Saturday, February 11, 2023
Island Princess was gently and quietly guided into the Bay of Plenty to dock in Tauranga, New Zealand by a particularly cute yellow tug boat. When I opened the curtains, all I could say was “What?!?!?!?” How incredibly fortunate we are to travel to some of the most beautiful, pristine spots in the world! We were treated to a spectacular sunrise.
Tauranga is near Rotorua, which is the number one tourist spot for New Zealanders. Rotorua is the geothermal capital of New Zealand and home to 16 lovely lakes.
Our friend Joan Pease, who is traveling on this world cruise as well, took an excursion to the Tamaki Maori Village to learn about the heritage and culture legacy of the Maori, and experience their singing, dancing and food. She said that she had an amazing time.
We walked out of the ship and were welcomed by a sign that said, “Nah mai, haere mai ki Tauranga Moana.” We were to meet Sara and Madison at a cafe downtown called General Cafe, at 11:00, as they were engaged in a long drive from Auckland to meet us.
Meanwhile, Sara’s husband, Aaron, was running in the Tarawera Ultramarathon Run in Rotorua that day. Sara and Madison were planning to join him after spending a couple of hours with us. It was great that Sara had an app. that allowed her to track exactly where Aaron was throughout the race, his times, and positions, so that we could check often during the day to see how he was doing. It turns out that Aaron finished the race around 11:00 PM, after starting early in the morning. The endurance marathon was 100 miles! Aaron, you are a Superman! (In fact, Joan Pease saw the marathon runners while she was on her bus to and from the Tamaki Maori Village). 5,000 runners were expected — a record breaker.
It was a busy and delightful family Saturday in Tauranga. In a large park with a lovely pond, were numerous small canopies beckoning to us — an arts and crafts show, as well as an antique car show. Most of the cars were very old and well kept Volkswagen vans, which seem to be a bit of a sentimental obsession among quite a few New Zealanders (not to mention many in the United States as well). They were beautifully restored and truly treasured. We walked through the booths, appreciating all of the handicrafts and wares for sale. In one booth, we saw a Maori jewelry craftsman whose face was covered in the traditional Maori tribal tattoos. (In Bay of Islands, we had also seen a woman who had the tribal tattoos. For women, the tattoos start under their lower lip and go down to the base of the chin.) While we have seen photos of Maori with tribal tattoos, it was neat to actually see them in person.
Next, we walked down Maunganui Road, which runs through the center of town, until we reached Pacific Avenue, where the General Cafe was located. From an aerial view, the area looks somewhat like an arm with a fist. Our ship docked in the middle of the arm. We walked toward The Mount (which would be the fist), Mt. Maunganui, through a beautiful shopping and dining district. It reminded us of St. Armands Key in Sarasota, but it was a stretch of a few blocks on one main road instead of a circle. We stopped to look inside a bakery, which had my NZ favorite, a bacon and ham bread roll. Since we were meeting Sara and Madison for lunch, we just took a photo of the roll.
The General Cafe was adjacent to a cul-de-sac, and across that was a heavily forested area, in which there was a park and playground. After we had a fantastic lunch with Sara and Madison, we walked the block to the beach on the Bay of Plenty and took photos of the panoramic views and Mount Maunganui. Then we walked back toward the cafe and went into the park surrounding Mount Drury, allowing Madison to test out the large playground. Parents were sitting on bright green, very soft grass under the trees, watching their children play.
We saw a sign that provided two evacuation points for a potential tsunami. It said that a tsunami can follow within 30-45 minutes of a major earthquake. If people feel the big earthquake, they are to WALK, not get into their cars, to either Mount Drury, near where we were standing, or to the big mountain, Maunganui. Both are easily walkable from anywhere in this exceptionally beautiful vacation town, which is covered in gorgeous, very modern homes.
Then we walked up the path and into an area where there was a highly organized marathon involving parents and their children throughout the beach and park area. This beach was on Waipu Bay. Tauranga is on a narrow strip of land (the arm) between the two bays, Bay of Plenty and Waipu Bay. Families were also walking a path around Mount Maunganui (also called Mauao; it is a dormant volcano, sacred to the Maori, which means “caught in the light of the day”), which we thought about tackling, but admittedly, Cliff and I were really tired from all of the walking we did in Bay of Islands and Auckland. Instead, we chose to walk Moturiki.
To reach Moturiki, we walked across Mt. Maunganui Beach on Waipu Bay, to a long, narrow outcrop of land, which took us high above the water and rocks to the location of a blow hole. It wasn’t high tide, so water wasn’t coming up through the blow hole, but we could see where it was. There were fishermen there on the rocks. The views were absolutely breathtaking. Surfers were testing out swells, people were swimming, and families were running along the beach for the marathon. The breezes were amazing at the top.
We walked back along the beach for a while, took a right back into town, had a snack with Madison and Sara, and then we had to say goodbye. Sara had told us about Cyclone Gabrielle, heading to the North Island and probably to Auckland. It is predicted to be the worst since the 1990s — a slow system that will potentially dump heavy amounts of rain again on the north Island, including Auckland, that was just badly flooded from heavy rains a few days before we visited. Sara said that, because of the pending storm, she had moved up their flight to Wellington to meet us there. We talked about the potential for the ship’s course to be diverted, but thought that at least we would make it to Picton, which is a lovely and very sheltered harbor. Already the time for us to return to the ship had been moved up three hours earlier.
Unfortunately, not long after we returned to the ship, it was announced that we would not be going to Picton, Wellington, or New Plymouth, NZ at all, in the “abundance of caution.” The ship’s captain said that they had searched for safe haven and Melbourne, Australia, had agreed to shelter us. We will have four sea days, some of it quite rough because of the approaching storm, and also because the waters in the Cook Strait between the south and north islands of New Zealand are always rough. The Cook Strait connects the South Pacific and Tasman Sea. Also, the currents between NZ and Australia are known to be very rough as well.
It will be about 94 degrees in Melbourne, cooling in the morning, and warming up quickly during the midday.
Of course, we are very disappointed that we cannot see more of Sara and Madison, and we were were looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand. Cliff and I were to renew our vows in Picton. Now, if the Captain is willing, it will be at sea instead. However, we fully understand that whenever you take a trip, especially a cruise, plans can be changed at any time. We wouldn’t want to take any chances with facing a severe cyclone.
If you ever have a chance to visit New Zealand, Tauranga and Rotorua are two amazing destinations you should try to include in your journey.
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