Sail Away

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Sail Away!!!
March 1-2, 2008
The ship is beautiful, the crew cheerful and welcoming as always.

My dinner companions will make this a pleasant experience. We are all sailing solo. Lydia’s cruise experiences are endless. She is in her early 40’s and used to sail with her parents who are now gone. I can’t figure out when she stays on shore.

Phil is a retired schoolteacher and now a travel writer and cartoonist from Florida. He writes for the Sun Sentinel and Conde Nast travel. He also has great sea stories.

My last tablemate, Paul, is a trivia buff and was kind of quiet. He and I sat back and enjoyed The Lydia and Phil Show.

3/2

We just docked at our first port Tauranga , NZ to a murky dismal rainy morning. Hoping the sun will shine later in the day! Borrowed an umbrella from Aunt Betty but forgot my rain poncho.
Enjoying the music on the bridge cam channel. All big band sounds with the original artists. Just what I was hoping for! Sinatra, of course, Helen O’Connell, Bob Eberly, Doris Day, and Uncle Joe’s favorite, Russ Columbo. No Andrews Sisiters yet but still hopeful.

Today’s tour to Rotorua was great despite the rain. This part of NZ is agricultural, grazing land and forests. We
drove an hour past avocado groves, kiwi fruit groves and heard of sheep, cattle and even deer that are raised for venison. Logging is an important export. A progressive reforestation program was started in the early 1900. The result was vast forests of Monterey pine, hand planted and ready for harvest in 30 years.

Our first stop was a demonstration of sheep shearing and sheep dog herding. There were 19 kinds of sheep with fleece suitable for all uses from carpets to fine sweater wool. It was great fun as well as educational. I wouldn’t have believed that the sheep would be so docile while being shorn.

Next we visited Rainbow Springs where trout grow in the spring system to 20 to 25 lbs. We walked through the preserve past sequoias 200 ft tall and only 70 yrs old. In CA that growth would take twice as long.
We saw the silver backed fern that the Maori used as road markers when hunting or on a war party. The silver side reflects light and provides a great trail under moonlight or torchlight. The fern is a national icon and appears as a logo on most sports uniforms.

We visited the “Kiwi House” where the nocturnal environment allows us to see the kiwi awake and foraging. The numbers of these chicken sized flightless birds are now down to 50,000 from the millions alive when man first set foot on the islands. This New Zealand icon is almost extinct.

Our final stop was the geo thermal area where I saw my first geyser in action. These particular geysers spout every half hour for a period of 15 minutes. While standing near I could hear the rhythmic sound of the pressure. To me is sounded like a heartbeat. I can understand why cultures believed the gods and goddesses lived there.

Tauranga has a beautiful beach community. There was a surfing contest and a log splitting contest on the beach. Tiny houses on postage stamp size lots sell in the millions. The shoreline is dominated by Mt. ??? . Sheep graze on the lower slopes and the upper reaches are pine forest, while hiking and bike trails give locals and tourists a good workout. It’s a picture of Tauranga’s economy in microcosm.

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