🇳🇿 Bay of Islands, our first stop in New Zealand on the North Island, is a tender port, so the weather has to cooperate to visit here, and it did. We took advantage of our Elite status to get onto a tender boat early to catch our excursion, a boat cruise via Island Getaway. It included stops on two islands and sailing through the iconic Hole in the Rock formation. We saw tiny blue penguins skimming the water and the outline of a feeding giant whale shark. We had a picnic on a beach with the lunch that we had ordered in advance, and it was delicious. Afterwards we strolled the lovely town of Paihia, appreciating the beautiful weather.