Subject: Report # 31 Sailing Towards Bay of Islands, New Zealand January 31, 2016 Sunday Partly cloudy, rain & 79 degrees
Report # 31 Sailing Towards Bay of Islands, New Zealand January 31, 2016 Sunday Partly cloudy, rain & 79 degrees
As we approach the shores of New Zealand, this is probably a good time to mention some of the facts concerning this most beautiful country. The capital of New Zealand is Wellington, also known as one of the windiest cities of the world. The population is 4,315,800 with an area of 103,710 square miles. The main language is English as well as Maori.
We would agree that New Zealand is a South Pacific gem with snow-capped mountains, winding fjords, active volcanoes, lush rainforest, and pristine beaches. You can trek, ski, raft, paraglide, or jump off a bridge in Queenstown. Cannot imagine many folks from this ship doing that, but you never can tell.
Easier to do is visiting the many wineries, delving into Maori culture, see the geysers, and sail in and out of the glaciers. If you go into the rainforest, you will see some ancient kauri trees that are 1200 to 2000 years old, and soar to heights of 167 feet. Now that would be one heck of a job cutting one of those babies up if it fell. And the sheep……they dot the green hillsides like fleas on a dog. We have been very lucky to have gone to these diverse places in both the north and the south islands.
What do they eat here? Lamb……….grilled, roasted, BBQ'd, ground…..you name it, it doesn't get any better than right here. Pavlova, the addictive meringue cake topped with fresh sliced fruit covered with heavy whipped cream is their signature treat. The favorite drink? Try their boutique beer at a microbrewery. The trademarks are sheep, All Blacks rugby team, Lord of the Rings, kiwi birds and kiwi fruit.
Here is a random fact: no matter where you are in New Zealand, you are never more than 75 miles from the sea. It is truly a great destination all by itself, and we wish we had more ports here. We will settle for the three we have……Bay of Islands, Auckland, and Picton.
Today we woke up to dark, gray skies, and it was raining, just like the Captain had promised. In fact. It rained all night. No rush to get up early, although one of us is always up before daylight. That seems to be the best time of day to send emails, as few folks are using the internet. It has been spotty the last few days, but sometimes you get lucky.
Since today was Sunday, there was a brunch buffet in the lower dining room at 11am. We are not huge fans of buffets, so we ate breakfast around 9am, also served in the dining room. The fellows were busy setting up the display in the center of the room. Barb usually goes to it, and says there are some nice choices there compared to the Lido breakfast. There is live music during the serving time from 11am to 1pm.
We went to Chat Time with our travel hosts in the atrium on deck five. There were 4 people in our group there. Perhaps many folks went to the buffet instead. In any case, on sea days, our hosts can be found here for one hour. Great place to touch base, and share some chocolate chip cookies with them, while catching up on ship news. While we were visiting, we could hear a roaring cheer coming from the atrium on deck three. Must have been the finale of the bocce ball contest. Since it was raining outside, all of the inside activities were full of customers.
The On Location Maori Team demonstrated their cultural performance on Kapa Haka and Te Matatini. Many people went to the Queens Lounge to see this. They must have stayed for the special performance after Barbara H's talk about the ports pf Auckland and Picton.
We had gone back to our room, and watched a movie by the name of Learning to Drive. Just about 12:30pm, Captain Mercer came on the speaker and announced we would be sailing through a huge pod of dolphins. If we watched , they could be seen on both sides of the ship. Normally, we would not have been in our room, or had a camera with us. But we did have the good camera right in the dresser drawer, and by the time we got it out, the dolphins were right outside our window. We really did get some great shots, even if they were taken through the streaked tinted window. They were jumping one at a time, until we hit the main pod, where we would see 10 or more jumping at once. It was quite a display. We watched for more until the movie ended, which was good by the way, but they never re-appeared. Simply the luck of the draw, but this time, we had the camera.
By 1pm, the rain had stopped and we started seeing blue sky. Good time to check out the aft pool, although we never changed into our swim wear. The lounges were dry and the temperature was in the high 70's maybe. We sat out there for an hour, before we went to lunch. Had to be careful, because without sunscreen, we could easily burn. Captain Mercer announced that due to the loss of boat # 9, he is going to try to get us to the Bay of Islands an hour early tomorrow. With only three tender boats to use, it may take longer to off load the guests in a timely manner. Truthfully, going over too early is useless, because not much is open in town until later in the morning.
The New Zealand quarantine regulations are quite strict. Not only are food stuffs allowed off of the ship, but you have to be careful not to take wooden items, or anything made with plants, shells, corals, animal products, or nuts and seeds. Fines could be imposed on anyone who breaches these rules. Only bottled drinking water is allowed off. Sure hope sodas are OK, since we also take two with us.
We had one of our favorite entrees for dinner tonight………meatloaf with mashed potatoes. They do a good job with the comfort foods here. The fish lovers were happy with the calamari appetizers, and the grilled barramundi fish for their main course.
Hope to find some hokey-pokey ice cream tomorrow. And maybe…..pizza too.
Bill & Mary Ann
PS Many thanks, Lynda, for your tour offer. We do have set plans already, but nice of you to offer.
Here are some of the best photos of the jumping dolphins………….looks like they are having so much fun.
