Where We Were Having A Fabulous Day, Until It Wasn’t
Breakfast timing in the morning was running a little close. We didn’t have time to wait for a table in the restaurant. We went instead to the World Cafe (the buffet). It was crowded and busy, as everybody was in a hurry to be ready to go ashore as soon as the ship docked.
I found a table out on the terrace – much less crowded! And discovered we had some breakfast companions. I’m sure these gulls know when a cruise ship shows up, there is food to be had. One guy was really good at his timing; he was able to nab some bits just before the server shooed him away.
After breakfast, we decided to tag team the bus situation. We both waited in the theater per instructions, but Andy was ready to start moving the instant we got the go ahead, go straight to the bus and grab the front seat. It worked like a charm. The Viking person leading the way walked very quickly and ran down the flight of stairs to the exit. There was no way I could keep up with her, and I had to take the elevator. As predicted and expected, I was one of the last people on the bus, but I had the front seat. It didn’t look like guest relations put in the reservation. {Why am I not surprised}
It was a bit over an hour drive to get to Te Puia. The scenery was beautiful – everything was bright green against the blue sky. We drove past many kiwi orchards. I had no idea kiwis grow on vines. The kiwi orchards kinda resembled vineyards. The older orchards have super tall hedges around them to block the wind.
When we arrived at Te Puia, we were greeted by Maia, the local guide. She led us off the bus and into the restaurant where we had an excellent lunch.
After lunch, we were treated to a Māori cultural experience. Basically everybody involved in running Te Puia are all related to each other and had all grown up in the immediate area.
First, a “chief” was selected for our group – this guy, Dave, from Dublin. I think he was picked because he was the only person from his country (Ireland). He was given instructions on what to do during the welcoming ceremony. A Māori warrior would “confront” him and throw a leaf on the ground. Dave was to pick it up. And then we would follow Dave into the theater.
<Add video when we get to broadband>
Once inside the theater, we were seated, and the performance began.
Unfortunately, the wifi doesn’t have enough bandwidth to upload the videos here. I’ll do my best to update this post once we’re back on broadband.
After the performance, a new guide, Kahu, took over. First she walked us into the kiwi exhibit. Kiwis are nocturnal, so the building is dark to encourage them to be awake. There was one kiwi per enclosure. We were not allowed to take photos, unfortunately. I was surprised as to how big they were – somehow I thought they were tiny like the fruit name for them. They kinda look like hairy footballs with long beaks. The goal is to increase the number of kiwis via these kinds of breeding programs. Kiwis produce only one egg a year – the egg is 25% the female’s body size!
After leaving the kiwi house, we walked up the path to the geyser. The surfer smell gave it away. Luckily the geyser decided to put on a show while we were there.
Kahu explained that she and her family live right on the other side of the valley from the geothermal pools. Her family has been running and maintaining the park for many years. She talked about how the government tried for many years to wipe out the Māori culture. Māori culture became valuable when people (like us) started to arrive and wanted learn about it. She thanked us for coming and supporting the effort to keep Māori culture alive.
Here’s the geyser in full blast mode <geyser photo>
After returning from the geysers, we had only a short time before we had to return to the bus. Andy visited the exhibit on Māori crafts, the high end store, and the reasonable priced store, before we returned to the bus.
The bus returned us about 15 minutes past all aboard time, but we knew the ship would wait for us.
Unfortunately, there was an unpleasant surprise waiting for us when we got back.
New Zealand is zealous about keeping its natural environment clean. There’s an entire government department (ministry?) devoted to it – the office of BioSecurity.
During a routine inspection, “marine growth” (henceforth to be referred to as “cooties”) was found on the Viking Orion’s hull. It has to be cleaned the ship will be allowed in NZ waters. The only dock that has the capability to do this work is in Adelaide, Australia. This means that after our stop in Wellington, we will now spend 4 days at sea to get to Adelaide, then the work will be done in 24 hours.
A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT – we’ve lost our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Tasmania, as well as ChristChurch. Plus, we’re not big fans of “at sea” days. Four of them in a row is going to be…..something….
I guess I’ll be able to keep up with blog posts….
With this charming news on our minds, we went to the Hanukkah celebration. I remembered to take photos of the Hanukkah decorations.
<Hanukkah stuff in room>
This one is my favorite though. It’s tiny little 3-inch thing that sits on the table at the entrance to the room. It blinks.
Maryland Meshugas 