and I came across the place by pure chance the first time; we were coming home from visiting another place.  The name of the place was an immediate attention grabber.  Why name a place after goats? There are so many other prettier species that tread the earth.  May be it is shaped like a goat, we thought, or there could be lots of goats roaming around, who knows.

Of course anything was possible. Maybe just as soon as we step inside, we will turn into goats.  For all it is worth Adeeb is half way through his transformation already. Or maybe if you try your luck at fishing, you will end up with a goat or two at the end of your fishing rod.  Oh the mind boggles!

By the time we reached Goat Island, it started to drizzle.  The wind swooshed past our ears and I noticed a family of ducks take shelter inside the ladies toilets.  We decided to venture out nonetheless and let Mother Nature do with us as she pleased. 

I guess we are not the only ones curious about the name of the place.  The welcoming sign boards actually have an explanation about the name. The signboard reads "Early European explorers often called any small coastal island without fresh water 'Goat Island' as goats could be left there to provide food for possible shipwreck survivors.  However, there is no record of goats ever being present on this Goat Island. Pigs were left to graze once but escaped by swimming to the beach."  Hmm, good on the pigs, swimming comes in handy for sure! 

Goat Island is actually a marine reserve and its official name is The Cape Rodney to Okakari Point Marine Reserve.  The reserve was created in 1975 and has been used extensively for scientific research and is also a good training ground for diving.  A lot of schools bring their students here for excursions to introduce them to the marvels and mysteries of the marine environment.  On a nice day this is also a great place for a picnic and fishing. 

On our earlier visit, it was a gorgeous day.  We saw a lot of people fishing here then and a family also had a barbeque going with the fishes they caught, nice!  I was actually glad that we got to see the place on a rainy day.  We took lots of pictures as usual. In this article, I am posting pictures from both our visits to Goat Island; the weather can have a huge impact on the way a place looks.    

Adeeb, Rupa and Riyadh climbed the huge tree on the beach while I cheered them on from the ground. Even though there were no goats in sight, Rupa did manage to get cozy with some sheeps grazing on a nearby farm. We walked on the rocky shore and dipped our toes in the icy cold water. The same shore that burnt my feet the last time almost froze them this time around.  Lucky that Adeeb was wearing his sandals and he decided to be heroic and let me wear them instead.  One of the many unfair advantages of being a woman.  As we were walking towards our car Rupa picked up an exquisite sea shell from the shore and spared an adoring glance at the splashing waves before heading towards our next destination.

© 2008 Luna Rushdi

		Luna Rushdi, Gather Travel Correspondent
	Luna's column, The Land Down Under is published two times a month to Gather Essentials: Travel. Her column focuses on various destinations around New Zealand and Australia. Travel involves much more than going from one place to another; it is rather a continuous process of search and discovery, a journey that takes an entire lifetime. Luna believes you can not visit the same place twice and tries to bring her unique perspective to the articles. Luna's work appeared on newspapers & periodicals in India and Bangladesh including The Daily Star, Prothom Alo and Desh. She published a children's book on Bengali Alphabets with funding from the Australian Government. Luna also edited a quarterly literary magazine for two years. She is currently working on her first novel.