Blogs from Napier, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Today was blissfully warm and sunny. After breakfast we got ourselves organised and got on to the complimentary shuttle into town. We had been prepared for a half hour walk to the national aquarium but the shuttle delivered us to the door. After looking at all of the critters we went and had a lovely coffee. Gosh I miss the coffee - it’s so hit and miss on the ship. Our bus driver was telling us that the short wall along the roadway was built to stop the tide from flooding their streets - but the beach is like 15 metres away. In 1931 they had an earthquake and this part of the land was raised up, making the sea wall redundant. About 250 people died and now they’ve made a memorial garden for them on ... read more

Blog 24 Napier, New Zealand, April 7 ,2018 – Weather forecast: sunny with scattered clouds; temperature 22°C, wind 23kts (6 Beaufort) Today we went out to Clifton Station, one of New Zealand’s many sheep stations. The human population of NZ is approximately 4.5 million while the sheep population is over 25 million; down from the 60 million that lived in NZ just a decade ago. At the station we were entertained by the station owner along with his two sheep dogs expertly handling a flock of sheep. With simple hand signals and whistling from Tom the dogs moved the sheep from a distant area of the paddock and into the shearing barn. There a professional sheep shearer expertly handled a sheep and remove its year’s worth of wool, while one of the staff provided colour commentary. ... read more

18/1/18. Napier The rain has followed us to Napier, we recognised some of the clouds. The C.O. did not sleep well and was not encouraged that I had a good nights sleep. To cheer herself up she decided to get her talons sharpened but could not find suitable nail bar. Met the Woods and Tasker family for a pleasant lunch - first cheese scone. The C.O. and I then went to prison (for only an hour) before our walking tour. The walking tour contained a lot of information on architectural details. A bit of historical information:- The Hawkes Bay earthquake of 1931 devastated Napier and still remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. The many fires that broke out could not be extinguished. The lagoon was raised by 2.7 metres and the water drained back into the ... read more

Sorry forgot to publish this blog. C.O. Has put me on jankers. Woke up after not a bad sleep but totally confused about local times, dates and own identity. The C.O. Appears to be as confused as I am - not her usual commanding self. We had some time before our 11:50 flight to Napier. Checked out of hotel and decided to walk to the internal flight departure lounge and get breakfast there. We followed a green line set in the pavement and yomped to departures. The internal flight departure lounge had nowhere near the facilities of the international lounge. We struggled to find breakfast but settled for a largely inedible breakfast bap and a flat white coffee with a heart fashioned on the top. We boarded the plane that the C.O. was disappointed to note ... read more

A fond farewell to Whitianga today, but not before we grabbed the opportunity to capture a few sunrise snaps - although the cloud cover wasn't ideal, we still managed to get a few decent ones! But, we couldn't hang around too long because today we were really going to be in Hot Water.........literally, as it happens, because our first stop on the journey to Rotorua was 'Hot Water Beach'. About 40 minutes south of Whitianga (on the road to Tairua), we hung a left down the mysteriously named 'Hot Water Beach Road', for 5 or 6 miles; pulled up at the 'Hot Water Beach Cafe' to hire a couple of spades ($5 each) and then park up just round the corner, right next to this massive beach. About 100 metres along the beach there was a ... read more