New Zealand A La Mode

 

New Zealand

DAYS 31-40 – Like 8 slices of the most yummy pie imaginable, we stopped at ports daily all along the eastern and southern edges of the northern and southern islands of New Zealand, and our last port, Oban, was on the little island south of the South Island, named Stewart Island.  Each port seemed to top the last port like scoops of ice cream!

We started in Auckland at the north end of the smaller North Island, and then each and every day we would pull up anchor and travel during the night to arrive at a new port early the next morning.  In addition to Auckland we also explored Tauranga, Napier, Wellington (the capitol city), Christchurch, Dunedin, and Oban. 

Each city had its own wonderful character, from the glamour of the America’s Cup sailing races to the famed green-lipped mussels of  Wellington, to the sheep ranches and fascinating sheep dogs in Christchurch, to the penguins and kiwi birds of Stewart Island.  The influence of England is seen everywhere, from the meticulous urban planning and fascinating architecture to the friendly, energetic, nature-loving people who cherish their area’s natural treasures, rolling green hillsides, and farms. 

New Zealanders also pay great tribute to the Maori tribes who occupied the islands prior to the English settlement of this country in 1850, as well as the more than 2/3 of their nation’s young men who went to help support the United States and England in World War II.

Today New Zealand has a total of 4.3 million citizens, and more than 30 million sheep!  The country also sends enormous exports of fast-growing Canadian pine tree logs and chipped wood to China, all harvested from huge tree farms all over the islands.  For every tree harvested, 7 more are planted, making this a very large industry for the nation worldwide.

Earthquakes are common in New Zealand, and one in Napier leveled the city in 1931.  The city was completely rebuilt in the popular Art Deco style of the time, and these buildings are now historically protected and, along with South Beach in Miami, Florida, are considered the two best Art Deco towns in the world.  (We were greeted by Napier townspeople in their beautifully restored 1930’s vintage cars  and costumes and a live band playing music of that era as our cruise ship arrived in their harbor!)

Here area a few selected photos from each of these delightful ports:

This huge rubber ducky was moored in the middle of the beautiful yacht harbor in Auckland, New Zealand…this is a city enraptured by sailing, rugby, and shopping! 

The spire  provides a 360-degree view of Auckland from a restaurant at the top, and the building with a loop on top to the left provides a place for the brave to bungee jump…sorry, we didn’t “jump” on this opportunity…

Maori tribal dancers came aboard our cruise ship one evening to show us their traditions with music.  They have maintained their customs in spite of the contemporary population growth and development of their original New Zealand lands.

Tauranga harbor is ringed with wonderful green mountains and we enjoyed a delightful opportunity to walk the city, ride the buses, and meet the truly friendly New Zealanders here.

The Art Deco streets of Napier, New Zealand feature beautiful gardens, life-like sculptures of 1930’s figures, and gorgeous buildings that reflect this style of architecture everywhere.

Typical gardens throughout Napier showcase scores of flowers unique to the climate of this North Island in New Zealand.

This mounted kiwi bird shows the large size this species of flightless birds can attain.  These birds originally had no predators on the New Zealand islands, so they eventually evolved into ground birds with little, useless wings.  Now they have been moved to unpopulated islands with no predators and they are all protected.

Some of the vintage cars that greeted us at our ship’s dock in Napier.

   Wellington, New Zealand, is the capital of the nation.  It is a truly modern, bustling city with gorgeous harbors.  We took this cable car up to a fabulous botanical garden.

Christchurch, New Zealand is a city of Gothic architecture.  Most of the wonderful historic structures withstood a 7.2 earthquake two years ago.  (Earthquakes are very common in New Zealand. This is a city that really needs many more construction companies and architects to help them restore the many structures that did suffer structural damage.)

The old and the new blend together in Christchurch.

We went to a sheep ranch in the Christchurch, South Island countryside to watch the sheep dogs work with only whistle signals from their owner to bring the sheep in from the pastures for shearing their wool.

We attended a city-wide annual street festival in Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand that had live bands on every corner and hundreds of booths selling every type of local product imaginable. 

Larry is coming up from one of the fantastic “tracks” or hiking trails we experienced on Stewart Island, a very sparsely populated island just south of the South Island in New Zealand.  By this time the weather was getting colder, as we are close to Antarctica…and we were all wearing the winter coats we had packed for our cruise!

Our last day in New Zealand was actually spent on the water exploring Fiordland National Park, a World Heritage site.  We cruised for many miles on the western coast of the South Island in New Zealand.  There were waterfalls, icebergs, seals, and remarkable jutting cliffs as our big cruise ship went deep into three of the most famous, narrow fiords – Dusty Sound, Doubtful Sound, and this truly “a la mode” sailing into Milford Sound, the site of the famed Milford Track hiking trail known world over for its beauty.  The temperature here was in the 50’s midday, and on this special scenic cruising day we continued to have glorious sun-filled weather… just as we’ve had throughout all our excursions and anchorages in New Zealand.

Our captain did a full 360-degree spin of our cruise ship right in front of this gorgeous waterfall, the perfect end to a magical 8- days visit along all the coasts and major cities that make New Zealand one of the most special places to visit in the world.

The Charm of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific

 

Cook Islands

DAYS 26-29 -  Captain James Cook discovered many islands in the South Pacific, and our cruise included stops at three of these small, beautiful and charming islands, Rarotonga, Niue and Tonga on Sunday through Thursday, January 30th to February 3rd.  Nearly 170 islands are located within the Cook Islands and Tonga Islands area; many are not inhabited.

What happened to February 2nd?  Well, we lost that day (Wednesday) as we ventured across the International Date Line!

All of these islands are very laid back, extremely friendly, and self supporting with all of the fishing, chickens, fruits, and vegetables that are found all over each island.  Coconuts, bananas, mangos, avocados, papaya, pineapple, and melons are everywhere.  The islanders have small markets in the center of harbor villages, and many just sell their surplus from little stands in front of their homes.  Another wonderful feature…almost all of these Cook Islands have no snakes or poisonous creatures of any kind!

We particularly enjoyed Rarotonga Island.  It has magnificent mountains with dense rain forests, thousands of flowers of every hue, white sand beaches and turquoise bays all around the island formed by protective coral reefs.  We could not dock at several of these islands because of these barrier reefs, so our cruise ship anchored off the coast and ran our tender boats back and forth to shore all day long so we could explore each island at our own pace.  We saw many darling one-story beach condos and apartments that could be rented for $800 - $1,000 per month, all with direct access to the sandy beaches in front of them.

To see these islands you can take one of two buses that travel the perimeter roads on these islands.  They travel clockwise, and counter-clockwise, every hour…it was so easy to get on and off these buses to explore these islands.

When we leave the Cook Islands we will be traveling south/southwest for two days to arrive in Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday, February 6th…marking the first month of our cruise which left Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on January 5th.  We will be stopping at many ports on the North and South islands of New Zealand, taking us more than 10 days to explore.

Here are a few selected photos from the charming Cook Islands:

Looking back at our anchored ship, ms Amsterdam, from the shores of Rarotonga Island.

One of the Cook Islanders who greet cruise guests as we arrive…Larry enjoys this part…they all seem to be this beautiful!

The Governor’s Palace on Rarotonga Island.  You can see the beautiful weather we are having this entire trip…no rain storms or rough seas during the entire first month of our voyage!

Thunderous “blow holes” along the coral coastline sound just like a stallion snorting as they explode high into the air on the island of Tonga.

Look closely at the black spots in this photo…those are fruit bats asleep and hanging upside down in the trees during the day!  They have a two-foot wing span and they help with island plant pollination, along with the island’s honey bees that create some of the world’s most treasured natural honey nectar.  Photo is from Tonga Island.

We were fascinated with the Tapa Cloth designs created by island artisans who pound tree bark to paper thin thickness and then apply natural dyes with brushes made from seed pods.

Exiting the Panama Canal into the Pacific

DAY 5 - Continued from our last blog…

 You can see the white side of our ship on the left and the less than two feet of clearance space on either side of the lock for our ship!  You can also see the “mule” up ahead on the tracks keeping our ship perfectly aligned with the sides of the canal locks using enormous wire cables managed by pulley systems on each of four “mules”   The lock on the right allows another vessel to go through the canal at approximately the same time as our ship.

 The last lock fills up with water under our ship, bringing us to the Pacific Ocean level using only the gravity of thousands of gallons of water to raise our ship and the gates in front of us.  We were guided through the entire Canal by an extremely experienced Panama Canal Pilot on board our ship to assist our captain and crew.   The final lock gates open in front of us as we head out into the Pacific!

 The bow of our ship is guided toward the Bridge of the Americas at the end of the Canal.

 Looking back to see the impressive skyline of Panama City as we continue our exciting adventure taking us south over the equator and on to Ecuador and  Peru in South America.

 

 

 

 

Fascinating Ecuador Was Hard to Leave…

Continued from Ecuador…

DAY 8 - I loved everything about Ecuador!  It is a gorgeous country with an extremely friendly and hard-working citizenry.  Larry has been here before, and I vowed to return to this emerging tourism country to explore more of its natural wonders and the magnificent mountain areas that are located directly on the world’s equator.

Even though the country is located in what would seem to be a very hot place on our globe, the cool Pacific breezes kept the temperature a perfect 75 degrees in our port, and the mountain areas in Ecuador are much cooler both day and night.

Larry’s camera caught me as I was falling in love with this finely-woven Panama hat, and I purchased it for only $30, feeling guilty for paying such a low, low price for all of that work!

When we returned to our ship after our visit to the Panama hat factory, I took a photo of the American flag that flies on the deck of the ship in the dock beside our cruise ship. The armed Army and Navy personnel (seen under the thatched roof shade structure) stand guard 24/7 on this vessel.

 As our ship’s captain sounded the three blasts of our ship’s horn to signal our departure from our port in Ecuador, the ever-present tug boats and pilot boats were there to accompany us until we were out of their harbor.   It was hard to leave Ecuador after only one day in this great country.

I got Larry to smile for my camera as we were pulling away from our Ecuador port.  With each port departure there is a fun Bon Voyage party where the ship’s pool areas are decorated with international flags.  The festivities are generally accompanied by tropical drinks, champagne, great beer, and music from our ship’s talented live band. 

Our Last Day in Lima, Peru…

Day 11 - Our second day of exploring the city of Lima took us on an excursion to the old colonial central part of the city where the gold-clad exterior and interior decorations in cathedrals and government buildings were wondrous to see.

We could not take photographs inside many of these buildings, particularly the monasteries where the priests and nuns were living and working.  The walls of these buildings were covered with restored fresco art and huge original Ruebens and other masters’ oil paintings that truly awed me.

I will include one or two of the photos of the interiors and exteriors of these 15th Century buildings that had so much intriguing history to tell!

This is the central plaza in downtown colonial Lima…I had to take the picture of the horse statue, of course.

  This huge sculpture is found at Lover’s Park along the seashore in Lima as we traveled to other areas of the city on our day-long excursion.

 We stopped at some of the shops that have really wonderful local crafts, such as this vendor’s little fluffy llama wool figures that just had to come back home with me for my two darling granddaughters, Katie, 10, and Brianna, 8.

Peru – Land of the Llamas

Lima, Peru

DAY 10 – As we traveled south during the night and the next full day, we followed the coast of Peru to the port of Lima (Callao), Peru, arriving at 10:00 a.m. Friday morning, January 14th.  Lima was founded in 1537 and it has become a main port for Spanish commerce in the Pacific. The city has 8 million people and it seems like they are all out on the roadways at the same time!

This is our first two-day stay in one port city. Many fellow passengers took a side excursion by flying inland to Machu Pichu, to take advantage of this extended stay in port.  Larry and I have been to Machu Pichu, so we used this time to explore everything we could in Lima.

Our ship held a wonderful Peruvian BBQ party with a live band on the pool deck to greet us as we arrived back at the ship from our first full day of shopping and sight-seeing in Lima.

Here are photos of a few highlights we experienced over these two days:

 This is a seaside multi-floor shopping center in the Miraflores section of Lima, complete with Starbucks, TGI Fridays, and wonderful shops with all kinds of local artisans’ high quality goods.

 Here on display in a shop are some contemporary alpaca wool weavings showing unusual three-dimensional designs on perfectly flat wall hangings.

 Here are two of our wonderful Indonesian kitchen staff members, Lila and Ira, as they serve us in their costumes at the shipboard Peruvian style BBQ deck party at the end of our first day in port in Lima. (They have learned almost everyone’s first name by the end of the first week on board…impossible, but true!)

 

 

Bora Bora Tops Tahiti for Beauty

 

 

Bora Bora

DAY 27 – We arrived at the island of Bora Bora at sunrise the day after we were in Tahiti, on Thursday, January 24th.  This island is located about 162 miles northwest of Tahiti and it is surrounded by a lagoon and fringing reef that turn the water an unbelievable turquoise blue.

I didn’t think anything could top Tahiti, but Bora Bora is considered the world’s most beautiful island, and it deserves this reputation!  It has towering mountains that are often ringed with clouds at the top, so picture something like the movie version of the musical “South Pacific” in your mind.

Thankfully we spent two days exploring all the beauty this small island offers.  The lagoon and white sand beaches have brought some famous hotels and resorts to this island.  Most have built thatched roof cabanas out over the water on stilts with walkways, making a day, week, or month stay on this island feel almost like a Robinson Crusoe experience.

The island has only one small town, with one grocery store, two gas stations, and a Rotary Club!  The harbor is so shallow that we had to drop anchor on our cruise ship and use the ship’s tenders to get to shore.  Our fellow passengers could come and go as they pleased as we had six tenders going back and forth all day and evening long both days as we were exploring all the magical areas of Bora Bora as we could.

Larry and I have vowed to return to this paradise for a longer visit.  Bora Bora has been discovered by many people, including movie stars and sports figures, who come here to escape from the rest of the world and relax in this very quiet, friendly paradise.

Here are just a few photos…it is so challenging to select just 3-4 photographs…but that is all that our ship’s satellite-based Internet can handle as I try to publish each Blog.

These are the turquoise waters that form a gigantic lagoon for miles completely around the island of Bora Bora…it is so beautiful that it is almost unbelievable to see.

The typical Bora Bora resort hotel guest room is located out over the water.  People jump in to the beautiful, warm water from their own cabana, and they also have a small boat, kayak, or a jet ski or two for exploring around the island’s expansive lagoons.

Larry pauses as he and other visitors enter Bloody Mary’s bar and restaurant of Broadway musical and Hollywood movie fame.  The restaurant, built in 1979, still has a sand floor and true Polynesian hospitality.

We took an excursion on a small local boat and went out to the reef areas to get up close and personal with stingrays and reef sharks.  Our Bora Bora boat captain handled these friendly sea creatures as if they were his personal pets…and a few daring people on our boat joined him in the water!

Easter Island, Chile – Most Isolated Inhabited Island in the World

Easter Island

DAY 16 – Thursday, January 20th - If you ever wanted to get away from the rest of the world, Easter Island is just the place for you!  This small island is located in the south Pacific Ocean, 2,237 miles west of Chile, and it took us four days out at sea to reach this treasure.

Easter Island got its name from the Dutch discovery of this already inhabited island on Easter Sunday, 1722.  The famous stone figures (called moais) found on this island were carved out of volcanic rock around 1200 AD, and moved into position along the coast line areas to provide good blessings on the people and villages of the island. 

The average moai is 13 feet in height and weighs 13 tons.  There are 887 moais on Easter Island…and it is still somewhat of a mystery how these huge figures were put in place on platform pedestals (ahus) coming from a quarry nearly 15 miles away.  The ashes of important ancestors were buried in subterranean vaults below the statue-like figures, probably signifying the spirit of these forefathers in the stone figures.

The triangular-shaped island has three volcanoes at each corner of the triangle, and the entire island is only 45 square miles in size.  This small size is probably why so many early seafaring explorers from Europe and South America missed discovering it!  Each volcano has a deep crater, which is filled with fresh-water lakes and reeds.

The famous Kon Tiki voyage made by Thor Heyerdahl on a raft of reeds proved that Stone Age crossings to this island from Polynesia was possible.  It is speculated that these were the island’s first inhabitants, and they brought plants, animals, and tools with them to survive on this island.

You can fly in to Easter Island from Chile and land at the island’s large jet airport runway, which is the way a lot of the supplies arrive on this island.  There are hundreds of wild horses (most are Peruvian Paso Spanish breeds) on the island, and many of the inhabitants ride horses to get from one place to another on the island.

We were fascinated by everything we saw as we toured all around this island and learned much about its early inhabitants and the history of the mysterious moais.  There are three central villages and several paved roads to reach these villages.  The island has nearly 3,000 residents, many of them are working in military or government services, such as the island’s Chile National Parks helping to preserve the ancient areas and artifacts.

Here are a few selected photos of our excursions and hikes:

We  had to drop down off of our cruise ship into the ship’s tender boats to arrive at our beach landing area.  You can see some of the Easter Island stone figures on the raised platform on the sandy beach area to the left.

We hiked on a trail to the rim of the Orongo volcano, and this photo is looking down into the crater.  The rim of this volcano is 1,000 feet high, the highest point on the island, and the crater holds fresh water.  From here you can turn 360-degrees and nearly see the Pacific Ocean all around the island.

These are some of the huge moai statues that are found all around the perimeter shoreline of the island. 

Cruising Pitcairn Island – in the Middle of Nowhere

Pitcairn Island

DAY 19 – I’d never heard of Pitcairn Island…have you?  Our ship’s captain had pre-arranged this surprise visit to this island on January 23rd for all of us, and we were captivated by this unique island with quite an impressive history!

This small island is out in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean, more than 2,000 miles from Easter Island, New Zealand, and Tahiti in the middle of nowhere… you would miss it if you blinked, especially if you were an early British sailing explorer in the 1700’s.   A young 15-year old British Midshipman named Robert Pitcairn was the first to sight it.

What makes it unique is that this is the island where the mutineers of the Mutiny on the Bounty ended up from their sailing ship lore and they have been the topic of many books and movies by that name.   When these men arrived, accompanied by their Polynesian women companions, the island was uninhabited.   After they established this island as their new home, they burned the Bounty ship and sunk it in the harbor…the wreck is still visible underwater in what has now been named Bounty Bay.

This idyllic palm tree-covered island is only several miles wide and is 17 miles long.  Today the island has 45  inhabitants, and nine families, all descendants of the original British mutineers.   They fish, farm, and have a self-sustaining schedule that gives each person on the island a specific job to do for their community 3 days a week for 2-3 hours a day…the rest of the time they spend on their own dwellings and farmland.   (They have Internet, satellite TV and cell phones!)

The island is still a British protectorate, with governmental ties to New Zealand, and it is the least populated jurisdiction in the entire world.  The family names are eighth generation descendents of those famed mutineers such as Christian, Brown, Young, and others.

The shores of this island are too rough with volcanic rock for most boats for docking, so approximately 25 of the 45 islanders came out on one of their two large wooden longboats and, at our captain’s invitation, they boarded our ship to sell their handmade carvings, baskets, black pearls, and other items.  They left with gifts from our ship, including big quantities of beef, chicken, sodas, wine, beer, and champagne.  We arrived at Pitcairn Island on their annual celebration of “Bounty Day” January 23rd, 221 years ago…sort of their 4th of July.

Here are just a few photos of this special island and its inhabitants, who, by the way, looked like typical American tourists wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals…they just have a very different lifestyle!

This is Bounty Bay, with crashing waves at the shoreline of Pitcairn Island, and you can catch a glimpse of the buildings of this community on the far right of this photo.

Here are the descendents of the Mutiny on the Bounty crew and their families in the longboat as they approached our cruise ship with their bags and boxes of souvenirs and items from their island on board with them. 

Our fellow Holland America Amsterdam passengers flocked to the tables set up on our ship’s deck for the Pitcairn Islanders to display their wares and to secure autographs on special Pitcairn Islands stamps and their handcrafted items.  Larry and I have autographs from the descendants of the Christian family, who was the original mutineer that lead the Mutiny on the Bounty.