New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland, 11Feb, to very good weather. The following day, Saturday, Segment 3 began. The weather was still very good and we went for a walk. We hiked down Queen street and then left to find the Albert Park. This is a lovely piece of real estate on a hill overlooking the old harbor. Here you find two guns mounted on tracks. Eiko bought 2 bathing suits. Auckland looks clean and dynamic. We went to Tauranga on Sunday and had a nice stroll of the beach. It is a shipping port and the town is not much to speak of. Everything was closed. Tuesday brought Napier and the weather was still pretty good. We toured the art deco district on foot and it reminds one of Delray Beach or parts of Miami Beach. On Wednesday we arrived in Wellington and we took a stroll down Lamston Quay where I found a McDonalds across from the train station. On Thursday we visited Christchurch. The weather is cool but there was sun. I included a picture of the stone church. This was heavily damaged in this week’s earthquake. On Friday we went North to Picton, a cute seaside town(see picture) but not much else. On Saturday, we were in Dunedin and it was wet and cool.Here’s a picture of city hall. We strolled the central octagon of streets. Dunedin was organized by a splinter group of Presbyterians from Scotland. Christchurch was organized by the Anglican Church. A gold rush helped to populate Dunedin. On Sunday morning we arrived on New Zealand’s west coast to visit 3 fiords…Dusky, Doubtful, and Milford. Milford is the most dramatic with its deep and narrow path between looming peaks of glacier-sculpted granite. The Mitre Peak is famous but the waterfalls were impressive too. Unfortunately, a combination of fog, rains and clouds obscured a good deal of the peaks. We had two rocky days at sea on our way to Hobart. Here’s a picture of the harbor. We had a good tour of NZ, and I think I understand it a bit better. It is remote, unspoiled, rugged and small. It is clean and a good citizen among the family of nations. While the Northern Island is warm, the South is cool and blustery in late summer. I can’t imagine a winter there. NZ is rich in many natural resources, especially timber, sea food, and vegetation for livestock livestock. There’s lots of green pasture and hillsides for sheep to graze upon. We tasted some ordinary NZ white wines and their yogurts were good too. The trip across the Tasman Sea was rough and everyone was glad to arrive in Hobart. It is a good port, well-protected from the southwesterly gales we experienced on the Tasman Sea. It is a small city and we took a walk around the downtown. Again, as in Dunedin, I found free internet in the public library. By the way, most McDonalds have a wireless café and the Ipad has been a good traveling companion. Its lightweight and long-lived battery as well as its quick-start abilities make it superior to a net-book. Next..it’s off to Melbourne.

Papeete to Auckland

It is Saturday and we are in Auckland New Zealand. We have spent 10days traveling from Papeete to New Zealand. The voyage to Bora Bora was short as it is just over the horizon from Papeete, almost due west about 140 miles. The day in Bora Bora was pleasant. It is a beautiful place with dramatic green volcanic peaks and beautiful lagoons. We continued southwest to Raratonga in the Cook Islands. This is a quiet place administered by New Zealand but it is self-governing. It feels very much like Hawaii. Another thousand miles west is Nuku Alofa in the Tongan Islands, just over the date line. The date line is not meridian 180 at this location. We arrived on a Sunday so everything was closed. These islands are flat and seem more Bahamian than Hawaiian. I have a picture of a stone church. These islands also use the New Zealand dollar. Then it was on to Fiji, a rather large group of islands. Fiji is a cauldron of ethnic antagonism, with native islanders struggling to maintain their island in the face of ethnic East Indians, brought many years ago by the British to work the sugar plantations. Of course they are now business men. The islands resemble Hawaii and Tahiti. It’s about 1000 miles due south to Auckland. I show you a picture of our arrival. There was a Princess ship in port. We took an excursion over to the west coast, to the famous black-sand beaches of Kerekere. In town, we visited a park dedicated to Victoria and Albert. How the British Empire has changed in only 100 years! The year 1911 marked the late summer years of the Empire, as Victoria had been crowned as Empress of India in 1875. The catastrophic decision to enter The Great War was only three years into the future. The Kiwi’s participated in the failed Gallipoli campaign. Nowadays, they have a peaceful, safe, and relatively prosperous country in these turbulent times.