No dolphins or whales

Today we went out on a Whale and Dolphin Wildlife Cruise with Explore, which included a stop at Tiritiri Matangi Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiritiri_Matangi_Island).  It was an absolutely glorious day, although chilly.  We left Viaduct Harbour at 9am, travelled to Gulf Harbour to pick up more passengers, then on to Tiritiri Matangi, where most of the passengers left the vessel to spend the day on the island.  We travelled further out into the Hauraki Gulf looking for whales and dolphins.  It was very choppy and very difficult to spot anything.  After cruising around for 2.5 hours not a single dolphin or whale had we seen.  Not a one!  We cruised back to Tiritiri Matangi and disembarked, then found a sunny, sheltered spot to sit and eat our lunch and contemplate the world.  So relaxing. Then we boarded the vessel again to return to Viaduct Harbour via Gulf Harbour.  As we didn’t see any whales or dolphins, we have a complimentary ticket to go on another cruise. It was a really enjoyable day out.

There are 7,970 new community cases today, and the seven-day rolling average is 7,420, compared to 7,746 last Wednesday. The number of people in hospital is 381, including 10 in ICU. Another 28 deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 902 and the seven-day rolling average to 15.