It took all day to get to Paihia (pronounced Pie-here as i was corrected by the bus driver). We left at 7:30am and arrived at 4pm. The second half of our bus drive from Auckland to Paihia was not fun. The bus driver was the biggest twat ever. He was rude and very uptight, not towards us specifically but towards others. First of all he nearly killed an old man as he yelled at him to hurry up whilst he hobbled as fast as he could and almost tripped over across a very busy road. The old man only went to the loo quickly which apparently made the bus driver 2 minutes late. Then he had the cheek to ask a woman with a baby, sitting directly behind him if she could move seats if her baby starts crying as it'll distract him. Bearing in mind the front seat is probably the safest place for a car seat as it had a barrier it could wedge in-between. And it was on this journey we decided to sit at the front, right behind him.
Anyway, rant over. We arrived in Paihia and loved the look of the place straight away. Its a small seaside town in the warmest part of New Zealand, so it was pretty hot. We checked-in to our YHA (posh!) hostel. We stayed in a 6 bed dorm in the chalet. The layout was quite odd. Luckily we got in there before the remaining 2 people and chose some good beds.
We hadn't eaten all day as for some reason there was no 'lunch' stop on the bus journey. normally there is but because we had to change to another bus half way through, we had no time to grab some food. We were starving. We found a cheap Italian restaurant above a shop. It didn't look posh at all (it was very cheap) but actually served the most delicious food.
The next morning we woke and grabbed some more cheap food on the pier. An english breakfast (called Hansen's) was £6 and it was good. After this we made our way to the wharf ready for our swim with dolphins tour. This was something on our bucket lists, oh and it was valentine's day so we thought we'd fill the day with something. I have swam with them before in Florida but this tour was completely different as the dolphins were wild. This also meant it was hit and miss as to whether the swimming happens but as the tour is called swim with dolphins we were pretty excited to get in the freezing cold water (with no wet suit this time, i thought the seal swim diving gear was bad enough so i have no idea why I'm doing it again).
We boarded the boat and set off pretty quick. We looked around and thought the set up of the boat and tour was a little strange. For example, we couldn't see any snorkel gear and the tour guides didn't look like they were swimmers/swimming. It wasnt long before we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were amazing, huge and really playful. Everyone on the boat started to get really excited as we could see about 4 people already in the water with them. Then the captain announces that we are not aloud to swim with these dolphins as there were a few babies/teenagers with their mum's. If we are in the water, the babies will want to interact with us and will miss their feeding time (they feed 8 times a day) and this is not good for their wellbeing. We completely understood and respected the dolphins health but there were people in the water, why are they aloud in?.
I think a few people asked the captain this as he then announced that the people in the water were from their own private boat (yes, they were filthy rich with a really nice posh catamaran...so jealous) therefore do not have a special license and cannot be fined. If we went in the water, the tour company would be fined. It's annoying when the rich get experiences like that for free just because they can afford their own boat, we pay for it and still don't get the privilege. The dolphins were getting really close and really interacting with the people in the water. It was amazing (and annoying) to watch from the boat, everyone was ready to jump in as soon as we got the go ahead.
Unfortunately, we never got the signal. We moved on to find some more dolphin pods. After half hour we found another pod, they came pretty close but were swimming around. We were also not aloud to go in the water with this pod as they were in the middle of the sea and swimming too much...dont ask?? You could see on peoples faces that it was a confusing situation, nobody really knew what to do with themselves. Some people were geared up in wet suits and snorkel kit just waiting around. Luckily Cj and i still made the most of seeing them from the boat but we were wondering what the hell this tour was exactly.
After 15 minutes of roaming around the sea the boat starts to head towards an island. The captain tells us that the island is owned by te tour company and that its a really pleasant place to relax with a bar and that we are stopping here for half hour so basically get off the boat...WHAT?? now i feel really stupid for not reading the small print. Cj and i are angry. We did not sign up to buy beers at their island bar, this tour is about dolphins. We guessed that there would be no more looking for dolphins and definitely no swimming as the tour was due to end in an hour. We got off the boat and just sat on their island beach feeling a little peeved and disappointed. More because of the let down of the tour, how unprofessional it was and the misleading of marketing then because there wasn't much dolphin activity involved.
We got back on the boat and we could sense the atmosphere was pretty low. There was a lot of unhappy faces.
Once we arrived back on land we decided to google the reviews (something we wish we'd done before) the tour had a good 5 star rating (as you do see wild dolphins) but everyone said that they disnt swim an that it was a misleading tour. So now we know why the tour guides don't look like swimmers, its because they don't.
It was a bit annoying ending New Zealand with a tour that was our worst as all of the tours here have been amazing experiences. It was also annoying knowing how amazing swimming with wild dolphins would be and its still on Cj and mines bucket list. We are going to see if it can be done in USA and if not, we're coning back (but doing it in Kaikoura as apparently is better)
We were not planning to eat out but as it was Valentine's day we thought we'd go back to the cheap Italian restaurant. Cj even splashed out on a glass of wine for himself. I decided to splash out on the famous Kiwi Tip Top ice cream. My flavour of choice was marshmallow and coconut.
The next day we got up in time for lunch and grabbed some food at the rib shack. It was market day so we had a look at the craft stools. One stool belonged to the cutest old lady, she was making paper beads. She had a little chat with us, telling us all about her beads.
We spent the rest of the day exploring Paihia, chilling on the beach. In the evening, we decided to not cook again (the kitchen in the hostel was tiny and always busy) so we found a nice thai restaurant.
Our last day in Paihia was a travel day so after our favourite Hansen breakfast we got the bus to Auckland.
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