Sailing in the Bay of Islands

Despite the interesting parts of our journey yesterday I did wonder if it was worth the distance to travel all the way up here knowing you have to go back almost the same way at the end of our holiday when we have already seen some spectacular sights.
I think you can see from this shot that it is really worthwhile coming to the Bay of Islands.

We spent today sailing, literally, on the R Tucker Thomspon tall ship, you can see it in the centre of the picture. We had been in full sail, which you could help to set, but most had to be taken in as we stopped here on Robertson Island for a lunch break.

You could swim, snorkel, stay on deck or get take the inflatable ashore to climb to this viewing point. Worth it I think. There was lots of lovely birdsong too in the Rimu or red pines as this Island is a bird sanctuary. After 45 minutes we returned to a wonderful BBQ lunch. ( We had already had tea/coffee and fresh scones in the morning.)

It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend the day and appreciate the Bay of Islands from the sea. We also saw some little Blue (I think) penguins just bobbing on the water - a great bonus!