It’s been year
s since I was on a cruise that made a call in the Bay of Islands, I’d almost forgotten how breathtaking it is. If there was one place in the world I would move to (other than back to London), it would be New Zealand, possibly just this part of New Zealand. Everything is so green and lush and peaceful looking.
It’s an overcast day, so the sea is a reflection of the iron grey sky, but they say the weather will clear up in a few hours, which is good because we only have a few hours here (pity, that). Other people look out their office window and see unmoving unchanging skyscrapers, I look out mine and see sailboats making their way across the grey waters of the bay, and the chugging tender leaving its white trail through the water as it ferries the passengers back from their various excursions.
Best view ever, and never the same twice.
It’s a small place, and the tenders this time dropped us right in the center of town (such as it is), for me this has always been mostly a camera port. But I was hungry, so instead of going for the walk that I’d planned I stopped at a local take-away shop and picked up lunch, and headed down to a secluded little corner of the beach, visible from the road but not really noticeable if that makes any sense. And I just…sat.
The fresh fish & chips reminded me of England (eating without utensils the batter nearly burns your fingers!) but the smell of the salt air and the cries of the sea birds reminded me of home, and odd blending of two worlds in a place so completely foreign to either of them. Which made me somewhat homesick for both, at the same time that it anchored me to both..
Hey, at least this time I didn’t come back with a sunburn!