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Standing Ovation from the Land Down Under - New Zealand 11 Nights Feb. 2, 2020


twangster

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I see you are in the Bay of Islands tomorrow.

Thursday 6th Feb is Waitangi day here and a public holiday, each year the commemorations are held in Waitangi / Bay of Islands so you may find it a lot busier than normal on the day before as the Prime Minster and all the various dignitaries will be arriving in town

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9 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

I see you are in the Bay of Islands tomorrow.

Thursday 6th Feb is Waitangi day here and a public holiday, each year the commemorations are held in Waitangi / Bay of Islands so you may find it a lot busier than normal on the day before as the Prime Minster and all the various dignitaries will be arriving in town

Awesome.  Thanks for the heads up.   What is the proper way to say Waitangi?  Phonetically that it is ? 

 

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44 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

I see you are in the Bay of Islands tomorrow.

Thursday 6th Feb is Waitangi day here and a public holiday, each year the commemorations are held in Waitangi / Bay of Islands so you may find it a lot busier than normal on the day before as the Prime Minster and all the various dignitaries will be arriving in town

Isn't tomorrow the 5th?  I know my clock is messed up and maybe I've got my phone off a day.  I thought today is the 4th and tomorrow, Bay of Islands was on Feb. 5th.  We are in Tauranga on the 6th.    Will Tauranga be closed or some areas shut down for the event?

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6 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

@twangster, were all of your night time shots on your good camera and glass, or were some of those from your iPhone using Night Mode? Guessing it's all the good camera given some of the clearly long-exposure shots with light trails and such, but I'm still curious to know.

All good camera.  I tried an iPhone night shot on the bridge in the early morning hours but it didn't make the cut.

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43 minutes ago, twangster said:

Isn't tomorrow the 5th?

Yes tomorrow is the 5th here while you are in the Bay of Islands. The commemorations go on all week and there are speeches today but the official holiday is the 6th.

Everywhere should still be open in Tauranga on the 6th but It will also likely be busy as everyone will have the day off.  Some food places will add a public holiday surcharge but with the nzd To usd exchange rate everything should still seem cheap to you?

 

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17 minutes ago, F1guynz said:

I see the media is reporting one of the passengers on Ovation died of natural causes on the way to NZ.

Royal made sure it was reported that it was not related to Coronavirus.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12305965

 

There was an Alpha call very early the first morning after departing Sydney.  I woke and heard it like it was a dream in the middle of the night.  Unfortunately these things happen in life, on land and at sea.  

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We had a rainy sail away and evening as we pulled away from the Australian coast.

Night one ended early for me on account of being up early to catch the ship's arrival into Sydney.  #boring

We change times tonight, one hour forward.  We'll do the same tomorrow night so we'll be on New Zealand time when we arrive.  

Sunday night spoiler alert - Chiefs win the Super Bowl.  I'll have to watch the replay in the morning, I'm going to bed.

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Day 2 - Sea Day

The rain and dreary conditions continue.  

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My neighbors down the hall have mastered communication on board without using electronic devices.

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Super Bowl replay this morning at 11am.  It is being played on channel 21 on board as well as at the pub and poolside.  

I used the time to go through and post pictures leading up to sail away.  

Typical sea day experiences.  Ovation is good for days like this with large areas like the indoor family pool and Two70° to disperse the crowds.

Something new (to me at least):

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Our progress:

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While in the solarium I was surprised to see it empty at 8:15am on a sea day.  I think the time change last night escaped some people.  Regardless, I took advantage of the opportunity to grab some pictures. 

The Quantum class solarium is the nicest in the fleet and with the indoor family pool area it truly can be adult only.  Very similar to Anthem but different in subtle ways.

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This is our only tender port and they started giving out tender tickets just before the first tenders started.  The expectation for tenders is that you are ready to go when you collect your tickets.  Tickets were handed out near Vintages then guests were asked to wait until the ticket number were called. 

New Zealand is particularly strict about bringing food or beverages to shore.  Only commercially bottled water is allowed and there was a sniffer dog on the shore to inspect us.

Since I had booked a Royal excursion I didn't need a tender ticket, instead tours met in the Royal Theater and we were escorted down to a tender.

Quantum class of which Ovation is a member carry eight lifeboats that are designed to also function as tenders.  They are very comfortable and the Ovation crew has this down to a science as the largest cruise ship tender in operation. 

Two tenders before our group are just about to make it to shore.

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The ride is about 10-12 minutes and we had a full size dolphin playing in the waves of our wake.  I didn't manage to get a picture of the dolphin but it was quite something to see up close just a few feet away.

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Upon arrival to the dock a group of dignitaries greeted us.  Actually they weren't there for us but in honor of Waitangi Day festivities.  This national holiday is actually tomorrow but like any independence day like celebration events occurs over several days. 

This day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Waitangi treaty that is a founding document for New Zealand.

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My excursion boarded another boat for a Bay of Islands lunch cruise.

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Our skipper Darryl introduced himself and the crew took turns introducing themselves.

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Ovation in the distance as we boated across the bay.

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Darryl called out the menu and we were given the choice of three mains.  New Zealand Venison, Lamb or Fish.  With orders taken the crew begins to season our lunch that we'll eat after our first stop.

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Picture intensive post.  

Mid-thread reminder...  please don't quote pictures.  Thanks!

We stopped in a quaint little village called Russell.  In the days of whaling Russell was known for two things.  Bars and brothels.  It's come a long way since then... 

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Interesting note for pedestrians, the cars don't stop.  Fortunately there aren't very many.  Cars that is.

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An hour was plenty of time to explore from one end of the beach to the other.  Russel is a pretty little area that is popular.

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Back on the boat we continued down into the bay.  

Remember that rock formation from my earlier pictures?

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Darryl explained there are 140 islands in the region.  To qualify as an island there must be something like 130 sq. meters of vegetation.  

It was getting to be that time...

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Lunch preparations continued as we boated around sailboats and around some of the bays in the area.

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The panoramic nature of this boat lended itself to the scenery. 

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Lunch on the barbie.  Or is that only an Aussie thing? 

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New Zealand Venison, medium rare.  Cooked to order so if you prefer charcoal they were willing to cook it that way. 

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Salad and other fixings.  Beer and wine was around $7.50 NZD per glass or ~$5 USD at the moment.    They ran a tab and collected payment at the end.  I didn't have any NZD cash so just used my credit card that doesn't incur any foreign transaction fees.  A beer and a glass of wine came to just under $10 USD.

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Many of my fellow lunch cruise guests immediately went back onto a tender.  I chose to walk the 25 minutes to that little town we passed by.  The free shuttle buses were nice looking, plentiful and waiting but I wanted to stretch my legs.  

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Bridge jumping was a popular local youth activity today.

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It's a very beautiful area.

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This small park had many local artisans with booths set up.  I must confess I flexed my credit card a couple of times.   It's always nice when you can meet the artist that actually created an item and so I supported the local arts community on this day.  

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With my backpack full of memories that will bring this day back to me it was getting quite warm so I hopped on a free shuttle bus back to the tender dock.

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For reference here is the tender dock:

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Back on board I hopped in the shower and enjoyed a beer on my balcony while the remaining hour wasted away before our departure..

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The sail out is very pretty.

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Up to the North Star Bar to watch us depart the area.

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North Star was running.

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It's a beautiful coastline.

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The North Star Bar is a secret gem at dusk.  It's seems so few people are present when the sky offers some of the best views of the day.

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A movie was playing on the outdoor pool TV screen.

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I didn't think there was going to be much of a sunset but then in that space between the sky and the sea a hole opened up and the sun presented itself in the gap.

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I spotted a small boat returning to land.

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It's always pretty special watching the day end this way and tonight's wrap of our first day in New Zealand was no exception.  

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My excursion today is booked through a 3rd party.  We were directed to meet outside the port exit.

There is a short walk down the pier to the exit.

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Maps were handed out for anyone who wants to self explore.

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The port entrance.

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Immediately in front of the port entrance was a crowd of 3rd party vendors meeting their guests with sign boards.

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My excursion today is the Deluxe Rotorua Geothermal Valley Geishers, Redwood Forest and lunch.  We were presented a menu to pick from and pre-order.

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Kids menu:

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Our driver had arrived early to secure a great parking spot right in front of the port entrance. 

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Our driver toured us around town a little before getting on a highway and heading away from town.  Eventually we made our way through Kiwifruit Country.  

On each side of the road were tall natural barriers separated each parcel of farmland.

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We had arrived in the land of Kiwi!

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Samples of the Golden Kiwi (left) and the popular Green kiwi (right).

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The store featured endless products made from kiwi.  Jams and chocolates to just about anything you can put fruit in was available including kiwi ice cream.  Yum.

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Restrooms were also available.

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After leaving the farm we drove for an hour or so to the Rotorua area.  The entire Rotorua area is within the collapsed dome of a volcano.  This includes a recreational freshwater lake and the town.  It also includes a Māori living community where we went next.

This is home to many people who open it up to run tours during the day.

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Known in short as Whaka the proper and full name is presented below on a sign.  

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An old tradition will see children swimming and diving for money thrown by visitors from the bridge. 

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Our guides tells us he used to do that as a child but now he has other duties to fulfil around the community including being a guide for tours.

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Everywhere around us steam is coming out of the ground.

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In some spots they've built a box on top of these natural steam vents that are used for cooking.

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This one natural thermal pool is around 80° or 90°C so it's way too warm to swim in but works great for cooking corn very quickly.

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The water is constantly bubbling being fed from underground sources that heat the water.

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Since this is a living community we see a number of homes like this one which are naturally heated in the winter months.

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We were offered some freshly cooked corn on the cob to sample.

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We were led to a viewing platform for two geysers, a small one on the left and a bigger one on the right.   

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In places everywhere you look there is steam coming from the ground.

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This small pool of water is at or near 100°C or 212°F.  It's bubbling like a pot of water on a cooktop. 

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The geysers from a different view platform.

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Then we were brought to an outdoor theater for some Māori cultural presentations.

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One event was involved singing and throwing sticks with the goal of no stick hitting the ground.

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Songs and dances were a way to remember and pass down items of cultural significance which ranged from love songs to war dances.

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All very well done and well received by the crowds.

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