Mercury Bay

2015-01-09

Our Friday activities included a walk along Buffalo beach and a tour boat ride in Mercury Bay. 

Buffalo Beach

Marching practice

Captain Cook named the bay after the planet since one of the objectives of his voyage was to observe a transit of Mercury.   The tour boat ride was pleasant and the kids enjoyed it.  We considered kayaking and we were glad we changed our mind after observing the sea conditions from the boat.  It was really windy with about 1m swells.  We wouldn't have seen very much from the kayak and our history with small boats in New Zealand isn't that great.  Jack and I braved the cool water for a bit of snorkeling off the boat.  The water was crystal clear and we had fun, but it took a bit to warm up
afterwards.

Shakespeare Point the the background

Cathedral Cove

Orua Cave

A little chilly, but really clear

Warming up

The boat captain recommended a restaurant in Whitianga and after we cleaned up from the ride we went out to find El Camino.  We spent about fifteen minutes driving around Whitianga looking for the place when we spotted the captain gassing his boat at the end of the day. He pointed us in the right direction and we had a nice Italian dinner at Al Camino.  After dinner, we goofed around the condo and watched Dr. No, a particularly bad James Bond film.

Dinner at Al Camino, Whitianga