It turned into a gale and by the time it had quieted down it was almost 5am. We found out that the winds were clocked at 69 miles an hour and the sea had swells of 25 feet. One man fell off a bar stool and dislocated a shoulder. We were told the doctor's wife fell on the stairs. Bottles flew off the shelves in the observation lounge and in one of the officers quarters a glass door shattered. One of the employees had a canister explode and was burned. I just clung to the mattress and stayed awake most of the night.
The next day dawned as shiny as a brand new penny as we pulled into Russell at 8am. Though it was extremely windy it was a beautiful day. Some brave tourists took an inflatable dinghy out. I've no idea where they were going but we never saw them again. Too many people for such a small boat.
Russell was the first port in the Bay of Islands to be inhabited by white people and we were given to understand the that people who arrived here were tough thugs about as close to pirates as you can get.
It's nickname was "The hell hole of the South Pacific." The city is small and in the whole Bay of Islands there are about 1.5 million people. I think they think the pirates are still around, look at the picture below.
Russell is a beautiful small city and sort of reminds me of Cape Cod with white picket fences and clapboard homes. A resort town. The harbor was filled with boats, from huge catamarans to yachts. There was a real estate office (Century 21) that had homes from $750,000 to well over $3 million.
We had great fish and chips at a local restaurant right on the bay. Many New Zealanders and Australians use this for a summer get away.
People were extremely friendly and the city was spotless. I need to mention that the kids around town were all blond haired and blue eyed. We saw one kid, a Maori in the whole of Russell, everyone else that walked by or worked in the shops were white.
Their currency is about 20% less than a US dollar. We strolled around the city and had to be back on board by 5pm so it was a short trip.
Continued.........Monday-January 24th
We arrived at Aukland, our next port yesterday, Monday at 8am. We had a tour scheduled and got off the ship at 9am. The ship dock is right downtown and there were shops, eateries and coffee bars all over. Aukland too is spotless clean, not a piece of litter on the the streets. Our tour was a trip to a sheep farm about 1 hour north. We crossed their Bay Harbour bridge. After they built the bridge, they realized it did not have enough lanes, so they bid out the building of 2 additional lanes they attached to the bridge. The bid was won by a Japanese company and they call the 2 lanes the NipponClipon.
Hills and small mountains cover New Zealand and it is absolutely beautiful. What I would imagine Ireland must look like.
The farm we went to was up on a hill and our bus pulled into an open area in front of their house.
Placidly grazing on the side lawn of the house were about 25 sheep.
The people who owned the house/farm welcomed us. The door to their house was wide open and about 40 tourists (2 bus loads) strolled through their house. The view from their kitchen, dining and living rooms looked out onto a valley. It was spectacular. They had a large area penned off in their back yard in which there were Fallow Deer walking about. There was fresh corn in a bin and we were told we could feed the deer. They sell the velvet off the antlers of the bucks to the Japanese.
About 15 minutes before we arrived, our bus driver called the farm house and I heard him tell the owner to "put the jug on." Of course once I got off the bus I asked the woman who owned the house what that meant and she told me it meant to heat the kettle of water for tea.
Their huge garage held tables and chairs and there was a table filled with a large assortment of cakes, sandwiches and cookies, all homemade with tea, coffee or lemonade. We were made to feel extremely comfortable at the house.
The bus driver said that the price of wool is so low that farmers who own properties are subsidizing the cost of sheep and cattle ranching by opening their homes to tourists.
There are about 4 million people living in New Zealand and there are 65 million sheep. (Lamb chops anyone?)
After tea we had a demonstration of sheep herding and shearing and I took a small piece of wool from the sheep he sheared to show the kids. The idea being that the shearers need to take the wool off the sheep in one piece.
They had a demonstration of one of their dogs herding the sheep. It is amazing that with hand signals and very little yells, the dog instinctively knows what to do. We spent about 1 hour at the farm and on the way back we stopped at a Gannet breeding colony. There are about 1500 birds in this colony and it was interesting to watch them take off and land on the rocks and side of the steep hills.
Len took a picture of the beach close to the colony. The weather was spectacular and in the low 70's.
We came back to town. Len bought a mug and a box of Kiwi chocolates and I bought a souvenir pin for my jacket. We came back to the ship and napped.
Today is a sail day as we head for Wellington, at the south end of New Zealand. We arrive tomorrow morning at 8am. It's a formal night tonight and we are having dinner with some other people.
Boy I would love a bowl of my spaghetti tonight and piece of my chocolate cake! (Did I say this already!)
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