Tauranga, New Zealand

Someone I met on Cruise Critic arranged several tours in New Zealand. Today was the first one. We met onboard, then went off the ship to meet our guide. There were 14 of us in all, 4 from our ship's sister ship the Volendam which is in port right behind us. They actually did a parallel parking job earlier, pulling up right along side our ship then backing into the space behind us.

We drove thru town then to the beach road. Tauranga is on a peninsula, so the port is on one side, a beautiful beach on the other. There were some very large beautiful homes along the beach. It is the top resort area in NZ. Once outside of the city, there were beautiful green rolling hills, sometimes broken by a dormant volcano. We stopped at a place called Kiwi 360 where we were able to see kiwi on the vine. It was really interesting as I had no idea how they grow! The base of the vines were about 6" in diameter, placed every 15' or so. They were then spread forming almost a roof, almost 6' high. The kiwi hang down making them quite easy to pick, and in the shade! There was a large store with anything you could ever want kiwi related. We were able to taste kiwi wine, quite good, and kiwi juice, quite bitter. I bought some kiwi candy and dried kiwi.

We started climbing a bit into a forest area. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall, more like a big rapids actually. There had been a hydroelectric plant in that location until the 40's. As we came over a rise, we could see a lake called Lake Rotoiti, Little Lake. Further along was Rotorua, or Second Lake. They were at 900' above sea level, quite beautiful. We went to a large facility with geysers and "boiling" mud (a mini Yellowstone Park). They had a cultural center at the same location where we saw another Maori concert. It was better than the one we saw on the ship. During their war dance, they bug out their eyes and stick out their tongues. I had seen a lot of postcards with Maoris with their tongues out and was wondering why. Now I know.

 

There was a Kiwi house at the center also. It was kept dark during the day and light at night so the nocturnal kiwis would be up and about for visitors. We were only able to see one, but it was right next to the glass, so fairly easily visible although it was pretty dark. The kiwi was about the size of a large chicken. Nice to see a living one. There was also a woodcarving building and a weaving building. They teach both of them to people from different parts of NZ so they can return to their home and teach others.

 

We stopped at the Lakeside Cafe for lunch. I ordered a BLT but didn't get what I was expecting! There was one slice of bread, a nice looking lettuce and tomato and some thinly sliced ham. Guess bacon is different in NZ. There was also some chicken on my plate. Different, but good. On the lake were a number of black swan, really pretty. After lunch we headed back to the ship which was now over an hour away. We took a different road, so it was a nice drive. We were back at the ship by 4.

 

Since sail away wasn't until 6, we decided to leave our packages and go out for a walk. A small shopping street was just several blocks away. On the way back to the ship we ran into the Tai Chi instructors. They had just had ice cream and told us about the NZ specialty, Hokey Pokey ice cream. It was delicious! It has a honey flavor with bits of honeycomb candy in it. Nice to have dessert first. We were back on the ship for dinner by 5:30.

 

The Capt announced that a tropical storm is hitting northern NZ and will affect sea conditions tonight. He told us to remove everything from our tables and make sure there is nothing that can tip over. He is expecting 12' swells, oh yea! Because of the rough seas, he'll have to make an assessment in the morning if we'll be able to get into our next port or not. We are expected to dock at noon. Should be an interesting night.