We will spend the entire day on the Bay of Islands with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

There are 144 islands in the Bay of Islands and the government owns most of them. But a few are privately owned. Here are 4 of them:

We visited the black rocks which are volcanic basalt populated with bird rookeries.

We passed by the Marsden Cross which marks the place where the Reverend Samuel Marsden gave New Zealand’s first Christian sermon on Christmas Day, 1814:

Some of the beautiful scenes along the way:

We reached our rest and lunch stop and hiked up the hill for some spectacular scenery.

We got into another larger boat to go see the lighthouse and “The Hole in the Rock”.

We thought that the boat pilot was joking when he said that sometimes he pilots through the hole in the rock. It is a big boat!

He wasn’t joking!

Back to the civilized world.

Tomorrow: Kauri Forest