We were so incredibly lucky today! A friend from work picked us up at 9.00am from Rawhiti beach where we had stayed the night after our adventure yesterday. The Kaingahoa Camping ground is a great place to stay. It is clean and well-maintained. Margaret, who runs it is a bit brusque but once you get her talking, she doesn’t stop. Full of information about the history of the rohe. I emailed to book a place but it was never responded to, so I would recommend phoning. Fortunately, there was plenty of space on the day we wanted to stay! From reading the information on this website, it seems that the main building which is not accessible to campers, was the old Te Rawhiti schoolhouse but was used in the 1960s during renovations of te Rawhiti Marae as a replacement wharekai. The campsite revenue goes to the maintenance of the marae.

So, back to today! Tania and Scott picked us up and took us for a wee tiki tour around the islands. We stopped in at Otehi Bay on Urupukapuka Island for coffee and then we walked over the hill to Urupukapuka Bay campsite where they were staying with a bunch of friends.

The plan was to find a sheltered bay where the kids could swim, while the boys went fishing. They plumped for Moturua Island and we cruised off over there in a selection of boats. Once on the island, we had a picnic, then the men went fishing and we stayed and went for a walk around the island before jumping in the sea for a swim. At Mangahawea Bay there is an archaeological dig going on. Evidence suggests that this place was inhabited more than 700 years ago.

It was a lovely day out, meeting friends and generally just relaxing. The walk around Moturua takes about an hour at a leisurely pace in jandals! It is quite hilly though! The sea was delicious and it was nice to be able to swim with other people rather than on my own! The boys struggled with the wind on their fishing trip and Nigel was the only one who caught a legal fish so that’s what I had for my tea.

But the big excitement of the day was seeing orca. We first spotted a mother and her calf, and then a large male on our way over from Rawhiti.

The male swam right under the boat and then surfaced on the other side. they cruised on along the way, two close together and the other just off to the side. Then when we were sitting on the beach in Urupukapuka Bay, they came into the bay itself. We spotted some splashing off to our left and then saw them swimming on out and around the headland through a gap in the rocks. Tania said that there had been stingrays and plenty of piper fish in that area the day before and so they had possibly come in to feed.

When we went out to Moturua we saw them again. Scott cut the engines and we bobbed about for a good 10 minutes just watching. They swam quite close but seemed to be happily cruising. They carried on out to sea and picked up a few more on the way. At one point we counted 7 fins in the water. Such a special and humbling experience to be in the presence of these beautiful creatures.