December 30 - Auckland, New Zealand

We arrived  early this morning in Auckland.  The docks are right downtown by the very ornate Edwardian Auckland Ferry Terminal completed in 1912.  When I looked out from my balcony I saw a large car carrier which was unloading new cars to be sold here.  At breakfast I saw what was on the other side and there was a gigantic Princess ship which dwarfed us.  It’s the Royal Princess which is a little more than 400 feet  longer than the Quest and carries not quite nine times as many passengers.

The Ferry Terminal

We look tiny by comparison to our neighbor.

Two friends and I went ashore in the late morning and started walking up Queen Street, the Fifth Avenue of downtown Auckland.  We walked through a mall which featured lots of designer shops and was busy with many holiday shoppers.  I’m sure many were passengers from the Royal Princess but there also appeared to be lots of regular tourists, many of them Asian.  In the pedestrian area between the Commercial Bay Shopping Mall and the Waitemata Station was a large metal Christmas tree decorated with lots of ornaments and lights.  I confess to pinching this photo from the internet because I couldn’t get a good shot of it. The railway station itself is another Edwardian building completed in 1912 and originally the Central Post Office.

The big Christmas tree

A few of the very modern buildings in downtown

The railway station that began life as a post office in 1912. Quite a contrast in architecture.

We continued walking up Queen Street which was lined with more designer shops like Gucci, Dior and Prada, not places I would shop!  We ran into one of our friends who had just disembarked.  She was spending a night here before flying home to the UK and decided to do some shopping before leaving.  It’s a small world.  We were about to turn back when one of us saw a sign on a closed-up store with an arrow pointing around the corner and advertising a vintage jewelry store.  We followed the arrow and came to a lovely shop that had some beautiful things and we each found something we liked.  We evidently made the sales ladies’ day because she produced a little bottle of champagne so we could celebrate with a toast.  It was a little pre-New Year’s Day treat for the three of us.

We got back to the ship in time for a late lunch. Since half the last group of passengers got off and a new contingent got on there were lots of people wandering around learning where everything is.  They’ll learn quickly.  Before we sailed the captain came on the public address system throughout the ship to advise us of a change in our itinerary.  There’s a big low-pressure system crossing the country directly in our path.  As a result the captain decided to adjust our speed so we’ll now arrive in Wellington late in the afternoon on New Years Day and we’ll stay there overnight.  That also means we’ll miss our stop in Kaikoura on January 2.  If you sail on a ship you need to be flexible about itineraries.  

I had dinner with friends and went to the show (which I’ve seen several times already, but that’s okay; it’s entertaining).  I went to the club for a little while and I only did a little dancing.  Tomorrow there will be a big New Year’s Eve bash with dancing which should be interesting if we’re doing a lot of rocking!  So, good night for now.

December 29 - We made it to New Zealand!

Oh, dear, once again I’m behind in writing about what I’ve been up to.  My only excuse is that I’m having way too much fun.  We’re earning a reputation of being “The Pack,” because we’re generally together and we laugh a lot.  Two of our members are getting off the ship tomorrow in Auckland and that will be sad, but perhaps we’ll find some new folks.

So, what have we been doing these last couple of days.?  On Saturday, December 28, we anchored in the Bay of Islands which is on the northeast coast near the top of the North Island of New Zealand.  It was a gorgeous, sunny, breezy day with little humidity.  I think we really lucked out.  A front had gone through and just as in Virginia when a low pressure system passes through, sometimes on the back side we get crisp, fresh air. That’s what we had all day.  We took the tender over to Waitangi, at a dock at the Waitangi Yacht Club.  

This is the Bay of Islands. Isn't it beautiful?

I should tell something about the significance of this place.  Very close to where we landed were the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. It is on this site that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in  February 1840 between the British by Captain William Hobson who represented the Crown and the Maori  chiefs of the North Island.  While not technically a treaty because it was never ratified, it does provide a guideline for biculturalism in modern New Zealand society and it is interpreted as having established a partnership between equals which may not have been the British Crown’s intention at the time.  Anyway, from some of the lectures I’ve heard the British New Zealanders  treated their indigenous population better than the aborigines in Australia have been treated .We didn’t walk through the Treaty Grounds but instead took the ship’s shuttle to the ferry pier for a ride over to the little town of Russell on the other side of the bay.

This critter next to my friend greets people arriving via ferry to the little town of Paihia which is the ferry terminus.

Russell was a charming little place with lots of shops and cafés and pubs.  There’s a tree-lined promenade along the waterfront with a beach below.   It was Saturday and there were lots of New Zealand families here for a summer weekend during the Christmas holidays. We walked in several shops and found some nice scarves with New Zealand flora-inspired prints.  I am determined to learn how to wear scarves to augment my traveling wardrobe.  One of my friends wears them effortlessly and they can dramatically change the look of an outfit.  I want to be able to do that too.

This fearsome face meets you arriving in Russell.

This is Russell along the bayfront.

Some child decided to store his sandals here for safekeeping and it just tickled me.

After wandering for a while, looking in on the very small Maritime Museum, and taking lots of pictures of the beautiful bay we took the ferry back to the other side and headed back to the Quest.  It wasn’t a particularly exciting day to write about, but it was so nice to experience. 

As I write this it’s Sunday December 29 and we had a glorious day in our next stop, Waiheke Island.  This island is close to Auckland and in fact there are people who commute to the city via a 40-minute ferry ride.  As an aside, that means we’re going to basically drift to Auckland tonight because we’re that close.  My friend Colleen, who splits her time between New Zealand and Australia,  organized a girls’ trip to a wonderful vineyard named Mudbrick.  In addition to being an absolutely gorgeous place with great wines, there is a marvelous restaurant.  She made reservations for us to have lunch there.  We took a cab and got to Mudbrick early enough to have a wine-tasting first.  Waiheke Island evidently has just the right climate to produce excellent wines.  It has plenty of sunshine during this hemisphere’s summer and just enough cool nights and rain to produce award-winning Bordeaux wines and Chardonnays. After we had tasted six of Mudbrick’s wines we had lunch outside on the terrace overlooking vineyards nearby. In the distance we could see Auckland’s downtown with its Sky Tower and other tall buildings .  

The terraces at Mudbrick

That's Auckland off in the distance

The grounds around Mudbrick

Also in the distance we could see Rangitoto Island, a shield volcanic cone that is the largest and youngest of the approximately 50 volcanos in the Auckland region.  The volcano, which rises to about 850 feet, was formed in two eruptions only about 600 years ago.  That's pretty new in the world of volcanos. New Zealand is located on the area where the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates meet so it’s right on the Ring of Fire.  Many of the volcanos on the North Island are active while most on the South Island are dormant.  I remember about 5 years ago a volcano on White Island off the coast of the North Island erupted while a group of almost fifty people were visiting.  22 people died including two whose bodies were never found and the other 25 were injured, several of them with severe burns requiring intensive care. I believe a couple from the Richmond area was injured.

Rangitoto Island and volcano

Back to lunch at Mudbrick.  It was exquisite.  We each ordered a 3-course set menu which came beautifully plated and with interesting combinations.  I had a plate of scallop crudo (raw scallop) served with a pistachio cream, koji ice cream (koji is some kind of soybean) and a puréed parsnip sauce.  For my main course I had the fish of the day which was supposed to be a local snapper and then I had the most wonderful meringue and berry dessert.  It was delicious.

Notice just a few wine glasses on the table.

The Solo Ladies Pack

After lunch we headed back in a cab to the tender dock to return to our home for the next two weeks.  Almost all of us were invited to a table hosted by one of our speakers and his wife.  Had it not been for the fact that we liked them and they are leaving tomorrow, I think we all would have missed dinner because we were too full. After dinner I went to hear the marvelous guitarist.  He can make a guitar make sounds I didn’t know were possible.  Following the show, I went to the Club for a nightcap and to say goodbye to some friends getting off tomorrow.

For now it’s time to say Pō marie, Good night.

December 27 - Day 70 on the Quest

Another sea day, another day of bouncing around.  We’re on our third  sea day between Tonga and Waitangi, New Zealand.  The natives are getting restless!  I’m sitting in the Square as I write this and I’ve overheard plenty of conversations of people declaring that they’re tired of sea days.  I think the motion of the ocean has something to do with it too.  After lots of cruising and lots of people watching I’ve come to understand that there are two types of cruisers – those who cruise because they love to be on a ship and those who cruise because they see it as a convenient and enjoyable way to get from point A to point B.  For them the itinerary and destination are more important.  I think I may have begun as the latter but I’ve evolved into the former.  I still care about where I’m going but I find now that the socialization I get while on a ship is even more important.  From my conversations with my friends onboard I know that it’s not unusual for us seniors who’ve lost our spouses to sometimes feel isolated and missing a lot of social interaction.  That’s not true for all of us, but I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. Being taken care of on a cruise is wonderful, but the friendships made are priceless.

Enough introspection.  Yesterday the sea trials for the boat-building competition were held in the pool.  The five-year-old twin boys won with their entry which successfully carried the large tin of caviar across the pool.  Our Entertainment Manager James, who besides being a really nice person is also a Scouser (figure that one out), agreed to be a passenger in one of the entries.  I think there was a little favoritism shown to the youngsters, but that’s okay.  It is Christmas.  As you’ll see James had a tougher time getting out of his vessel than sailing it.

Today we had our last day of cumulative trivia.  We weren’t the overall winners, but in the betting round we bet all our points and we answered the final question correctly so we won! As someone who was very near and dear to me used to say,  “No guts, no glory.”  After trivia we had one of my favorite events on a ship, the Galley Market Lunch.  I’ve written about them before.  I always walk through the galley before I get anything to eat and take photos of the hard-working crew at their various stations.  The amount of work that goes into preparing all the food and displaying it beautifully is incredible.  When the galley staff and servers come parading out it's our chance to thank them for all, especially those behind the scene.

December 25 - Christmas on the Seabourn Quest

Merry Christmas!  As I write this Christmas is nearly over on this side of the world.  Last evening the ship and crew went all out to make Christmas Eve special.  We’ve had Christmas trees, poinsettias and lights around the stairway railings for a while.  On December 20th gingerbread houses, in fact whole villages, made appearances along with a train set around the largest tree.  We have three children on the ship and they got to make some gingerbread houses that were included in the displays. Then a couple of days later trays of Christmas cookies appeared around the ship just in case we wanted a little something sweet now and then.  On Christmas morning German stollen appeared at Seabourn Square and at the buffet.  

Kids having fun making gingerbread houses

In the early evening we gathered to do caroling in the Club.  We had song sheets with lyrics and a couple of hundred of us sang traditional carols as well as more modern ones like Rudolf the Red-nosed reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.  We finished our sing-along with Silent Night which always makes me a little teary-eyed.  After dinner the staff went all out in the Grand Salon with a “Family Christmas Show.”  All the regular crew entertainers along with the guest artists performed.  We were treated to wonderful music and dancing.  The captain closed the show with a lovely speech reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas.  As we left the salon most of the crew members were there to wish us all a merry Christmas and it gave us an opportunity to thank them for the hard work they do every day with such wonderful smiles.  It was a lovely evening.

Christmas morning it was bright, beautiful and warm.  We’re heading southeast, a little off our normal course, in order to try to minimize a pretty strong low-pressure system making its way across the Tasman Sea toward New Zealand’s North Island.  The captain announced at noon that he had speeded up to better position us in relation to the storm as we approach NZ.  Tomorrow, Boxing Day, we are in for some rough seas and perhaps rainy weather later in the day.  But today the sun is out and all is well.  Despite it being Christmas Day since we were at sea we played trivia at noon.  After trivia we started what may be a new Christmas tradition of ordering pizza for lunch.  By ordering, I mean we actually ordered pizzas with the toppings we all liked and they served us out at the patio by the pool.  It’s something I never realized we could do until this cruise.

In the evening we six ladies met in the Club and toasted the day and one another with a nice bottle of champagne.  Then we adjourned to the Colonnade for dinner.  It was formal night and we were all dressed up, but we chose to go to the less formal venue because it would be quieter.  It was lovely.  Not many tables were occupied and we could laugh and enjoy ourselves without disturbing anybody.  After dinner the Bar Manager arranged for us to get our favorite chocolate and coffee drink from the specialty restaurant.  We lingered so long that we missed the show, but that was okay because we had so much fun. Two of our group are leaving in a few days in Auckland and that will be sad, but for now we’re enjoying our time together.

December 24 - Land Ho ! It’s the Kingdom of Tonga

After three sea days we arrived in Nuku’alofa, the capital of the kingdom of Tonga, on the island of Tongatapu. Tonga has 171 islands, only 45 of which are occupied, and a population of about 107,000, most of them living on Tongatapu. The island group stretches over approximately 500 miles here in the South Pacific. Interestingly Tonga was never conquered or colonized by a foreign country; instead it has maintained its independence and in fact at various times ruled many of the other small island groups around, including parts of New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and even as far east as French Polynesia. From 1900 to 1970 it had British Protected Status for the purposes of defense and diplomacy. Until 2010 Tonga was an absolute monarchy, but in that year a constitution was passed and it became a constitutional monarchy ruled by King Tupou VI.

Before I forget, yesterday we lost December 22; it just was gone with the wind.  I went to bed on December 21 and voilà, when I woke up it was December 23.  We’re now 18 hours ahead of EST. 

I decided to take a tour which included an island drive to the east coast where there are blowholes – rocky coastline with areas in which the incoming surf comes in and blows through holes in the rocks creating a geyser effect.  To get to the area where they are we passed through lots of fields of taro, pineapple, banana, purple yams, breadfruit and various other local crops. The soil is very rich, black and volcanic .The fields might have looked rich but not so the houses or villages.  Many of the houses look very dilapidated and there was quite of bit of garbage and junked cars lying around.  The only places that looked well-maintained were the many religious compounds and schools.  Christianity has hit hard here.  I was amazed at the number of churches in such a small area. In addition to churches many of the denominations have opened colleges and universities here.  I’m not sure if they are institutions of higher education as we know them, since in many cultures “college” means something more like upper grades in our K-12 system.   I also found it interesting that the majority of the Tongans I saw, both male and female, wore a cross around their necks.

Following the trip to the east coast for the blowholes we crossed the island to go to the No.1 Restaurant and Resort ‘Oholei Beach.  There is only one main road on the island and most of the other roads are dirt, very bumpy and narrow.  Our bus was a local island bus with no A/C and I think a broken suspension system because we felt every bump and pothole.  When we arrived at the “resort,” (it’s a very generous interpretation of the word resort) we were greeted by the patriarch of the family that owns the compound.  I should write a little about this man and his family because I found it very interesting.  He introduced us to his wife of 42 years who was a very beautiful and stately Tongan woman with silvery hair.  They have eight children, the youngest of whom is an 8-year-old boy who I’ll write more about in a moment.  Evidently on Tonga families have as many as 10 or 12 children.  According to Tongan law, only an eldest son can inherit the property of his father.  But on reaching the age of majority, boys can buy 8 acres of land from the King to build their own homestead if they wish to.

The name speaks for itself

The ‘Oholei Resort and Restaurant were on perched a 100 feet or so above the shore below.  It used to be down on the beach level but in 2022 an underwater volcano near Tongatapu erupted spewing a column of ash that rose as far as 12 miles up and triggered a tsunami with wave heights as much as 66 feet on Tonga.  The resort was wiped out and numerous lives were lost because there was no warning; the tsunami arrived so quickly.  Our host attributed the survival of himself and his family to God watching over them.  (It was clear that the whole family is deeply religious.)

After he had introduced himself and told us a little about the history of his place he had a young man (I’m guessing no older than 20) climb up a coconut tree and drop down a couple of nuts.  It was amazing to watch how he scrambled up the tree.  Once back on the ground he gave a demonstration of removing the hull using just a stick, opening the hull with one poke of a knife and then grating the coconut on the end of a sort of metal washboard with a sharp point.  The fresh coconut tasted divine.

Using a sharp stick to husk a coconut in no time flat

Following the demonstration those who wanted to could walk down a series of 60 steps to the waterside to see a cave and the rocky shoreline.  I didn’t choose to do that nor did my friends.  Instead we went inside and listened to some music and waited for lunch to be served.  When the cave-lookers got back up we all went outside where lunch was being prepared luau style.   There was a pig roasting over open coals and food that had been cooked in another pit covered with palm fronds.  After we saw the process we went back in to be served lunch.  The meal was pretty good. The two most interesting things were a purple yam which was delicious and some breadfruit. I can’t say much for that; it may be a staple in this part of the world but it didn’t taste like much of anything to me.

The view from the top

That's the breadfruit

The local beer

The best part of the luncheon was the entertainment.  There was a three-piece band consisting of the patriarch on the guitar, another man on a keyboard and this delightful eight-year-old youngest son on the drums.  They played music while we ate and then the dancing began.  I’m not sure but I think all the dancers were family members.  The dances were a little like Polynesian dancing but not nearly as much hip-swaying.  The men who danced were more like their Hawaiian cousins than the women although maybe not quite as dramatic.  The pièce de resistance was the 13-year-old boy who did a fire dance.  He was absolutely incredible!

The 8 year old drummer.  I loved his smile.

The father, lovely mother and their youngest son, the drummer

After the show was over we reboarded our island bus and headed back to Nuku’alofa and our home away from home.  I’ll write more about our Christmas Eve festivities later because they deserve a post of their own.  For now Happy Christmas Eve back in the USA.

December 21 - Not in Alofi, Niue

We were supposed to be in Niue today, but instead we’re somewhere in the South Pacific sailing through a totally calm ocean (the Pacific is living up to its name) at the blazing speed of seven knots on a course heading 274.4° W.  Our stop in Niue was canceled because there is limited capacity for shipping  and a cargo ship was scheduled to be there today.  Since everything on the island must be brought in by ship, it’s understandable to me that a ship carrying cargo would take priority over a bunch of cruise ship passengers.  Instead, we are headed directly to our next stop in Tonga.

Since I last wrote we skipped another port, Aitutaki, one of the Cook Islands, because of rough seas which made it impossible for us to enter through the reef and launch tenders to go ashore. For several days before we arrived in the Society Islands (French Polynesia) we were sailing along the eastern edge of a weather system which caused our rough seas and difficulty getting into a couple of ports.  I think that system has finally moved on because yesterday and today we’ve been sailing in flat calm seas. If this were a sailing vessel we might be becalmed and it is also hotter than blazes outside.

Water, water everywhere!

We did manage to stop in Rarotanga, Cook Islands.  These islands are an independent country in the area called Oceania in the South Pacific and they are in a free association with New Zealand. Most of the Cook Islanders are dual citizens holding New Zealand citizenship as while as from Cook Islands.  The official currency is the NZ dollar. We tendered ashore in Avarua, the capital of the islands.  Rarotonga is the largest of the island group with an area of a little over 26 sq. miles.  It’s volcanic with several tall mountain peaks, all of which are covered with lush vegetation.  Two friends and I tendered ashore and walked around in the little downtown area.  There was a local market selling arts and crafts as well as fruits and vegetables.  Under a little tent there was a four-piece band playing music on a bandstand with rows of chairs for onlookers.  Outside, a couple from our ship began dancing and one of the local vendors was dancing with a chair for a partner.  Just behind that pavilion was what appeared to be an outdoor food court with people having lunch from a variety of food vendors.  We really weren’t tempted because among other things it was awfully hot and humid.  We looked in a couple of the shops and stands but didn’t see anything we were tempted to buy.  We did see a Christmas tree made of coconut husks and decorated with flowers which was very unusual.

This and the next two are views of Rarotanga

Looking down the market street

The coconut husk tree

The little local band

After walking to what appeared to be the end of the town we did find a place where we could take some good pictures of our home away from home.  Feeling hot and sweaty we decided it was time for the walk back to the tender dock and a return to the air-conditioning on our ship.  There is something about intense heat and humidity which is very draining.

Aside from that these sea days have been the typical lazy ones.  I’ve gone to several talks by the guest conversationalists.  I’ve heard about the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, Australia’s position in the Indo-Pacific region and tales of old sea captains including some interesting old sea shanties.  So far none of the speakers has been able to offer a solution to any of the world’s problems.  Too bad.  I have found it interesting that most of them don’t have any idea of what to expect from the incoming administration.  I’ve heard one who seems to think that Putin preferred the outcome we had in our election and another who said he thought Putin and other leaders would be kept more off balance and thus more cautious with the new leadership.  I’m not an expert like they are, but I tend to believe the latter is truer.  Anyway, time will tell.

I realize this hasn’t been a particularly exciting few weeks as I’ve sailed to new parts of the world.  I should have expected that these tropical islands, many of them little more than atolls or volcanic rocks in the middle of the ocean, are all very similar and all very hot and humid.  I’ve seen them now and I think my curiosity has been satisfied.  Overnight this evening we'll be crossing the International Date Line and December 22 will vanish from our lives.  Tomorrow when I get up I will have been transported to December 23rd and will have lost a day of my life.  Technically we aren't crossing the line until around 9 AM but for operational reasons and to keep our brains from being completely muddled we'll make the change while we sleep.  Regardless of what my watch and devices say I know that what counts is what the captain says the time and day are and that's what I'm going by.  So bye bye from somewhere at 4:30 PM on December 21, 2024.