This is part 9 in a series of travelogues about a vacation trip down under for myself, my partner, and 3 other family members.
The story so far:
Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour.
Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea.
Part 3 included a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, to see Tasmanian Devils and other fascinating animals from Down Under.
Part 4 was a drive-by sailing through the Sounds of New Zealand.
Part 5 explored the city of Dunedin in what was a cool, drizzly, spring day in New Zealand’s south-east.
Part 6 had us docked in Akaroa NZ, with a bus trip over to Christchurch, visiting a sheep farm along the way.
Part 7 took us to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, on the southern tip of the north island.
Part 8 had a look at the growing of kiwifruit near Tauranga, NZ.
Tonight, our last port of call before disembarking in Auckland is the picturesque Bay of Islands, NZ.
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Tonight’s Feature Presentation: Bay of Islands, NZ
Note: The photos in this diary are hosted on flickr. You can see larger versions of each image by right-clicking on the image, and selecting “Open image in new tab”. Or the equivalent for your device/operating system/browser.
The larger photos should also be in the correct proportion when displayed separately, rather than with distortion in the body of the diary.
Bay of Islands is a very beautiful, and aptly named, area near the northern tip of New Zealand’s north island. It is popular for fishing as well as general tourism. There are 144 islands within the bay, and several towns along the main shore line. Our ship arrived at around 9AM on a cool spring morning last November.
This was one of the stops where the ship does not pull up to a dock; instead it anchors some distance out from shore. As I’ve described previously in this series, the ship’s lifeboats do double duty as tender boats, ferrying passengers back and forth from ship to shore.
In the image below, the stair cases and small platform are actually built into the side of the ship’s hull, close to the water line. Normally folded up and stored flush with the hull, they are invisible most of the time. Deployed for tendering, the platforms (there are 4 of them altogether, 2 on each side of the hull) get you as close to the water as you’d like to be on a normal day. Crew members assist each passenger taking that last step from the platform onto the tender boat, which is likely to be rockin’ and rollin’ a bit, free-floating in the sea.
On shore, we found ourselves at the site of the historic Treaty House, the location of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This document represented the establishment of the British Colony of New Zealand.
According to legend, the area had first been populated some 700 years ago, when the Māori arrived using large canoes, from the mythical Hawaiki (not to be confused with Hawaii).
My shots of the original Treaty House, the home of British missionary John Butler, did not end up being very interesting. The house was built in 1822, and is New Zealand’s oldest still-standing building.
Nearby is the Meeting House, sometimes called the Carved House, used for ceremonial purposes.
Inside the meeting house you will find intricate patterns and carvings, in quiet darkness. I bumped my DSLR up to 10,000 ISO, f/3.5 at 1/320 for the shot below without flash.
Outside was of course much brighter, and there is a superb view of the bay and a handful of the islands...
...which was quickly overrun with those pesky humans known as tourists.
Some of them soaked up the sun, or posed for pictures, or played games.
The lawns and gardens on the property are well maintained.
And there are plenty of beautiful, grand old trees.
I love trees
Even (or especially!) gnarly messy looking ones.
And sometimes even what’s left of a tree is interesting.
If you’ve been following this travel series, you know that I can’t let a diary get by without some flowers...
...which were out in their springtime glory.
Tracks leading into the bay.
They are used when launching one of the ceremonial carved canoes which are kept on display.
From another angle, you can see that these are really big canoes.
A couple of the cruise ship’s tender boats are seen crossing paths as they head to and from the mother ship. I think they go a circuitous route to avoid hazards in the water.
Earlier I mentioned the loading platforms for the boats. Here are two of them, on the starboard side of the mother ship.
After leaving the Treaty House site, we were bussed along to another tourist trap site, retail operations selling local crafts, and chocolates. I spent most of my time at this stop outside, with the flowers.
I was fascinated by the intricate, and extremely delicate, lacing of some spider webs. Back home, we don’t see webs quite this intricate.
Below, we have two slats of wooden signs linked together, with more webbing between them. I’m very fond of this shot.
Our final stop of the day was a place whose name I didn’t record in my notes. As the afternoon developed into a spectacular day, we took in the sights surrounding a beautiful stream, before having a nice lunch at a restaurant on the grounds.
We almost had our ducks in a row.
I don’t know the species of this pretty little bird
It sure moved fast though, playing hard to get (on camera).
I’d say this old tree has been intensely pruned.
Again, I’m not sure exactly what these are. Aside from this one stem, there were clusters of many stems close together.
You can almost picture some locals heading out to sail around for pleasure.
Or motor about, for those not into sailing. The very definition of an idyllic setting.
We returned to our cruise ship for the night, which would be our last on board. Next stop, Auckland NZ, a fascinating city with a surprise excursion that ended up being one of the best on our journeys. Stay tuned for the next and final installment, coming to this space soon.
TOP Comments for Sunday May 1, 2016
From belinda ridgewood:
I can't imagine someone else won't send this in, but I will because it MUST be done. In whoknu's diary “#sekritarmy just laughs and laughs (w/pooties, woozles and such)”, Horsefeathers offers a multi-comment preview of a new musical composed by Andy the Cat, "INEVITABLE". It's... beyond description. ;)
From Ed Tracey:
In today's front-page satire of the "concern" by male politicians that results in these new bathroom laws, “Thank you for your concern, gentlemen”, by Susan Grigsby ... I felt that MargaretPOA cited a potentially ominous result of these "concerns".
Top Mojo for Saturday April 30, 2016
Top Photos for Saturday April 30, 2016