Sailing to Tauranga...

Current Project: Pre-writing work on new story
Status: I've got the main characters, but that's about it so far...

G'day from New Zealand! I'm afraid I got the timezones a little screwed up, but I'm pretty sure it's still Tuesday in the States. I'll try to give you all a flavor of what I've seen so far. First of all, I have to say that the people from Australia and New Zealand have been among the friendliest I've ever met. I'd love to come back and stay longer.

We flew into Sydney a day early and wandered around the city. The harbor is immense and that made it all the more impressive to see our ship anchored off shore (other cruise ships were docked at the piers, so we had to tender to our ship). We're sailing on the Rhapsody of the Seas. She isn't the largest ship around, but she's one of the prettiest (I think).

I've posted about our day in Sydney on my personal blog, so I'll talk about New Zealand here. We were two days sailing on the Tasman Sea from Sydney. We had unexpectedly rough seas and several people, including the crew were seasick. I had a couple of hours where I was queasy, but after that I was fine. We've sailed rougher seas, but not where it lasted quite so long or without a storm.

Our first port was Dunedin and we arrived just as the sun was rising. We took a shuttle from our dock at Port Chalmers into town and wandered around on our own for several hours. Dunedin has been described as New Zealand's Scottish city (one of the founders was Robert Burns' brother) and it's a quaint mixture of old and new architecture. The most beautiful building--and the second most photographed structure in the southern hemisphere after Sydney's opera house--is the Dunedin Train Station (see picture). The exterior is impressive, as is the tile work on the inside.

We toured the Cadbury factory and bought far too much chocolate. I blame it all on climbing one of the silos to watch the five story chocolate waterfall--the sight and aroma of all that chocolate shortcircuited my brain. :-) I have to mention the Settlers' Museum. It was free and very interesting. The museum was well worth the visit and we made sure to leave a donation on our way out.

Our next port was Christchurch. Unfortunately, the day was cold and we even got a bit of rain later in the afternoon. Our ship docked at the port of Lyttleton. The country surrounding the bay reminds me of the rest of the south island that we've seen so far -- green hills and cliffs. The first thing that you notice is a large stone building standing on the hill above the port. It has a tower with a large pole on the top and a huge ball at the bottom of the pole. It's one of only three remaining "ball towers" that still work in the world. The ball is raised on the pole and at precisely 1:00pm every day, it's lowered so that ships in the harbor can set their clocks.

If Dunedin is New Zealand's Scottish city, Christchurch is their English city. It used to be called the most English City outside of England and the names the settlers chose reinforced that--Canterbury Plain, Avon River, Canterbury University. Christchurch is also where Scott set out for the South Pole (the picture is a statue of him that his wife commissioned).

The Avon river runs through Christchurch. You can hire a canoe or a punt and float down the river past the botantical gardens. The gardens are beautiful, but even more impressive is the Canterbury Museum. Again, free entry and fascinating exhibits. Of the museums we've visited so far, this is our favorite.

Yesterday we docked in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. This city, situated on hills, really reminded us of a combination of San Francisco and the Berkeley hills. We took a bus tour of the city and stopped at the top of Lambdon Quay, which overlooks the city and is the top of the botanical gardens. The picture is of a single tree that's been shaped in the form of a cylinder. On one side, set into the branches, is a visitor's kiosk. From there, our bus took us to the rose garden at the foot of the botantical gardens. The roses are lovely, but what was really amazing were the begonias in the Begonia House. I had no idea they could grow that large!

Today we're cruising along the coast and around Volcanic White Island. It's nice to have a break from going ashore. It may not seem like it, with only three ports so far, but it's tiring to be in port after port. You tend to spend as much time ashore doing things as you can and that makes for very full days. Tomorrow we'll be in Tauranga, after that is Auckland and then Bay of Islands. Then we have two days at sea as we return to Sydney. It's all going far too quickly. New Zealand is everything I'd hoped it would be and more. :-)

I have managed to write a little, though not each day. I've been thinking about my characters and a little about the plot. But mostly, I've been letting myself be inspired by the magnificent scenery and real characters I've been meeting along the way. New Zealand will definitely play some part in the novel that's forming in my head.

That's it for now. I'll try to answer your comments in the next day or so.