A wonderful expanse of water. The Bay is teeming with the Common Dolphin- the “C” being capitalised. My bucolic, Recorder playing retired French, English teacher surely would acknowledge that this is a genuine example of the term “literally and figuratively”. But then again, she does tend to nit-pick.

The cruise boat is a beautifully crafted catamaran – from the boat yards in Tasmania. The passengers are, in the main, self funded Australian retirees, so I have a taste of life to come in a few years time. We are, and I put myself in the same boat, literally and figuratively, (no nit-picking) Silver Herons rather than Grey Nomads.

Of course any sober teacher worth her salt, would counsel on the overuse of simile, alliteration or repetitive words or phrases, not to mention hyperbole. So I am at least safe.

We left Opua – which means “Place of Shelter” and headed north. As we neared Motuarohia island, several pods of dolphins seemed to detect our presence and provided a spectacular show of diving and breaching. By about 3 pm we moored at a sandy bay on the Island of Waewaetorea. Had a few hours of kayaking, swimming and snorkeling. The water was crystal clear and warm.

Around 5 pm we “pulled anchor” and headed for our overnight shelter and dinner. From about 6 till 7 pm was “Happy Hour” – I fear I will need to rapidly learn the obligatory banter of the bar. Besides “The American Tourist”, the principle topic was health or rather lack of it! More of that in the next blog. There was universal agreement that the American tourist is both loud and obese, which as we gently swayed on the swell, was I thought to myself, “the pot calling the kettle black.”

Geoff and Marge from Bateman’s Bay described their trip on the Junks of Halong Bay and that during the evening smorgasbord, the Americans – all of them, not just one, would pile up their plates with an entree and several desserts. Should the pangs of hunger persist, the Americans returned for a modest helping of mains and for good measure, pudding seconds! Politely and orderly masticating their way through entree, then mains, by the time our Aussies returned to the sweet trolley it was, to their horror, “dessert-ed”. It was enough to drive a man to drink- which it did.

My cabin on the catamaran

Sorry you may need to rotate or stand sideways!