Day 85: Russell: Paihia's Good Twin

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Today was the first of my three scheduled excursions, all with Fuller's Great Sights: the Hole in the Rock and Cape Brett cruise.

I made it in to the wharf in 20 minutes, rather to my surprise, which meant that I had half an hour to wait. The clerk at Great Sights gave me poor advice: she told me to wait until the official boarding time to go onto the wharf itself.

It's a good thing I only partially followed her advice, as there was a long line on the wharf within fifteen minutes of my arrival. At that point I asked someone else if the Hole in the Rock cruise was loading yet, and was told that it was, so I got in line. Actually, I got in the wrong line; two tour boats and the ferry were loading at the same time, and I got in the wrong tour-boat line. I finally noticed that "my" boat was called Dolphin Seeker and the one I was in line for was "Dolphin Discovery V."

Nevertheless, since everyone in front of me wanted to sit upstairs, I got a very good seat, at the very front of the downstairs section and to the left side, so I could brace my shoulder.

I was surprised again to find that large parts of the tour seemed almost boring. I love the ocean and I'd have thought any cruise would hold my interest, but inside I could not feel the wind or hear the waves, and those outside had to stand in decidedly bouncy conditions.

Much of the cruise, therefore, was a rerun of my other cruises on this trip -- same round mountain-islands, though these, unlike the perfectly round Doubtful Sound islands, were more oval in shape.
(They were still far more rounded than any other islands I've ever seen.) They looked like batter spooned up by a cook for drop biscuits.

I did notice, with interest, how many of these islands had caves, burrows, and rocky crannies in them. The guide said that the Maori dug some of these pits, and that others were natural.

We sailed past Captain Cook's anchorage in these waters, and then went on to join a pod of dolphins. This was the high point of the cruise for me. The dolphins came far closer to the ship than they had in Doubtful Sound. Sometimes they surfaced right next to the ship, and you could look down at them and see their blowholes open. I had never realized that the blowhole was closed by a flap of skin when the dolphin is underwater, though it makes sense that it would be.

I even saw a baby dolphin, swimming along next to its mother. It was about a third her size, and a lighter color.

After that, we went on to the Hole in the Rock. It is a natural bridge in the water. Tour boats often sail right through it, but our captain judged that the waves were too rough to do that on our trip. As he explained, the ship only had about two feet of clearance on either side, and that was if he steered straight down the middle. He didn't think he could hold the ship steady enough under the current weather conditions.

So, we just sat outside the Hole in the Rock for a few minutes, and the boat turned 360 degrees to let everyone at both ends of the boat see and take pictures.

I went and stood outside for the dolphins and for the Hole in the Rock -- well, actually I sat outside for the Hole in the Rock, as I couldn't keep my feet well enough to stand, despite helping hands from passengers and crew. I spent the rest of the voyage in my seat inside.

After we'd seen the Hole in the Rock, we were taken to our Exclusive Island Stop, which turned out to be on the island favored by Zane Grey when he came to New Zealand. Yes, that's the same Zane Grey who wrote Westerns. Apparently he was much taken with New Zealand and came there to live for a while.

We didn't get to see his house, though, or anything especially interesting. There was a concession stand run by Fullers' Great Sights at the wharf, and a small exhibit/gift shop run by Island Song, a group who are trying to restore the Bay of Islands' islands to their pre-European ecosystem by trapping predators such as stoats and rats -- Island Song, of course, since such an ecosystem would be safe for native birds.

There were other buildings in the immediate vicinity of the wharf, but signs informed us that these were FOR OVERNIGHT GUESTS ONLY. I thought petulantly that everything interesting on the island was for overnight guests only.

There was a helipad out in the water, not far from shore, and a helicopter came and landed there while we were on the island. Presently, it took off again. I have no idea what it was doing there.

I had fifteen minutes less time on the island than most of my tourmates, because two other people and I were forgotten. The crew had advised anyone who wanted to pay $15 for a walking-tour of the islands to go to the restroom before leaving the ship, so I dutifully did so. While I was in the restroom, the crew apparently thought that everyone had disembarked and they moved away from their mooring to let another tour boat unload.

There were three restrooms on board, so two other passengers found themselves in the same predicament. We had to stay on board until the other boat finished unloading and the crew could moor the ship there again.

That nicely settled the question of whether I would go on the walking-tour (I had wondered whether I could keep up with it, anyhow) as it was long gone by the time I got to shore. At least I saved $15.

At the end of our cruise, the guide urged us to disembark in Russell and spend a while exploring it. I am, cynically, sure they did so because Fuller's Great Sights runs a Russell-Paihia ferry.
The manager of Cap'n Bob's, however, had advised me to do so, since a round trip on the ferry is $12, while one way is only $7.

Very few if any other people decided to explore, mainly because just as we got to Russell it began to rain. It had been raining when I first set out, so I had my coat with me, and I thought I might as well go to Russell now and save $5.

It turned out to be marvellous. Russell is a small (pop. 1000), quiet, and moderately upscale beach community. I was reminded of Murrell's Inlet in South Carolina. I felt at home there at once.
More accurately, as at Whitianga, I felt like a snowbird there. Suddenly I was no longer an intrepid backpacker struggling along on a shoestring, but a relatively prosperous 48-year-old vacationer sauntering along the waterfront.

In fact, I sauntered right into a restaurant, The Gables, and ordered the first true restaurant meal I've had in New Zealand. Every other time that I've eaten out here, and there haven't been many, it's been at a place where you paid for the food before sitting down. At The Gables, they not only brought you the check, they brought it in a leatherette folder. It felt really strange not to leave a tip. I had fish and chips and salad; I ended up taking the chips with me and reheating them as part of supper.

I was lucky enough to arrive during a swim meet. I watched the junior division's relay races, both boys' and girls' races. At least three schools were competing, and they were swimming in the bay.
The judges sat on a pontoon boat, and the relayers swam from it to another boat moored to the wharf.

The children swam well, and it was great fun to watch them. I wasn't sure how to pronounce the name of the school whose supporters I was seated among, but I cheered it on as well as I could under the circumstances. An amazingly large number of parents and students were watching the meet, and parents were selling sausages to the crowd, just as American parents would have been selling hot dogs.

When the meet was over, I followed a Heritage Trail and found first a war memorial (I'll have to Google to see what New Zealand was doing in Borneo in the '50's) and then the Russell Museum. The museum was quite interesting, though small, and well worth the $7.50 admission. It chiefly had mid-19th century artifacts, British and Maori,though there was an exhibit devoted to whaling, including an actual whaleboat, and another about a battle between the Maori and the English on March 11, 1845. I was interested to note that a United States ship assisted with the evacuation of civilians.

I found Russell's library, but it wasn't open. I resolutely passed by several second-hand bookstores, only to find a display of battered paperbacks (priced at $2 each) right before my eyes. One of them was an Astrid Lindgren I hadn't read, Emil Gets Into Mischief. I really wanted that book, and I knew it would cost more than $2 to mail it home. I might have bought it anyhow, except that the pages were very brown and they looked likely to decay entirely within a few years.

So, I stood there in the street and read the whole thing. Good thing it was a kids' chapter book, very short, or I wouldn't have had the stamina. Then I rather sadly put it back. Perhaps I'll be able to find a copy in America.

Russell is the site of the oldest church in New Zealand that still has regular services. I went there and walked through its churchyard. I don't believe you could get into the church itself, though I may be wrong; I never actually spotted the door to try it. I was interested to see that several of the tombstones were inscribed both in English and in Maori.

I was going to try to find Russell's other religious first, the first Roman Catholic printing press in the country, but the road leading to it was under construction, and a cement mixer there hurt my shoulder, so I went to the other end of town instead. There I bought a bottle of water at the Four Square Supermarket and heard the person in front of me asking the clerk whether she had "heard about Christchurch."

The clerk said she had heard, so I didn't learn more at that point. I made my way slowly back to the wharf, where I caught the locals' ferry (called the Happy Ferry) rather than Great Sights' tourist ferry. The Happy Ferry, a very small ship, pitched and rolled as it crossed the bay to Paihia, but no one on board seemed to mind. I was proud that I didn't mind either.

On the Happy Ferry, I heard a news commentator say that there had been another earthquake and that Christchurch Cathedral was in ruins. I was deeply shocked, and I sent a note expressing my sorrow to Kevan. He replied curtly that there had been fatalities -- obviously feeling my grief over a building to be somewhat misplaced. By the time I read his reply, I had read further about the quake and watched TV coverage of it, and I knew that his point was well taken.

As readers of this blog will remember, I went to services at Christchurch Cathedral in December. On TV, too, I saw buildings I'd walked past or even gone into. There was a shot of the YHA Christchurch, in rubble; I walked into it briefly to ask for directions in January.

Crowne Plaza, which I think is a fancy hotel, had a caution tape across its doors. I'd shortcutted through its service accessway almost every day I was in Christchurch; it was the quickest way to Victoria Park.

And there was a Christchurch Tram stopped in the roadway; it looked as though it had gone off the track.

I hope the people I met in Christchurch are okay, especially those at Celtic Backpackers.

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Comments

[Mary Newton]

worried about you
Hi Meredith, it's good to know you're OK. I was shocked when I heard about the earthquake yesterday, and thought of you with high anxiety. Prayers being offered for all those affected by this terrible tragedy.

[K.Freeman]

THANK GOD
Hi Meredith, As I had previously only read up to day 39 of your travel log, I had no idea where you would be today when I heard about the earthquake. Thank God you were not there & didn't even know about it until you heard from others. What an incredible relief. I was quite worried as well. God bless you. Now I will go back to read days 40+... :)