My Adventure Down Under

Today was our second day at sea. The expedition team and myself were frantically working on photos for the slide show. I had taken over 1000 photos so far and the goal was to have every passenger represented in the slide show as well as to cover the complete trip.

The final lecture today was Rob talking at the Titanic dives. While not applicable for our voyage in New Zealand, over 50 people were on hand in the theatre on deck 6. His slides were great and based on the interest from people who stayed after the lecture; he may get some business from our passengers.

It was a bit rainy in the morning, but the weather cleared enough to keep the seas relatively calm. The original plan was to make a diversion to White Island, which boasts a smoking volcano cone, but to stick to the schedule, we headed straight for Whangaroa.

After dinner, there was a sing-a-long in the Galaxy Lounge on Deck 6. When we went up, the seas had taken a turn, and it was rock and roll up there! It was so bad I could barely anchor myself to take a photo. Nevertheless, about 15 people appeared and sang for about an hour. The only problem was the piano player never changed the key to accommodate semi-drunken singers. Many of the songs were too high for them and as a result, we sang Take Me Home Country Roads 4 times during the hour because it was in the right key for them.

The piano player, Peter, is Hungarian. He was on a cruise in the Caribbean and I had to devise a way to get him from Antigua to New Zealand avoiding US airports (so he wouldn’t have to obtain a transit visa, which can only be obtained in your home country). He flew Antigua, Heathrow, bus to Gatwick, Hong Kong, Auckland, and Napier! He was worth every penny!! He’ll be our musician on the European cruises also.

Tomorrow is golfing at Kauri Cliffs, the sister property of Kidnappers.

Today was our second golf outing at Cape Kidnappers. Everyone was very excited about the prospect and vowed to concentrate on their golf today instead of the scenery. After the shotgun, we were seated inside and Mrs. Robertson came down to the pro shop and climbed up and opened the windows for the air to circulate. They are both very hands on with their two properties.

Each day, expedition crew members were on hand to take photos of the course and our golfers. For our last night on board, they do a slide show of the entire trip and give everyone a copy of the CD as they disembark the following morning. It also gives them a great opportunity to see the area and take photos of something other than sea mammals and birds!

At the end of the day, we boarded the ship to cruise to our last stop, Whangaroa.

We docked this morning at Napier on the north island. Napier is a quaint seaside town (aren’t they all?!) with Art Deco flavor. Their Art Deco festival was the previous weekend but they were continuing the festivities with the worlds longest lunch table. Not sure if they broke the record or not!

Cape Kidnappers is an area where Captain Cook landed and his translator was taken hostage and later killed. It’s also the home to a Julian Robertson lodge and course. Julian is a hedge fund pioneer, went to school at UNC Chapel Hill, and bought several thousand acres in New Zealand and is currently valued at $900 mil in wealth. You drive about 45 minutes out of Napier, pull into what looks like a cattle/sheep farm, buzz the pro shop who opens the gate for you. You drive another 45 minutes through winding hillside trails, switchbacks, until you reach the top of the cliffs.

WOW! That’s all I can say about this location. He took a rolling hillside sheep farm and someone wedged a world class golf course into it. It’s challenging and sometimes you are hitting over a ravine full of fern trees or sheep are running through the green while you are trying to putt. It’s still a working farm! The pro shop retained many of the old sheep farm equipment and is designed to look authentic to the time period. Even the bar stools are constructed of old tractor seats.

The wind was very strong and everyone was prepared for rain. Fortunately, the skies held off and it was a great outing. Perhaps the best part was the ship sent its chef and crew with supplies to the course and grilled lunch for everyone. It was great food and enabled some of the crew to be off the ship. They even managed to hit some golf balls for the first time. We took a golf cart and drove the course and even managed to have a conversation with a foursome who was waiting on some of our players to finish the hole. Turns out it was Mr. Robertson himself out with some US friends. He was so very nice and in this small world we live in, one of his fellow players knew some of our golfers.

The other interesting area nearby is the worlds largest gannet colony. Special 4-wheel drive vehicles transported golfers after the round to the colony perched on the edge of the white cliffs. The smell was horrible, but the sight was amazing. They lay their eggs there, and the young take flight from there. Their first flight is 1600+ miles to Australia with no stops.

After the round, it was back to the ship for dinner and golf awards. The option for dinner in Napier was available, the ship reserves transportation for the crew into town until midnight, but everyone stayed on the ship. Why go elsewhere when the food is five stars here! Many of the crew did spend the day in town, some making phone calls back to the Philippines.

As you notice, there was not much going on after dinner. People were tired and knew they had to get up the next morning for golf. The most I ever saw were a few folks having a last cocktail in the lounge. I’m sure this suited the crew also.

Tomorrow is a repeat of today.

Today was our first day at sea. With good weather, we cruised to Marlborough Sound, an area between the two islands that comprise New Zealand. It was the site of Captain Cook’s first landing and is a protected nature area. It was a great photo opportunity, and an opportunity to use the zodiacs which would be required at our last stop (no dock available). We all gathered in the lounge with our smaller blue life vests. The expedition staff gave a brief introduction on how to wear the vests (more of “how to get inside them”), how to board a zodiac, and how to grasp forearms when doing so (if you let go, they still have a hold on you).

What followed should have been videotaped! The contortions, the twisting, the 2nd attempts. The problem is the vests do not come unbuckled. You have to put them on like a shirt, over your head then put your arms through the straps one by one. Several techniques were visible, none easy and certainly none comfortable. Everyone finally made it though.

Down to the embarkation platform, which is a hydraulic platform that is lowered from the cop of the ship. Eight people to a zodiac, three zodiacs to a pod. We motored to each island to view birds and their habitat. There were no beaches for landing, which was fine by me. The thought of these people having to jump out of the zodiac and wade ashore was nightmarish—they couldn’t even get the vests on easy!

We were out about an hour then back on board. I stood at the top of the platform stairs and took photos as people came back. Lunch was served on deck as we departing the sound for our voyage to Napier.

Knitting was spotted followed by many thanks from the ladies. Several groups formed bridge foursomes and many passengers were in the hot tub on deck 5 or reading on the sun deck. There was a great demand for massages, so much so that we could have used 2 masseuses.

Up next was the bridge tour. Groups of about 20 were escorted to the bridge where the Captain gave a wonderful presentation on the ship and it’s capabilities. Turns out the captain was perfect for PR relations, very funny and full of great one-liners. I guess he gets the same questions every cruise. The ship had state of the art electronics (it’s only a few years old) and is controlled with a joystick and a bow/stern thruster. There are always two crew members on duty at all times on the bridge and even though everything is planned with GPS, they still mark their direction and position on a map each hour and are all taught Morse code, light signaling, and how to navigate using a sextant and the stars.

He explained that the only ships who have the right of way all the time were fishing boats and sailing ships and that all other ships must defer to them, worldwide. He also explained the fire systems (which had already been used in our trip. The folks across from my cabin piled up their bed pillows until they reached the reading lamp and started a fire. It’s not fun to come back to your cabin and have the fans blowing the toxic fumes from your area!). Someone asked about a laminated index card affixed to the instrumentation panel. Once side says “Fins out” the other side says “fins in.” It’s a low tech solution to a potential devastating accident. Before you enter a port or lock, the stabilizer fins on each side of the ship must be retracted. There is a warning light on the control panel, but this captain's back up system was this card. Apparently there was an incident where a captain entered the Panama Canal locks with the stabilizers deployed. Everyone had to disembark and fly home after that incident!

The funniest explanation was the traditional ship wheel on the very front of the control panel. It’s fake! They had so many people question how the ship is steered, they had a crew member carve it and bolt it to the front. It’s a great photo opportunity also!

After the bridge tour, there was a 2nd lecture on sea mammals of the area. Again, 80+ attendees. Mick did a great job despite being quizzed at the start on the characteristics of mammals. He had a simple slide outlining the 5 characteristics. Someone raised their hand and asked if there were any animals that only have 4 of the characteristics of mammals. He managed to think of a few, and then a second hand asked if there were any who only had 3. Afterward, he said he felt like he was back teaching college with first semester freshmen! He also told us they see a whale at least once a day in these waters but by the time they make an announcement, it would be gone.

Dinner was incredible—again! We always have two menus to choose from. One is the ship’s standard 5 courses with two options for each and the second is a gourmet option from a chef in Sydney. Mix and match! Two wine choices with the meal with others on request.

There was a little dancing after dinner by about 8 folks. I snapped a few shots and then it was bedtime.

Did I mention 42 below? It’s a New Zealand vodka. Very nice. Very popular.

Tomorrow we dock in Napier for play at the #1 golf course in the world, Cape Kidnappers!

The next morning we docked in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and had our first breakfast on board. My cabin is next door to the restaurant, so my commute is 10 seconds! The breakfast was wonderful! Continental with cereal, fresh juices, fruit I don’t even recognize, hot buffet, and best of all: name what you want from the chef in the kitchen. It was great! This was also the standard for dinner service. There was never a dessert menu so you just ordered what you wanted. Last night I ordered chocolate ice cream with sprinkles, just as a test. I got chocolate ice cream with sprinkles!

This morning we were scheduled to tour the national museum, TePapa, in small groups. It was only a 5 minute walk from the ship and for my taste, was a bit overdone. There was not a space on the wall anywhere that wasn’t covered with some graphic, sign, artifact, things hanging from the ceiling, it was too much. My eyes never had a moment to relax. I heard someone say it was like the walls were yelling at you!

The items therein were typical houses, carvings, canoes, and jade. The Mauri people are descendants of the people found in New Guinea, Samoa, and the same ones who populated Hawaii. There were different tribes who lived here and once Captain Cook arrived, followed by the missionaries, the Mauri were engaged in a civil war. They finally signed a treaty with the British, but due to some poorly translated passages, they lost their land. In 1975 a tribunal was launched to investigate reparations and should conclude their work by 2016. The tribes petition to receive compensation for their lost land and sometimes they are asking for an apology, some ask for money, and one tribe asked for the tallest mountain peak, Mount Cook to be renamed the original Mauri name, which was granted. All in all, they have managed to solve their problems in a civilized way.

The Mauri language is mandatory for all school children so most are bilingual. There are very little 100% Mauri people remaining, but most Kiwis’ can claim at least a portion of Mauri genealogy.

There is a full expedition team on board the Orion. They are employees of the ship and are all naturalists, scientists, and have extensive backgrounds in research. Rob is a Kiwi and was raised in New Guinea, He has worked for the NZ government with conservation projects for many years, is a translator for tours, has circumnavigated Antarctica and as a side project, is co-owner of a deep sea diving expedition diving on the Titanic and the Bismarck (he’s the one who worked with James Cameron preparing for the movie). Mick is an Aussie, former college instructor (tertiary education as they call it) and specializes in sea mammals. Darrin and Steph, engaged about 3 weeks, are both naturalists with several years of expedition service in the region.

One of the passengers came to me this morning and wanted me to find her and 3 other ladies knitting needles and yarn. My only contact with retail outlets on this is a choice between the ship boutique (and it’s pearl jewelry) and pro shops, not exactly the hotbed of kitting supplies. I hoped the next port of Napier might yield some shops nearby the dock. There would still be one day at sea after that for them to knit.

Today we are playing Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club (sounds just like it looks). It’s a semi-private club in a small seaside city on the commuter train line. You can’t see the ocean anymore because of the houses built on the shore. When we arrived, we quickly saw that the course was nearly complete brown with drought conditions. When a ball dropped, a small cloud of dust arose. Not the best for golfing but we’re stuck with it!

On the ride out, I was chatting with the bus driver and found out that he needed to go to the local shopping mall while everyone was golfing. We chatted with the other 2 drivers and the consensus was there might be knitting supplies there. I had also been asked to locate a Mahjong game also, so maybe a toy store would be there also. We drove a 50 passenger bus about 10 minutes down the road to the mall.

This mall was like the malls of the 70’s in the US. It was one level, straight line with anchors at each end. Nothing exciting, but once they outgrew the enclosed mall, they just kept adding on store fronts all around the perimeter. It was a maze of sidewalks! We spotted the toy store so that was covered, and since he parked in the loading zone, we quickly canvassed the mall for knitting. After asking several folks at Woolworths (which was a grocery store) we found a placed called The Wool Shoppe. He went back to buy his item and a lottery ticket, so I purchased the knitting supplies and walked to the toy store by myself. I was nearly run over by 3 different cars before I could make it to the toy store. These people are the worst drivers I have ever seen. I found the game and made it back to the bus alive!

We were back at the course and I was sent to #18 to monitor play. In front of #18 was the putting green and I was entertained by a group of 8 year old boys with their golf lessons. The lady instructor worked very hard to keep them interested and to coach them not to make excuses for their poor putting. Already at this age, they were saying “that piece of grass was in my way” “the wind was too strong or it would have gone farther!” Very funny!

At the conclusion of play, I used one of the double carts (4 players and 4 clubs on the same cart!) to run a shuttle from the clubhouse to the buses. Everyone is so very nice when it comes time to pack their clubs. They all want to help even though we have plenty of staff people available to do it for them.

Once back on board the ship, we all hurried to shower and change for a 6pm lecture by Rob on NZ history. Although Kalos has never offered lectures before on their cruises, there were over 80 of the 93 passengers at his lecture. At one point, he made reference to the differences between US and NZ laws. For example, automobiles ALWAYS have the right of way! That it explains my near death experience in the parking lot of the mall. They expected me to get out of their way and I, the opposite. Sure wish someone would have told me!!

That evening we had dinner on deck. Most of the passengers opted for the downstairs restaurant, which was great for us. The maitre’d Clinton doted on every detail of the meal service and made sure we had a great time upstairs under the stars.