New Zealand

Quite a lot was in the air with New Zealand because of the recent flooding from the massive rain storm that hit. But, overall, we were blessed with blue skies and beautiful weather.

• Auckland 2/2/2023

It was nice to be in a true city. Originally, shauna and I had planned to see a natural blue glow worm cave (bucket list!) but, due to flooding it was canceled. Instead we explored the city and it ended up being a perfect day.

The ship docked right in downtown, so we started the morning off enjoying a crepe on the ship with a view of The Sky Tower from our ship. It looks comparable to the stratosphere or the space needled…

Once arriving to The Sky Tower shauna decided she was going to do The Sky Jump! Jumping off, 192 meters! She had sooo much fun, and everyone had fun cheering her on! She had a fan club of sorts from the cruise ship all watching and taking photos for her.

Then we ventured to beautiful Albert park where University students like to hang out. By this time of day I was happy I decided to wear a T-shirt despite the gloomy forecast because it ended up getting quite hot! My favorite part about this area was an outdoor podium where anyone could stand, and do a speech! I like that the city is advocated for free speech, standing up for what you believe in, advocating for strong communication all in a respectful way.

Hugging Albert park was a free art gallery that we ventured into… the art was great! There was a section on masculinity. It went through art, new and old, paintings and sculptures alike, and how history depicts men and the male gaze. One painting I found especially provocative was of a baby Jesus nailed to the cross… upon reading, apparently it was VERY old and done because men worried than nuns and women would sexualize Jesus in adult form, so painted him as an infant instead…

Next we made our way to New Zealand’s oldest brewpub where I ordered a blonde ale and sat up on the balcony enjoying the city views.

To round out the day, we walked along the harbor to view some old sail boats and get a good picture of the bustling Auckland harbor bridge. In this area, they were taking a once old and industrial part of town, and slowly turning it to a more inhabitable area. For example, the section that have finished now consists of once large water towers that’s been refurbished o a children’s playground.

• Tauranga 2/3/2023

Originally, we were going to go raft the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world… that got canceled due to flooding. Then we were going to go kayak and see some glow worms and go to a hot pool, which also got cancelled due to flooding.

So! We put on our hiking shoes and hiked Mt. Maunganui. It was a steep hike up to some beautiful views of the town, the beach, and the countryside. It was so eerie with fog though, that we couldn’t hardly see it! I liked the atmosphere that the weather provided at the summit though. There was an event happening (I think a fundraiser) so lots of people were running the mountain.

We saw some sheep, lots of unique birds, heard what sounded like millions of cicadas, and saw lots of ferns among other amazing vegetation.

After hiking to the summit, we decided to then do the base trail that went around the mountain. It offered beautiful views close to the water where there was a ton of wave breaks to captivate us!

We finished the day doing a myriad of things:

     watching rugby players scrimmage on the beach

      search for TimTams (we didn’t know what they were so we were going to coffee shops and cafes, only to be guided to a “Dairy” which was basically a convenience store. BUT the TimTams were yummy).

      I also got a waffle cone… but sadly dropped it halfway through after a wasp scared me (HAHA I know! TOO FUNNY!)

     Shop around the very expensive shopping district where I was finally able to find some sunscreen that I won’t have an allergic reaction too!

• Gisborne 2/4/2023

Due to where Gisborne is in relation to the international date line, it’s the first place in the world to watch the sunrise everyday… Sunrise was at 6:22 am so we woke up early and enjoyed the sunrise as we came into town.

This was a shorter day, so we didn’t have a ton of time. But we still soaked up as much as we could with the day by checking out the farmers market, walking alongside New Zealand’s smallest river, checking out the war memorial, and walking down the main strip with different shops to check out.

Some things that stood out to me from this port was

1: Barb. She was the staff member working at the war memorial. This memorial was made by locals who brought their photos in of their family that served in different wars and shared their ancestors stories. Barb was 84, very kind, curious, and knowledgeable.

2: The rose garden by the farmers market. Families were there having picnics and enjoying the sunny afternoon. The roses smelled so wonderful and it was a nice spot to sit in the shade and relax for a bit.

3: It was a smaller town, that wasn’t super touristy. Sometimes it’s fun to play tourist, but it’s also refreshing to just see a town for what it is.

Wellington 2/5/2023

We got off the ship as soon as we docked, so when we took the shuttle to downtown everything on the main strip was still closed- except the cable car! We were able to pay just a few USD each to take the short but fun ride. I loved going early because other than Shauna, Tim, and myself, there was only one other couple.

From there we could walk back downhill through the botanical gardens, which was massive. There were so many different sections and trails.

We did a portion of the harbor walk, which was interesting because even though it went right through town, it was part of the large trail Tim had been doing- Te Araroa trail. We saw some people with large packs, which was a telling sign that they were doing that hike that totals nearly 2000 miles.

We watched some kids jump into the ocean from a section that have marked off specially for swimmers… Some kids were brave and jumped without hesitation, even from the higher diving board, while others were hesitant and nervous. They had gained quite a crowd of watchers, who would always cheer when one would take the leap.

We also watched some people doing something with grass. They were taking the long grass, laying it flat on a piece of rock, and then hitting it with a rock.

We spent a large portion of the day at the museum of New Zealand which was a whopping 6 stories high. I loved going through the WWI memorial. There were many quotes from some of the soldiers that were very thought and emotion provoking. And, it was a free museum!

We had some lunch at a place called winner winner where I had a chicken basket that was very salty. But it was still nice catching up with Tim and hearing all about his adventures. He also told us some of the slang including: I’m taking the piss, no worries or no drama, and “toilet” rather than bathroom.

Cheers,

Tay