Around and Around We Go...Our Sea Day

25/10

We arrived at the White Islands about 3:30pm on our sea day. We spent four and a half hours circling this island! No kidding. There was a Gannet colony on it. We were able to see the Gannets fishing by folding up their wings and diving from high in the air. It was amazing! The Volendam's 'Travel Guide' Spencer Brown gave some commentary while we were sailing around it.

From Wikipedia:

The full Māori name for the island is 'Te Puia o Whakaari', meaning 'The Dramatic Volcano.' It was named 'White Island' by Captain Cook on October 1, 1769 because it always appeared to be in a cloud of white steam. Although Cook went close to the island he failed to notice that it was a volcano. Its official name is Whakaari/White Island although it is most well-known as White Island.

Attempts were made in the mid 1880s, 1898-1901 and 1913-1914 to mine sulphur from Whakaari but the last of these came to a halt in September 1914, when part of the western crater rim collapsed, creating a lahar which killed all 10 workers. They disappeared without trace, and only the camp cat (named Peter the Great) survived.

Some years later in 1923 mining was again attempted, but learning from the 1914 disaster, the miners built their huts on a flat part of the island near a gannet colony. Each day they would lower their boat into the sea from a gantry, and row around to the mining factory wharf in Crater Bay. If the sea was rough they had to clamber around the rocks on a very narrow track on the crater’s edge.

Before the days of antibiotics, sulphur was used in medicines as an antibacterial agent, in the making of match heads, and for sterilising wine corks. The miner’s diggings were handled in small rail trucks to the crushing and bagging process in the factory built on the island.

Unfortunately, there was not enough sulphur at Whakaari and so the ground up rock was used as a component of agricultural fertiliser. Eventually the mining ended in the 1930s because of the poor mineral content in the fertiliser. The remains of the buildings can still be seen, much corroded by the sulphuric gasses.

The area is now privately owned.

Note about blog format

So I'm new to this blogging stuff. I think if I post all the photos before the text that you should be able to enlarge them. If I include them IN the text, it doesn't appear they can be enlarged. So I'm going to put them all before the text, and you will have to figure out which ones are which. If I have time, I will eventually go back and fix the other posts as well.

Embarkation Day

24/10

Today we were up early again (still with the messed-up body clock) and off with Ian for another day of seeing beautiful, gorgeous, amazing New Zealand!

Our first stop was to see views from the 'South Head'. It was VERY windy!

Then we went to see 'Tane Mahuta'--the Lord of the Forest. It is New Zealand's largest surviving Kauri tree. Kauris were logged relentlessly and nearly to extinction.

Tane Mahuta is so huge as to be nearly incomprehensible. My jaw literally fell open when we came upon it. I could not believe how big it was!

Its trunk height is 58 feet; its total height is 169 feet. It's girth is 45 feet. BIG tree!

(The fellow in the photos that you kids don't know is Ian Shirley, our tour guide and owner of New Zealand Personal Tours.)

After that we went to the Kauri museum. No one took any photos inside! The furniture made from the Kauri wood was just beautiful. It has a kind of reddish look. Very ornate carvings since that was the style.

Our last stop was at the Muriwai Gannet Colony. There are three gannet nesting colonies on New Zealand's mainland, one at Farewell Spit at the very Northern tip of the South Island, one at Cape Kidnappers near Napier, and this one, at Muriwai beach North West of New Zealand's largest city, Auckland.

Muriwai is one of Auckland's so-called "West Coast" beaches, with good fishing, strong winds and rough waves. These conditions attract not only the gannets, but also surfers. This colony was only established around 1900, with the gannets displacing the white terns which had previously nested here. As you might expect of a maritime bird, they're very good at gliding, with wingspans up to 180cm (around six feet).

Gannets feed by diving from high up into a school of fish near the surface of the water. Just before they hit the water, they hold their wings out straight and bend them so they're pointing completely backwards, so they don't get damaged when hitting the water at high speed. They also take a gulp of air, which fills air sacs in their neck, providing cushioning just like an airbag in a car. Even so, many of them go blind from hitting the water so hard.

Gannets mate for life which is more than you can say about a lot of humans!

We also saw a seal down near the surfers.

Then it was off to the ship and embarkation!

The Northland

23/10

This morning we woke up really early—6:10am local time. After breakfast, Ian picked us up and we made our way over to the boat dock where we got on a Fuller’s Tour of the Bay of Islands.

We went from Paihia to Russell and then out to Cape Brett and Hole in the Rock. It was a very rocky ride, and I got seasick. Because of the sea state, we couldn ‘t go through Hole in the Rock (and Dada and I really didn’t see how the boat could fit anyway) so the girl-captain backed into it, much to our relief!

We had an hour’s stop on Urupukapuka Island so Dad bought me a Coke and a "pummet of chips’’ of fries (called an order of fries in American) which cured my seasickness. (I was sick in spite of having taken Meclizine! And we made sure to sit outside facing forward. No fair!)

We climbed up a hill and found Garion’s Tree!

Aunt Brigitte ran up a mountain with Dad and Uncle Mike chasing her. She finally got to see sheep which she was very excited about.

After we were booted off the Island, we returned to Russell and had lunch at a cute little café where Dad had a pear salad and I had my first-ever Pannini (YUM!). And we saw an amazing knarly tree called a "Morton's Bay Fig." (Garion's Tree is a Pahutakawa Tree.)

After lunch, we went to the museum in Russell that has a 1/5 replica of the Endeavour. It was AMAZING—at least to me. Everyone else was nice about my obsession. (During the Bay of Islands tour, we saw the Cove where Cook and the Endeavour spent a week. He came into the Bay of Islands to take shelter from a storm. It was a beautiful cove.)

After seeing the views from Flagstaff Hill, we then took the ferry to Opua. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a car on a boat before. It was kind of freaky!

Then we went to Kawiti Glowworm caves. They were AMAZING! There weren't as many glowworms as were in the Waitomo Caves, but we got a personal tour and were able to see the worms close up. We liked Kawiti Glowworms better in every way than Waitomo.

On our way back to Paihia, we stopped at Kawakawa to see the public toilets there. I am not kidding. Frederick Hundertwasser is a famous Austrian artist who adopted New Zealand as his home. In 1998 when the town of Kawakawa was undertaking renovations of the public toilets, he submitted a plan to make them a piece of modern art. The city accepted his plan, art students implemented it, and now it is an ENORMOUS tourist attraction and economic boost to the town. Incredible.

Ian took us to dinner at a local club for veterans. It was good, plain food.

We then went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to see a Maori Cultural Show. Uncle Mike was chosen to be one of the 'chiefs' from our group. He had to do a 'hongi'-a traditional Maori greeting where the chiefs press noses. It was very funny. Even funnier was when our 'chief', sitting in front of everyone, DOZED OFF during the show. (I am sooooooooo glad Dad wasn't chosen as chief!) We got back to our hotel about 10pm, and we were all completely desperate to get in bed. Jet-lag continues!

Let's Go Back...

Now that we're back in the land of fast and (relatively) cheap Internet, like Mr. Peabody, we invite you into our 'wayback' machine to read about the rest of our trip.

Ride ‘em, Cowboy!

03/11

We could not enter Milford Sound (01/11) because the winds (70 mph) did not die down as predicted. Sad. It was the most beautiful sound of all, reportedly. But it had a very narrow, treacherous opening, so we could understand why it was canceled. The Captain joked and said that now the pilot gets a free three-day cruise to Tasmania. I guess the pilot boat was at the exit to the sound and not at the beginning.

Milford Sound in the background of this photo. That’s all we got to see of it. The wind was blowing at 70mph. Notice the rainbow in the spray from the whitecaps.

And so began our traversing of the Tasman Sea across the “Roaring 40s” (latitude). It got VERY rough. Walking became difficult. Moments of almost weightlessness, following by bone crushing pressure. But it was complete mayhem in the dining room! The ship was rolling from side to side, followed by pitching from front to back, followed by some really strange lurching. It was the lurching that caused the problems. Many dinners went on the floor. Glass was shattering everywhere. The dining room started out only about two-thirds full, but was nearly a ghost town by the end. I’m sad to say we ‘lost’ Aunt Brigitte. She didn’t get the Bonine onboard soon enough. But you know it’s rough when your dining room steward offers you a seasickness pill and takes one himself. He declared, “This is the first time I’ve been in the Australian Sea, and it’s very rough.” Yes, Alberto, it is.

There is a liquor store onboard. It was a casualty of the rough seas too. Many, many bottles of liquor were broken all over the floor. (One wonders why they weren’t more prepared for it.) All of the other shops were closed after the liquor disaster. The rumor mill works just as well on the high seas as it does on land, and I can’t confirm this, but we were told the shop guy in the liquor store was injured by the broken glass bottles. Poor guy.

The sea was rough all day yesterday (02/11). There was no fresh-squeezed OJ for breakfast because there were no glasses because ‘too many were broken last night.” EEK. My lip gloss rolled off the desk, the desk drawer kept opening on its own, a heavy, glass kiwi I bought as a souvenir fell over, and the window curtain kept closing itself! Good thing we moved the ice bucket, glasses, and tray to the floor the night before along with the fruit basket. Although Dad did say we had a glass escape during the night and was rolling around when he got up.

It was formal night. I had to not wear my pretty shoes! (Tragedy. The Captain asked the women to wear ‘sensible, low-heel shoes’ for the evening.) Dinner was much better than yesterday. Maybe the stewards learned how to do the “Rough Seas Rhumba”.

Dad and I were invited to ‘after-dinner drinks’ with the Captain and the Hotel Manager. We did not enjoy it. We’re not cut out to be hob-nobbers, I guess. But I did enjoy asking the Captain how high the seas really were the day before. “12-15 feet with an occasional bigger one in the sequence.” We’ve never been in seas that high before! The Tasman Sea is certainly living up to its reputation.

The show was supposed to be the cast in a singing-dancing show. Instead a banjo player was substituted. I went to bed; the others went to play games. (Heard the banjo-ing was pretty good from someone the next day. Darn.)

Today the seas continued to be rough. The Captain said this morning that we should be out of it by afternoon. Then he came on this afternoon and said, “Sorry. The forecasts were wrong. We will continue to be in these rough conditions until later this evening.”

The cast show has once again been canceled. We will be seeing A JUGGLER tonight. I hope he’s been practicing on a moving stage! Could be really interesting.

04/11

What a relief it was to awaken when the seas were flat as a pancake, on our way in to the Burnie dock today!

The juggler was hilarious, and the rockin’ and rollin’ barely seemed to affect his act. In fact, it was probably funnier. He did a little dance move when it was rocking pretty good and said, “I just don’t understand why the dancers couldn’t perform. I’m dancing just fine!”

We enjoyed our day in Burnie. We saw a whale, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Koalas and Kangaroos, oh my! (And too many others to list. Burnie deserves its own post.)

Tonight our dining room steward was rushing dinner soooooooooo fast, I finally asked him why. The Captain gave us free drinks—the entire dining room. (We’ve been in Code Red for ten days—which also deserves its own post—and we’ve been greatly inconvenienced by it.) We had daquiris and Pina Coladas—virgin, of course. Anyway, the reason the steward was rushing dinner was so many glasses were broken the other night that there weren’t enough glasses for both sittings at dinner. So they had to have time to wash the glasses from the first sitting (5:45) to be prepared for the second sitting at 8pm. Heh.

I’m pleased to report that the seas are calm in spite of being in ANOTHER notoriously rough stretch of ocean.