Total Miles Traveled: 60,654
Ah, the Bay of Islands. The last stop in our journey around New Zealand. Many, many travelers we had met along the way told us to make time for this place. And we were glad that we did.
If you make it out here, stay in Russell – it’s a quieter town and a great base to explore from. There’s also a great restaurant called the Gables which serves a mean rack of ribs as well as some more exotic game.
Russell is a beautiful place – great to lay back for a few days.
But if you want to be active, there are plenty of activities, including boat cruises, dolphin watching, kayaking… and fishing! Lisa had never been deep sea fishing before, so we decided to give it a go.
We got lucky on our trip out and saw some spinner dolphins up close.
Lisa caught the first one of the day (fish, not dolphin!!)
It’s known locally as something pronounced “cow-eye” or more easily referred to as sea salmon. It put up a pretty good fight!
Here I am fighting another sea salmon:
It was probably a good 18 inches!
We caught maybe 8 sea salmon and many small red snapper. A very fun day on the water and the best part was filleting the salmon we caught and having it cooked fresh for lunch.
So, we agree with everyone else who recommended visiting the Bay of Islands. Definitely try to make time for it, maybe at the end of your trip!
Have a look at all of our photos below:
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