Mar 03 - Tauranga

Mar 3, 2008

We woke up early this morning in anticipation of our adventures in Tauranga. By the time we opened our curtains we were already moored. What a spectacular view we had from our cabin. It was of Mount Manganui, which overlooks the city. We are in cabin 8004, one of only 7 with a forward view. It has the same view that the captain has from his station on the bridge, one deck above us. Also, because it is the most forward on the starboard side, it is about 50% larger than the other cabins on this deck. The only other cabin like this is 8007, on the port side. Karen posts on a bulleting board at CruiseCritic.com and often comes across little tidbits of “insider” info like this.

We had reserved a car to be picked up at the dock, so after breakfast we headed to the car pickup area. As we approached the Pegasus Car Hire area a lady there smiled and said something that sounded like “Karin?” to which Karen replied: “Yes, Mosos.” The lady’s smile dimmed somewhat and she said: “You’re Donna Carrington?” We identified ourselves and the lady wanted to know if we had reserved a car. As Karen told her we had reserved several months n advance I could see the lady frown and begin to shake her head in a “no” signal. It turned out that somehow they had us down for pickup March 4^th. Since we had to drive almost 1 hour to where we were going we took a dirty car (a Toyota Corona) and “vamoosed” with an additional $20 (NZ) discount. We drove to Longridge Park in Paengaroa, where we had reservations for 9:30AM for jet boating on the Kaituna river. It was awesome!!! These jet-propulsion boats are very powerful and super fast! We did a 25 km trip at high speeds on a very narrow river with quite a few 360º spins thrown in for good measure. We passed through a narrow gorge (canyon) at the same high speeds. We were the only ones there that early, so we got the boat to ourselves. The guide said we picked the best time of day since the river had not been disturbed yet. The air was cold and crisp, and there was a layer of mist on the surface of the river. On the return trip we drifted a ways while the guide pointed out features and gave us a history of the area. While at Longridge Park we walked through a kiwi fruit farm. The plants are vines and are cultivated in a manner similar to grape vines. When we bent down to look at their underside, we were amazed at the thousands of kiwi fruits that were growing in just a few dozen plants. The guide told me that in that particular farm they ship 70,000 trays each harvest, each tray weighing about 3.5 kg. I didn’t do the math but it sounds like a whole lotta fuzzy fruit to me. I might have mentioned it already, but while in New Zealand we got the chance to try golden kiwi fruit, and they are delicious!!! They are in the process of cultivating RED kiwi fruits which are the result of a few years of cross-pollination and grafting. After leaving Longridge Park, we drove to Okere Falls, where Lake Rotoiti empties into the Kaituna River. We went white-water rafting on the upper reaches of the Kaituna river, where we experienced 14 class 4 or 5 rapids and falls, the featured one being Okere Falls, which are 7.5m/24ft high and are the tallest commercially raftable falls in the world. If you see the pictures or the video I am posting, you’ll see that the raft goes completely under at the bottom!!! The rafting trip was exciting, but that was exhilarating!!! On the way back to Tauranga we visited the northern beaches of the area, where we collected a bunch of beautiful shells to take back with us. After returning the car, we boarded the ship, had a late lunch, and hit the spa, where we have cruise-long passes and used the Thalassotherapy pools and the steam sauna. Feeling refreshed, we went topside to watch the ship sail away. The views were breathtaking. We felt somewhat nostalgic, since we don’t know when we’ll get the chance to visit this beautiful country again. We then relaxed for a bit before getting ready for dinner. Tonight the dress code is casual, which means no jacket required - my favorite. In preparation of tomorrow’s formal dress code, my tuxedo was delivered today. It fit perfectly, and Karen said it has been almost 10 years since she’s seen me in a tux. What she meant was that I look just as handsome now as I did then J. Dinner was, as usual, great, and the multi-instrumentalist that headlined tonight’s show was phenomenal. The guy must have played at least 18 different instruments, each equally as well. Upon returning to our cabin at nearly midnight, we set the clocks ahead one hour (we’re crossing into a different time zone tonight) and turned in for the night.

G’nite!!!

PS = I tried to upload some pics from my iPhone via the local NZ Vodafone network, but no luck it seems...