Napier--where Gatsby would feel at home

Napier--The Art Deco Town where Gatsby would feel welcomed

What a lovely town.  We are still enthralled with New Zealand, every town is delightful, different from the others.  In 1931 a massive earthquake leveled the original town, but the good news was that unemployment due to the world wide depression was so high that there were plenty of workers to rebuild the town.  The town was build in the Art Deco style, which has been maintained and which leads to the charming appeal of Napier.  Upscale shops prove that New Zealand is alive and thriving.  The summer,  Wwhich we are about to enter, is welcoming to tourists both local and worldwide.  The town is immaculate, another friendly place.

We toured all about, going to the mountain peaks and into the valleys.  Local population and tourists enjoy walking the many trails through the hills, some rather steep, but all well defined.  Another chocolate factory, more wineries, and lots of produce as well as sheep.

Picton--where everyone is smiling

Picton--everyone is smiling

I spent much of the day trying to figure out what makes everyone we encountered in this town so friendly and happy (at least to all outward appearances).  We arrived in this very small town of 4000 inhabitants on a cruise ship of 1800 passengers and 800 crew, nearly doubling the town size.  We learned that these numbers were deceiving because Picton is a crossroads in New Zealand, a convergence of cruise ships, back packers, walkers, land baed vacationers of all ilks and persuasions.  The town greets them all.

We arrived in the early morning.  Waiting for us on the pier were towns folks bearing baskets of flower bouguets.  One bouquet for each passenger which they pinned to our clothing.  Our cynical selves were thinking initially that the bouquets marked the tourists, but no one we encountered the rest of the day didn’t bear that out.  We found all of the inhabitants friendly, generous, quick with a smile and a chortle, great sense of humor.  Nothing that happened during the day made us think any differently.

I visited the outdoor craft market which is set up for the tourists’ arrival by cruise ship.  Lots of loving hands at home, cottage industry home made items, many of which I also love to make.  Quilts, knitting, scarves, felting, wood work, and more.  The wind was high but no one complained.  One lady was holding onto the canopy over her wares and laughing.  She explained that she was trying to be Mary Poppins, smiling all the time  What a delightful attitude.  The town centre has plenty of shops, book stores, new and used, as well as second time around shops.  We lunched at a lovely cafe overlooking the port.  Stu enjoyed a seafood chowder while I lunched on a wonderful local lamb salad. The lamb was a bit strong, which i enjoyed so much.

The afternoon took us to local wineries, through the country side.  The land looked much like the Paso Robles area.  We weren’t very thrilled with any of the wines we tasted, although that is not indicative of New Zealand wines in general.  This is more indicative of the wineries that were chosen.                   

The next day was Wellington, the capital.  It was another city so Stu and I opted to give ourselves a day off.only  taking time to walk into town for wifi.  It was quite cold and windy, a good day to stay ship side.

Touring Begins in Earnes

On to Wednesday and Anakora, New Zealand where we were greeted in port by fabulous sun shine, calm winds, and adventure.  Anakora is situated on a bay, one of many in this peninsula which was shaped by volcanic eruptions and hosts several major bays.  The port here is the alternate port to Christ Church, which, as you probably know, was hit by multiple earth quakes beginning in 2010.  Since then there have been 15000 recorded earth tremors.  The port at Christ Church is no longer available for cruise ships so we dock at Anakora about a 90 minute drive over the mountain.  On the advice of fellow passengers we opted not to take a cruise tour and do it on our own, our preference as well.  

We hit the dock at 8 AM and found, just as we did in the first port at Dunedin, a very well organized tourist information area. That everyone speaks English is of course helpful.  Oh yes, that is the native tongue here.  Christ Church is the jumping off, or flying off, or shipping off, point to Antartica.  In fact, our airline flight seat mate was on his way to Christ Church to begin a three month tour as an airplane mechanic in Antartica.  To celebrate its importance, Christ Church built a “theme park” with an introductory Antartica experience we can enjoy without committing to a longer than one day visit.  

We board the red bus from Ankora to Christ Church, then a taxi to the Antartic experience where we spent the day.  Again, the bus drivers were articulate, full of information about the country side, its characters (including a farm where they hosted visiting tourists only the wife made--according to our driver Bruce--rocks that she served as scones), some history and legends.  I couldn’t help but compare to some of our at home bus drivers--probably an unfair comparison--but who are less than literate and less than courteous.  No one expects a tip, we were actually discouraged from tipping.  But we did clap at the end of our journey.

Bob Keaster, you were with us during our Arctic adventure experience.  We donned warmer clothing and experienced a minus 10 degree wind storm.  I slid down an ice slide where the cold really did penetrate my jeans.  We watched a 3 D film and had an albatross drop a large white load directly on our eye glasses.  And we saw the tiny blue penguins.  This enclosure was special in that each of these little critters had special needs, like a missing flipper, or some other handicap.  You’d love them even if they were whole, but you love them move getting on with their lives in spite of their handicaps.  

We are so blessed to be able to experience our world, to be feted by tour guides who love and care about their environment.  Today I am definitely counting my blessings, a spouse who enjoys traveling as I do, good friends, Harriet and Norman, with whom to share the adventure, enough money in the bank to make it possible.  Thank you Aunt Roz for reminding us that we would have our go-go years, our slow go years, and eventually our no go years.  I have to bring back this sense of wonder, this gratitude for my wonderful life.  

Some miscellaneous observations:  Unless we get it together in our education sector, it will be increasingly difficult, albeit impossible, for our children to take a meaningful place in the world.  We need to leave American’s Choice expensive education system, largely ineffective, and even Common Core, meaning well but not based in hard work, behind.  We need to tell our students the truth.  They are competing with the whole world and what wins is less playing and more hard work, more concerted energy, more planning for the future and not just living in the present.  I love the no tipping expected attitude of the places where we have been, the guides we have met, the meals we have eaten.  The quality has been high, minimum wage is high, there’s an apparent pride (I can’t project that this is always the case, only in those we’ve met.) in the work itself.  Today a worker doing some repair at an earthquake damaged unit, stopped to chat with us.  In spite of his work, paint on his hands, a missing tooth visible to us, he was articulate, letting us know we could talk to the realtor, not being at all apologetic.  There was an attitude that came across as reality based.  We need to tell our kids the truth, effort counts, but results count more.  Hard work wins and that begins young.  You have to earn your play time.  Enough.  

New Zealand has its own history of mistreatment of the native Maori people, which it is trying to correct.  The US has not been alone in exploiting the native populating, buying or confiscating land from a native population that doesn’t even understand the concept of owning the earth.  We are fortunate to have a group of Maori performers on board this voyage.  Every day there are culture lectures, craft workshops, just some exchanges of how the Maori are trying to maintain their native culture in spite of intermarriage and a reduction of their home lands.  We learn together.  

And I am so blessed to drop in, to experience some of these worldly offerings, to be in awe at all the blessings bestowed upon me.  And I am looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures, Picton New Zealand where we will search for wineries.  

Life is good.  Thank you all for being in our lives.

Photos to follow.  Adrienne and Stu

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, wonder what will happen here.

Cruising the Tasmanian Sea and New Zealand’s South Island

We are five days into our cruise, the spirit hasn’t hit me to journal our adventures, adding personal thoughts and observations, until now.  It’s 5:30 PM in the bay at Akaroa, New Zealand.  It is early spring and the weather is marvelous, especially after the cold, rainy day we had in Dunedin yesterday--more about that in a bit.

Overall, we are finding New Zealand, and the cruise ship, perfect.  We love our room, close to the front elevator and Vista Lounge, an easy trek to all mid-ship events, and enough of a walk to the dining hall that we feel less guilty when we arrive for dining.  The ship, alerted to my shell fish allergy, has gone above and beyond.  They have me order my meals a day in advance so they can be prepared totally cross contaminant free.  Of course, I don’t always know what I want to eat but changing once at table causes too much stress in the kitchen so I have learned to order in advance and eat what I order.  Last night, after touring all day, I didn’t want to go to the dining room so ordered room service.  Guess what? They brought the same meal for me I had ordered in the dining room.  Stu had to order from the more limited room service menu.  I definitely feel like a princess.  it is going to be difficult to return home to shopping, food planning, and cooking after 28 days aboard ship.  I’m ready to sign up for another cruise.

We spent our first two days aboard at sea, which we love.  Somehow we managed to fill our time easily.  There were shows in the evening, lectures during the day, time to walk on deck (I’m averaging 15 laps, about 5 miles) on sea days.  We meet with Harriet and Norman for dinner in the evening.  One dinner in the Pinnocle restaurant which was wonderful, and others in the main dining room, nearly as grand.  The waiter assigned also has shell food allergies so he is my guardian taking many more precautions than I ever take for myself.  I don’t dare tell the ship that I also have diabetes or they may cut me off from food altogether.  

Monday, although we remained on board, was technically a touring day since we went through Milford Sound and a series of three different fjords, each different from the previous one.  The weather, this far south and close to Antartica, was cold and overcast, but the scenery was still majestic, forested volcanic islands.  One of the fjords reminded us of Ho Long Bay with its myriads small islands shadowed in fog.  The more we travel the smaller the world becomes.  

I think at our age and with the physical limitations we have, which thank G-d are not too many, crusiing is a wonderful means of travel.  True, we don’t see as much, and there are towns where we want to spend more time and hang with the locals, it is so nice not to pack and unpack, not to plan meals or go to restaurants, or pay the tabs. 

Speaking of which, no expected tipping Down Under.  Except for a waiter in China Town who couldn’t rush from table to table fast enough, all of the services have been outstanding, and no tips expected.  Minimum wage in Australia is $15.90, unemployment is about 5% in New Zealand.  So, the theory that if we raise our minimum wage we’ll throw businesses out of business doesn’t seem to have held true in the southern countries.  

Tuesday was our first touring day.  We arranged a tour via the internet and loved every moment of the Monarch Tour day which began in Dunedin, New Zealand.  We visited Lanark Castle which although not a castle on the scale of Hearst Castle in California, was still lovely and came with some wonderful stories of the owner, his three wives, his third wife’s lover who happened to also be her step son, their out of wedlock child who appears for the first time 70 years later, and on and on.  The “castle” has been restored beginning in 1974 by a woman, only 24 at the time, who fell in love with the house and has been here ever since turning the once abandoned property into a showcase welcoming tourists and locals with her restaurant, guests dine in the formal dining room family style, and dance in the ball room.  

From Lanark Castle we went onto one of the bays, whose name escapes me, where we were treated to a rocky small boat ride to view the Albatross nesting sites, several varieties of dolphins, including the tiny blue dolphin, many birds, and of course the Albatross with its 3 plus meter wing span.  We viewed them nesting in the cliffs (photos to follow), and flying about the boat.  The boat guide, as well as the guide through the castle, were informative, articulate, delightful.  The first guide who met us at the ship and took us through the countryside to the castle, was a retired school principal.  Needless to add, he was articulate, informative, delightfully filled with stories about the castle family, the building of the castle, the native woods, the owner’s, original and present, place in the scheme of things.  We didn’t think a guide could be better, but the guide we had on the boat (same company, different guide) was equally proficient in his area of speciality.  Prior to being a part time guide, he was a camera man filming nature documentaries for Discovery channel.  It seems the film industry tanked a few years ago and for a 60 year old it is difficult to find a full time job, so he guides.  But, we never heard a single whine!  This is it, so be it, how fortunate to be out and about on the water, observing and talking about nature.  We were so blessed to have found this tour.

So, Tuesday began with breakfast in our room, hot coffee included.  Then onto Lanark Castle, a Monarch Tour led bay cruise to see the Albatross, and then off to the Penguin Reserve where we were feted by another equally articulate tour guide.

I didn’t know the yellow eyed penguin existed, now I love them.  They are an endangered species threatened by global warming which is changing their feeding grounds, a shrinking of natural habitat, and their own peculiar habits.  Remember the Pixar film Happy Feet?  Well forget what you thought you knew about penguins, the Yellow eyed penguin doesn’t like company, doesn’t live in communal settings, doesn’t live on ice, mates as a serial monogamist.  We met one penguin Jim, who was wedding for 3 years, changed mates, had one or two others for several years, then returned for a short time to his first mate, and wed again after she passed.  Because the penguins are banded and tracked at the reserve, their love and marriage habits are all tracked. There is enough material here for a book by Danielle Steele.  

After such a great out door adventure, Stu and I opted for hot showers, a hot table treatment for Stu (He goes to the spa and lies on a heated ceramic table shaped to a body’s contours and an hour plus in the thermal baths.  I know it is tough, but someone has to do it, they have 6 of these ceramic heated beds and Stu only occupies one, Harriet, our delightful travel companion, has another.) and then dinner in our room.  We are finishing the wine we brought on board and enjoyed a glass apiece in our stateroom with our dinner.  Entertainment?  We played gin rummy.  I know it is not nice to gloat, but he owes me $18.25 and we have another three weeks left on our cruise.  He may have to sell me his share of the house to pay his gambling debts.  Please, don’t tell any of his Tuesday gin rummy buddies, they may ban him from the game.

Our Down Under Adventures Begin

Our Down Under Adventure Begins

Nov 19,

Howdy Mates!  Okay, I got that out of my system and can now begin recording our journey to Australia and points beyond.

Our flight from Phoenix to LAX was uneventful.  We allowed a super abundance of time between flights given that Christine, with a four hour scheduled layover, still missed her Costa Rica flight due to delays beyond her control.  We were not going to miss the daily flight to Sydney so we planned to hang out at the LAX Bradley International Terminal.  

What a surprise that was.  The terminal has been renovated, adding a high ceilinged, technically advanced upper floor.  Seating is spacious and comfortable, the food court boasts the usual healthy options as well as three high end full service restaurants.  Shops were plentiful but limited to designer boutiques including Gucci, Armani, Michael Kors, Bvlgari, and others.  After a fast paced walk through the central, north and south concourses I did feel like I’d been excluded.  Could I be the only one?  Is traveling only about the very wealthy?  Where was shopping for the middle class, or upper middle class who didn’t spend $800 for a purse, or $600 for a bottle of blended malt liquor?  

This feeling continued when we boarded our flight.  Economy is not inexpensive, but it is cheap.  Seats are close with ten abreast in each row, and much to our surprise, only two bathrooms for two hundred passengers flying economy class.  I don’t know how many more international flights are in my future.  But enough, it was time to enjoy our adventure, one that is not available to many, and one that already makes us among the most privileged.  

Our 14 hour flight brought us to Sydney at 9:30 local time.  We had all rested on the flight, Norman and Harriet, Stu and I, so we were ready for the trek to our hotel in central Sydney, The Central Station Hotel.  Well located near the city center we could travel easily from this lovely, recently remodeled hotel.  Small, immaculate rooms, would make our ship cabins feel spacious when we board the Osterdam later today.

Hop on, Hop off took us all over Sydney, which is a much smaller city than we realized.  Our first trip was to Bondi Beach, a beautiful view of the Pacific.  Sydney is a peninsula with multiple fingers jutting into the sea so a beautiful ocean view is available from multiple vistas.  Our first Australian meal, why fresh fish and chips take away from a beach front eatery eaten picnic-style amidst the seagulls and ibis, which abound.

From Bondi we Hopped on for a ride out of the suburbs and back into the city center.  Although we rode for another 90 minutes, the city is actually quite small and perfect for walking tours, which I would recommend.  Due to our multiple limitations, Stu’s back was very troublesome, Harriet walks slowly, but is quite the trouper, we relied on the bus with a few walks in between.  Although we had planned to spend two days in Sydney before boarding our ship, we weren’t very interested in the city and didn’t visit the museums--which are plentiful including art, contemporary art, history, archeological, scientific.  For a small Sydney, there are plenty of cultural venues, we just didn’t avail ourselves of them this trip.   

One of the highlights of the second day was a tour of the Great Synagogue across from Sydney’s Hyde Park--it’s Central Park equivalent.  The Synagogue is open for tours twice a week, under security, a necessity everywhere Jews gather.  It is a magnificent edifice on the Heritage registry and restored to its original grandeur through a grant from the Australian government.  Australia has a thriving, but small Jewish population, about 1/2%.  There have been Jewish Mayors, Governors, a knighted military general, merchants, philanthropists, musicians, and others of note.  The Synagogue has three families which can trace their Australian lineage to the first convict ship in the 1800’s, when 16 Jews, 15 convicts and a free Jew, arrived in Australian courtesy of the British government.

So many reminders of Great Britain I was reminded of how far reaching the British Empire had been in its hay day.  Whether it be Bangkok, Hong Kong, or Sydney, the British made their mark.  Stu and I love the Pub scene.  In the evening the Pubs, of which there are plenty, are packed, even during the week.  There are many young professionals in Sydney and they come out to the street to congregate.  Apts and condos are small, so entertaining Pub style is welcomed.  Stu and I did our usual people watching, which we enjoyed very much.  We even enjoyed a late pub lunch of minute steak, mash, and peas, with a beer, of course.  In a city of high prices compared to the US, our Pub lunch was reasonable.

Thursday evening we headed to China town, an 8 block walk, where we enjoyed a quiet meal, much smaller portions (the reason why Americans are so much ‘larger’), and more people watching.  We didn’t know about the tipping custom so I asked a group of four men standing nearby whose Australian accents identified them.