Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

February 26, 2019

We arrived in Auckland early this morning.  I had a 9:30 work call so we had our breakfast and right after the call we headed to the ferry building to take the ferry to Devonport.

First about Auckland.  This is our third time here and we really like the city.  It is the major gateway for ship and air traffic and was once the capital of New Zealand.  It is called the “City of the Sails” because of its beautiful location and great weather.  It is build on top of a cluster of extinct volcanos. It is the largest city in the country and the people here are just wonderful.

I couldn’t take a picture as soon as we docked because we were facing the Hilton Hotel which it seemed we could almost reach out and touch.  But I got some pictures from the Terrace Café.

The needle shaped building is the sky tower. And the orangish one is the beautiful ferry building with the ferries in the water.  That’s how close it is.

They were loading LOTS of supplies on the ship.   We have 5 days till Sydney and have just had a number of sea days so they have a need to stock up!

It is another beautiful day in the 70’s.  After the heat and humidity, it felt cool at breakfast but once we were out and about, it felt just perfect.

From the ferry, I took these pictures.  Our friend Mike said the first building must have been designed by a man because the toilet seat is up!

The ferry trip to Devon port takes just 12 minutes.  We love this little historic town. Europeans settled her in the mid 1800s but the Maori settlement goes back to the mid-14th century.  The town was named after the Devonport naval base in England. One of the first things you see when you leave the ferry wharf is the Esplanade Hotel, built in 1902-03 is one of the oldest on the North Shore and the bar still exists in its original position in the hotel.   We planned to have lunch there after doing our shopping and walking.

Last time we were here, I bought some really unique jewelry and clothes.  I went back to the same stores and found some earrings as well as the merino wool and possum (not our kind of possum) gloves and socks.  I wore out the gloves I bought last time.

We then took the walk on Victoria Road and up to Mt. Victoria.  It is quite a steep hike (the largest volcanic cone here) but the view at the top is just spectacular.  You can see over to Auckland and all around Devonport and the harbors. It was part of the coastal defense system established in 1885 in fear of attack on the British Empire by the Russian Pacific Fleet.

We enjoyed the views, chatted with a man from Connecticut and then walked back down to the main part of town.  The historic buildings are really nice.

We had a leisurely lunch at the Esplanade Hotel.

This town is quirky in a way we love.  I like to post signs and here are some that we saw today. They love dogs here too and this one loves the town right back.  He has his own grass patch right in a parking lot!

Our last two visits were the always important Devonport Chocolate and the equally important Glengarry Wine!

We sat and enjoyed the small beach and even noticed a swimmer, then we boarded the ferry after a really fun day.

Here are some of the pictures from the ferry back to Auckland. The hill is Mt. Victoria.

February 22, 2019

Yesterday we had a class to make crepe paper flowers with June, our Polynesian enrichment lecturer.  Even with the same directions, there were a variety of different beautiful flowers.  Here’s mine.

Last night we had a cooking class with the guest chef on board, Olivier Desaintmartin.  He is French but now lives in Philadelphia where he operates a restaurant called Caribou Café on 12th and Walnut!  We haven’t eaten there but will when we return. We have walked past it many times. I chatted with him to let him know to expect us after 6 months.

He was a Food Network TV “Chopped” Champion.  He and our executive chef, Mario, were on stage along with some of the other sous chefs.  Chef Olivier made crab cakes and a delicious looking cod dish which Mario says will be cooked and served in the dining room in the next few days. I love my crab cake recipe but will try his when I get home.

Here’s our view entering the Suva harbor this morning.

On our last trip to Fiji we went to the Navua River and did a longboat tour, lunch and swim near the waterfall.  Today, we had wi-fi on our minds first.  So we went to the local shopping mall and paid $2 in Fiji dollars for each of our devices for 24 hours of wi-fi.  That was about $1 in US money – well worth it. We got everything backed up and the new software downloaded in a pretty short time.

We always like to browse the markets and the Suva Market here is really large, clean and full of delicious looking produce, spices, fabrics and yes, lots of eggs!

They also had a lot of kava which they use to make a drink we tasted last time – and could hardly stand it.

We also walked to Victoria Parade.  It is a street running along the water with lots of shops including a fairly large handicraft market.  We talked to some of the vendors but didn’t buy anything.

After strolling through the market, we hired a driver for a tour of Suva.  His name was Rackness and he was a nice guy and a knowledgeable guide. He told us that Fiji is made up of 333 islands but only 110 are inhabited.  The population is 850,000 and almost half live in Suva.  That explains the heavy traffic in the downtown area.  Suva is the largest city in the South Pacific. The main employer used to be sugar cane – now it is tourism.

The weather stays about the same all year and they do get lots of rain.  None today though although the rainy season is November – March.

Our butler, Pio, is from India and met his Serbian wife on the ship so now they reside in Serbia.  He told us how many Indian people live here and he couldn’t wait to leave the ship and have lots of Indian food.  Rackness told us that the British brought people from India to be slaves back in the day and that is why there is such a large Indian population today. Actually, there are many Chinese, Europeans, Arabs and a pretty large expat population here.

We stopped at several locations to take pictures. This is the Parliament building.

And this is the Grand Pacific Hotel.  Queen Elizabeth stayed here in 1953. Colonial style and very beautiful.

People are not allowed to visit the Presidential Palace, also known as the Government House.  It was built in 1928 and became the official residence of the president after Fiji became a republic in 1987. There is a guard outside wearing a traditional skirt called a Sulu.  They stand outside the palace in the heat in 2 hour intervals.

The real security guard was surprised that we wanted his picture too!

The grounds are beautiful.  I don’t know if you can see the flying foxes in the trees but they are numerous. They are the black hanging animals.

We stopped at the Thurston botanical gardens and a beautiful park. The trees are hundreds of years old.

Rackness was proud of the fact that Fiji won gold in rugby at the 2016 Olympics and showed us the $7 currency with a commemorative picture.

The local people are being priced out of the housing market by Chinese and Arab people coming to Fiji.  A condo building will be the highest building and the lowest price is $3 million.  He says only a few Fijian businessmen would be able to afford that so mostly foreign investors buy them.

We paid a visit to the war memorial and passed by the old Parliament building which is in disrepair and no longer used.

The country is mostly Christian.  This is the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Next to the bank…

At the end of our tour, Norm gave Rackness some extra money since his daughter is attending nursing school in Australia and he sends most of his money there to support her.  Yay for nurses!

We always like to see the fish markets and this one was no exception.

Beautiful (hot) and sunny day in wonderful Fiji.

February 19, 2019

Pago Pago is pronounced Pango Pango and it is absolutely lush and beautiful.  The town is at the western end of an L- shaped bay and surrounded by beautiful mountains.  Here are a couple of pictures taken as we sailed in.

We made plans with Rodney and Candace to go hiking at the National Park.  When we got off the ship and realized how hot and humid it was, we took advantage of one of the many bus and taxi drivers who waited outside the port gates to offer guided tours of the island.

We got maps from Miss American Samoa!

We met Jubilee and quickly agreed to go in his bus for a 3 hour tour – for $20 each. These wooden buses are everywhere on the island.  They are very colorful and all decorated differently.  Here is Jubilee with Norm, Rodney, Candace and our bus.

Now, Jubilee would be quite happy if we got a few more people to go with us on the bus.  So as we passed passengers from our ship, we yelled out the window to see if they wanted to join us!  We ended up with 8 more people.  Most of them started to walk somewhere and found out how hot it was.

I should mention here that for all of the ports we have been to before – you can read the descriptions on the blog post from that port.  For example, here is the link to the post from our trip here 2 years ago. If you are thinking of visiting any of these places, you can see what we experienced on our visits.

Pago Pago 2017

So, we set off on our adventure.  We immediately noticed the no drinking, no eating inscription which was written at the front of the bus.  Jubilee told us “don’t worry about that – it is for locals!”

Jubilee took us to the western part of the island first. About 65,000 people live on the 76 square mile island and around 9000 live in Pago Pago. Including the marine waters, the area is about the size of the state of Oregon or New Zealand. 90% of the island is covered in untouched tropical rainforest. 

The local people retain much of the traditional way of life.  In fact, the organized ship’s tours to the villages had a requirement that women wear long pants, not shorts.

There are guest houses called “fale” that look like large gazebos where people entertain visitors or hold ceremonies like weddings. They are open and without walls to symbolize the villagers’ unrestricted culture. We saw many different styles. The first one is a ceremonial one with impressive carved columns.

It was very interesting to learn that many families bury their loved ones in their front yards.  There are also cemeteries but we noticed so many gravesites in the yards.  If they have burial sites on their properties, the families are never allowed to sell the house, nor can the government take it over for any reason. We did see quite a few deteriorating houses and wondered if that was the reason.

The road doesn’t go all the way around the island, so we went to the western area first, then went back to the eastern side before returning to the ship.  Jubilee wanted to take us up to a high point for some beautiful pictures of the landscape, but part way up, the bus started to overheat, so we didn’t do that.  By the way, these very interesting buses don’t have air conditioning, but the breeze once we travel makes them quite comfortable.

Here are some of the pictures of the sights we saw. The water is clear as can be.

So, this island is an American territory and dollars are the currency. There is a US post office and of course, a McDonalds, in fact there are two of those.

Jubilee told us of the earthquake and tsunami that happened on 9/29/09.  60 people died and he said if it had happened at night more would have died.  We stopped at the Leone Mission Monument that marks the contribution of Reverend John Williams who landed here in 1832 and began spreading Christianity.  The island is predominantly Christian and we passed MANY churches.

We passed a school and on the way back, Jubilee pulled into the parking lot and picked up his daughter. The students were happy to see us!

When we passed Jubilee’s house, his wife came to get his daughter!

We went to “two dollar beach” which is also known as Avaio beach.  It now costs $5 but the name remains the same.

There is a large Starkist tuna processing plant on the island – about 2000 people work there.

Some shots of us in the beauty of American Samoa.

We headed back around the bay. As Jubilee saw people walking he offered them rides back to the ship for $5. We picked up about 6 more passengers. Curiously, there are two places named for Ronald Reagan.

Tonight, countdown to the Oscars continues with the movie BlackKKKlansman.  We have already seen it and liked it a lot.  I always say that the movie night is “all about the popcorn” which we only get on movie night, so I may go just for that!