Well we have been busy over the last few days. On Friday 16th we drove up the East Coast heading North from Whangarei before stopping at the Bay of Islands. There we booked ourselves on a boat to see (and hopefully swim with) the Dolphins. The trip was great fun and we headed around the Bay and far out to see. We came across a pod of common dolphins who were swiming with two Brutus whales. These were so magical to see...one was about 15 meters long and the other was about 12 meters. We followed them for about 25 minutes before heading off to try and find the dolphoins again. Unfortunately, we could not find them and had to head for home without entering the water. A shame but it was still great fun. We all agreed that we would try some more whale watching later in the trip...

That night we drove futher north and stayed the night in Kaitaia. This was in a nice motel with a very friendly landlady (Betty) and through whom we booked ourselves for an early morning rise to join the bus tour to the most northerly tip of New Zealand (Cape Reinga) and back along Ninety Mile beach. This included some sand toboganning where the Pengellys aquitted themselves with pride as being the fastest down the dunes out of those on our bus. Way to go Pengelly's !! The ride back along the beach was fun. Tired after a full day we headed back to the motel for the night.