The sound of a fog horn could be heard as I awoke this morning. I opened the blind (using my Celebrity phone app) and it looked like I was inside an egg. Fog enveloped the ship as we came to a stop and the anchor was dropped.
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| A screen shot of our room app that is on our phones.. operates the TV as well. |
We watched the local authorities board and clear the ship for it's arrival into New Zealand. The tender call went out over the P.A. and we saw the first tender cast off..... but for some reason it was having engine issues and returned to the Magic Carpet/dock. It was clearly having trouble as another tender came along side to assist once the passengers were removed. They resumed tendering as we got ready with our backpacks etc for our trip in to Waitangi. Several tenders came & went and then one of them developed port engine issues as it neared shore. They managed to get it sorted and all was good. The fog had now cleared and we had great views of the surrounding coastline.
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| A wee bit foggy! |
We headed to Find Cut Steakhouse to start the tender process as our "Elite" status gives us priority.. hey we will take it! We met up with George & Avis in the waiting area and then proceeded onto the tender at 10:40… departed the ship at 10: 51. Dock at 11:02.
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| Off we go! |
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| The Magic Carpet in tender mode. |
Our trip in was
uneventful and we immediately caught shuttle
bus system set up for the short ride into the town of Paihia. It was over a one lane bridge and a short 5 minute drive into
town.
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| Map |
Kelly bought some tickets over to Russell, a small sea side town
across the bay,and it too was quickly loaded and on its way across. Once off the boat, we asked a "local" about several pubs and ended up at the "Nauti Penguin" for lunch. It had the best name :-) It was very good and the drinks very cold.
We wandered the shops and the main frontage road then I took George on his very first geocaching expedition while the gals shopped. Off we went to the grounds of the Anglican Church and proceeded to the rear of the property. The geocaching app gives us details and a hint for the location. This one was a bit different in that the hint included a "if there is a man sitting there, he knows about it". Well sure enough we found the cache location and by golly there was a man sitting there feeding the pigeons! I ask if he knew about caching and he said yes. We got to talking and learned he was originally from Glasgow.
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| Anglican Church |
I logged the cache and we said our goodbyes to the chap. We walked inside the church and there was a large tour of school kids in being taught some history of the building.
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| Explaining how sparse the church interior was. |
We listened as he explained why this church was very meager in decorations etc. (unlike in Italy!) Turns out that they wanted people to follow the bible and put the focus on that rather than getting caught up by the huge displays of some churches. Interesting info.
Outside we chatted with a local Maori woman and she explained the headstone of Tamati Waka Nene who had helped colonize the region many years ago. It has important historical significance. She was kind enough to also explain the tattoos we see on some of the people's faces here. She had one so I politely asked. They depict the persons hierarchy in the family, the husband, the wife and the lines represent the number of children. Very interesting as it is making a come back these days.
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| Grave Marker |
All this from getting a geocache! Well there was one just up the street so George and I struck off to get it. We came upon this blue object and George said it was probably it... he was correct! Two for two he was!
We met up with the ladies back in town and caught the ferry over to Paihia. We wandered the shops and the market with it's stalls set up across the road from the ferry slip.
An ice cream treat was in order as the ladies walked the last bit of "shoppers row". Back on the shuttle & tender and we soon found ourselves back on board the ship again. A very fun day so far!
Showers and then a meet up with some folks we had met on the first cruise Kathy & Mike. We had a great conversation in Eden on our families and cruising and we promised to get together again on the cruise.
Next up was a surprise dinner for George's 73rd birthday in the Steakhouse. Avis had graciously invited us to join them in the celebration. So kind! He took the cake home to his room to eat later... smart!
It was a great meal and we also enjoyed the entertainment below us in the main hall. The singer from last night did a pop up concert for everyone... fantastic as well.
You'll be happy to know that neither Kelly nor I lost any money in the casino this time around! It's closed for the next two days due to marine distance laws etc. Probably a good thing :-)
Docking in Auckland tomorrow morning.
Steps 7900
