We love New Zealand!

More of Friday, Feb. l

In Auckland, a bustling large city, we took a ride around the inner city on the free “red bus“. The red bus stopped at the Sky Tower, a landmark in Auckland where you can ride to the top as well as bungee jump in the immediate vicinity. There were no takers from Falmouth.

Next we spent the huge sum of $1.60 each to ride the “link” bus. The link traveled a longer route, passing the University, Khyber Pass Road, Parnell Road with it’s quaint shops and eateries, Victoria Park and much more. Alan hopped off at the Domain, Auckland’s large park where he walked over to the museum. I continued on to the starting point, a trip of just about an hour.

In a large indoor mall, I bought a couple of pair of inexpensive cotton slacks which I hope to shorten to Capri length as we expect warmer weather to return in Australia. Hopefully, I’ll find a pair of decent scissors as it will take a long time to cut the off with nail scissors. : )

Another truly awful movie was shown in the Wajang Theater, 1408 based on a Stephen King short story.

I think I mentioned earlier that occasionally we find a gift on our bed at night. Just once a towel animal .There is always the chocolate, the next day’s program and maps of the next port. We have also received umbrellas, travel wallets, and night lights. Two of each.



Saturday, Feb. 2 At Sea

According to the Captain we are sailing in the Roaring Forties. This is the area of the Pacific Ocean where the prevailing Northwest winds are found between 30 and 60 degrees south of the equator. Because of the small land masses in this area, the winds in the south latitudes are stronger than in the north latitudes.

A little bit about New Zealand

The country of New Zealand consists of two land masses: the North Island and the South Island. Auckland is on the north end of the North Island and Wellington is on the south end of the North Island. Our two other ports of call in New Zealand, Christchurch and Dunedin will be on the South Island. The North Island is volcanic and the area around the capital, Wellington, is where Lord of the Rings was filmed.

In addition to being known as the home of the kiwi (fruit, bird and nickname of the people), New Zealand was once called the Land of the Long White Cloud. Maori oral history maintains that the Maoris came to the islands of New Zealand in canoes called waka from other Polynesian islands. Because of weather conditions there was usually a long white cloud over what is now called New Zealand , hence the original name.

The Maori are still present in New Zealand and several of the present generation visited the Amsterdam with a sampling of their native dances. Their war dances consist of a great deal of chest slapping with the warriors sticking out their tongues and causing their eyes to bulge out. Pretty scary to look at.

In order to continue the Maori heritage, their language is now being taught in some of the schools.

Kiwi products are everywhere! There is kiwi fruit, a small a fuzzy, brown skinned fruit named after the Kiwi bird. Kiwi birds are hen sized, flightless and have a very long beak.
They are flightless as they ha no natural enemies on New Zealand and over time lost their ability to fly. You can buy kiwi soap (made from the fruit, not the bird), kiwi hand cream, kiwi dolls, kiwi shirts, kiwi mugs, and just about anything else that can have a kiwi imprinted on it.
New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote. It happened in 1893. It is also the only place with green lipped mussels. And it is 30% forested. From the piles and piles of cut pine trees at the docks in all the ports we visited I can’t imagine it will remain that way for long.


 THE PICTURES OF THE LUMBER SHOULD BE HERE. IT'S NOT SHOWING UP ON MY SCREEN. ANYONE SEE IT?



Sunday, Feb. 3 Wellington. Day 30 of our voyage.

Wellington is named in honor of the Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo.

We were off the ship and shuttled to the city by 9 am. It was just a couple of blocks to the cable car. In the 1890s a company was formed to turn the hills directly above the city of Wellington into a new suburb. In order to link the suburb to the city a tramway was built for a quick and direct link. The tramway was opened in 1902 and ran until 1978 when the cable car closed and a new Swiss designed system was built.

The cars now run on a single track with a passing track about halfway up. The system is entirely automatic and the “conductor” is there to open and close the doors and provide a presence I assueme. The ride takes about 6 minutes, has 2 or 3 stops, crosses roadways, runs through a short tunnel, departs top and bottom every 10 minutes, and costs about $2.50 one way for seniors.

In addition to the public transportation cable car there are approximately 300 privately owned cable cars in the city. Because of the steepness of the hills many homes can only be reached by climbing many flights of stairs ---or by cable car. Most of the private cable cars hold 2 to 6 people. Some were built to carry building material for new homes and they were later converted to passenger cars. One family had a cable car built as their beloved dog was getting old and could not climb the stairs.

Like all other places with a British background, Wellington has its Botanical Gardens.
The cable car deposited us at the top of the Kelburn district and after visiting the cable car museum we started out walk in the Botanical Gardens. For a day that started quite cool (mid 60s) it warmed up fast! The gardens cover 25 hectares (my advice to anyone traveling is to study the metric system so you’ll know what people are talking about) and by the end of the day my legs and feet felt like we had walked all of them. We wound our way past the Carter Observatory, the National Observatory of NZ, to the Lady Norwood rose garden. The garden is shaped like a wheel with spokes and consists of 106 formal rose beds, each containing a different rose. The roses were in full bloom and the scent unbelievable.

Next to the rose garden was the begonia house with begonias as big as salad plates. After touring the green house containing the begonias we discovered that we were at the bottom of the hill (read small mountain) and a 10 minute walk would put us back in the city. Since we had round trip tickets for the cable car Alan decided we would climb back up the hill and take the car down. Sir Edmond Hillary had nothing on us!

And speaking of Sir Edmond Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, he was born in New Zealand and died just a couple of weeks ago. He is much loved in the country.

Arriving back downtown we wandered around the waterfront and toured the Museum of City and Sea. The museum encompassed the history of Wellington from the early Maori to the present ,including exhibits and a moving film about the Wahine disaster, a maritime tragedy. In 1968, the Wahine, an inter-island ferry, tried to enter Wellington harbor. The ship made it into the harbor but was driven into Barrett Reef by a storm with winds of over 100 mph. A series of events lead to the ferry (think very large ferry with cabins, etc. )being abandoned. 51 people lost their lives, many when their life boats capsized or were dashed against the rocky coast.

Pure luck and timing had us on the main street of Wellington for the end of a bike race.
The divided road was blocked off and bicyclists lead by a motorcycle policeman raced laps around the area. Crowds lined the street and there was a commentary by loud speaker of the action.

It was a very enjoyable Sunday and a wonderful city.