WELLINGTON TO TAMPA

MARCH 5/6:       By 10:30 p.m. the dinner tables were all cleaned, the evening’s entertainer was doing his final bows, the chairs on the verandas had all been lashed to the railing, the wind had dropped to a mere 40 knots and the waves were down to only 16 ft. so we set sail across Cook Strait.  Our bed felt a bit like the ones in a cheap hotel where you insert 3 quarters for a massage, but as we sailed the rocking became more gentle and suddenly it was time to look at the beautiful hills as we sailed into Charlotte Sound.

We docked in the tiny town of Picton, which had not been on our original itinerary, and a place which gets only a very few cruise ships.  The sun shone brightly and we headed to the middle of the town where we immediately booked seats on a van to drive to the hilltops for views of the coves and inlets.  We also booked a water trip to isolated coves where the wealthy pay over a million just for a small lot that is accessible only by water.

Picton turned out to be an incredibly pleasant surprise and we are pleased with our Captain’s efforts to compensate for our being stuck in Wellington.  He also announced that all the bars on the ship starting a 5:00 p.m. would not be charging for drinks.  I wonder how many single malts and vintage cabernets 1200 people can consume before heading to dinner.

NAPIER (March 7):  Napier is a large town/small city that was 90% destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.  For some reason they rebuilt the city in an Art Deco style and now in the downtown core volunteers dress up in straw hats, etc. and rent vintage cars to the tourists.  Not quite as stupid as Helen, Georgia but close.

Fortunately we had a wine-tasting tour scheduled which included driving through beautiful countryside as well as vineyards.  This looked like the New Zealand we had imagined but perhaps better.  Included in our tour were visits to four wineries, which is at least one too many.  Each offered at least six wines to taste and by the 3^rd we were turning down wine.  Of course, New Zealand is a cool country for wine so most of the wines are Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Noirs; not our favorities.  One lady on our tour wanted to go to a fifth winery but she was outvoted.

MARCH 8:   A sea day, we relaxed, attended a couple of interesting lectures as we sailed through the Bay of Plenty.  At 6:00 p.m. we sailed within a couple of miles of White Island.  White Island is an active volcano and as we passed on the starboard we went up to the open 12the deck to watch the smoke/steam belching out of the volcano.  We certainly could smell the sulfur.  We were surprised at how few people were on the deck to watch.  I guess an active volcano is a poor match for happy hour.

MARCH 9 (Chief for a day):  We docked in Tauranga and 10 of us took an all day trip to Rotorua, a little over an hour away.  We stopped at scenic vistas and once in Rotorua we spent most of the day at Te Puia, a Maori cultural centre.  As our guide/driver was also Maori we learned a fair amount of stuff.  At the centre we spent time viewing very active geysers as well as boiling mud flats.   We also attended a Maori concert held in a group house.  There were about 200 people attending the short concert and it began with a very elaborate ceremony in which the Chief of the visitors (audience) first met a warrior and picked up a fern leaf without losing eye contact.  Somehow I got picked as Chief and after the leaf ceremony I slowly walked down a long path and entered the building.  Betty carefully stayed 5 paces behind (I enjoyed that part) and after the Chief and “Mrs. Chief” were seated everyone else was allowed to sit.  At this point I slowly walked to the stage and bumped noses with four different warriors.  At this point the concert which included the Haka war dance began.

In New Zealand we observed that the Maori are very comfortably integrated with the Europeans.  I wonder how we got it so wrong in Canada.

OZ VERSUS KIWI:  Before we started this trip several people told us we would like New Zealand more than Australia.  Our short stay in Auckland (hop on bus, walk on the waterfront) confirmed our experience that New Zealand cities (Auckland, Wellington) were much less interesting than Australian cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne).  Certainly the countryside in New Zealand cannot be excelled and there the Kiwi has it over the Oz.  But the architecture and the vibrancy of the Australian cities are far more exciting.  Also, Australia had much warmer weather (New Zealand, like Nova Scotia is too cold for swimming) and prices are much cheaper in Australia.  For example, a more comfortable hop on bus in Sydney that travels longer and farther costs only 60% of one in Auckland.  Finally, for those of us who like our wines big and bold, New Zealand is far too cold for anything but whites and some thin Pinot Noirs.

WHAT DAY IS IT?  On Tuesday morning (March 11) we left the ship promptly at 6:00 a.m. for a 45 minute bus ride to the Auckland Airport.  There we waited two hours before taking our 4.5 hour flight to Sydney.  At Sydney we waited 5 hours for our flight to Dallas.  The flight to Dallas took just under 15 hours and then we had a 6 hour wait for a 2.5 hour flight to Tampa.  At Tampa Airport we grabbed a cab to our hotel where we arrived at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11.  Something doesn’t add up.

TASMANIA TO WELLINGTON

TASMANIA (Feb. 28):  Our last port of call in Australia was Hobart, the capital of the island state of Tasmania.  Hobart is described as being very similar to Halifax, N.S., with a waterfront of Georgian buildings.  Other than that the two cities are more-or-less the same size I failed to see any resemblance.  Hobart is much hillier than Halifax and has a beautiful mountain (Mt. Wellington) as a backdrop.

We took a tour in and around Hobart which included such things as a visit to a cheese factory, a walk through the botanical gardens, etc.  However, by far the highlight of the day was a visit to a wildlife sanctuary.  There Injured animals are nursed back to health and then released into the wild.  We saw wombats, Tasmanian devils, etc.  Throughout the park there are 100’s of kangaroos which are not injured but enter and exit the park at will (fences do not stop kangaroos).  These kangaroos approach people and if you have food (we did) they will eat out of your hand.  After eating they lift their heads so that you can scratch their necks where they cannot reach with their limbs.  We spent ages having kangaroo after kangaroo gently take food pellets from our outstretched hands.

NEXT STOP?  Our schedule was to depart Tasmania for New Zealand, sailing for two days across the Tasman Sea to Milford Sound to see the fiords, and then sailing to Dunedin, where we had a pre-paid tour arranged.  On the morning of March 1 the Captain announced that there were major storms south of the South Island and that he had to drastically change course.  He then set course straight for Wellington to sit out the storm.

On March 3 we docked in the early afternoon at Wellington.  A good friend had e-mailed me that he thought we might be in New Zealand or the 1960’s, which he believed were much and the same.  We shall see!

SMALL WORLD:  Just as we were sailing into Wellington we found a letter at our door which said:  “Talked to some folks last night who mentioned that they had met some lovely people from Nova Scotia.  Our jaws dropped when they told us your names.” The letter was from Heather and Harvey Smith, who were friends of Betty’s at Mt. A.   We had lost contact and hadn’t seen them since we attended their wedding in Truro, 51 years ago.  We arranged to meet for dinner and had a very pleasant time remembering old friends from the 1960’s.  The people who made the connection between the Smiths and the Johnsons were MaryAnn and Lloyd, our 83 year old friends who I mentioned in an earlier blog.  Now we are in the process of setting up a dinner for the six of us.

WELLINGTON (March 3):  As soon as we were cleared we disembarked in sunny but cool weather into the beautiful but small city of Wellington.  We grabbed a shuttle to the town center and were dropped at the base of the 111 year old cable car.  Having no other plans we took the cable car up the mountain.  At the last stop there was a sign saying free shuttle to Zealandia.  Why not?  Zealandia turned out to be a bird sanctuary set in what used to be the main water reservoir for the city.  Although we didn’t see that many birds, the walk in the mountains was quite spectacular.  After about an hour it started to rain and we reversed the steps back to the ship.  Since we were then wet on the outside we achieved equilibrium by immediately wetting the insides.

WELLINGTON (March 4):  We walked for hours, mostly to keep warm.  I googled weather and discovered that the average high in Wellington’s summer is 3 degrees colder than the average high in Antigonish’s summer.  Despite the beautiful setting Wellington has relatively little to offer.  There are lots of shops in the downtown core but the prices are about 40% higher than in Australia.  I checked the price of a simple cheeseburger at McDonald’s ($ 2.90).  I also walked by a fish market where they were selling (or at least offering) cooked crayfish in the shell for $ 90. per kilogram.  The New Zealand dollar is very slightly less in value than the Canadian dollar.

WELLINGTON (March 5):  When we returned to the ship (see March 4) we had a letter from the captain saying that the newly scheduled sailing for Akaroa was cancelled due to 60 knot winds.  Akaroa, from where one goes to Christchurch, is a tendered port and I would not want to be getting into a small tender boat in these winds.  Thus it appears that we are stuck in Wellington until 10 p.m. on March 6 (again weather permitting).  However, after over a month of stopping in ports to which we would love to return, a couple of extra days in a less interesting place can hardly be considered a great hardship.

Despite the fact that our ship is securely tied to the pier in a well-sheltered harbour we could hear the strong gusts in the night.  The partition between our and the next balcony blew open and someone told us that the cruise ship docked behind us had two tugs holding the ship against the pier for the entire night.  In the morning we received an e-mail from the guide who was to take us around Dunedin.  He said that the Captain made the correct decision and that the weather down south was terrible.  The money for the cancelled tour has already been returned to our credit card account.  Betty will have to say some nice things about the tour guide on Cruise Critic.

WELLINGTON PLUS AND MINUS:   Just after breakfast the sun briefly appeared and we ventured out into the wind.  We took the cable car to the top of the botanical gardens and took a very beautiful walk back down to the city.  The rain got steadily heavier but despite that the gardens were so spectacular that I would give a plus to the city.  On the other hand our waiter at supper told us that the crew hated to stop in Wellington because there was nothing to do at night after the staff got off work.

ON USING ONLY THE CORRECT UTENSIL:   At breakfast this morning, just as Betty was finishing the last couple of bites of her smoked salmon omelet, she dropped her knife.  A waiter appeared from nowhere, picked up the knife and said:  “I’ll bring you a new one.”  Betty responded:  “Don’t bother I’ll finish with this” as she picked up her butter knife.  “Oh no, Madam,” said the waiter.  “Someone might see you and then I will be in big trouble.”