The Big Trip: Dunedin

We had a pleasant day in Dunedin, the largest city in New Zealand’s Otago Province in the southeastern corner of South Island. It was our last landfall before Australia.

Dunedin is at the far end of Otago Harbour but cruise ships dock further up at the bay, at Port Chalmers. From Port Chalmers (Chahmuz, in the Kiwi dialect) we took another coach tour, this time to Dunedin’s CBD, also known as the Octagon, and from there to:

(1) Olveston House. Impressive enough, a big Edwardian pile, but the ladies who run it have the Museum Nazi quality in spades, so much so that there was a particular, prescribed way for carrying your book bag and if it wasn’t just so they gave you grief about it. After the third admonition (as if having it clutched tightly to my chest was a problem) I said “screw it” and walked out, against traffic through the narrow corridors, to get some fresh air. They wanted to know where I was going and I told them “anywhere but here.” They were shocked, just shocked, I’m sure!

(2) The Otago Museum was really, really great. All kinds of natural science stuff (scale models of Moas, for example) plus an attic showing how the original museum was set up (butterflies for days) and a small but cool exhibit on the development of Down Under swimwear.

(3) A look up Baldwin Street, allegedly the world’s steepest street. Long and steep, yes, but without the dizzying change in perspective you get on Lombard Street in San Francisco, for example. Probably didn’t help that we were at the bottom instead of the top.

(4) The Dunedin Botanic Garden. A pleasant enough little place, although the canal that separated it from the upper part of the park was not terribly well-kept. On the other hand, it was right across from one of the Univesity of Otago playing fields and I enjoyed watching the young men practicing at the cricket pitch.

Back in Port Chalmers, we did a walkabout on our own, up to the Lady Thorn Dell, a rhododendron garden and viewing platform overlooking the harbor, and then back through the little town for a coffee before heading back to the ship. We didn't leave the ship again until three days later, when we reached Melbourne.

The Big Trip: Christchurch and Arthur's Pass

From the port of Lyttelton we took a coach ride through the Port Hills tunnel and to Cashmere, a scenic neighborhood with a killer view over the broad Canterbury Plains, the South Island farming region dominated by Christchurch. We made a quick stop at the historic Takahe house and the lookout at Victoria Park before heading down for a drive around the CBD, then out into the country.

Christchurch is linked to the Southern Alps, a couple of hours to the west, by the TranzAlpine Railway, reputed to be one of the best train rides anywhere. The drive up on the coach was scenic, passing through half a dozen small farming towns (and innumerable giant hedges), including Springfield, where the world premiere of The Simpsons Movie occurred, to Arthur’s Pass.

Arthur’s Pass is the jumping off point for weekend campers and hikers exploring the surrounding national park, as well as a TranzAlpine railway station. We were there about an hour early so we checked out the tiny collection of shops and stores, milling about with our fellow tour groupies as well as the day trippers and the occasional, nearly tame NZ pigeon (or was it a parrot?)

The train ride back was pleasant, too. The railways in NZ are narrow gauge so the cars themselves are petite in an entertaining sort of way. With a box lunch and a great view, all was right in the world – except that the people directly across the aisle were rabid Republicans (to the extent of having named their eldest son, born in 1981, Reagan) and the unending tales (Nixon’s cufflinks, for example) were hard to tune out. On the other hand, we saw a zillion sheep and, in a shed that you couldn’t see from the road we’d driven up, the giant donut that served as a prop for Springfield’s Simpsons premiere. (According to the Wikipedia entry for Springfield, that's a statue, not a prop, and it's not in a shed, but it certainly looked that way from the train.)

On balance, the coach ride was more entertaining, mostly because we had a chance to get out and about at one point; also, with a coach you are sitting forward and can sort of kind of see in front of you. With the train, it’s out the side and (in my case) looking back. Plus that part of the Southern Alps, while plenty attractive, isn’t exactly eye-popping to anyone who has spent any time in the Rockies or the Desert Southwest.

My guess is that the overnight trip from Dunedin to Milford Sound is much more scenic (more about both in a subsequent posting.)

The Big Trip: Wellington

I always say, “Serendipity follows me around like a little dog – I just never know when it’s going to bite!”

Wellington is a perfect case in point.

Even though it is the capital of New Zealand, Wellington seemed like it would be a good place to check out NZ flora and fauna since it is home to the world’s first urban wildlife refuge, the Karori Sanctuary.

Our coach tour took us through Wellington’s CBD, past the Beehive (where the Prime Minister and her members of the government have their offices), and up the steep hills into the suburbs. On the way into the sanctuary, I noticed a little green car in the visitors’ parking lot that was plastered with rainbow stickers, including one for Palm Springs, which I took as a good omen.

Before exiting the bus our tour guide pointed out that the Karori folks would be splitting our group into three sections, each to be led through the sanctuary by a trained volunteer. Considering we were sitting with a bunch of yakkity old ladies (and it was the yakking, not that they were old ladies) I thought to myself “so long as we’re in a different group we’ll be fine.”

Then I set eyes on one of the tour guides. He looked sort of like Frodo’s grandfather. Short, slender, balding pate, white fringe, in his 60s, vivid blue eyes, big silver earring, a cute little jade necklace, and a gorgeous pewter bracelet.

“We want to go with HIM,” I whispered to Naoyuki and promptly steered him in that direction.

It took us all of 15 seconds to look each other up and down and have him say, “Are you a couple?” in that marvelous Kiwi lilt. We allowed that we were indeed and he extended his hand saying, “Well, then, welcome to the club!”

His name was Des and he was the perfect tour guide, extremely knowledgeable with respect to both the flora and the fauna, especially the birds. And Naoyuki, of course, is pretty much the perfect eco-tourist, given his botanophilia.

Eventually, after Des had run us and the other members of the group up and down and all around (in other words, completely ragged, considering the steepness of the terrain), he asked if Naoyuki and I would like to go home with him to meet his partner and another couple who were coming down for lunch.

We were delighted by the invitation, of course, and perfectly happy to accept it (and how many places in the world would that be true?) We stopped by another nature preserve on our way to Des and John’s home in the suburb of Ngaio, way up the hill overlooking Wellington.

John, Des’ partner of 20 something years, is 78 to Des’ 68 years old. Widowed, John has two grown daughters who live nearby with their young children live nearby. They're perfectly accepting of Des as their father’s partner and fellow co-grandparent. Des built their house and the steeply sloping lot represents nearly 30 years worth of gardening work on his part.

Over lunch we learned that Des and John were key players in helping secure passage of New Zealand’s Civil Union legislation a few years ago, so much so they were granted Civil Union License 001 and were the first couple in Wellington to have a Civil Union ceremony (in the mayor’s chambers, no less, with a brass band a parade following them to their reception.)

At one point I said, “Oh my gosh! I remember reading about the two of you! I thought ‘Joliff’ (John’s surname) sounded familiar!”

After lunch, the straight neighbor couple (whose names completely elude me) headed home and John and Des took us for a quick tour of town, including a quick visit to the Lady Norwood Rose Garden (sneaky John found us a couple of adorable little NZ bird pins while Naoyuki was drooling over the gigantic begonias in the conservatory) and then a drive through the entertainment district (Courtenay Place) before taking us back to the port and the ship.

Quite the loveliest day of our (totally splendid) cruise!

The Big Trip: Napier

[Check the January and February archives for previous posts on The Big Trip]

Oh my!

I knew I was slacking on writing up our cruise but here it is almost May and I haven’t gotten beyond our first port of call, Tauranga!

Here’s the scoop on Napier:

The town was flattened by an earthquake in 1931, one so intense it actually elevated the surrounding swampland and thereby tripled or quadrupled the town’s growing room. The ambitious locals decide to rebuild in the “modern style,” namely Art Deco, and now Napier boasts the largest collection of Art Deco buildings of any city in the world.

We did the Art Deco tour, which included (1) a visit to the Art Deco museum, with a gift shop and a film about the earthquake and the rebuilding afterwards, (2) a coach ride to a close-in residential neighborhood with a perfectly restored Late Deco house and a visit to the really exquisite National Tobacco Company building over by the port, (3) a walking tour of the Central Business District (CBD), which boasts more than 100 Art Deco buildings from the 1930s, and (4) tea and scones at the beautifully maintained Hawke’s Bay Club, a former gentleman's club dating back to the 1800s.

After the tour we had lunch at a downtown café and then strolled down the lovely Marine Parade, with beautiful views up and down the coast, to the National Aquarium of New Zealand. The aquarium was nice but not very impressive compared to those we have seen in the States.

Glorious weather, too, as I recall. Sunny but windy and a bit brisk. “But we’re going South,” Naoyuki said. To which I replied, “Yes, towards Antarctica, silly!”

As with Tauranga (and all the other cities we visited in New Zealand) Naoyuki and I were incredibly impressed with the city and its people. Ultra clean, very efficient, very helpful, friendly, and glad to see us. There are definitely some advantages to traveling in a developed country (even if it is pricey!)

Sail Away and Tauranga

The Mercury is a nice little ship. In addition to our stateroom (with its own window, woo hoo!), we enjoyed the main dining room (Manhattan), the forward observation bar (Navigator), and the Celebrity Theatre, which was large and well-appointed.

Sailing away from Auckland was very pleasant, great weather plus we quickly spied a couple of other guys we figured were probably fellow members of our Pied Piper group and within half an hour there were close to a dozen of us occupying the prime real estate (overlooking the pool with a good view of the front, too) that I dubbed “The Boys’ Nest.” This was only my second Pied Piper cruise (Naoyuki’s third, I think) and with just 65-70 guys much smaller than the last one we’d been on (with nearly 400 of us on our post-Thanksgiving 2005 Caribbean cruise.)

After the sail away we gathered in Mercury’s Pavillion Night Club to meet our Pied Piper hosts, Michael and Paul, two brothers who are gay and from Sydney and now living overseas (Boston and London, respectively.) They turned out to be great hosts!

The next morning we woke to find ourselves in Tauranga, about 100 miles SE of Auckland on the Bay of Plenty. A former dairy / manufacturing town, Tauranga these days earns its living mostly from tourism, both as a beach town and more recently a cruise ship port. It’s just a hop and a skip from NZ’s main kiwifruit growing country (last year’s output was a staggering 3 billion pieces of kiwifruit!) and about an hour away from Rotorua, a center of Maori culture.

We did a bus tour of the port / beach area (Mount Maunganui) and the town, plus a trek out to Kiwi Fruit Country (or Kiwi 360, I’m not sure which) and then a visit to the Elms, the original missionary station (dating back to the 1840s) in the Tauranga area. Our guide on the Kiwi Fruit tour is one of the biggest owner / producers in the area and he was VERY knowledgeable. I told him afterwards that his was far and away the best agricultural tour I’ve ever been on (and over the years I’ve been on several, thanks to one junket or another.)

The Elms was a nice little place. Our tour guide was wearing the sort of dress that a woman her age would have worn at the time the place was founded. Otherwise, not terrifically memorable, although the collection of Norfolk pines (many of them 150 years old or more) was impressive.

The tour took us back to the ship and then we had to decide what we wanted to do, hang out OR go back into the town (which we hadn’t seen that much of.) Celebrity was running shuttle buses but the price was US $8 one way per person! We went to the Mount (as Mount Maunganui is known locally) and visited the local i-Site (New Zealand Visitor Information Center) to find out that the local bus company runs on the half hour from the Mount to the CBD for NZ$2.50 (about US$2) per person each way.

Too good a deal to pass up, in other words, and plenty of local color along the way. Turns out we could have taken an express bus but we went the long route going and coming, which meant we went through all the local neighborhoods, saw all the little old ladies and little old men and teenage boys and girls (January is their summer break) back and forth to the mall and other shopping areas, and so forth.

In the CBD we checked out the shops (and found a really cute papier-mâché girl fairy to add to my collection) and visited the Tauranga Art Gallery (Toi Tauranga), which was probably more interesting architecturally than as an art collection per se.

Touring Tauranga added to the sense we’d gotten in Auckland (and that stayed with us throughout our time in New Zealand), that we were in a very safe, very comfortable, very middle-class country, with great public infrastructure (public transportation, parks, civic amenities), very well-educated and extremely comfortable. That assessment would be borne out during each of our successive ports of call.

Nadi and Auckland

My impressions of Fiji are entirely limited to the International Arrivals concourse of the airport in Nadi (pronounced “Nahn dee”), which has two gates, a bunch of duty free stores, and an inadequate a/c system. We spent about two hours there on the way to New Zealand. If we’d had more time, or if Nadi were more centrally located (from what we can tell, it’s a bit removed from everything!) we’d have gone looking around. As it was, we recuperated from our 10-hour flight and counted our lucky stars that the next one was only three hours!

We had a great view of Auckland flying in, looking down on the bays, the mountains (mostly volcanic), the lakes, and the trees, including what we later learned was the pohutukawa, the New Zealand “Christmas” tree (it produces bright red flowers in December…)

The Auckland airport was well-organized and highly efficient, the immigration folks seemed happy to see us, there were free baggage carts at baggage claim, and the taxis were marvelous! Clean as a whistle, completely modern (“credit cards? Of course!”), and please don’t insult the driver by trying to tip him. The most amusing part was that Naoyuki couldn’t figure out where the driver was (on the right, not the left) and there were a few anxious moments before I persuaded him that we really were NOT going down the road the wrong way.

The drive into Auckland was itself very pleasant. It’s always fun to look at other people’s cars. You never see Holdens in the U.S., for example, the Japanese imports are of a slightly different variety, the Fords are mostly from Europe (not the U.S.), but occasionally you’d see a P.T. Cruiser or some other distinctly U.S. car.

Auckland itself is attractive, hilly and green, with nice houses and beautiful gardens anywhere. Maybe it was just the driver but we managed to go the whole way without going by any rundown residential neighborhoods and even the commercial ones seemed uniformly prosperous (not to mention exceptionally well-kept.)

We stayed at the Auckland Hilton on Princes Wharf, immediately adjacent to the cruise ship terminal (really just an extension of the hotel complex), smack dab in the middle of the CBD (Central Business District) and the Viaduct Basin, a trendy eating / shopping area. Naoyuki, as always clever about these things, had cashed in his Hilton Honors points (or something like that) for a free room but they upgraded us to the second nicest level, a big, ultramodern room on the 8^th floor with a balcony on two-sides providing a great view of the wharf, the Viaduct, and the CBD.

Our room wasn’t quite ready when we arrived (mid-afternoon) so we wandered the business district, looking at shops, looking for reasonably priced (ha!) All Blacks’ (New Zealand rugby team) apparel, and picking up a few sundries that we hadn’t bothered to bring with us from Buffalo. Later on we had a cocktail (glass of wine? I forget which, now!) in Bellini, the hotel’s elegant bar; checked out White, the hotel restaurant (very expensive!); and decided to pay a visit to the Viaduct in search of food. We wound up at Kermadec, presumably one of the oldest seafood restaurants on the waterfront, and one with an excellent view. Good food although service was a bit iffy and Naoyuki’s experience was spoiled a bit by a large group of Japanese tourists who were yukking it up (in a not very nice way, apparently!) assuming no one else in the restaurant understood Japanese (wrong!) But whatcha gonna do, right?

The next morning we took a tour of Auckland gardens. Naoyuki had found Mike of Mike’s Garden Tours through his website and then had done a bit of e-mail back and forth with him. A former country club groundskeeper and landscaper, Mike is a native Aucklander with a well-developed appreciation of Auckland’s gardens and surrounding countryside (what the Kiwis and Ozzies call “the bush!”) Normally Mike caters to Japanese tourists but they seem to be in short supply in Auckland these days (apparently Japanese tourism is notoriously fickle) so we had him all to ourselves.

Our tour included the rose gardens in Dove-Myer Robinson Park in Parnell (not Albert Park, which is what I had originally; I get confused easily, you know!); the Savage Memorial (honoring NZ’s first Labour prime minister, Michael Joseph Savage; One Tree Hill, now jokingly referred to as “No Tree Hill,” in the middle of a park that doubles as working sheep farm; the Winter Gardens and the Fernery at the Auckland Domain, home to Auckland’s War Memorial Museum; and the private garden of Peter Brady, an Auckland local who has spent the past 20 years landscaping (planting, pathing, sculpturing, benching, you name it) every square inch of his quarter-acre plot, all of which is presided over by his pet parrot, Mr. Rambo.

Auckland has a year-round equable climate, never too hot, never too cold, and the growing season is basically nonstop, with roses flowering all year and with shrubs (rhododendrons, azaleas, etc.) that we try to so hard to grow in Western New York achieving impressive proportions. Pretty much an ideal climate for gardening!

After the tour, we nipped into the Hilton where the ever helpful (and attractive!) staff quickly produced our luggage and rolled it down the sidewalk (no more than 100 feet) to the ship’s baggage handlers. Our check-in process was the smoothest, quickest we’ve ever done. By 1 p.m. we were in our stateroom (5035) and ready to begin our voyage!

Heading Out

We left Wednesday morning, January 2nd. Our across the street neighbor, Matt Weppner, gave us and our four suitcases and 2 duffle bags a lift to the airport. He and Anita, his wife, took care of Saki, our 14-year-old Shiba Inu, while we were gone. In addition to three adorable kids (Hannah, Erin, and Brennan), they have three dogs, two bunnies, and a cat. With the presence of Saki, their house was a veritable zoo!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent the night in Los Angeles. Mostly we worried about being able to make connections in a timely matter. Our last big cruise (Panama Canal on the Crystal Symphony) we woke up to find Buffalo totally fogged in. Two hours before departure we went online to find out that conditions were clear in Rochester, 60 miles down the road. Two one way tickets and a mad dash later we were on our way -- and made it on the ship just half an hour before sailing from Caldera, Costa Rica. Much too close for our comfort zone!

Los Angeles was good. We had hoped to get soba in Manhattan Beach but the place was closed so that evening we headed to Little Tokyo. Komasa, which we had wanted to try last trip, was full so we went a few doors down to Hama Sushi, which was small, incredibly authentic, and just plain fabulous. The follow up visit to Yamazaki induced the usual sighs of delight.

Next day we continued the exploration of Los Angeles we'd begun in April and continued in November. This time we did the Beach Cities: Venice, Marina Del Rey, Vista del Mar, El Segundo, Huntington, Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo, ending up with a tour through Palos Verdes Estates and down to Long Beach, before doubling back on the PCH and heading back to Little Tokyo for a second round at Hama and Yamazaki.

After lunch, we visited the Japanese-American National Museum, a very poignant reminder that there is a lot about American history that (even now) we don't get taught in school. The racist quote from Ben Franklin emblazoned on the wall made me squirm, just as it should have done. (Not that I was particularly surprised; I was mostly squirming that I had to go there to have read it!)

Then it was off to The Grove, the shopping haven adjacent to Farmer's Market, for some window shopping and some eye candy. Then back to LAX to check in our luggage with Air Pacific. And then to Encounter for dinner with Tom.

Encounter was a hoot. The elevator played Jetson-inspired music, the restaurant itself, still done up for the holidays, twinkled, sparkled, and oozed, in true Lava-lamp fashion, and whenever someone ordered a beer on tap the dispenser produced a chorus of chirps, whoops, and wails reminiscent of the bar scene in Star Wars. The price tag reflected the killer ambiance, not the quality of the food, which was quite good but nothing extraordinary.

We boarded the plane for our 10-hour flight to Fiji well-sated (views, food, and a friend!) and ready for more!

The Big Trip: Overview

We departed Buffalo on Wednesday, January 2, 2008, for our Big Trip, a 2-week cruise to ports in New Zealand and Australia aboard the Celebrity Mercury. Our itinerary included:

Jan. 2-3: Buffalo to Detroit to Los Angeles via Northwest. Toodled around Little Tokyo, the Grove, and the Beach Cities. Had dinner Thursday night at Encounter, the cool restaurant in LAX’s signature building, with our friend Tom.

Jan. 3-5: Los Angeles to Nadi (Fiji) to Auckland (New Zealand) via Air Pacific, the national airline of Fiji. The flight to Fiji was 10 hours but because we crossed the International Dateline going east to west Jan. 4 disappeared entirely!

Jan. 5-6: Checked out Auckland (on foot and a private tour) before boarding the Mercury, docked at Princes Wharf, adjacent to our (ultracool) hotel, the Auckland Hilton. Mike of Mike’s Garden Tours was knowledgeable and charming and Auckland is beautiful!

Jan. 7: Tauranga, New Zealand. Tour of the town plus Kiwifruit Country. We learned more than we could possibly have imagined about kiwi fruit. I told the owner / tour guide it was the best agricultural tour I’d ever been on.

Jan. 8: At sea

Jan. 9: Napier, New Zealand. An earthquake flattened Napier in 1931 and the citizenry rebuilt in the trendiest architectural style of the period, Art Deco! As a result Napier has the largest concentration of Art Deco style buildings anywhere.

Jan. 10: Wellington, New Zealand. Our tour of the Karori Wildlife Refuge resulted in our meeting Desmond Smith, a Karori tour guide and one half of the first couple in New Zealand to receive a Civil Union license!

Jan. 11: Christchurch, New Zealand. Rough crossing through the Cook Strait the night before (fortunately, we’re both impervious to motion sickness.) Nice tour of Lyttleton (Christchurch’s port) and Christchurch itself before heading up into the Southern Alps for a short walk about Arthur’s Pass and then a scenic train trip back to town on the TranzAlpine Railway.

Jan. 12: Dunedin. A tour of the town plus a visit to the Otago Museum.

Jan. 13: Cruising the New Zealand fjords. We entered Dusky Sound in the morning, while I was still asleep, and skipped Doubtful Sound because the water was too rough (insert joke about needing a “Backup Sound, beep, beep, beep!” here!), and then on to Milford Sound. Wow! It rates right up there with the top of Mt. Hale’akala as one of the most spectacular bits of scenery I’ve ever seen!

Jan. 14-15: Crossing the Tasman Sea from the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. HEAVY seas both days, with swells up to 15 feet! Much too much for many of our fellow passengers but I loved it!

Jan. 16: Coach tour through Melbourne (pronounced “Melbun”) up to the outlying town of Healesville and the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. Kangaroos, koalas, and platypi, oh my!

Jan. 17: At sea.

Jan. 18: Newcastle, New South Wales. We’d originally planned on doing the “baths and paths” tour but opted instead to do a private tour of the Hunter Valley wine region with some of our tablemates, and just as well—Newcastle was very much under the weather!

Jan. 19-20: Sydney. Wow! What a beautiful city. A nice enough coach tour through the city center and nearby eastern suburbs, including spectacular Bondi Beach, and, best of all, a visit to and tour of the Sydney Opera House. Better yet, our friend, Nicky, a fellow passenger on our Panama Canal (Crystal Symphony) cruise, picked us up and took us on a 3 ½ hour car tour of, including a stop by her parents’ house to pick up her dad, who was kind enough to drive us across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Jan. 20-21: Flying back to Buffalo. We departed Sydney Sunday afternoon and arrived Buffalo about the same time Monday afternoon—36 hours later! Going west we had lost Jan. 4; going west to east we got to experience Jan. 20 twice!

Altogether, a truly fabulous trip with a hundred memorable events! More postings about individual episodes before long...