Bay of Islands

Not a great picture of the bottlenosed dolphins but I was not quick enough with my little digital to catch them jumping high out of the water as these mother and baby dolphins played in one of the bays. There are very strict environmental laws about when where and how you can watch and swim with dolphines, and boats are closley monitored by the Dept of Conservation.. On this day because the mothers had the young babies with them no swimming was allowed. The dolphins seemed to want to play as they came out to the boat and frisked about but the boat did not approach or chase them. They were almost showing off for us. I can see why people get so fond of them.
We spent a sunny afternoon in the bay of islands on a catamaran learniing interesting things about this beautiful area. Something Kelowna should follow is the NZ law that the beach and shore belong to the people of New Zealand and cannot be owned by any one person. Hence wherever there is a beach you have the right to go on it. No private docks hogging the sand here.
One of the islands in the Bay of Islands is privately owned and the owner has been trying to make it into a bird sanctuary. He has eradicated all the non indigenous animals such as the oppossum which was introduced to NZ and has virtually made the kiwi extinct among other things. He is also removing the non indigenous trees from the island. Gradually the native plants are growing back and the native birds starting to nest there so it seems that sometimes private enterprise has a positive side.