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Published: January 1st 2007
Port Botany - where the convicts landed and we escaped
A - Either there’s something about catching container ships that’s inherently tricky or we're just not very good at it. Cathy (my aunt) had kindly offered to take us out to Port Botany where we were meeting up with the Hansa Rendsburg, the ship taking us from Sydney to Tauranga. When the port agent, Brad, had given us our joining instructions he’d said we just needed to report to Patrick's and they’d sign us in and take us out to the ship. We assumed that it would be straightforward to find it, though we also took the trouble of checking the internet to find a location at Port Botany. Once we turned up at the Port however, it turned out that there were loads of Patrick’s sites, each with their own gates and offices, none of which was the right one. Cathy took all this in her stride, driving us right around the entire port complex, dodging various road trains with their towering loads. In the end we had to ring Brad, who luckily was at the port, and guided us to the right place. I’m not sure we would
have found it on our own.
And in a bizarre coincidence, as we were ferried to the Hansa Rendsburg, we spotted the ANL Esprit berthed opposite. It was like seeing an old friend.
The Hansa Rendsburg
The Hansa Rendsburg is a slightly smaller ship than the Esprit. Where the Esprit is a Daewoo and therefore Korean built ship, the Hansa Rendsburg is a Chinese built ship.
More Stats;
Length - 175 metres
Width - 29 metres
Height - 50 Metres
Max. Speed - 16 Knots
Weight - approx. 21,000 tonnes
Draft (loaded) - 7 metres fore, 9 metres aft (the bit below the sea!)
Number of containers - approx. 500
We were grateful that this wasn’t such a long journey as the ANL Esprit, mostly because we didn’t have such a nice cabin, the food wasn’t anything like as good, and there wasn’t a huge stash of pirate DVDs to keep us entertained.
Officers and crew On joining the ship, we were taken straight up to meet Captain Tony, an Englishman, on his penultimate voyage before retiring. He was a good sort, and happy to spend time chatting to us. With a
thirty year clean record on his voyages we felt like we were in good hands. In a previous blog we joked about being on the bridge of a ship felt like being on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, so when we left Port Botany pilotage and the shout went out from the Captain 'dilithium crystals to full power', we were more than a little impressed.
Shortly after arriving on board we also meet the Chief Engineer, John, who also had a long an enviable history working on ships. His stock of stories was enormous (possibly endless), and his interest in just about everything, prodigious. It was he who largely entertained us for most of the trip. 'Bloody marvelous!'
The rest of the crew were largely Kiribati. And this time the crew contained three women who worked in the kitchen.
Our fellow passengers We couldn’t have asked for a more different group of passengers from our last voyage. We were joined by Eric, John’s cousin, who’d done the round trip from NZ all the way to the US and back again; Steve, a former BA flight attendant of thirty two years who was reliving his time
in the Australian navy; and Wendel, an American professor of economics at Auckland University who was trying to put himself beyond reach of anything to do with work. As a group it made for some really wide ranging and interesting conversations.
Leaving Sydney
We’d been asked to report to the ship on the 11th of December because it looked like she’d be leaving that evening as she was running ahead of schedule. As it turned out we didn’t end up leaving until after midday the next day because a huge storm hit Sydney on the evening of the 11th making any loading or unloading overnight impossible. It must have been a pretty big storm. We saw some tremendous lightening strikes in the port waters and although we were berthed and tightly tied to the port, we could still feel the waves.
A - My uncle Don had filmed an advert on a ship between Sydney and Auckland and had warned us about how rough it might be. We had prepared ourselves by buying anti-seasickness pills, but we were both still feeling a bit nervous after the awful nausea we’d had coming into Fremantle. And we had every
reason to be nervous. Once we hit the open seas the motion of the ship was huge. Standing on the bridge without holding onto something involved a bit of a dance to stay upright. And sleeping was something else. It’s not like we had a choice about where to lie, we were literally rolled over in our sleep all night long. But the good news was that neither of us got sea-sick. We just seemed to adjust immediately. Admittedly D did take the sea-sickness pills as a prophylactic and I took the homeopathic trip-ease to be on the safe side…
The open seas
We didn’t do too much once we hit the Tasman sea simply heading directly due east from Sydney. The weather wasn't much good so sun-bathing was out. We spent a lot of time talking to our fellow passengers, as well as 'Chief' John and the Captain. We did make full use of the bonded stores and buy some very cheap beer and chocolate which we managed to make a small dent in during the trip. We had one night of red wine with the others which resulted in a very late night for Daren, but
at least the karaoke was absent this time.
Arriving in Aotearoa/New Zealand
A - We were pretty disappointed that we came around Cape Reinga, the northern most tip of NZ, at midnight on the night of the 15th. It would have been so great for that to be our first sight of New Zealand. As it was, the huge waves that result from the meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean at that point was enough to wake us both up, though it was too dark to see anything.
A - When we rolled out of bed just after sunrise, we were sailing past the Bay of Islands. We could see the land in the distance, along with the huge bank of clouds massed over it. For this returning kiwi, it was a really special moment. The most widely accepted Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which means land of the long white cloud. The legend is that it was named by the wife of Kupe, Hine-te-Aparangi, when she first saw New Zealand on the voyage that led to the initial Polynesian settlement of this country. Most New Zealanders grow up knowing this name
and what it means, so to see the country in this way was pretty moving. It's not often you get the chance to approach your homeland from the sea and experience it as the early explorers must have done.
A - As the day wore on, the weather got better and better. Around midday we came past Great Barrier Island at the north end of the Coromandel peninsula. Now we were passing land that I'd grown up around. Beaches where I'd partied at New Years, or places I'd explored with friends over the years. In the afternoon we passed behind the Alderman Islands which can be seen on the horizon from my parent's house at Onemana. By squinting hard through the binoculars we could just make out the beach. That was another big moment for me. I've spent so much time at Onemana over the years, and it had become the major memory of New Zealand landscape that I held in my head.
During all this time the weather was getting better and better. The sky was an endless blue with only a few clouds, and the surface of the sea was like a mirror. We started to
see pods of dolpins, loads of birds and even a couple of sharks. The water was full of large blooms of something orange, possibly baby jellyfish, eggs or algae.
A - By early evening we could see Mount Maunganui, the extinct volcanic cone that marks the entry to the Port of Tauranga. The pilot joined us and was soon guiding us past the Mount through the dog leg channel to Sulphur Point where the we were berthing. Another twang on the heart strings moment for me as we came past the Mount and saw many of the Pohutukawa trees at its base blooming with their distinctive red flowers - the reason it has the nickname 'New Zealand Christmas tree'.
Then it was all down to the efforts of the tug to push us into place, while the pilot and the captain guided the vessel as close to the quay as possible. Once again, not a single bump as we were eased in. We had arrived in New Zealand.
A - Almost immediately the Customs officials were on-board to check what we might be importing either in our Russian matroshka doll or on the bottom of our shoes.
Then the immigration guy joined us, taking time to explain how Daren would need to use his Residence Permit and his Returning Residence Visa. And then we were free to go!! But no, we hadn't been able to get hold of the security desk to send over a shuttle to collect us. You're not allowed to go wandering around port areas so it looked like we'd be waiting around for ages before we could depart. But once again, and against all probability, a friendly immigration guy came to our rescue, offering to drop us and Eric at the port gates. Woo hoo. And there waiting for us was my Mum.
The end of the journey
Our journey is over. From a fond farewell with Caro and Matt at Belsize Park tube station more than six months ago, to a very excited hello from Pat at Tauranga, it's been a journey to remember.
We're not afraid to admit that we are thrilled by our achievement of doing the whole journey without flying. Yet despite all our reasons for choosing not to fly, the one thing we have both learnt is how very very big the world is. And
Eric on the Bridge, Hansa Rendsburg
Ashes to Ashes, Coast to Coast, yes David, this definitely is NOT America!also, how much more there is to see. Against our better judgement we're already talking about what our next big journey will be!
It's hard to believe that our day to day existence will no longer consist of worrying about where we'll be staying tonight, what time our train/boat/tuk tuk leaves, how to read a menu, or how to say 'cup of tea please' in the local language.
Not only has this been a physical journey from our home in London to a new home in New Zealand, but it's been a huge personal journey as well. Many people said to us that the true test of a relationship is how you travel together. Perhaps the fact that we not only got engaged, but married as well, on this journey should tell you everything you need to know about how we managed as a couple. It hasn't always been easy, but we've learnt a lot about ourselves and each other. And Daren somehow managed to minimise the cheesy humour and keep Abbie from cutting his tongue out!
After 192 days (six and a half months) on the road, visiting 26 countries and covering a distance of almost
25,000 miles (over 39,000 kms), this was the end of an awfully big adventure.
D - This was a very different experience for me. I won't feel bad admitting to a few butterflies during our approach on the last day. Arriving in New Zealand is, for me, not only the start of an even bigger adventure, but a brand new chapter in our (married) life.
A big thank you
Initially the whole idea of having a blog was about keeping our slightly nervous family and friends in touch with where we were and what we were doing. In the end it became so much more. Although we both started writing diaries Daren abandoned his somewhere in China, so this is now his only log of all the amazing places we visited along the way. It was also a great way of getting us to think more deeply about what the places we visited meant to us and how we experienced them.
But the best bit was getting all your comments and messages. Truly, you have no idea how excited we used to get when we'd log in and see comments from friends, family and complete strangers.
Unidentified bloom, Tasman Sea
Anyone have any ideas what this is? It was also a thrill to see the statistics of how many people were reading our entries. We're feeling more than just a little bit smug we're afraid. That was until we found that Abbie's parents were checking them everyday and sometimes more than once a day, pushing the view numbers way up. Oh well, if you can't rely on parents to make you feel popular who can you rely on?
Also, a huge thanks to all the special people we met along the way, locals and fellow travellers alike. Some of our best moments were spent with these people, and we have such fond memories of certain places because of the people we were there with.
What next?
Right, we're off to the beach at Onemana with the Whanau (family, in Maori) for a very merry kiwi christmas. For those of you who are interested, we'll continue posting from time to time, to give you an insight into the trials and tribulations of settling into life in New Zealand. Now, how do you make snowballs out of sand?
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Dave McLaughlin
non-member comment
YAY!
Great to have you "home" Abbie. Look forward ot meeting you soon Daren! Cheers, thanks alot ....Dave