Dancing with Porpoises

We were up early to go on the cruise around the Bay of Islands we had booked and down on the quay in Russell waitIng for our boat at nine o clock. The boat was of course a fashionably ten minutes late and arrived full of passengers from Pahia.
We set off into the bay sitting at the back of the boat. The expedition photographer decided to stand to one side taking another thousand photographs and I reached for my fleecy to protect me from the wind.
About ten minutes into the cruise the Captain announced he had spotted a pod of dolphins and for the next quarter of an hour we cruised slowly alongside the twenty five or so porpoises that were dancing and leaping in the water.
We carried on cruising until we reached the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour and then we were all instructed to sit down whilst the boat took us out to look at the "hole in motel rock", which was bout three hundred yards out to sea. The ocean was like a huge washing machine and I for one was glad that we had been told to sit down. This was fine until the expedition photographer demanded that I stood up to photograph the event. I ended up doing the dance of the drunk landlubber  unable to take a step in any direction and trying hold to find anything to hold onto with one hand whilst taking photographs with the other.
The dance of the washing machine was soon over and before long we were back n the tranquil waters of the bay.There followed a visit to a island where we dropped off for a hour. It was a bit like being marooned.
The captain had told us there was an excellent walk up a hill to the right of the quay where we had been deposited and we all set off like intrepid explorers to climb the hill. The view was in fact wonderful a huge panorama of part of the Bay with several islands clearly visible.
We had been given clear instructions about the time we had to be back on the boat and we made sure we were there on time, after all we did want to be left there.
The boat took us back to Russell and we were by this time so thirsty that we repaired to the pub for some liquid refreshment, which truly hit the spot. A short walk back to the campsite for lunch and then we were of to Flagstaff Hill. This gave us another huge vista of the bay.
Down back into Russell we went to Pompallier house , a French Catholic mission station which was very interesting. It had one of the first printing presses in New Zealand and printed religious tracts for the Maoris .I was a little annoyed that we had left our National Trust Card at home because had we had it we would have got in for free.
The day ended with a trip in the car to Longbeach where we relaxed in the late afternoon sun and Andy went fishing. There was great excitement when he eventually caught a fish and great disappointment when it was under the legal length limit.
A good supper and some conversation over a bottle of wine ensured a fine end to the day. There are not many days