Frances Down Under Part II

I ain't hairy like a sheep either! :P WELCOME HOME!!!!!! *HUGS*

Welcome back Home Frances !!!! and thank you for the wonderful Travel report !

I loved it !! we all did

hugs

Anita

Home

Left Auckland Friday about 20:00, 12 hour flight, av LAX 11:00 local, a bit late. Rush through immigration, baggage claim and customs. If you fly often, the US Global Entry/Trusted Traveler program is a time saver. Have to go to a different terminal to get to the gate for the 1:30 flight to NYC *puff puff*. Another five and a half hours to JFK, and then another two hours to collect luggage and ride home. 22 hours of travel time and still get home on the same Friday I started out on. Good to be home.

Auckland

“Last Stop! Everyone get the f— off!”   We’ll, a bit more polite than than that,  but just as insistent. Evicted from our lovely, if small, home of 24 days.  Since our flight doesn’t leave until 19:30, and we have to get off the ship by 9, booked a Maori culture experience tour to fill time. Got a call, it’s canceled, need an alternate.  

I’ve never in my life thought I’d visit a place called “Sheepworld”, but there you have it.  Nice demos of working dogs herding sheep, sorting the sheep, and shearing. An expert shearer can shear one sheep in 90 to 120 seconds.  Speed is of the essence, as they are paid per sheep.

Dog (middle left) herding sheep into corral

@Cyndi_J_ - just kidding - sorting sheep, (pink, blue, blonde) with friend *grin*

Shearing demo 

A bit of a snack at some historic pub, not quite lunch, not quite tea, and off to Auckland airport to kill four hours before flight.  

Bay of Islands

For the last day of the cruise *sniff* visited the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves.  They are limestone caves where bioluminescent worms live on the ceiling, their butts glowing like tiny greenish stars in the sky.  They even have a section called the Milky Way”; and it does remind me of that.

The caves have significance for the indiginous Maori, and have been in one of the families for five generations.  Due to the fragility of the caves, and religious significance, I could not take pictures past the entrance, and once inside, had to agree.  For memories, they do sell a package of five postcards for NZ$5, US$3, so hardly gouging.  

Entrance to the cave

We also walked through an old growth subtropical Puketi forest, which is home to wildlife and flora, most notably Kauri trees.  Comparable but not related to the Redwoods of California, some Kauris have been estimated as 2,500 years old, and the largest has girth over 15m, or over 50 feet.  

Kauri tree

Well worth the two and a half hour round trip.  

Fun Fact for the day, NZ only had three species of land mammals, all bats, before the Europeans came.  All the higher predator nitches were filled by birds, insects and lizards. No snakes as NZ has none, and it’s illegal to bring any in.  NZ has very stringent biosecurity laws, you cannot even bring a cup of coffee.

Tauranga

Time to release my inner nerd!  Hobbiton™ Movie Set is built on a rolling farm about 75 minutes from the port.  The location was picked because the director Peter Jackson, could not see any evidence of modern civilization that far into the property,  no roads buildings or telephone poles. The original set created for “Lord Of The Rings” was temporary, but rebuilt for “The Hobbit” as a permanent feature.   Amazing details, they don’t let you about without a keeper, but he had several stories about what when on during filming,  

Bag End

Party Tree

The Green Dragon 

Yes, the sea is endless like my beauty and charm! *fluffs hair* BTW? You better bring us back some of that candy you teased us with!!! If you don't I will sic our pitbull Bon Bon on you!!!! :P

At sea

Last sea day, just relaxing, and packing up what we can for the trip home.  I’ll leave you with a picture of a lenticular cloud, which I have heard of but seeing for the first time.

Picton

Pick-up sticks, anyone?  NZ is a major exporter of timber, and I’ve seen piles of cut trees in every port except Akaroa.  

But on to what we did.   “A balanced diet is a glass of wine in one hand, and a piece of chocolate in the other”.  Picton is the gateway to the Marlborough wine region. Drove through the mountains to the plains beyond, some rolling,but mostly flat.  Passed through that really quickly, NZ is not that wide, and came upon another hilly area, but this time vineyards as far as could be seen. 

Welcome to Yealands Vineyards, the largest contiguous vineyard in NZ.  The founder, Peter Yealands, quit, or was kicked out of school at 15, and has had a string of eclectic business ventures since.  

The vineyard is run on a zero carbon emissions basis.  About half of its energy needs are met using solar, efficient burning of vine cuttings, and some windmills.  They also use a type of dwarf sheep to trim the grass, but are not tall enough to harm the vines.

Loved the Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as the other vintages.

Then onto a craft chocolateteer, bought a macadamias butter chocolate selection.  Makes up for my missed Halloween treats. So there, @Cyndi_J!

The hour I’ll never get back

Ever been in a really worthless meeting or class, and think “That’s an hour I’ll never get back”?  Well, at least you experienced that hour. I lost an hour today that I'll never see.

When I left New York, the time zone was Eastern Daylight SavingsTime EDST, having “Sprung Forward” and losing an hour.  Arriving in Sydney, time zone Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time. When DST started, everyone lost that one hour to the “spring forward” regardless of location.  

Fast forward to today.  EDST ends, and the U.S. “falls back” an hour so now everyone there gets their hour back.  Not me! I’m in New Zealand, still in their DST. When I fly back on Friday I’ll have missed getting my hour back, never to be seen again!

Akaroa

Akaroa is a very pleasant seaside town, on a huge protected harbor that is one of the calderas of the extinct Banks Peninsula volcano.  The area has always been a vacation spot for nearby Christchurch,but the permanent residents are at less than 1000. The harbor, though did not become a cruise port until after the Christchurch earthquakes damaged Lyttelton Harbor, which is closer to that city.  

Took a very scenic, if sometimes harrowing, drive of several hours in the mountains surrounding the harbor.  While not as steep as the terrain in the Sounds, NZ is still a very mountainous country. 

Last stop was a private museum, gardens, and bed & breakfast called Giant’s House. The work of over 23 years by the artist Josie Martin, it is an amazing collection of art, mosaics and horticulture.   I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Dunedin

Moreki Boulders

The Moreki Boulders are are a concentration of spherical rocks, called septarian concentrations -which I won’t try to explain,  look it up - that formed under ground near the ocean and exposed by erosion of the cliffs they are in. Pretty much the highlight of the day.  This needs a couple of pictures, so bear with me.  

This is the common picture you will see, but taken with my camera.

I call this one the Death Star

I like this one because it shows the boulder being “born”

Oamaru Victorian District 

Oamaru is a large town on NZs South Island that has a rich history, both Maori and colonial, but unfortunately, not reflected by the Victorian District.  Two long streets, with heritage preservation buildings, containing various shops selling all sorts of items, from hand crafts, to Victorian type clothing, and then the usual souvenir stuff.  The district is trying to capitalize on the steampunk movement, and has festivals in the summer for that. There is a building that calls itself “Steampunk HQ”, admission NZ$10, don’t. Since that was included in my tour price, I didn’t feel too ripped off.  It does have an impressive engine out front. Bottom line, find other things to do in Oamaru.  

Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony

This is why we picked this particular tour.  See a real penguin colony! Well, we saw the colony, but the disclaimer that says that there’s no guarantee that you will see penguins, should have read “you are guaranteed NOT to see adult penguins because they will all be out to sea feeding during the day, and won’t be back until evening after your ship has left”.   Did see a couple of chicks hiding in the nest via a viewing room, no cameras or phones allowed. Did get to see a seal. So don’t go to see penguin colonies unless you are hanging around until evening.

More Milford 

The Sound is worth two pictures.  The mountains, clouds, and the sun playing peekaboo all morning.  I would not have been able to take this picture two minutes before or after I took this one.  Just beautiful! The Sounds are full of wildlife, saw some seals, but not any penguins. Maybe tomorrow.

Landfall New Zealand

Spent the first day in NZ cruising three fjords, Milford, Doubtful, and Dusky Sounds, all part of Fiordland National Park.   They were created the same way as their Scandanavian counterparts, carved out by glaciers, and then filled with water as the glaciers melted.  To quote Nicholas Van Rijn, this is “where the only flat is the map!” (“The Man Who Counts”, Poul Andersen). Waterfalls everywhere, this is Bowen Falls, dropping 162 meters, 564 feet into Milford Sound.

Well Simoni gave us all candy and I ate YOUR share! :P Hurry back we miss you! Glad you are havin' a great time! *hugs*

At Sea

Halloween is also a sea day, second in a row that we cross the Tasman Sea from Tasmania to New Zealand.  Gale force winds are not uncommon at these latitudes, and today is no exception. Rock’n and roll’n, which gives the pools their own surf.   The water level rose and fell about 16 or 17 inches, about half a meter.  Sorry I’m missing tonight’s party, but having a great time here!

Happy Halloween!

Due to he wonders of the International Date Line,  Halloween is today, and the ship decorated. I’m also finally caught up on my posts.

Tasmania 

Ohh boy!  Finally get to see a Tasmanian Devil.  Impressive teeth, but does not spin like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons *grin*.  Apparently Warner Brothers confused or combined Taz with Wombats. Taz can run at about 8 mph, 13 kph, but Wombats can get up to 25 mph, 40 kph.

And while Taz is a meat eater, and occasional hunter, she’s mostly a scavenger, and will aggressively protect her territory.  

This picture is of a Joey, about 10 months old at a rescue foundation.

Rest of the day continued the tour to a historic town named Richmond.  Many buildings preserved from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which is old for Australia.  Nice artsy shops, but one with beautiful carved wood.  

At Sea

Most at sea days have some cloud cover, which makes sense when you think of all sea water evaporating in the sun.  This makes for some amazing sunsets when the clouds don’t obscure the horizon. Enjoy, I sure did.

Back to Sydney, and Sail Away again

We dock back at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, same place from which we sailed.  Disembarkation of a 2,800 passenger ship is a study in organized chaos. Organized, because the cruise line does this about 500 times a year, and pretty much has its act together.  Chaos, because most of the cruisers only do this every few years, if not for the first time, and only have a passing acquaintance with their role.  

Having put your bags that you are not carrying off out in the hall the night before, you are assigned a disembarkation number that corresponds to your travel arrangements.   The earlier your flight, the lower your number and the time slots range from about 7:30 to as late as 10 AM, depending on the line, and ship. The catch is that they want everyone out of their cabins by 8:30.  It’s turnaround day, and it’s a top to bottom refresh of the cabins, so all of the common areas are crowded with sleepy people struggling to maneuver between everyone else’s carry off bags!

As back to back passengers, we are excused from this ignominy (granted, for 12 days) and can wait to the luxurious hour of 9AM to vacate our cabin, as we have the same one for both cruises.  We pass through Australian immigration & customs again, handing in their forms, even though we never touched any port outside of Australia. *Sigh* Bureaucracy must have its day. After a bit of shopping, back on board at 11.  

Sail Away #2

Each Celebrity and Royal Carribean Cruise ship has a helipad, not to recover a helicopter, but to have a safe place to evacuate an injured or ill passenger/crew member via a rescue basket.  It is on the bow of the ship, just forward of a crew recreation area on deck six, and is usually off limits to passengers. However, back to back and suite passengers were invited there for the sail away.  It gave us a wonderful view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  

We had to pass through a crew only passage to get to it.  Since I’ve already published pictures of the bridge & Opera House, and you can see pictures of the helipad by searching for “Solstice helipad” images, I’ve a picture for you that you would not normally see - helipad operations instructions.