Auckland, Thursday 16 Mar

Auckland Harbor at dawn

We arrived at the port of Auckland bright and early, and got through customs & immigration without problems.  The neat thing about landing at Queen's Wharf, was to look at the flooring in the pier shed -- huge, old planks showed this building has been here for a long, long time.

Avani Metropolis Hotel

We got to the hotel, expecting to just drop our bags, but the hotel had a cancellation and was actually willing to check us in at 9 am!

Our real goal for the day was a reunion with Scott's AFS foreign exchange student from high school.  He had not seen Shona Hammond Boys since graduation in June 1964.  She had been living on the north coast (Opotiki) on the Bay of Plenty, but just recently moved to a retirement village in Auckland.

Eastside Retirement Village

Auckland skyline from the park across the street

The place she is living is near Maori land at Bastion Point, south of downtown Auckland.  Bastion Point was the site of a 500+ day protest where Maori's moved in to stop the government's efforts to sell Maori land for high-end development.  The land was eventually returned to the Maori's.  Shona has had a lot of dealings with the Maori and with government, and hopes she can use her skills in this area to make her new home more inclusive.

She took us up the hill to the grave of Joe Hawke, one of the leaders of the Bastion Point protest.

Bastion Point

climbing the hill

at the memorial

After lunch, Scott and Shona got all caught up on THS Class of 64 news, and Shona told us stories of what she had been able to use her art, writing and film work to do.  She had Scott don a Maori cape made out of wool and pieces of driftwood.

a statue of Shona wearing the cape 
when she was a delegate to an internaional meeting on children

I even got to try a feather cape
(the traditional woman's cape)

going over family albums

Shona has been journaling all her life, often using her own art and calligraphy.  She shared some with us.

Tauranga, Wed 15 Mar

 We moored at the head of the pier, so it was easy to walk into town.

port of Tauranga

We walked into town and over to the beach.

unique way to get coffee

surf's up

this hare was staring at us from an upper window
(the house had two frogs climbing up the back wall)

Scott wanted to let you know he was here!

As we were aboard late afternoon, we noticed that there were a lot of sailboats out in the bay.  Suddenly, they seemed to organize themselves into a series of races... sort of like the Wednesday sixpack races we used to see in San Diego and informal racing in San Francisco Bay.  It was fun to watch.

the race begins across the harbor

second leg

a little jockeying for position

downwind, with spinakers

Napier, Tuesday 14 Mar

Napier is a hard luck story.  We almost did not make this stop because on Valentine's Day,  Cyclone (hurricane) Gabielle hit this town and the surrounding area of the Hawkes Bay region pretty hard.  The two rivers that run through here merged, and ravaged the area.  Thousands were without power and the roads, bridges and infrastructure took a significant hit.  

We arrived on the month anniversary, and while Napier itself looked OK, they still cannot get to the north and west by road, so the timber that fuels the port cannot get here.  Thousands of vegetables that are exported out of the port are under the debris from the storm, and the area is reeling.  

We had a wine tour scheduled, and, by convincing a local winery to open up for the ship's tours, we were able to go.  

We went first to Mission, the oldest winery in New Zealand.  It was operated by Marist monks until about 20 years ago, and still makes most of the sacramental wine for NZ.

driveway to winery

the tasting room

the vineyards

the back "lawn" of the winery

At the edge of the property is a natural amphitheater where they hold concerts.  The one scheduled in February, featuring Sting, had to be cancelled.  They are hoping that the Rod Stewart/Cyndi Lauper will go on as planned.

The second winery was Urban Winery, a local chardonnay producer.  It was a very eclectic winery, very good at recycling (even the building is repurposed).

the winery

Urban Winery's cellar

a small barrel in the tasting room

ever need an idea for old sheep skins?

once a tobacco company,
now a winery!!

Napier was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.  When they rebuilt, art deco was the style, and the town embraced it.  They have a big festival (usually) -- it was scheduled to begin the 19th of Feb and had to be cancelled because of the cyclone.

Napier has many examples of art deco buildings

Local car enthusiasts, have restored and maintained many old cars and get a kick out of dressing up for the visitors.

Public art is everywhere -- this is the wall of the local art museum.  It is hard to see, but those are giant pushpins!

one of the downtown buildings

Wellingron, Monday 13 Mar

 As we left Lyttleton, the captain had bad news for us.  Due to 50 knot winds, the Port Authority of Wellington cancelled out visit.

We spent the day at sea, trying to avoid the storm.

I managed to get this shot of a royal albatross that was surfing the waves behind the ship.

Christchurch Sunday 12 Mar

 

dawn, coming into the port of Lyttleton

Sun just reaching the hilltops as we backed into Lyttleton

We saw a new way of handling lines:  They drop them to the RHIB, and they attached a line that was hooked to a remote control winch.  A guy ashore controls it all on his compiuter pad.  

We headed on into Cristchurch, about a 20-minute ride inland.  We wanted to use the tram as our sightseeing tour, but only one of the 5 trams in service was set up for handicap.  (They have recycled old tram cars from other cities... the one we rode was from Sydney.)  They directed us to go to the tram house where there was a lift that could get Scott onto any tram.

kiwi clock in the tram house

Scott is sitting on the 4x4 lift.  What they did was pull the tram alongside him and raise him up about to the level of the metal behind him.  They then locked in a ramp from the lift to the tram, and VOILA! he's aboard.

We were so busy doing it, I didn't have time to take a picture.

We went around the city. seeing some of the destruction from the 2010 earthquake.  Some of the buildings are being worked on (like the cathedral, which might be finished in 2026), and some have to wait for funding and experts (like the stone masons who are working on the cathedral).  It is a city of old and new, existing side by side.

Art Museum (their collection is still in the basement
while they renovate the building - this is the Sunday Market

statue to Scott - British Explorer
who perished returning from the South Pole

some of the new buildings

mural on side of hotel

the refectory (dining room) at Christ College, the oldest school in NZ

statue in front of brand-new convention center

Avon River, runs for 27 miles through Christchurch
(that's a statue, not a fisherman)

Scott had tried for several years to get assigned to the US Navy detachment that supports the polar reasearch, Operation Deep Freeze.  We found a plaque for it.

When we got back to the ship, the entire harbor was filled with boats... hobi-cats were running a series of races, guys were on their mechanical surfboards, pleasure craft our for an afternoon sail, and fihermen all over.  We noticed a series of bleachers on the edge of the waterfront, and discovered the same sailboat racers we had seen in Sydney would be doing the NZ race next weekend.  

GP Sail headquarters

While out on the balcony we tried a new selfie (using the reflective window of our bathroom):