Next we called at Napier. Napier was a bustling port town in 1931 when the earthquake struck. And what an earthquake...the land rose up over six feet and the bay drained, leaving flopping fish and stranded boats. The town caught fire, all communication was lost, it was a mess. Fortunately, one of the stranded ships was a Navy ship and they still could communicate. The sailors went into town to fight the fire and bring first aid, while the ship called for help, which arrived quite quickly in the form of two hospital ships and more firefighters. In the end, something like 10,000 acres of land were added to what was left of the town. The town had to be rebuilt. The city fathers moved all the businesses to the local park, set up a "tin town" for them, and set to building. Art Deco was the thing at the time, and within two years, a new Deco downtown was ready to occupy. Today, many of the buildings have been preserved and are a treat to see.
At the park where the tin town was:
Wellington, New Zealand's capital, was next. We shuttled into town for a walk along the waterfront and through downtown. Downtown is what you'd expect in a capital city, but the waterfront boardwalk is wonderful. We found ourselves at Te Papa Tongarewa. Our Maori guide in Bay of Islands taught us that Te Papa means "the land", so maybe Tongarewa means museum, because this is the Museum of New Zealand. It was free, so we thought we'd have, as they say around here, "a wee look". They had a fabulous exhibit about Gallipoli. We'd both just read the history of the Gallipoli conflict that took place during World War I and we ended up spending over an hour just there. OK, back to the ship, it's wine o'clock, more good food, off to the next destination.
Wellington Waterfront:
And the next destination was Akaroa. At anchor, we hopped from our ship to the tender to the dock to the gaff rigged Ketch "Fox II", which was built in 1920. Our intrepid captain took us out into the bay, the caldera of an extinct volcano, under the iron mainsail. This area is home to the smallest dolphin the the world, the Hector dolphin, and the smallest penguin in the world, the Little Blue Penguin (clever name). We saw both, as well as fur seals and plenty of Shags (the New Zealand version of cormorants). The wind came up a bit and we actually spent some time under the real mainsail. Very peaceful and lots of fun.
Elephant Head Rock:
And a Little Blue Penguin:
The Fox II passing our ship:
And off to Dunedin. We'd seen the town on the last visit, so we took a tour out onto the Otago Peninsula to visit Pukekura, home of the Northern Royal Albatross Centre. Within view from the platform, there were about nine Albatross on nests, tending to chicks that were about a month old. These birds were born here, and after circling the globe for four years or so, never touching land, they return here to breed. Big birds, with wing spans of up to nine feet, their story is fascinating. It's a little like the Galapagos here, in that these birds have been around the Park Rangers since they were born and take the Rangers as part of life, having no fear of them at all. They check on the birds, weigh the chicks, and more. Check out www.albatross.org.nz, they even have an Albatross cam on one of the nests.
The white specks are Albatross. Sorry, photographers, wrong lens. Oops.
We also visited the only castle in New Zealand, Larnach Castle. Built in the 1800's by William Larnach, who owned most of the land in the area. After several family tragedies, the remaining family sold off the good furniture and sold the castle to the state for next to nothing. It fell into disrepair until being rescued by the Barker family around 1967. Since then, they have acquired some of the original furnishings and restored the building. They're at www.larnachcastle.co.nz.
Inside the castle:
Outside the castle:
Finally, our tour of NZ ended with a cruise through beautiful Milford Sound. Then it was off to Australia by crossing the "exciting" Tasman Sea. On our way across the Tasman, which was surprisingly calm for once, we had quite an experience: some geezer referred to us as "young people"!!!
