Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

February 25, 2017

Now we are on the south island of New Zealand in Picton,  at the head of the Queen Charlotte Sound.  This town was settled by early 19th century whalers and is now a bustling seaport surrounded by lovely shops, restaurants, nature trails and water sports activities. The town is named for Sir Thomas Picton, the Welsh military associate of the Duke of Wellington who was killed in the battle of Waterloo. People say that Picton is New Zealand’s prettiest seaside town and I believe them!

Our excursion today started with our driver/guide, Dion, telling us a lot about the area.  The population here is only 4000.  On the way to our first stop, we saw lots of mountains covered with pine trees. We had already heard that forestry is a big part of the economy here and now we know why.  Normal time it takes to grow a pine to maturity in most parts of the world is 80-100 years.  Due to the perfect climate here it takes only 20-25 years, only 1/4 of the time as other places, so the supply is prolific and a huge export to all around the world.

Of course, the Marlborough area here is best known for its wine, especially the Sauvignon Blanc.  There are more than 250,000 acres of grapevines here and over 200 wineries.  Even so, it only produces 1% of the world’s wine!  But about 75% of New Zealand’s wine is produced in this area.

Our first stop was the Omaka Aviation Heritage Center which is the best World War I museum in the world.  There are 21 planes on exhibit here and the environment was designed by Peter Jackson for movie footage so all of the scenarios are so real. The people’s faces were made using molds of real people.   All of what is on display in the center is authentic, some of the planes are replicas but 4 of them actually flew in WWI.  We saw the plane of Roland Garros of France.  Now I know who they named the French tennis center after. Also the Fokker made famous by the Red Baron is here. There are a few scenarios of aviators from Allied and German sides shaking hands.  Apparently there was a sense of honor among them and they greeted each other cordially before capture.

The volunteers here are passionate about aviation and history.  In fact, Dion warned us not to ask too many questions or we might never get to leave.  

It was a fascinating place.  The uniforms and other memorabilia on display is all authentic. For example, Hermann Goring’s hat cost $200,000 to acquire for display. There are lots of artifacts and personal belongings from many of the pilots.

The Vimy plane that was the first to cross the Atlantic in 1919 is here.  It traveled at 103 mph. The planes in those days were made of wood covered with fabric.  Each had what looked like a bullseye on it and that is how the pilots would know it was an Allied plane.  Each of the symbols was of different color combinations.  The US manufactured planes but didn’t fly them then.

In the blimps, they used the lining from cow stomachs to hold in the hydrogen.  Apparently the Germans commandeered all of the cows in Germany for their airships!

There is a poppy display made by the people of New Zealand in honor of those who lost their lives in WWI.  There is a purple poppy in each panel to honor the horses who died.  New Zealand sent 19,000 horses and only 3 returned.

Our guide told us that they had a “shakearound” a couple of months ago (that is their euphanism for earthquake) and some of the displays are a bit off center and in the process of being adjusted.  We did notice a couple of pictures that way but most of the museum was in fine shape.   Very worthwhile visit.  Wish my dad could have been here, he would have loved it.

Many of the planes are still flown in airshows, the next is March 7.

We passed the Para wetlands on the way to our next stop.  This is where they planted lots of willow trees in the swamp hoping to introduce a new species.  Unfortunately it upset the natural balance and killed off the wildlife there.  So they killed all of the trees hoping they would decompose into the ground, but that didn’t happen either so it looks like a dead forest.  Eventually some blow over in the storms but it will take a while to bring this wetlands back to what it should be.

Our next stop was the Moa Brewery.  This was founded in 2003 by Josh Scott, the son of renowned Marlborough winemaker Alan Scott.  It has a focus on brewing super premium handcrafted beer.  Josh’s motto is “It takes a lot of beer to make a good wine!”  The name Moa (pronounced more) is derived from the extinct flightless bird once found here.  

The beers are made the way they used to be, most are rounded off using winemaking techniques such as bottle conditioning where a small amount of active yeast and priming sugar is added to the brew just before bottling (like Champagne).  We sampled their cider and several beers.  Loved the cider, Norm found some good beers.

Also seen at the brewery: who knew they made Peking Duck chips??

Then it was on to the last stop before heading back to town, the Makana Chocolate Factory.  Here we sampled truffles and macadamia butter toffee crunch, and of course bought both.  Makana is New Zealand’s leading producer of handmade chocolates and we got to see the workers making truffles and other delicious looking candy.

I even found this card which proves scientifically what I have been saying for years!

We headed back to the town of Picton, did a bit of a walk and shopped, ending a really beautiful day.  We could see the Saturday Queen Charlotte yacht club regatta from the ship – young sailors in optis, lasers and 420s in the harbor.  Reminded me of Mark’s sailing days in those boats.

And there were a couple of signs in town I just had to include:

February 18, 2017

Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia.  25% of the total nickel reserves in the world are mined here which has dramatically increased their GNP. There isn’t too much tourism and there is a wide gap between the rich and poor. This is the third largest island in the South Pacific. It is home to the world’s largest lagoon and second largest coral reef. The country is French and Noumea has all the ambiance of a provincial French town with the heavenly climate of the Pacific Islands. There are no earthquakes or volcanos here but they do get cyclones, the last was in 2003 and they say since then the storms have gone closer to Vanuatu and Australia.

This town is the most “westernized” city in the Pacific Islands and is a contrast to the open spaces, beaches and lovely hills on the rest of the island. Quite charming. It also has more sunny days, although we did have an afternoon rain.

Our excursion today was to an area of the coral reef for snorkeling.  The diversity of coral and fish species is extensive here and the lagoons been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage site with the ecosystems being  legally protected.

Some people took an excursion on the Tchou Tchou train!!

We had an absolutely wonderful morning.  We saw so many species of fish, many sea turtles, sharks, manta rays , morey eels and some really beautiful coral.  Love those sea turtles. I again took video and pictures but can’t upload them here due to Wi-Fi speed.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours, then returned to the ship for showers and lunch. Will try to capture some of the photos from the video footage, we will see how successful I will be.  I need our sons here to advise me.

After that we went out and took the hop on hop off bus around the town.  We stopped for drinks at Lemon Bay, a nice beach area with lots of bars and restaurants.

There was also a Royal Caribbean ship, a large one, in port, so we couldn’t understand why the shops closed at noon! There was a handicraft market at the terminal so we got a turtle magnet. That was the extent of the shopping.

Another sea day tomorrow then on to Norfolk Island.

February 14, 2017

I am writing this on February 15 and we are now 18 hours ahead of Eastern time.  Confusing to say the least!

Our excursion yesterday in Lautoka was a trip on an old wooden sailboat to a private island, Tivua Island.

First, a bit about Lautoka.  This town is on the northwest coast of the island of Vito in Fiji.  It is the second largest city after Suva. This is the area of the sugar cane industry and is the country’s leading sugar export port.  Legend has it that there were two tribes in the town and as a result of an argument one day, a fight broke out between the two chiefs.  One speared the other and screamed out “LAU-TOKA” meaning “spear hit” or “hit to win”. And so, the town acquired its name.

We boarded our sailing vessel right from the wharf where our ship was docked. We had a wonderful friendly crew who greeted us with fresh fruit and mango juice.  They entertained with songs on the way to the island, and one even had a box with what looked like a clothesline attached to a stick.  He made sounds like a bass with it!

They did a kava ceremony on board and this time Norm was the chief and had to drink the kava first.

The island was beautiful.  It is a sand fringed coral island surrounded by 500 acres of coral reefs. We had a choice of lots of activities, including snorkeling, paddle boarding, glass bottom boat, swimming or just relaxing in our own hut.  We chose to snorkel. and while the coral has been pretty damaged by cyclones, the fish were spectacular.  We saw lots of bright blue starfish which are plentiful here and not anything we have seen before.  I did take video and pictures with my new go pro camera but haven’t figured out how to get them on the blog.  We have other snorkeling trips scheduled, so I may do a post of just those pictures when I figure it out! And may have to post from a place with fast Wi-Fi.

Some people arrived by helicopter!

Anyway, we spent almost 2 hours snorkeling and then had a nice lunch with all the beverages you could drink.  Norm had several beers!

I did some beachcombing for shells and unusual coral pieces.  We were happy to see the protection of turtle nests here. We also saw the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway but we didn’t spot Wilson!

One of the crew also took us on a nature walk and pointed out all of the trees that have medicinal uses here.  Papaya is used for asthma, Palm root for toothache and they use the leaf of the hibiscus as toilet paper in the rural areas.  Thankfully not here on the island!

On the way back, the crew and Norm demonstrated how to crack open a coconut.

After a really wonderful day, we sailed back to the Insignia and got all cleaned up in time for the Valentines party on the deck.  I had a special drink called Kissed on the Lips which was vodka, peach schnapps and champagne.  Lovely!  Dancing and chatting with friends before dinner, a valentines cake and a spectacular sunset.

February 13, 2017

First of all, happy birthday to my sister Deb.  Even though it is still the 12th where you live, have been thinking of you all day!

They have a very active trivia presence on the ship.  We don’t participate  even though we would sometimes like to. That’s because once the groups get formed, they are VERY serious about it and if you don’t show up, they replace you. They have it twice a day on sea days, and many times we have dinner with people who just don’t enjoy their meal because they are so focused on getting to trivia for the 8:30 time.  We don’t want to be tied down to that! Anyway, Leslie, the cruise director, is really into it and comes up with very hard topics.  This one was reported to us as “over and above”!

“Where are ‘neirs’ found?” No one knew.  Of course the answer was “Suva”.  Everyone has heard of Suva neirs!

This is our first visit to Fiji. We have a new destinations enrichment lecturer on board, Peter Croyle, and he did a talk on Fiji yesterday. It was mostly about the town and some of what you might do here.  Our choice was the Navua River by longboat. And what a day it was!  We were greeted as we left the ship by these lovelies. I didn’t feel at all threatened!

We had two guides, Tony and Freddy – of course not their real names – those are too long for us to remember!  They were very delighted to have us visit Fiji and kept telling us so during the visit. There are 340 islands that make up Fiji, this one, Viti, is the largest and Suva is the capital.  We traveled in their city buses, not air conditioned, and Tony told us it was to see how 75% of the population travels.  Only 25% own cars. 

They were also very happy to have sunshine and so were we!  It rains a lot here – every month.  There is not an official rainy season although November to May gets the most rain – July is the driest month and it still gets 125 mm of rain on average.  So we lucked out – several small showers during the day but mostly sun and clouds.  In the downtown, they have the biggest fruit and vegetable market, the biggest cinema and the biggest bus station in the entire South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.  That was a real surprise to us.

We had a 45 minute drive through the countryside to reach the Navua River and our longboats.  7 people were in each boat and it was a leisurely trip upriver, except for the rapids!  At one point we had to get out of the boat and walk a short distance as we surely would have been tossed in!  Along the way we saw horses, cows and goats, a few varieties of birds and lots of waterfalls. The area is a thick tropical rainforest and you really don’t see much civilization. 

Cannibalism was practiced here until it was outlawed in 1976.  Polygamy is still OK though, men have up to 7 wives, and it is men first in this society.  They say it is to protect the women! 

Our first stop was the Magic Waterfall, the largest on the Navua River.  It is really quite spectacular – and we had a wonderful, refreshing swim here.  

After the swim, we got back into the boats and went to the village of Koromakallia where we took part in a traditional Fijian kava ceremony.  This ceremony invites us to be part of the village and they really mean it.  If you knock on any door in the village after the kava ceremony, you will be treated as family.  Tony and Freddy referred to us as their family the rest of the day. 

At the village, we did taste the kava – I wouldn’t recommend it though.  It makes your tongue and lips a little numb and supposedly is used as an antidepressant in China and as an ingredient in the US. 

We had a short show and then had lunch prepared by the local women.  It was delicious.  Interestingly, they also offered what they called Subway – sandwiches made on the same kind of rolls.

And what do you drink in Fiji?  Fiji water of course!

Today at 6 we leave this side of the island and travel to Lautoka, on the other side.  We will be going to Tivua Island on an excursion. Looking forward to another wonderful day with the friendly people of Fiji.  Bula!  It means hello, thank you, welcome, etc and you hear it everywhere from everyone!