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Today, we rode a double decker bus on a tour. The beginning of the day was disappointing because it was socked in and a bit rainy. We left Littleton by tunnel through the mountain range that separated the Littleton from Christ Church. A straight shot of over one mile through to the other side. The port of Littleton is small but very busy.
As soon as we got through the tunnel, the weather started to improve. Our first stop was an overlook that is at the top of the mountain above the tunnel. We had some nice views of Christ Church and learned a lot of information about the communities.
There were quite a few flowering plants on the hillside.
The home of the people who owned the land before donating it to the city is now a coffee shop.
The city is in a valley of the largest area of flat ground in NZ. The surprise was when building started to be constructed the buildings sank. The area is actually an old swamp and very soft. There is little or any solid ground above the 60 foot mark below the surface. Today all buildings sit on large columns driving in at least that far down. Crazy! Otherwise, they are built up on the hillsides.
Very recently there was a terrible earthquake. They have earthquakes multiple times a day in NZ but large deadly quakes are rare. The most recent was in 2011 but only killed 1 person as the city is very prepared compared to most communities. In the past, large earthquakes would destroy or damage thousands of buildings.
It always surprises me what each country has as traffic and parking signs. No Cruising?
After an interesting drive through town, we stopped at a park/biological flowers… and took a short walk. It was very pretty with lots of varieties including a large rose garden. Right down town but still seeming to be far out in the country.
More tour of town and then we took a seaside road back to the ship. We passed several recognizable fast food restaurants. Some of the buildings were interesting and many had murals.
The highway back to the ship took us high above the bay.
Back at the ship.
Tonight, we had a performance by a magician on the mainstage. Steve Marshall was very good and funny. We had a good time.
Off to our next port. It is hard to not take the beautiful sunsets for granted when you have one almost every day.
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We spend a day at sea. We will be relaxing today. Open sea in almost all directions. Some mountains far off to the west in the distance. Most of the day will be spent eating, relaxing, walking the ship for exercise. Tonight, there will be some entertainment. “Strings Alive” The theme was the 1970s at Billboard and “Get down on it” at Rolling Stone Lounge.
Tired by 11pm, we went on to bed.
Shawna was off to go on a river rafting trip. I had to bow out of the excursion because of my back problems which are much worse after the kayak trip. We will see what that means for me later. So Betty and I went on a bus tour of town.
Napier, NZ is a small city known for exporting wood, wine, and its 30’s style art deco buildings.
In 1931, an earthquake destroyed many buildings in the city when the land rose 10 feet. The construction after the dust settled was primarily art deco. Thousands of acres of land was also added to the area.
Betty and I took a scenic drive around town and a visit to the local Aquarium. The ride around town was “interesting”. This is a city of just over 65,000. Our bus driver/tour guide was very proud of his hometown. We rode all over where he pointed out the things he liked about the city. Lots of commentary about nice pubs, restaurants, shops and of course the Art Deco homes.
After an hour, we arrived at the Aquarium. There were nice displays which included the normal fish found in most waters of New Zealand but also some lizards and a few unusually animals.
The area of interest for us was the small penguins which were very active.
The next was the nocturnal kiwi display. Sadly, this was the best picture I got.
A large tank had many fish and several very large rays was near the end of the tour. The tank was large. Two divers were in the tank feeding the fish.
Back on the bus for us and to the ship. We hope that Shawna was having a good time on her excursion.
Shawna arrived back about 6pm. She enjoyed her rafting trip on the Mohaka River. They had some great rapids.
Today, Shawna and I go to kayak a lake, see glow worms in a cave, and take a dip in hot springs. It should be an interesting day. We drive quite a way through what looks like a tropical forest.  We hopped on a bus for an hour drive across the country side. Something surprising is NO potholes, not one so far. Seems they know how to build a road. My grandfather used to say the secret of a good and long lasting road was the base. If that is not done correctly then the road would fail. It seems he was right because the road he worked on over 80 years ago is still great. Maybe, they have the same idea here. Still it is a bit strange to ride on the “wrong side” if the road. There is something interesting in NZ. They have a very tall “tree fern” . The fern can be 40 feet tall and if it were not for the top being obviously a fern it you would think they were palm trees.  We arrived at lake Rotoiti and got ready after a short explanation of the days activities and how to kayak then everyone loaded up for the 1 hour paddle across the lake. The lake is interesting. It is actually a filled volcano. Yes, we are paddling in a caldera. It is still an active geothermal area. Not only are there hot springs along the shores in several areas but far more below the surface. Several times as we paddle along we smell sulfur and see bubbles pop up to the surface. Scientists do not believe the volcano will become dangerous just a source of some heat and a very popular hot spring. We were divided into two groups. One was off to the hot springs. The other, ours, headed off to see the glow worms. After we got back, I was surprised how few pictures I took. It was a long paddle and we were having to work at keeping up with our guide so maybe not that surprising. When we arrived at the cave, it was almost completely invisible from the lake. Only about 5 feet wide and tall. We paddled into the cave and toward the back. It was only about 30 feet deep in the hillside but there were lots of glow worms. They were easy to see with our eyes but the camera did not pick them up very well.   Next, we headed to the hot springs. After about another half hour of paddling, we arrived at the springs. There were quite a few local people already there enjoying the springs. The springs are only accessible by boat. There is no access through the mountains on this side of the lake. This spring has been used by the Māori for hundreds of years and has been a commercial operation since 1914. The spring pumps out 7500 Liters or almost 2000 gallons of water per hour. The temperature is a steady 46 Celsius or 114 Fahrenheit. They are not shy to tout the health benefits of bathing in the hot springs.   The water flows from fissures in the hillside about 40 feet up the hill. There are several 10 foot by 20 foot concrete pools where the hot water flows from one to the next. In all there are 6 pools. Each is slightly cooler than the one above. Of course, the smell of sulfur was very strong Below is the source spring. Wow, it was hot.  There is a small cafe at the pools where we were given lunch. The tour supplied us with "Dads Pies”. Something like a chicken pot pie but with lots of choices of ingredients. Coffee and Hot tea were also supplied. We all wanted something warm to drink before our trip across the lake. The trip back was even colder than the trip over. It rained most of the way back. At times is was pouring down. So after an hour of paddling across the lake, we were soaked to the skin. Still a fun trip but I was so glad we had dry clothes waiting for us in the bus.
Back on the ship, we hurried to our cabin to shower and change for our first dressy night and have dinner with Mom. Last night was a bit rough for me. Lots of congestion. Had to sit up in bed to sleep.
We woke about 6am and then later off to breakfast. Nice as always. The hotel is popular with Asian students and others. We have seen several groups here during our stay. Last night and this morning was a group of school girls traveling together. Lots of giggles. I guess it is common world wide for 12 to 15 school girls to giggle during conversation. I don’t think I mentioned it before but window screens are not found anywhere in Auckland. That is right, the windows just open out to the outside. Bugs are a minimum if at all. More of a concern would be a small sparrow flying into your room to look for a snack. No mosquitoes just an occasional fly but those are rare. Shawna was checking our boarding passes and found we had been updated to a new time. Noon! So no waiting till 2pm and we can have lunch on board instead of finding a restaurant somewhere. The weather has been great the entire time we have been in Auckland. Well, that is supposed to change. Today, we have a high chance if rain. We check out about 11am and get a cab (not from last night's company) to the port to go through the embarkation process. Some places it is quick and some not so much. We will see what we have today. Finding our room. Lunch. Unpacking. Relaxing waiting for sail away. I have not brought up much about the hotel or things that are unusual in New Zealand. The people are very nice and helpful. New Zealand has interesting slang terms. Much of those are actually Māori words. It is not unusual to hear Kiwi's speaking a mix of English and Māori. EH added to end of a question or for agreement. "Cloudy EH?" YEAH NAH for not sure of something "Want an soda?" " Yeah Nah" Chur meaning great or awesome. THE WOPS way out of town. It's out in the Wops. CHOCKA something being full or filled up. SUS suspicious. Māori words: AWA word for river. HAKA to dance or a dance. KAI food. MOANA the sea. MOTU mountain. NUI large. WAI water. Seeing and hearing Māori words is normal here. The plugs are different. Everyone has a switch to power on and off the plug. We ordered adapters before this trip because the plugs are different than European plugs. Oh and like in Europe, they are 220 volts not 120 as we have in the US.  Up early again but not quite as early as yesterday. We had a nice breakfast at the restaurant. After a quick stop back at the room, we called for a cab to take us to the Auckland Museum. The reason we wanted to go there was to hop on the Blue line bus heading to the Zoo.  The cabs have been running about $12 to $14 NZ dollars per trip but I have been giving them a $20 NZ which is the equivalent to a $12 US. Very reasonable cabs so far. Foreshadowing, later that would change. The ride to the zoo was nice and only a short walk from the stop to the entrance. Once inside we started the tour. The zoo is divided into areas dedicated to areas of the world.  Native to NZ, Australia, South America, Africa,…  Our first area was the ring tailed lemur. Next, the tiger who had just had babies but she was very shy and difficult to find. Then crocodile, Emu, some Australian birds, Lace Monitor lizard… Interesting fish and some plants. Next several types of monkey…. They had a newly introduced Orangutan and one of the older established Orangutan had a 6 month old baby who was starting to get adventurous. At one point, he was high in a tree above mom hanging on by just one hand. We saw two demonstrations. One of Australian lizards and skink plus a huge cockatoo. Another demonstration was of several types of birds that flew over the people watching many times. Several Galapagos tortoise and other turtles. We even got to see a tortoise run. Okay, for a tortoise.  There were also very helpful volunteers throughout the zoo helping to find animals and answer questions. The cheetah area was very interesting as the two sisters were being fed. They ran to be put up then someone came out to put chunks of meat throughout the enclosure. Then the cheetahs were let back out to run around finding what was left for them.  We all wanted to see the Kiwi. They are a nocturnal animal so the enclosure was very dark. Kiwi are about a foot tall with a body about the size of a football. (not a soccer ball but almost) I got a couple of pictures with the phone as it has a night mode. It worked better than I expected. I just wish they would have held still a bit longer so I could have gotten a less blurry picture. Off to lunch at the zoo cafeteria and then the last section which was dedicated to Africa. There were elephants, rhinos, lions, red pandas, and a very young giraffe baby with the group of giraffes. Some ostriches with one pair that got very frisky while we were there. He put up quite the show before she would let him approach. By the time we finished the last section, Betty was ready to return to the Hotel. Actually, she was probably ready long before that but did not want to stop. We got off the Blue line when it returned to the Auckland Museum and took one of the waiting taxis. This was a big mistake. Instead of the Coop Taxis that have run $12 to $14 NZ, the independent taxi was $26 NZ. Double. Ripped off to say the least. Back at the room Betty was ready to get a shower and relax. Shawna and I went to the bar for a drink and then decided to get something at the restaurant which is connected. Basically just around the corner. Even after finishing our drinks, deciphering the rules of Cricket that was on the bar TV was still impossible. I have heard that Cricket has the most complex rules of any major sport in the world. I can believe it. Dinner at the hotel was fantastic as always. I had the flat bread pizza and Shawna had Prawn cocktail. After that, we shared the Lava Cake. Very nice. Time for bed and a busy day tomorrow when we embark the cruise ship around noon.
We have definitely not got our internal clocks set yet. At 4am, we woke and tried to go back to sleep but by 5:30am we were all up. At 6:30am, we went to breakfast at the hotel and it was great. We were very satisfied. We called the Hop-on-Hop-Off company and found out we had to go to the #1 stop first and NOT the one closest to us to join the bus even though we had already bought our tickets online. So we called a taxi to get us downtown. He was very nice and it only cost $20 NZ including tip. That would be just under $13 US Dollars. Cheap for a taxi for three people across town. We missed out on getting a donut. I am amazed at how many US food companies are represented everywhere we have traveled around the world.     The Auckland Explorer Bus was a bit of a disappointment. Not the buses or the people but the low number of busses running the route caused long waits. It was not unusual for us to wait 45 minutes or even an hour before the next bus. Lots of wasted time. We toured around town and got off to tour Bastion Point Savage Memorial. It had very pretty views with large open grass areas. Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. Mr. Savage was a Prime Minister who is known to have worked to protect the native people of New Zealand known as the Māori. --- Warning Beginning Rant. --- This area has a terrible history. A Māori, native people of New Zealand, village was on the land for a long time and that seemed to not work for the city officials. They then decided that it would be better to relocate the village members and BURN DOWN THE VILLAGE. Really! And this was in 1952’s. NOT 1800s. Why? Because Queen Elizabeth II was visiting and they thought that the village was “a dreadful eyesore”. Oh and the Queen was coming to show off how good the New Zealand’s race relations were at the time. REALLY! Just to make it clear how ridiculous the people were who ordered the village burned down, they did this less than 10 years after the monument was completed to, Michael Savage, a man who fought for the Māori peoples rights. I guess they liked the memorial just not the people he tried to protect. Well after the land became an unofficial 60 acre park the city council in 1976 thought “Hey that land we forced an entire village of Māori to move to would be a great place for rich people to build homes." It seems the council was surprised when hundreds of Māori came from all over to protest. For 506 days, they stayed on the land. In 1977, the council approved a new plan to leave the land as Sacred and that there would never be anything built on the land. The protesters did not immediately leave and on May 25, 1978, 600 police with some soldiers in army vehicles forced the protesters on buses and bulldozed the protest site. Powerful governments taking advantage of native people is a world wide thing not just something that happened in our country. --- End Rant. --- We waited much longer than expected but finally a bus came to take us down from the point to the SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium to see Penguins. Yep, not the zoo but the Aquarium. Seems a strange choice but the display was amazing. Kelly Tarlton worked hard to get the Aquarium built. He was a well known diver and archaeologist. The large walk through display in the Aquarium is made from unused sewage tanks. He worked to design an innovative marine Aquarium and that his “tunnel” would four times larger than any other in the world. He died at 47 just under 2 months after the Aquarium's opening. The Aquarium begins with some equipment from an Antarctica expedition. There is a walk-through replica of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic hut. There are authentic memorabilia of the expedition from over 100 years ago. From there we enter a spinning tunnel of “ice” that really throws off your balance and ends with the Penguins.  We were able to watch King and Gentoo Penguins swim, walk about, and be fed just inches on the other side of a glass wall. We were just in time to see the penguins being fed.   There was a glass tunnel where you have sharks, rays, and fish all around and above you.  From the tunnel we moved to smaller tanks with lots of fish and other animals. We walked out of the Aquarium to the bus stop for another long wait. Our last stop of the day was the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The museum is in the middle of a huge park on an old volcano. It is an impressive museum. There are 3 floors of displays. We start on the ground floor which is dedicated to local history and the Māori people. Also on the ground floor was a restaurant and we were ready for something to eat. The pizza and fish was great. Look close at the contents of the Coke. Outside the USA Coke is JUST Coke. There is no need to have a Chemistry degree to understand the ingredients. Everything has a simple list of contents. Could we have this at home? Please! Oh and it tastes a lot better too. With full stomachs, we start our tour of the museum. The ground floor has a large area dedicated to the Māori people which includes a huge canoe and many displays of carvings and what would have been used in village life. We walked around the corner and there was Moana's boat. Okay, it was the style Māori boat used for the cartoon. Hey, maybe this one.   Even a log drum. Sure, I was tempted but no I did not bang the drum.  We continued on to see more of the skills the Māori people have at weaving and carving. The second floor is mostly natural history. Animals from dinosaurs to modern animals of New Zealand and other parts of the world. This included the Giant flightless bird that was hunted to extinction by the Māori people long before Europeans “discovered” New Zealand. Those birds were enormous. Much larger than an Ostrich. The entire third floor is dedicated to Wars that New Zealand had been involved which included the World Wars. Betty was just too tired for us to tour that floor. We returned to the hotel by cab as it would have been a long walk back. Back at the hotel to rest and recover for tomorrow. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was very good.
No, Tuesday? Ok that is also a surprising thing to say. Yes, we skipped directly from Monday to Wednesday because we crossed the International Date Line headed West. We had a breakfast, a VERY early breakfast on the plane. Since we are arriving at 5am we had to eat by 4am. We did get a very nice meal. A choice of a Cheese Omelet or French Toast which we all decided to try. It was very good and came with some nice sides. Again, the very best food I have ever had on a plane. We are very spoiled now and will judge all other plane food by Air New Zealand standards. No American airline even comes close to the quality. Sad thing to say but very true. Off the plane and off to get our bags and customs. We got our bags and then stopped at the Money exchange to get New Zealand dollars. Today, the NZ dollar is worth about 60 cents in US dollars. Customs was not bad but it still to an hour to process. The customs here looked VERY familiar. Guess that was from watching all the border control shows. In fact the customs agent that worked with us, said they were filming but they must have been in the back because we never saw the camera crew. Our shuttle picked us up outside and we were off to the hotel. Being so early, we asked that they hold our bags till the room would be ready. We took a short walk down to the Rose Café for some coffee. Very nice café with lots of locals. It is also popular with the police and fire department. A half dozen of each stopped off for coffee while we were there. The Rose Park is just across the road so we took a walk and looked at the roses. There are 5000 roses in the garden with a wide variety of colors. Behind Betty is our hotel. We can see the garden from our hotel room balcony.  We decided to walk back over to the hotel and were surprised that our room was ready for us. The Rose Hotel is under renovations and our room is one that has already been upgraded. Very nice. I was so impressed with the bathroom that I took photos.    We rested and napped then went to the Garden Restaurant which is part of the hotel. The view overlooks the Rose garden. Our food was great. Shawna had pan fried fish, Betty a large salad, and I had a hamburger. All the food was great.     Today… Yesterday… Tomorrow ??? Ok when you leave on one day and skip a day entirely it is strange. Time for bed and try to recover from jet lag.
Today, we start our travel to New Zealand and Australia. We have short flight from Amarillo to Houston then we change to an Air New Zealand plane for our long flight to Auckland. Fifteen hours on the nicest airline we have ever flown.
We drove off from Logan at 7am. There were some things we needed to pickup before the flight. Lunch with James before he dropped us off at the Amarillo airport to start the trip. The flight to Houston was uneventful but a small plane. When we arrived in Houston, we got a surprise. The “gangway” was an open walkway with a tent cover. Luckily for us it was not raining right then even though everything including the walkway was wet. Why is Houston so cheap not to have actual gangways instead of something the reminds me of a flight in the 70's? It might be reasonable at a very small airport but even Amarillo with only 7 gates has an enclosed gangway for each. Off to the International terminal to find our gate and grab a quick meal at a Mexican restaurant. As always airport food is generally OK but very expensive. The Air New Zealand plane, a 777-300ER, is HUGE. We are in row 49 and there were at least 10 more beyond us with 10 people per row. The plane holds over 360 people and I bet there were about that many people on this flight. Any other airline would have jammed as many rows of seats as possible. The economy seats were better than any other airline we have been on. The gap was bigger so I had plenty of room for my knees. Yes, that includes Southwest or any other airline. It is a limited comparison because I have never flown 1st class or Business. The seats even had a support that could be made to come out from below the seat to give some relief to your lower legs. The gap between seats was much better than even premium on other lines. The flight attendants were dressed up. The women in nice dresses and the men were in three piece suits. They were very helpful and attentive. We had easy access to bathrooms that were nicer than any other plane we had been on. Being tall, I can have some problems using the bathroom on many airlines. After all that, we had the very best food I have EVER had on a plane… PERIOD. The dinner meal was a choice of Beef Stroganoff or Chicken Parmesan with several side dishes. We were also offered New Zealand wine for FREE. The expectation by the airline is that people have wine with dinner and are not charged extra. After dinner, we reclined our chairs and extended our foot rests (each chair had a support for your legs). Put our pillow behind our heads. Blanket over us and tried to sleep. 15 hours later we arrived in New Zealand. NO, we were not in 1st or Business or even Preferred Economy. We were in regular economy which would have been awful on almost any other airlines. We had several firsts. 1. Flying Air New Zealand 2. Crossing the Equator. 3. Crossing the International date line. 4. Loosing a day. No kidding we left on Monday and arrived on Wednesday. Time travel. I guess another first for us anyway. The big downside was the turbulence. It was bad. Not the airline or pilots fault but no fun. It was bad enough that the wings were bouncing and I could hear loud bangs from luggage shifting and bouncing below the cabin. We got as much sleep as we could before the lights came up letting us know it was time for breakfast. It was another nice meal. We are really looking forward to our next trip. It should be warm since we will be in the southern hemisphere which is in summer right now.  |
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