01/31/12 Dunedin

We’ve been to the Scottish part of New Zealand—Robert Burns statue, bagpipes and all. Dunedin was settled in 1848 by a group of Scots protesting religion in Scotland and wanting to create a wonderful Presbyterian community somewhere else. Dunedin is the Gaelic form of the name Edinburgh with the grandest Presbyterian Church we’ve ever seen.

We took a walking tour of the city with a delightful volunteer guide and a New Zealand couple and learned a lot. Our guide was an opinionated, no-nonsense New Zealand Scot and was great fun. The first picture shows their magnificent train station, which has a portico for boarding trains that’s a quarter mile long. Unfortunately, there are no longer trains running through this part of the country. There are daily scenic trains, but that’s all. It’s Flemish Renaissance style, designed by George A. Troup, and was built between 1904 and 1906.

The second picture is the very grand Presbyterian Church. The Reverend Thomas Burns (Robert’s great nephew) was one of the founding fathers of the city and prior pastor of the church. The stained glass and woodcarvings were beautiful.

Following our tour of the city, we had a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate plant. They not only produce a huge amount of candy here, but also provide the chocolate base (cocoa, milk and sugar) for several other Cadbury plants. We understand this is the only Cadbury plant producing candy with whole milk, rather than powdered milk. The milk is all from local cows. We hadn’t had time for lunch, so we lunched on samples. We also had $19.20 of New Zealand dollars left, so we spent that on more chocolate—not a healthy lunch day!

On our way out of the harbor we spotted an albatross colony. We had seen them in the Galapagos and Antarctica also, but are continually amazed at the graceful gliding of these huge birds with 6-9 feet wingspan. One flew by our balcony this morning. There were also a few yellow-eyed penguins in the same area.

We will be sailing for 4 days to Tasmania. We will take a couple short sails into Doubtful and Milford Sounds late today and tomorrow on the SW coast of the South Island. It is New Zealand’s fjordlands and should provide some great photos. More tomorrow.

01/30/12 Akaroa

 As the first 2 pictures show, the South Island of New Zealand is spectacular—mountains and cliffs tumbling down into fjord-like bays. It makes you want to put on your hiking boots and head into the hills or, at least, drive through all the little town, along the bays and over the mountains—a Jeep would have been nice today.

Prior to 2011, we would have spent the day in Christchurch, but the earthquake of last February has closed down the port and most of the attractions in that beautiful city. Instead, we spent the day in Akaroa on the Banks peninsula, SE of Christchurch. Akaroa is a town of 500 people and our ship of 450 would make it seemed crowded. But the Sun Princess was here too—all 2000+ passengers. The locals looked forward to our leaving!

We did learn something interesting about earthquakes in NZ. Housing insurance is provided (sold) by the New Zealand government—there are no private housing insurance companies. Therefore, the government is incented to have a very extensive department that studies earthquakes and building to withstand earthquakes. New construction must meet very high standards.

It was a quiet day today. We wandered around town and enjoyed the views from our ship. And even though NZ is an independent country, we enjoyed that latent British way of saying things (3^rd picture). The French were also here and that is reflected in restaurants and street name. Don’t know whether it’s NZ, British or French bad sense of direction in the last picture.

01/29/12 Wellington

 Wellington hasn’t always been the capitol of New Zealand. First it was Russell, where the first Europeans came ashore and signed a treaty with the Maori. But Russell became a bit bawdy (everyone looking for grog and women!), so the capitol was moved to the more civilized Auckland. But the southern island felt that was too far away, so the capitol finally moved to Wellington, which lies at the southern tip of the north island. The south island lies only 14 miles away across the Cook Strait.

Wellington is a hilly city and there are 350 cable cars, public and private, getting people up and down the steep hills. We started our visit at Victoria Peak, the highest point around and captured some great views. The first picture shows the downtown and port area.

 We then had a too brief visit to the Te Papa Museum, New Zealand’s national museum. The full name is Te Papa Tongarewa, which means “the place of this land’s treasures”. It celebrates New Zealand’s bicultural heritage of Maori and non-Maori. It also covers flora and fauna and a host of other exhibits that we didn’t have time to explore.

The second picture is a moa and really tells the story of New Zealand’s animals. There are no native mammals here and originally there were many ground birds. They didn’t need to fly because there were no natural predators. When man arrived, these magnificent birds had a predator. The moa is now extinct. It was the largest bird and, therefore, an excellent food source (ten feet tall, 80 lbs of meat). Given relative size of head to body, you can also see that it wasn’t really Einstein and, therefore, not terribly clever at evading problems. There are still several species of ground birds, the kiwi being the best known, but these too are becoming rarer and rarer.

The most interesting exhibit in the fauna section was the colossal squid. They actually had a preserved baby that became entangled with a very long fishing line that was approximately 20 feet long. Imagine the size of an adult—not an attractive animal. A research boat actually had an adult tangled in a net several miles below the surface, but they didn’t realize what the had and quickly pulled it to the surface. It had the bends and exploded before reaching the surface, so they lost the specimen. Bet that was not a pretty sight!

The third picture is a modern-day Marae, built inside the museum. In a traditional Maori settlement it was where the community gathered. The marae contains elaborate carvings that represent the ancestors. The figure at the apex is Tekoteko, who is holding up the sun. There are too many figures and stories for here, but it is fascinating. This marae is used for official business at the museum and is an active part of the community.

We also had a lunch to die for. The appetizer was crayfish and prawns. The main course was a marvelous New Zealand rack of lamb. And there was berry trifle for dessert. We waddled back to the ship, but somehow managed dinner a little later!!! We’re having too much good food.

01/28/12 Napier

 Greetings from Napier on the North Island of New Zealand.  We’re docked at the main port, with a cargo ship of containers on one side and a Chinese ship waiting to be filled with timber on the other side. The only other ship in port is the Princess Sun two docks over.

The Maori had a fortified settlement here long before Captain Cook landed. By 1839 there was a European settlement here.  But in 1931 a severe earthquake and the subsequent fires literally destroyed the town. Rebuilt following that, the town is a wonderful collection of art deco buildings.

The Napier Rotary Pathway runs along the shore for several miles, with wonderful ocean views (Picture 1) as well as views of the headlands to the south (Picture 2). The beach is flat pebbles (Rick described them as skipping stones) and no one swims here, as there is a vicious riptide. We followed the pathway until we were out of town and then took the street along the path, the Marine Parade, back into town—a relaxing couple of miles.

Along the way we saw a couple of interesting sites. Today was the New Zealand National Scooter Championship in the Skate Park. This involved boys between about 8 and 15 doing some very interesting flips and turns (Picture 3). Then we saw a putt-putt golf course that looked like one of the more basic ones in the US (not the Myrtle Beach variety), but added the novelty of children playing in the water hazards (Picture 4).

We even got a little homesick when we saw a Starbucks and “enjoyed” a bagpipe concert—enjoyable bagpipes does seem a bit of an oxymoron (Picture 5)! We wandered through the downtown, enjoying the art deco architecture and doing a little shopping. It was a lovely afternoon.

Tomorrow Wellington—one of my favorite cities in the world! 

Aarrghh! Networking problems with the ship and Earthlink for the last 18 hours….

The Port of Tauranga is not actually in Tuaranga, but in Mount Maunganui, so we never quite made it to Tauranga, which means “resting place for canoes” in Maori. Since we haven’t mentioned it earlier, the Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, who arrived by canoes from the Cook Islands in the 13^th century. In the grand scheme of things, however, the Maori are just a small piece of the great migration of the Polynesians from around 800 AD from Taiwan throughout the islands of the South Pacific. Note: for those of you far more knowledgeable about this migration, we know there was much disagreement about where the original Polynesians migrated from, but our authority, Scott Pearson from Stanford, who has been giving lectures on the ship, insists it’s Taiwan. Lecture over.

We climbed Mount Maunganui this morning.  It’s only 765 ft. high, but the hike to the top was only about half a mile, so it was respectably steep.  Walking from the ship, up and down the mountain and back to the ship along the beach and through town was about 3 miles. The stress-fractured foot was a little sore, but after a nap, it feels fine. The weather was cloudy in the low 60s and rain was predicted. Fortunately, the rain held off until naptime.

The first picture is the mountain as we sailed away in the ship (the sun finally came out for a good shot). As we walked along a not-very-nice beach on the way to the mountain, with people swimming and paddling surfboards in wet suits, we thought “come on NZ, can’t you give us a better beach than this?” And they delivered, as you can see in the second picture, from the top of the mountain. There was little surf, but a few beginners lying on surfboards were floating in on little waves. We understand, however, that the best surfing beaches in NZ are a little further south.

To incorporate into your little known facts to slip into cocktail party conversation. Tauranga is in the Bay of Plenty and life here revolves around the kiwifruit. This is where the bulk of that fruit is grown and ships from this port.

Half of our shipmates left us in Auckland after 3 weeks and we’re training a group of new shipmates. We’re currently trying to leave port and 3 cabins are missing…. We move on to Napier tomorrow.

01/26/12 Auckland

Greetings from Auckland! Not much to report today—it was a “work” day. We got haircuts, did laundry and shopped for a few necessary things. We took a nice walk down Queen Street, the main shopping street, saw the TV tower, the old Ferry Building and 4 McDonalds on our walk.

Auckland has a population of 1.4 million people—1/4 of the population of New Zealand. As you can see from the picture, the skyline is lovely and the harbor is filled with sailboats, earning it the name of the City of Sails.

More tomorrow from Tauranga.

01/25/12 Bay of Islands--North Island New Zealand

 Greetings from the Bay of Islands. After 4 days at sea, we’ll be stopping somewhere in New Zealand for the next several days, so there will be more frequent updates. The hillsides around the bay are very green and the most abundant tree appears to be the fern tree. The bay is dotted by many islands, mostly uninhabited, and today the bay is full of sailboats.

We decided it was time for some exercise, so we hiked up Flagstaff hill, which has 360 degree views of the bay.  We then hiked back into Russel via a forest path, lined with fern trees and abuzz with something that sounded like a combination of cicadas and tree frogs. It was a great hike and the foot, which suffered a stress fraction in December, performed well.

We had fish and chips at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, which has been in business since 1827—the beer wasn’t bad either.  This area is where the first Europeans settled, systematically “bought” Maori land and signed a peace treaty. We didn’t visit any of the Maori sites, having visited them on our last trip here. We wandered around Russell—a quiet, lovely little town. It’s a far cry from the whaling port it was in the 19^th century, when “grog and girls” were the main attractions.

The first 3 pictures show views of the bay. The final picture is from yesterday. There was a medical emergency with one of the ship’s passengers and he had to be evacuated to Auckland. At 6:00 AM yesterday, we were in close enough range that a helicopter could pick up the passenger. The helicopter hovered over the front bow, dropped someone to harness the man and his wife and lift them into the helicopter. It was quite exciting to watch and very impressive—the ship’s and helicopter’s crews performed flawlessly.

Auckland tomorrow.

1/19/12 Rarotonga

3^rd time is a charm. We became the fist Seabourn vessel to successfully tender people into Avarua,  Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands. Not that it was pleasant…. The seas were very rough and some of us were a little green by the time we landed—don’t know why I didn’t take seasick medicine. But we made it to shore and back and were very happy we did—what a great part of the world.

Law says no building can rise above a palm tree and the interior is lush with an amazing number of types of fruit grown. We saw mango, papaya, breadfruit, coconut, watermelon, banana and pineapple. The people are laid back and happy. They have a few flights coming in each day and most arrive at night because the runway is short and they don’t want to scare the drivers passing by the end of the runway on the main road. This road circles the island and is serviced by 2 sets of buses. One says clockwise and the other says counterclockwise on the front and you want to make sure you get on the right one! There is one 9-hole golf course and it is the only golf course in the world that requires you play around 5 TV towers.

Like the other islands we’ve visited, Rarotonga is volcanic and is surrounded by a barrier reef, which creates a shallow lagoon around the island.  As the first picture shows, the island has craggy peaks, covered in lush vegetation. The second picture shows a view of the lagoon and Muri Beach. All beaches are public and you may walk through hotel property and enjoy their beach. Poking around near the shore at the beach, we found little crabs, shrimp-like critters, a few small and not very colorful fish and sea slugs. We have never encountered sea slugs. The ones here were the size of a thick hot dog, although squishier in texture when touched. We’re developing an urge to spend a week on one of these islands, snorkeling our way through different parts of the lagoon each day, eating fresh fish and fruit every day and, probably, swatting away mosquitos the rest of the time!

We go to bed tonight on January 19 and wake up tomorrow on January 21. We’re crossing the dateline.  After 4.5 days at sea, we’ll arrive at Russell, New Zealand at the Bay of Isles. More then….

01/17/12 Bora Bora

Two days in a row on beautiful islands is some kind of wonderful and we were very lucky weatherwise—it has rained for the last 5 days here, but today was sunshine with steamy temperatures in the 80s. Bora Bora has been known as the “Pearl of the Pacific” even before modern advertising.  The island was named by Captain Cook, poorly it seems, since there’s no “B” in the Polynesian language. The locals pronounce it more like “Pora Pora”. One of the great moments of history came when the U. S. Navy discovered it in World War II. An airport was built and guns placed at viewpoints around the island. It became a logistical base, but all of the battles stayed thousands of miles away. Bora Bora had to be the greatest place to be deployed in the South Pacific.

Like Moorea, Bora Bora is surrounded by a barrier reef and lagoon. The first picture shows approaching the island by boat. There is only one channel through the lagoon that brings you into the administrative center, Vaitape. The island has some services, including a small medical center and elementary schools. For serious hospital stays and education beyond elementary school you must go to Tahiti by air. In spite of the lack of some services, this island is home to some beautiful and expensive resorts, with names like 4 Seasons and Sofitel and “rooms” in little cottages built over the water.

We chose to tour the island in a 4WD jeep-like vehicle. In addition to driving around the island (it’s only 15 square miles), we drove up into the hills for some glorious viewpoints. As you can see by the second picture, the roads into the interior were less than perfect and we were shaken around quite a bit. We got to one of the gun placements with beautiful views across the channel and around the reef. And the third picture shows our last stop on the hill containing the cell and TV tower. We did not get into the water. The only public beach was a way from the ship and, actually, not real great. The large hotels have confiscated all the good beaches, as you might expect. Talking to some people who did snorkel, the conditions were much like those we experienced on Moorea yesterday.

We’ve had 2 beautiful days in Paradise. Now we have a day at sea before arriving at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Hopefully we’ll make a landing. Seabourn has tried to land here the last 2 years on cruises, but the swells have been so large that using the tenders was considered too dangerous. Will the third time be a charm????

01/16/12 Moorea

We’ve made it to Tahiti and docking in Papeete feels like being part of a large city.  Friends who drove around the island say it feels crowded the entire way around. We decided, however, to leave the crowds behind and take a ferry to Moorea—12 miles away. It’s the home of the legendary Bali Hai and background for Mel Gibson’s “Mutiny on the Bounty” from the 80s. It’s lush and mountainous with a lagoon, bounded by coral reef,  that is a beautiful turquoise.  It’s almost too much for the senses. Unfortunately, all is not perfect in the South Pacific and it rained off and on all day, but the clouds made the mountains very mysterious looking.

In the first photo, you can see Tahiti in the distance from a viewpoint in Moorea. The second photo captures the sacred Mount Mouaputa. The entire island used to be a giant volcano and Mount Mouaputa the lava cone in the center. A massive eruption millions of years ago caused a big chunk of the island to fall off, leaving Mount Mouaputa standing guard over two beautiful bays. The third picture is “Bali Hai”. For those who have seen the musical “South Pacific”, this is the mountain that is pictured in the distance as the mystical island Bali Hai. Interestingly, Bali Hai was made up by James Michener—the words have no meaning in English or Polynesian. By the way, before leaving NC, we watched the Mary Martin version of “South Pacific” and the Glen Close version of “South Pacific” and we prefer Mary Martin. We got these beautiful shots by driving up into the interior of the island to the Belevedere Lookout.

Then it was into a boat, skimming across the lagoon. Interestingly, there wasn’t much coral and what there was has died do to overuse of the bays by we humans. There were few fish that we saw, but there were a lot of stingrays and black tipped sharks. The stingrays were about 2 feet across and very gentle. As they glided past your legs and over your feet, the underside is very soft. The sharks were about 3 feet long and we didn’t get very close. Unfortunately, the weather was nasty, so we didn’t do the snorkeling we had hoped to do.

We ended at a picnic on the beach of a small island in the lagoon and as the fifth photograph shows, we enjoyed the local beer.

Hiva Oa

This is Hiva Oa, the largest of the Marquesas Islands. It has 2000 inhabitants, mostly in Atuona, where we’re docked. It’s noted for whom died here. Paul Gauguin spent the last 2 years of his life here and there’s a cultural center named for him and his reconstructed house—The House of Pleasure. But there are no paintings—not one! Jacques Brel, the Belgian-born popular singer died here in 1978. He too has a museum, including his private plane.

As you can see, it’s a lovely island. You would recognize in a minute that it’s in the South Pacific. We, however, did not make it ashore. The seas didn’t seem rough on the ship, but the tenders to the pier were bobbing around like crazy. The Captain said it was just outside his comfort margin, but he felt it OK to go ahead. We took seasick medicine and went to the tender dock and just as we were ready to step on the dock, a wave washed over it and drenched everyone on it. Fortunately, we were the first people out of range. We turned around and decided we would enjoy the island from afar. I know, I know, we’re cowards!

Papeete on Monday—should have a great report there. We’re taking a trip to Moorea. Before then, 2 days at sea.

01/12/12 Nuku Hiva

Greetings from Taiohae, Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. These islands are part of French Polynesia and are northeast of Tahiti. Unlike much of the South Pacific, they are not surrounded by reefs, so the sand is volcanic. Not great sand and an abundance of midges/noseeums make beaching here a low priority. Additionally the islands are arid, so there’s not the lush greenery. Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands, with about 2700 inhabitants and Taiohae is the center of the Marquesas Islands government. French is spoken and few understand English.

We did get off the boat this morning and walked about a mile and a half around town—Betsy without her boot, wearing low hikers. There’s no air conditioning and all the buildings, including church and school are open to the outdoors. One of the highlights this morning was a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral of the Marquesas, shown in two of the pictures. The interior is simple, but full of magnificent carvings. One picture shows a carving of the Virgin and child, with Polynesian features, and above their heads, the Polynesian cross.

For the literary types, this is where Herman Melville was inspired to write “Typee”. His characters, however, had to sneak away from the island to avoid cannibals.

5th Day at Sea

5^th day at sea. We wondered if we would be bored to tears by now and the answer is NO! Time has included some naps (Betsy), reading (both) and playing Spite & Malice (Rick is winning by 5). But there have also been some excellent lectures by Bulent Atalay, a professor, writer, physicist and artist. He has written books, one of which is about the 2 Leonardos (Fibonnaci and Da Vinci) and is currently writing one about Beethoven, Newton and Leonardo. There has been much discussion about the Fibonnaci (sp?) sequence and perfect rectangle—things this math major hasn’t thought about in years. It brought back memories of teaching  8^th graders about the perfect proportion using the movie “Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land”. We haven’t been so excited about the guest lecturer, who discusses Naval History…..  We read downloaded newspapers in the library to keep up with things. The trip has been restful and enjoyable so far.

Big day today. Betsy is starting to wear shoes! I’m slowly weaning myself from the “boot” I’ve worn since my stress fracture was diagnosed. Of course they’re big old ugly sneakers, but my knee enjoys the lack of extra weight of the boot.

We’ve traveled 2200 miles and have 700 miles to go before we arrive in the Marquesas Islands day after tomorrow. Our first stop will be on the island of  Nuku Hiva. This afternoon we cross the equator and the temperatures are getting warmer—upper 70s. The water temperature is in the low 80s and, for the first time today, the sun is out. Life is good!

The Ship Has Come In

Nixon Library was very interesting. With the exception of Watergate, he had the makings of a great president. He submitted a universal healthcare proposal to Congress and the Democratic congress wouldn’t consider it. He also started the EPA. Given the situation today, he might be a democrat! Enough politics….

This is our home for the next 60 days—the Seabourn Odyssey. She’s parked next to the Queen Mary and you can she that she’s pretty small by comparison—hope it’s a smooth ride. We have prescription seasick medicine, Bonine and watches that zap electrical impulses to pulse points in your wrist—we’ll let you know what works. We survived the Drake Passage on our trip to Antarctica, so I assume these same things will work on the Pacific.

Bon Voyage! Our next update will be in a few days at sea.

The Journey Begins

Do we have enough stuff?? 8 bags and 7 hours later, we're at our hotel in Long Beach. It looks like it would be an interesting city to explore if it wasn't for the booted stress fracture! Today we locate the garage where we'll store the car and the port, so we know where to go tomorrow. Then it's off to the Nixon Museum, where we understand the Watergate Room has been updated to actually admit that some shady dealings actually did occur!!!