Bay of Islands

Our arrival into New Zealand was via Bay of Islands, an area of some 144 sub tropical islands on the east coast of New Zealands north Island. Another tendering day, delivering our guests across a 25 minute run from ship to shore.

There's a lot happening on board at the moment as we prepare for various audits and inspections. As such, tendering is a less than welcome challenge for all crew but it's what we do, so with socks pulled up, we cracked on and started the day early to allow for New Zealand authorities to board us and check our compliance. The majority of this is around Biosecurity. New Zealand have strict rules around our entry into their country. The ships bicycles had to be cleaned, ensuring all soil was removed from their tyres, guests golf clubs were subject to the same treatment. No food is to be allowed ashore and anyone found flaunting these rules can expect a 400 NZD fine. So before we could start the operation of ferrying guests ashore we had to demonstrate that we had arrived with all this in mind.

We're arriving into New Zealand at the end of their summer, just on the cusp of autumn so unlike the majority of other countries we've visited so far, the weather was unfamiliar. It was cloudy!! The temperature was just tipping the scales of 20 degrees. New York was probably the last time I saw weather I wasn't overly fond of. Bay of Islands had almost light jacket weather!! Was this a time to panic?

The rest of the day went smoothly enough, however much like every other tender port my opportunity to get ashore was limited to running the shore party.

Thankfully my weather concerns were put to bed towards the afternoon when the sun broke through the clouds bathing us all in a lovely afternoon of warmth. Panic over, normal service resumed. Guests made their way back onto our tenders and on board in good time to sail. Overall, under the circumstances, a pretty good day.

I'd love to be able to talk about Bay of Islands in terms of local hostelries and local beers but today was dominated by work. Yes, work, you heard it here first!

Auckland next for another challenging day for everyone!!!