Dunedin, NZ - February 23

We dock by 9:15 AM in Dunedin. New Zealand was settled by largely Scotch settlers (at least until the Gold Rush attracted the rest of the world.) Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinborough. This is a city of 140,000 - but it covers a large area. We spend the day on the Taieri Gorge Railway. More spectacular scenery, but also lots of rain - so the photos are disappointing. On the narrow gauge railway we are served tea in the morning, beer before lunch (Speight’s Gold Medal Ale), and wine with a box lunch. This is ranked as one of the best narrow gauge railroads in the world, and our trip covers 70 Kilometers, one way.
















The rain continues throughout the day, and the temperature is 57 degrees. But it’s comfortable in the rail cars. We are now near the bottom of the southern island of New Zealand. Back at the ship, we set sail just after 4:00 PM. It will be a long run around the tip of New Zealand and across the Tasman Sea (or “the ditch“, as it’s referred to locally) before we reach our first port in Australia, Melbourne. We will be spending the next two days at sea. We are expecting seas to reach 12 meters, before they calm somewhat tomorrow.

Wellington, NZ - February 22

Rain in Wellington this morning when we arrive. Wellington is the capital, so after a stop to view a few government buildings, we go through the Hutt valley and into the mountains to reach Martinborough - where we will spend the day tasting wine, visiting olive groves, and eating.






Because of the mountains, which are on the East side of Wellington, we avoid the rain for most of the day.  The views are spectacular.










The region has been growing olives for about 20 years. Their Extra Virgin Olive Oil has a grassy taste, typical for New Zealand. They make a number of interesting infused olive oils as well.

The featured vineyard is Pallister Estate Wines - where we are greeted by Allan Johnson, chief winemaker. Pinot Noirs are a specialty for this area. We buy a lovely Chardonnay to take back to the ship, but I don’t expect it to survive to reach the US.

We have lunch at Coney Wines, enjoying their wines, as well as a delightful lunch - with more wine. We return to the ship just as it is ready to set sail for Dunedin.


 

This evening we have a special dinner in the ship’s Veranda Restaurant. June Hunter, owner and managing director of Hunter Wines is on board, and they are having a special dinner, courses paired with some of her wines, to show off both the dishes and the wine.

The evening ends with a folkloric show by a Maori group - dancing, songs, shouts, and Hakka.

Shrove Tuesday at sea

This will be a different Shrove Tuesday from the many we have spent at Our Saviour. I will miss Father Robert’s latest costume, the sausage, and the pancakes. There will be a Pancake Race on the 9th deck (by the pool) to raise money for charity, but it’s not the same.

We are learning about the differences between Australians and New Zealanders. New Zealand has lots of water, lakes, streams and rivers. Australia is very dry, less than 1 percent of the world’s fresh water. That is why the natives in New Zealand formed villages, and the natives in Australia never had permanent villages.

There is a story, told by a world traveler, who on visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, noticed that next to the altar was a gold phone and a sign saying, “direct line to God, $10,000 per call.” When the traveler was in London, in Westminster Cathedral, he noticed a similar phone and sign. In Notre Dame in Paris, again there was the gold phone, the sign, and cost was 50,000 francs for a call. On arriving in Sydney, the traveler went to the cathedral there. Again there was a gold phone and a sign, but this time it read “direct line to God, 60 cents per call.” The traveler found a priest and inquired about the sign. “Why is the cost so different in this church, than in the others I have visited?”, he asked. “Ah,” said the priest, “Here it’s a local call.”

Wishing all our friends the best on this Shrove Tuesday. At least it’s a local call from here.

Auckland, New Zealand

February 20, The ship arrives early in the beautiful harbor of Auckland. The ship needs to be docked before the ferry traffic starts. A city of over 1 million people, an enormous harbor, islands and a major bridge connecting the people to the “CBD” (Central Business district).









 The bridge, when constructed was a four lane affair, which was considered ample - but as the city grew, and filled with Japanese cars, congestion came as well. Recently, the city contracted with a Japanese company to add two lanes on each side of the bridge. The Kiwis refer to it as the “Nippon Clip-on.”

We had planned to visit the Waitkomo Glow Worm caves, which would have taken us into the county side and the Waitkomo River Valley. The trip was canceled, so we spent our morning in the city. We visited the Auckland Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere (1,076 feet). We discover that you can bunge jump from the top - something Father Robert might enjoy if he ever tires of roller coasters.  The city has several small volcanic hills, most of them parks now. We take a drive though some of the lovely, near-by suburbs, all with lovely views of the harbor.




We end our tour at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Antarctic Encounter. There are sub arctic penguins, sharks, a cat ride among the small penguin colony, sea horses (and sea dragons), and a replica of Captain Scott’s Antarctic hut along with a history of the race to the South Pole.

Armed with New Zealand dollars, we searched for a pub for lunch - but ended our search in the Queen Elizabeth’s pub where we had fish and chips along with Boddingtons Ale. The sail away after dinner was spectacular. Auckland is a city worth revisiting.

The next day we will be sailing South along the New Zealand coast, toward Wellington.

Port Denarau, Fiji

Jean on the dock in Fiji

After a day at sea (two days on the calendar because we crossed the dateline), we arrive in Fiji. The dateline is the 180th meridian of longitude. It is both +12 and -12 hours from the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) meridian. What happens when we cross the dateline is that we re-position ourselves from being 12 hours behind the time in England, to being 12 hours ahead. That accounts for the loss of a day. Jean is particularly distressed by the change - she is not willing to give up a day of her life.





The day in Fiji is clear and temperatures are in the 90s. The ship cannot get close to port - so it is a 20 minute ride on a tender to get to the dock at Port Denarau. Unlike Pago Pago, Fiji clearly is prepared for tourists. On the dock is a Hard Rock Café, with a band playing. There a lots of upscale stores. Nearby are exclusive resorts including the Westin and a Hilton.

Fire Walker

Scare them with spears

Big clubs are impressive

We are taken to the Westin to watch a Fijian fire walking ceremony. Only one tribe, we are told, has the ability to walk on white hot stones. The ceremony includes shouts, songs, drums, and brandishing of spears and clubs, along with the walking on the stones ceremony.

Afterward, we have a brief stop at the largest Hindu temple in the South Pacific. Finally we visit Jack’s - which has clothes, as well as handicrafts. The wood carvings remind me of handicrafts that I saw in the Philippines.

Hindu Temple

In general, cruise ships discourage passengers from drinking their own alcohol or wine. However, on route to New Zealand, the ship is selling bottles which you can take and drink in the stateroom. It’s just in time, as we have exhausted our Gin.

Sumner has come down with a cold - annoying. After Fiji, we head almost due South - with two days at sea before we arrive in Auckland, New Zealand. We continue to rehearse with the Soundwaves choir.  Tonight is another formal evening - cocktails with the captain and his senior officers in the Queens Room. Even with the date change, we have not been away from the mainland for two weeks.

American Samoa

This morning, we were awake before 7:00 AM, as we cruised into the harbor on the island of Tutuila. Geologically, the island was a long volcano. One side of the crater collapsed to let in the sea water. The ship cruised to Pago Pago to dock. Dense, green, rain-forest vegetation wraps the hillsides.






Buses at the dock

The island is not as commercial as many, and this is the first time that the Queen Elizabeth has docked here. The dock is not as long as the ship - we hang off on each end. For our morning tour, we are met by buses with bench seats, each uniquely decorated.


Our bus says “God is Awesome” in gold letters over the windshield on the outside. Our two guides are students in the junior college - the only school of higher education on the island. They are Polynesian women, statuesque, with lovely voices. To continue their education they will have to go to the US, New Zealand, or Australia. We hear Polynesian songs along the way, and learn a few chants.

Jean and our guide Swan at the bus



Local church

They describe the problems of the islands. Obesity is a major problem, especially for the men. The diet is rich in fats. Other problems include gambling, alcohol abuse, and teen pregnancy. (Parents go out to gamble, the young men drink and go to the homes of the young women while the parents are away.)

We learn some of the myths of Samoa. The gods here are no different than the Greek god’s, indiscriminant mating with various relations forms the islands, and some of the land marks. We learn a myth about a couple who are turned into a shark and tortoise. We visit the place where they should appear when called. Unfortunately, it’s a no show. We see "the flowerpots", the iconic small islands that are used on the American Samoa license plates. Before we sail, there is a show in the theater, put on by a local dance group - including children under 5 years of age.

The Flowerpots

This is Valentines day - we will have a formal dinner and dance tonight. Tomorrow we cross the dateline. We have been about 8 hours behind the East Cost. We will lose the 15th of February completely. So after today, we will be ahead of everyone at home. The new day starts here, tomorrow. It will be February 16 tomorrow.

Voyage to Pago Pago

Having left Hawaii on February 9, we have had four days at sea, following a rhumb line course to Pago Pago. We will arrive on Valentines day.

The weather was somewhat less lumpy, as we are headed south from Hawaii on February 10. We are in the area of the trade winds - north of the equator. The schedule for sea days includes a briefing on some up-coming ports (including tours you can purchase), eclectic lectures by an anthropologist from Chico University, occasional duplicate bridge, choir rehearsals, brisk walks around the deck, wine tasting, and meals. The evenings have a show, and several places to dance and drink. We have been enjoying the Commodore Club on Deck 10 with a singer - piano player who seems to know all the Noel Coward songs, and a few by Matt Dennis. A wonderful place to relax and have a single malt scotch.

A cruise is a lesson in self control - you can eat as much as you want as often as you want. Now that we have been at sea for almost a week, we are pacing ourselves, eating a sane breakfast and a light lunch. The evening meals in the large restaurant are four course affairs, varied, tasty, and artistically arranged. Our table-mates at first were two couples from Yorkshire, England. They have been on the cruise since Southampton - and they are making the full world cruise.

For those on the world cruise (which includes those who boarded in San Francisco, as we did), there are special pins, hats, travel bags, cocktail parties with the captain, and dinners. Our schedule had to be adjusted so we will be able to attend the World Cruise dinner in Sidney. We will attend the Opera the second night - seeing Turandot - rather than The Marriage of Figaro.

There have been two empty seats at our table since we arrived. We asked the dining room staff to investigate. Apparently, the couple assigned does not intend to eat with us - there are several other options on the ship, and you can always eat in your room and have room service. We are recruiting another couple to fill the empty seats. We successfully recruited another couple.. They are from Baltimore, so now there are four Americans and four British at our table in the evening. Last night they featured dance music of the 50s and 60s. Ah, the good old days.

In order to survive on a long cruise one must do laundry. Jean has located the Laundromat (two on each floor). No quarters needed here. So by noon on the 11th, we had clean clothes. With over 2,000 passengers,  securing a washing machine can take fortitude and determination. The weather continues to calm down. The temperatures are now in the low 80s. We have not tried either of the pools yet, but we have our swimming suits.

The U.S. Homeland Security folk are protecting us in Hawaii as well, not just on the mainland. We learned from two members of the crew, who took the tour with us on Oahu, that they had missed the morning tour they should have taken because they were detained by a Homeland Security team which interrogated them, checked their toothpaste, and all their luggage. One was a medical student, who is working as a printer on the ship, and the other was a friend of his.  Homeland Security found nothing.

On February 12, at 11:30 AM we crossed the equator - we are now in the southern hemisphere. There was a ceremony later today to induct the “pollywogs” who have never crossed before - which will include King Neptune and his seaweed court. We are on our way to Pago Pago (which seems to be pronounced “Pango Pango“), so by Tuesday, we should be in American Samoa.

My only disappointment so far is the slow internet connection from the ship. I had intended to include photographs with my blogs. When I tried to upload the pictures from Hawaii, the connection never succeeded, but just restarted in the middle of the first picture several times. This has implications for virus protection as well. Norton is fussing that I am “at risk.” It does not seem to have a setting for slow connections. I was going to show you a picture of the equator.