THE EXCITOR

Occsionally here at the hostel, we cleaners will man the front office for awhile: we’ll check people in, turn movies on, and register people for tours…. but mostly we’ll just take advantage of the free internet. J It’s a super easy job.

To pay us all back for the few hours we’ve put in, Jack arranged for us to go on the ocean trip “THE EXCITOR” for only $30 each.

And the trip?

IT WAS AWESOME.

The boat traveled around the Bay of Islands, getting up to about 50 m.p.h., which made is seem like we were flying over the water. We stopped at the “Hole in the Rock”, a famous tourist destination in the bay, and learned a bit about Maori myths and legends.  We then went around 5 or 6 more islands in the bay, seeing where Captain Cook first landed and……

WE SAW SOME DOLPHINS!

The dolphins were jumping out of the water about 20 yards away from our boat. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the Department of Conservation only allows a few tour boats to visit the dolphins and the “Excitor” is not one of them; however, the skipper turned the boat off and gave us a chance to watch them. It was amazing.

The whole trip was amazing, actually. It was the first moment I guess I truly LOVED Paihia. The water was practically turquoise near some islands. And the islands themselves were a mix of jagged dark rock, electric light green grass, and forest green trees and bushes.  And flying past them with the salty wind blowing your hair back, the sun shining in a cloudless blue sky, and singing along to the B-52s and Red Hot Chili Peppers was just….. well, I was on a happiness high.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the rest of the boat was as happy as we were! Our group was laughing and singing the entire time and the rest of the boat had their jackets pulled up and were all grim and tight faced and just clicking their cameras. [Sigh] Germans…