Sometimes there’s not much adventure in an adventure. That can be ok.

Originally we had one stop in the Cook Islands and a stop at Bora Bora. The Bora Bora said they wouldn’t accept a ship of our size (over 1,000 passengers) due to COVID. So we would have two stops at the Cook Islands. Then Bora Bora changed their mind and we were back to the original plan. Then we got to the Cook Island and the sea swells were too high to tender safely. The swells were flooding the tender platform. So this is as close as we got to the Cook Islands.

There were a few disgruntled passengers. HA is giving each passenger a free drink. But here’s a hidden gem. We crossed the international dateline the other day. We had two Tuesdays this week. That means I could love my lovely wife 8 days a week (as the Beetles suggested). It’s even during our anniversary week. Nice.

We ended up needing our surprise sea day. Our Air B&B had a leak. The house is not habitable. That’s 0 for 2 with Air B&Bs. We ended up booking two rooms (one for us, one for Jul and her kids) at a hotel for watching the eclipse.

Tomorrow is a sea day. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Yesterday we had a presentation, a kind of Tonga warmup. The speaker let it be known that anybody visiting Tonga should snorkel or dive. Not doing so is simply cheating yourself out of the best that Tonga has to offer. I don’t mind cheating myself, but I don’t want to cheat you. So here is a picture from his presentation so you can see here what you should see in Tonga should you ever visit and decide to go snorkeling.

There’s not a lot to see in Tonga. It was very hot with 100% humidity. Rain showers turned on and off as we strolled the streets. Modern Tonga emerged along with the rest of the world in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The old Tonga was a monarchy and was the main power of the Pacific Islands. Modern Tonga emerged when the missionaries arrived and converted the island to Christianity. I have to admire those missionaries. Their first three attempts ended in failure, with all still living missionaries leaving the country. The fourth attempt succeeded. Tonga was never colonized. Modern Tonga is still a monarchy, but they also have a Prime Minister and a Parliament. Tonga is a very conservative Christian community. Citizens are guaranteed religions freedom. About 97% of the population goes to Church every Sunday. All commercial activities shut down on Sunday. It is illegal to go to the beach to swim. The most revered king is the third monarch and the first female king, Sālote Tupou III. Everybody in Tonga speaks Tongan. English is their second language. Only citizens can buy land in Tonga.

Tonga is obviously a poor country. Retail stores do not turn on their lights during the day. Air conditioning is reserved for foreign businesses and such. We asked one man for directions. We started talking. He knew that in the US, children are expected to leave their parent’s home after they graduate from college / get married. In Tonga, the family stays together. Even aunts and uncles might live together. This man had 5 daughters and one son. The son is in France studying at a university. The oldest daughter has married and moved to San Francisco. It’s common for children to leave, get jobs, and mail money back home. However, the children don’t always return. There are more Tongans living out of the country than in it.

The must see tourist landmark is the Royal Palace. The existing king does not live in the palace. It is used for some formal affairs of state. It’s not possible to go inside the palace or even walk around the grounds. Very well armed army troops are quite visible inside the fence. The building and grounds are immaculate, quite a contrast to other buildings in the area.

The most interesting thing I saw is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Most Tonga men wear slacks or a skirt that goes to their ankles. When we were near the palace, we saw a group of men wearing the skirts plus also a weaved apron. I asked them why they were were wearing the aprons. The man who answered hesitated before saying it was out of respect. I asked if this was respect for the King. He said no, it was respect for the Queen. I assume he meant Queen Sālote. I would like to have asked more, but they were obviously reluctant. But they weren’t at all reluctant to pose for this pic.

On our way back to the ship, a white woman driving a late model jeep stopped and asked if we wanted a ride to the ship. We were only a few blocks away. She appeared friendly, but her offer seemed a little off. I think she honestly wanted to be friendly, but I didn’t see any reason for getting in her car.

Tomorrow is a sea day. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

This is our last stop in New Zealand. Waitangi is where the Treaty of Te Hono Hawaiki was signed. It is where the first British governor lived. It’s where most of the Maori chiefs gathered for the treaty signing. In a very real sense, it was the beginning of the modern New Zealand. This is where the most extensive museum of modern New Zealand history is sited. So of course we decided to see glow worms. We selected most of our excursions 6 months ago or more. We had no idea of what the Hawaiki treaty was. There were no excursions to this museum because if you want to visit it, you walk less than 100 yards from the tender port to the museum entrance. But we have no regrets about missing this most comprehensive and most expensive museum. We have seen many exhibits about the Maori and early NZ. I keep on thinking of the spray painted extract of the English version of the treaty in Wellington. Certainly, this subject is under lively discussion to this day.

The glow worms live in a cave. To access the cave, one takes a bus ride. Our bus ride made a rest stop at the Hundertwasser Toilets. These are billed as the most photographed toilets in the world. I’m not sure whether anybody believes the claim but the toilets are certainly unusual. Not as unusual as Glenn’s “Urinals of Ireland”, but unusual in their own way.

When we got to the cave, I took one look and decided not to go in. Danita came back very excited about seeing the glow worms. If you want to know anything about them, you really should ask her.

Our third stop was the Manginangina Forest. This was a most impressive stop. This most northern part of the North Island has a slow growing tree that can be very old, produces excellent wood, and becomes very big. The difference between this tree and the tree we saw many days earlier (besides having different names) is that this tree is not as tall. Instead, it grows by increasing the diameter of the trunk. Also, the trees we saw were only 1200 years old or so. I don’t know how long they can live.

Our guide was a very active volunteer, heavily invested in protecting this uniquely New Zealand forest. He explained that the trees are now protected, but the forest is unhealthy because of non-indigenous predators. They extensively trap small mammals. They are trying to build a similar forests in small, uninhabited islands. Our guide says they want to eliminate predictors from NZ by 2050. That sounds like an ambitions goal, but I certainly wish him the best.

Our next two days are sea days. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We spent most of our time at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) is a big deal for both Australia and New Zealand. Both sent troupes to fight in both world wars, and soldiers who died in both wars are memorialized. But the biggest focus is on WW I. Their troupe losses as a percentage of population were much larger than Britain’s, and most of the losses came from one battle, the battle of Gallipoli. The ANZAC forces were sent on a suicide charge against the Turks while the British were having tea.

The most poignant room for me had a Japanese Zero fighter plane. At the beginning of the war, it was the best fighting plane in the world. The Japanese lost, of course. At the very end of the war, this plane was held back for repairs. By the time the plane was repaired, the war was over. Not long ago, A Japanese man visited the museum. He was a Zero pilot. He was scheduled to go on a suicide mission, but he was held back to train the next wave of pilots. By the time the pilots were trained, the war was over. He was so taken by the Zero display that he donated his pilot memorabilia, which you see in the second picture.

The museum displayed only two planes. The second was a Spitfire, one of the most effective planes built by the British. This plane has no extraordinary story, but it seems fitting to include it in this blog.

Similar to the history in the US, and Australia, and undoubtedly many other countries, there was extremely cruel and unfair treatment to the first people. Probably the worst incident in New Zealand was the attack at Ruapekapeka Pa. The Maori went deep into the bush and spent almost a year building their last stand fort. It involved many brilliant defensive measures. Eventually the British arrived. In spite of their superior weapons, it took them 10 days to overrun the fort.

Up into the 1950s, very few people in New Zealand knew about Ruapekapeka Pa. Even many history teachers didn’t know about it. Some school girls started a partition for a day of remembrance. They delivered thousands of signatures in boxes similar to this one. It’s just a cheap box, but it is covered with a Maori pattern that represents learning. Today, schools teach a more accurate version of history.

The last pic I will include is Moa bird, the biggest ever in New Zealand, and perhaps the world. Before the Maori came, there were no mammals in NZ, hence no predicters. As a result, a large number of NZ birds are flightless. Also, egg shells were much thinner than flightless birds in other parts of the world, such as the Ostridge. These birds became extinct shortly after the Maori arrived. The Maori caused the extension, but probably only indirectly. They brought with them a large rat that they used as a food source (like a guinea pig). The ratgs did well in NZ, often feasting on the easily penetrated Moa eggs.

We have one last stop in NZ, which will be tomorrow. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We started with a walking tour of the city. Our guide was entertaining, but didn’t have a lot to say that we haven’t already heard. The local government commissioned an artist to create a statue of Maori as strong and ready for battle. The artist decided it would be more appropriate to make the statue of a noble Maori looking out to the Pacific Ocean, contemplating the great achievement of navigating to New Zealand. Those artists are always changing things around. Anyway, the powers must have decided the statue was good enough. It’s in the harbor area.

We also saw this street art on the side of a building. Our tour guide kept describing the art using words such as inclusiveness. I finally figured out he meant LGBTQ+.

Here is a pic of the University of Auckland clock tower. This is a stand-in for the picture I should have taken but didn’t. Danita is facing another clock built into the ground in a garden. The numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12 are made from flowers. A circle of flowers defines the clock face. In the center of the face is a pipe buried in the ground holding a clockworks. What’s missing from the garden clock are the hour and minute hands. Our guide talked about a game university students like to play that involves placing a large number of beers on the clock “face” and guys (it’s always guys that do this silly stuff) trying to drink beer fast enough to consume it before the clock knocks a beer over. Somehow the game seemed to include running away from security officers. As you have noticed, I didn’t get the full gist of the game. But I did notice that our guide also mentioned that he graduated from Auckland U, and he didn’t discuss how well he did in the clock beer game.

The last pic is from the Maritime Museum. This is a modern model of the double-hulled boats the Maori used to navigate the Pacific. The materials are modern (fiber glass for the canoes, for example) but the lines and dimensions are true to the Maori. I get the idea. If you use a boat for educational sails for school kids, you have to meet modern safety standards. But I thought the solar panels were a bit much.

We stay overnight in Auckland. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

After we docked in Tauraga, we visited the village of Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao (Whaka for short). This is an actual village with about 70 Maori. We stopped for a photo at the village welcome center. We weren’t permitted indoors because it is sacred.

This village is on thermal steam vents, which are in active volcanic areas. Not long ago they had to evacuate the village due to a volcanic eruption. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and no damage was done.

Their entertainment troupe performed dances and songs for us. So far as I can tell, these were authentic. The man in the center is supposed to have his tongue out and his eyes bulged. It creates a fearsome image and helps the warrior prepare for war.

There were 39 passengers in our tour. Our bus driver was the worst ever. He told us he had to use a backup bus because this bus was in an accident yesterday — somebody drove into the bus. He twice had to stop short because he didn’t yield right of way to traffic entering a round about. He never told us when the bus was going to return. One of the passengers had to go back and ask. When it was time to go back to the ship, he counted the passengers and started to leave a couple of minutes early. If we hadn’t called out, he would have left three people behind. One of the passengers asked if he counted people. He said “I counted 46 before those three showed up.” On the way back to the boat, he drove over a large rock that was in the center of a round about. His reaction was to laugh about it. I’m convinced he was responsible for the accident yesterday. I don’t think he will be driving tour buses for long.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

If there are no pictures, did anything happen? We took a inflatable boat river ride today. I always try to travel light, but this time I went “overboard”. My phone, my multi tool, my eye glasses, and even my hearing aids stayed behind in the cabin. One man took a huge bag — way too big qualify as an airplane carry-on. I can’t imagine what he thought he needed. It was a 5 hour tour, 90 minutes of which were in the water, in a class 2 section of the river. Enough to have a little fun, not enough to cause serious anxiety. The weather was perfect — sunny and warm. Nobody fell overboard. Everybody had a great time. The countryside was absolutely beautiful. Danita and I got up early this morning and earned ourselves a bonus. We had a stunningly beautiful and dramatic sunrise. But don’t tell Holland America. I’m sure they will charge us if they find out. ;-)

A1931 earthquake made major changes to Napier. Ground was moved up 5 feet or so. The water line was pushed back a couple of blocks. Swampy areas became dry land and underwater areas became swampy. The beautiful deep sea port became a ho-hum port. The white sand beaches became rock strewn water with dangerous tides. Buildings made with bricks collapsed. Buildings made of wood generally survived the quake but didn’t necessarily survive the fire. The silver lining is that Napier rebuilt their commercial district over the next couple of years. Today, they bill themselves as the Art Deco capitol of the world. They also had a major cyclone about two years ago. We saw plenty of abandoned houses in the rural area. The storm moved one house several hundred yards down the hill. It seems every port has at least one weather disaster story. Here’s hoping the good weather holds for another week.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We started out with a cable car ride. Wellington starts at the ocean and climbs the hill. It’s a particularly steep and long hill. It’s only one hill, but people get tired of walking it. So they installed a cable car, not unlike the cable cars in San Francisco. Where the Wellington cars differ is the length of the line. While substantial, it is much less than the length of a line in SF. Eventually, they decided to modernize it. They installed a fully automatic system with a amazing cable setup, and put an operator in the car just in case. You can see one of the original cars on the left, and the new cars approaching the top of the hill on the right. You can see the new cable pulleys. They are quite impressive.

Our main activity was Te Papa, the national museum. I learned some amazing things. For example, Cook successfully mapped New Zealand. He only made one large mistake. He thought NZ was one island. He missed a rather substantial gap between the north and south islands. Since he knew nothing of the gap, people decided to name it Cook’s Strait. Who can explain these things?

The more substantial interesting subject was the aboriginal people, called the Maori. NZ has an official policy of being a dual-culture country. The main reason for this is a man (I don’t remember his name) who came from England to help improve law and order in the early days of European whaling. The Maori asked him for help. He advised them to write a declaration of independence. That transformed the many Maori tribes into one nation with the right to negotiate with the English government. They negotiated The Treaty of Waitangi. Mostly, the treaty demonstrates that the world is not yet perfect. The large yellow and clear banner hanging from the ceiling in the left hand picture is the remains of the original. Obviously, whoever was responsible for preserving the treaty did not consider it an important document. The museum also had three passages extracted in both English and Maori to illustrate why the two treaties couldn’t be the same. For example, the Mauri culture has no concept of land ownership, so the section on land could not describe it in Mauri. You can see the English version of the extractions on the right. Obviously, there is some very active “discussion” of what specific actions should be taken to fulfill the treaty.

We also saw a model of a Maori boat of the type they would use when sailing between islands. According to our guide, Cook’s boat had a top speed of 5 knots. The Maori boat could do 15. We saw a full size example of a smaller Maori boat (no picture of this one) that had white Albatross feathers tied along both sides of the canoe. This told the navigator the speed and direction of the wind.

We saw a Maori “food pantry” — a house on stilts with elaborate carvings. You can see it below. The round white disks are eyes. The more eyes in the carving, the better the protection.

The museum has a Welcome Place that was dedicated to a powerful chief. We weren’t able to photograph it because it is sacred and still being used by the Maori. (They come in the museum and gather inside the Welcome Place.) Compare the carving on the food pantry to a modern Welcome Place called Te Hono Hawaiki (which we could photograph). The structure is made of wood. They made some amazing shapes. It’s obvious the Mauri are not a backwards looking people. They are perfectly willing to adapt themselves to modern technology when they find it appropriate.

That’s enough for today. I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are 1100 guests on the ship. Because this is the low season, there are fewer than 800 residents in Akaroa. This is a vacation town without a lot to see or do during the fall. Danita and I got an excursion to go to Christchurch. It was a half hour ride in the tender and another hour and a half on the bus. The bus ride was mostly over narrow mountain roads. But what beautiful countryside. I took this pic standing about 2 inches away from a fence that was both electrified and had barbed wire. It wouldn’t be a good place to loose your footing.

Along the ride, Danita noticed these boat sheds that reminded us of Jean and Leo’s boat shanty on Lake Erie.

Christchurch was devastated by major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The had a lot of old historic buildings built with stone or brick. Virtually all of them were destroyed. They have done an incredible job of rebuilding. One of their problems is that the downtown area was closed, with 24 hour military patrols, while buildings were being demolished. Businesses couldn’t wait, and built new facilities outside of town. Now that the damage is mostly repaired, the town is open but businesses are largely happy staying outside the downtown area. Most of the new construction is good, but a few organizations built temporary structures that are still being used. The most famous of these is the cardboard church. You can see round rafters holding the roof up. These rafters are made out of cardboard tubes with cement poured in the center.

We saw an excellent botanical garden, and had a wonderful lunch / wine tasting. The tender ride back to the ship splashed around quite a bit. We saw the pilot ship. It was running beside us at a pretty good speed. They were bouncing around on a roller coaster that never ends.

That’s it for today. I hope this finds everybody doing well.