Tauranga, roughly meaning safe anchorage, is recognized as the landing place of some of the early voyages and canoes from Polynesia in the 13^th century followed by the British 600 years later when Captain Cook sailed into the area in 1769. 1/3 of Rotorua’s population today is Maori, the highest in NZ.

• 

• 

• 

A Maori community welcomes us to their marae – a real-life working meeting place. We’re greeted by a traditional warrior challenge to see if we come in peace or not!  Then we received a warm welcome by pressing noses and were invited into their marae to learn about their tribal lives, carvings and arts and crafts.  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The tongue is to scare the enemy. The Haka scream that the New Zealand ALL BLACKS rugby team uses is a Maori warrior tactic to scare the enemy.  It must work, they’re champions.  Really cool ;-r)

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”  ~  Jacques Cousteau

Oh how I remember loving to watch the underwater adventures of Jacques Cousteau on TV in the late 1960’s. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

New Zealand is one of the last lands to be settled by humans. It is two large islands split by the Cook Strait. Our first stop is the north tip of the North Island, the gateway to more than 150 islands that comprise the Bay of Islands.  Waitangi played a central role in the history of New Zealand.  On Feb 6th, 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by British officers and Maori chiefs, granting sovereignty over the growing nation to Queen Victoria.  A public holiday since 1974, Feb 6 of each year the Kiwis (as they are lovingly called) will celebrate Waitangi Day. 

• 

• 

Giant marlin on Paihia waterfront. In 1926, Zane Grey the famous American Western author put New Zealand on the map for the world’s biggest striped marlins. He himself held many world records for catching big-game fish.  He described the Bay of Islands in Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand.  Since this will be a short blog post, I’ll add this excerpt from that book.

“A mako shark so huge that he absolutely paralyzed me with terror emerged with a roar of water to go high in the air …. I was thrown from my chair … He looked at least seventeen feet long … A peculiar feature of the mako is that his eyes stand out prominently from the sides of his head and these were fully as large and round as half a grapefruit. They were intensely black and full of fiendish fire … he shut his jaws with a convulsive snap like that made by a two-foot bear trap.”  ~  Zane Grey

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our bus tour took us to see the country’s oldest buildings dating back to the early 1800’s, the stone-constructed Stone Store and the missionary’s wooden Kemp House in the historic Kerikeri Basin.  We then saw the Rainbow Falls along the Kerikeri River during “dry” season.  There are people hiking into the cave beneath the falls.

We then drove to the quaint town of Kawakawa, home to the quirky public bathrooms designed by world-famous artist Friedesreich Hundertwasser.  Tile art all around town.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Nautical Term of the Day  –  Over the Barrel

The most common method of punishment on board a ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, a mast or “over the barrel” of a deck cannon.

Reminds me of Mutiny on the Bounty

Suva is the largest city in the South Pacific and capital of the Fijian archipelago of 330 islands. It is the most multi-cultural and multi-racial in the South Pacific, a very welcoming people to all.  The true story of the Mutiny on the Bounty lands here in 1789 and the rudder from the HMS Bounty is found in their museum. After Fijians were converted to Christianity in the 19th century, the practice of cannibalism disappeared. 

We went to experience some local culture and customs and found the people to be warm, friendly, and good rugby players (but as we will find out in New Zealand, not as good as the All Blacks.)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The highest elevation of Tongatapu, the largest of the 169 Tonga Islands, is 213 feet.  Its flat tropical landscape is composed of coral limestone with fertile volcanic soil.  Nuku’alofa is the cultural and political capital of Tonga and hosts the wooden Royal Palace built in 1867, the Royal Tombs and the spot where Captain Cook first landed in 1777. 

George Tupou I was the first King of Tonga and was converted by Methodist missionaries in 1831.  A 50 year civil war in Tonga was ended by the King in 1845 as he united Tonga into a Kingdom under a Monarchy which is today, the last Polynesian Monarchy. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

 

• 

• 

 

Nautical Term ~ of the day ~ Slush Fund

A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff, called “slush,” was often sold ashore by the ship’s cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a “slush fund.”

Bora Bora is called the “Pearl of the Pacific.”  Surrounded by a lagoon of turquoise waters and a barrier reef, it is situated in the volcanic crater of its origin.  Bora Bora and Tahiti are the most famous of the Society Islands archipelago in French Polynesia which has a total of 5 archipelagos. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Giant Moray Eel!

• 

How about the Scissor-tail Sergeant? There’s a big Parrot fish (maybe) in above photo, just a tad right of center!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Small islets with water bungalows are synonymous with Bora Bora.

Approaching Tahiti

• 

• 

We don’t want you to think it’s all blue skies here 🙂

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Rainy day activities 🙂 And tomorrow the sun will come out for my walk in the park 😉

• 

• 

• 

• 

Now for some serious shopping!  The Tahitian Black Pearl only comes from the Tahitian Black Lipped Oyster, lower center photo. They can take up to 3 years and sometimes more.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

 

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable.  It is designed to make its own people comfortable.”   ~   Clifton Fadiman

I wonder if that was what Herman Melville thought when he landed here in the 1840″s and was greeted by cannibals.  I decided not to write on the lecture that was given about cannibalism!

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest and deepest ocean. It is twice the area of the Atlantic and contains almost 3X as much water.  Over half the world’s population lives on its shores.  Civilization was built on salt and, therefore, the sea.  Without salt, humans would not have been able to preserve meat, fish and seasonal food for storage or transport.  So valued, salt was regarded the same way we regard currency today.  In fact, the word “salary” is derived from sal, the Latin word for salt.

In 1521 the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan made the first known crossing of the Pacific Ocean who then named it the “peaceful sea”.  We just crossed 7 days of it and it was peaceful for us, on this trip. 

After writing about the “Peaceful Sea,” we got word from the Captain that we will bypass the Cook Islands, (I’m writing this after Bora Bora) as there are poor weather conditions, and go straight to Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The tattoo is to indicate maturity and/or signify status or standing in your community. They also tell family history and therefore very unique per person.  Around 200 AD voyageurs from Samoa and Tonga settled in the area of Marquesas. Over a period of more than 1000 years one of the most complex Polynesian cultures evolved – Marquesan.  Marquesan tattoo designs, which often covered the whole body, were the most elaborate in Polynesia.  A legend is that European sailors liked the Polynesian tattoos so much that they spread extremely fast in Europe because the sailors emblazoned the tattoos on their own bodies.     

• 

• 

• 

Flowers are lovely.  And Tikis are everywhere!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In 1846, Herman Melville (who also wrote Moby Dick, 1851) wrote Typee, about cannibalism that he encountered on his visit to this Nuku Hivu island. It was not believed and not published for many years.  A hundred years later, 1946, James A. Michener wrote Tales of the South Pacific, later to be made into a Broadway musical and movie South Pacific.

“I have often been mildly amused when I think that the great American novel was not written about New England or Chicago.  It was written about a white whale in the South Pacific.”  ~   James A. Michener

• 

 

The planning of the building took decades with $50 million first being donated by Walt Disney’s widow, with the final cost of the building being $274 million.  Besides the magnificent architectural design by Frank Gehry, the acoustical architecture, by acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, was integral in making it the dream they envisioned. 

• 

Note the huge bell around 9 o’clock on the outside ring of the orchestra, it’s very large and a lot of us noticed when it was hit, it took 5-10 seconds for us to hear it, and it was in the right place in the song. We all understand the physics but it’s so cool to see, I mean hear. Actually both!

Now the Program: 

Zubin Mehta, conductor

Los Angeles Master Chorale

Mahler          Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection”

 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Many 4-month-friends left the cruise at LA too.  Mega served us happily for four months as did Vicki, our Cruise directer and very funny lady.  Vicki received an engagement ring at the end of one of her shows as her boyfriend came out on stage and knelt down on one knee and……  and we’re all invited to the wedding 😉

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I think we only saw maybe 2 or 3 of the fish on the card of possibility.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I finally got some photos of a Pelican up close and in focus!  I’ve been trying to do so unsuccessfully since the Caribbean.

• 

• 

• 

•