Day 11 in New Zealand

We left the hotel early in the morning for our dolphin cruise. We left the pier at Paihia for the open seas around the Bay’s 144 islands. It was so beautiful. James and I spent a lot of time on the bow (I think that’s the name of the front) watching the water as we sped along. It seemed like forever until we came along a pod of dolphins, but once we saw them, they were right up next to the boat. I think James took like a million pictures. It was really cool to see all the dolphins, but unfortunately we didn’t get to swim with them. Swimming with the dolphins isn’t allowed when there are babies in the group because baby dolphins have to feed like every three minutes and if they get distracted and miss a couple of feedings, then they’ll get hypothermia and die. Sad. No one wants that. So although I didn’t get to fulfill my lifelong dream of swimming with the dolphins, the boat ride was fun. I guess James will just have to take me somewhere else to swim with them. We headed back to Auckland afterwards and checked in early for our flight in hopes to get good seats. We spent the afternoon at this mall in Auckland, just passing the time. But the lame thing was that the stores all closed at 6 p.m. I don’t think that could ever happen in the States. We went to the airport with nothing else to do and spent a few hours there, reading and completing this blog. We’re going to start boarding in about 30 minutes, and we’re definitely ready to go home. The trip was amazing; we really enjoyed our time in New Zealand. It feels like so long since we first got here. However, I think it’s time to go home and get back to our everyday lives. It will be nice to be back in a familiar place with good food (not McDonald’s) and the same bed every night (although it’s smaller than we prefer). It’s time to refocus on work, moving, and the impending holidays.