Medical Centre:
Around New Zealand:
There is a type of virus going round the decks, up the stairwells, down the elevator shafts and landing in every area of the dining room. It consists of coughing, sore throat and annoying looks by healthy people. I caught it and went down to the lowest level of the ship to see the Doctor. It’s a small waiting room with very small seats pushed close together that aid in the spreading of whatever it is that everyone is there to see the Doctor about. It was obvious that it doesn’t matter if your cough is in English, Spanish, German, Yiddish, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese or any other of the many languages spoken on board: you must first fill out the paperwork!
Now this is no ordinary cough. People in wheelchairs have coughed and ended up 10 back from where they were, people in electric wheel chairs depending on which way they are facing will do 360’s in the opposite direction and if facing forward will do wheelies straight back and those on walkers find themselves after a cough two to three feet behind the walker and grasping for something to hold onto.
Well, that’s a slight exaggeration but you get the idea. However, a quick RX for amoxicillin, robitussin and nose drops and a few days rest and missing the blog and I’m back on the road to wellness.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
New Zealand
Since Tonga our weather has worsened and most days have been rainy, windy or both. We had two ports of call in New Zealand.
The first was Auckland on the North Island. Almost a million and a half people live here and it is by far the largest city in New Zealand. One in four people have New Zealand: boats and the area is known as the “City of Sails”. American Express hosted an excursion for us that started with a tour of the city (yup, another McDonalds) and then up Mount Eden for a spectacular panoramic view of the city and surrounding islands. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand and the views reflect a Spartan hill and valley setting. There is not a great deal of vegetation and on the north island not very many sheep. We had morning tea at a hotel in the countryside and toured a pottery plant and ended up at a winery/vineyard for a terrific lunch. Our guide kept referring to the America’s Cup races and o by the way did he mention that New Zealand won! All in all it is quite a comfortable setting with great night life in the city and peace and lots of quiet in the countryside. It was a wonderful day but slightly dampened by my preparatory visit to the medical centre.
Two days later we docked at Lyttelton the port with access to ChristChurch a city on the eastern part of South Island. We took a tour of ChristChurch in cold, damp weather and the highlight was a Chinese lantern festival in Queen Victoria Park. This is the part of New Zealand where the sheep are raised and the chief industries are meat packing, tanneries and the manufacture of woolen goods.
As I write this we are on our way to the island of Tasmania and have crossed under the South Island of New Zealand. This is the furthest south we will be on the cruise. We are reasonably close to Antartica and the weather reflects it.
The first was Auckland on the North Island. Almost a million and a half people live here and it is by far the largest city in New Zealand. One in four people have New Zealand: boats and the area is known as the “City of Sails”. American Express hosted an excursion for us that started with a tour of the city (yup, another McDonalds) and then up Mount Eden for a spectacular panoramic view of the city and surrounding islands. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand and the views reflect a Spartan hill and valley setting. There is not a great deal of vegetation and on the north island not very many sheep. We had morning tea at a hotel in the countryside and toured a pottery plant and ended up at a winery/vineyard for a terrific lunch. Our guide kept referring to the America’s Cup races and o by the way did he mention that New Zealand won! All in all it is quite a comfortable setting with great night life in the city and peace and lots of quiet in the countryside. It was a wonderful day but slightly dampened by my preparatory visit to the medical centre.
Two days later we docked at Lyttelton the port with access to ChristChurch a city on the eastern part of South Island. We took a tour of ChristChurch in cold, damp weather and the highlight was a Chinese lantern festival in Queen Victoria Park. This is the part of New Zealand where the sheep are raised and the chief industries are meat packing, tanneries and the manufacture of woolen goods.
As I write this we are on our way to the island of Tasmania and have crossed under the South Island of New Zealand. This is the furthest south we will be on the cruise. We are reasonably close to Antartica and the weather reflects it.
Tonga
TONGA:
We dropped anchor in Nuku’alofa, Tonga and had to take the ships tenders (small boats) to the main dock in the center of the city. It’s a town, really. Sandy and I rode an air-conditioned bus on our tour of the island. We started at the royal palace where we were informed that the king was out of the country. We took pictures behind locked gates and then got back on the bus. Our guide was a young man with a woven skirt of fronds that told us that the king was in his mid-seventies and had never married – so no heir to the throne. He has a younger brother in his sixties that will take over when he passes and that brother has children that will succeed when necessary. However, things are subject to change as there is a strong political movement in Tonga away from the monarchy and towards democracy.
Tonga is very poor but the guide explained that if you walk into the country and pick fruits and vegetables and then walk out of the county to the seaside and fish - there you go – you have everything you need . We went to the tombs of the past kings (13 buried here) and it was quite impressive with large statues on high pedestals of the former rulers and large marble crypts. This too is behind a wrought iron fence with no access. However the guide spoke with reverence about the royal families.
Again as in Samoa there is a strong Chinese presence and some country and municipal projects are financed by the Chinese government.
We drove to Captain Cooks’ landing site. In 1777 Cook landed on Tongatapu and his arrival paved the way for the introduction of Christianity and that has had a profound and lasting effect on the Tongan way of life. The church of Tonga (its own denomination so we gathered) was a huge fortress/armory type building that seemed very distant from being churchlike. One of the villages we drove through had 23 different religions in that one area. I wondered how such a poor country could subsidize that many churches and a traveling companion pointed out the money collected in advanced nations for “missionaries” supports the efforts.
We saw Ha’amonga Hinge stone built around 1200AD. The giant stone has an arch that is 15 feet high and weighs around 80 tons. Like Stonehenge the gate is considered to have astronomical significance or to be a seasonal calendar for planting and harvesting. Because Tonga lies on the International Date Line our guide stated that the stone was the first place in the world to welcome the new millennium in 2000.
On Tonga cemeteries are very important and the Tongan people feel that no one dies but they live on and should be respected and revered. There are flowers and quilts and headstones and each town has its own burial grounds. No front yards though.
Tonga is the only place on the world that has flying foxes. Near as I can tell they are huge bats with wing spans up to three feet. We didn’t see any!
Next is Auckland, New Zealand – till then….
We dropped anchor in Nuku’alofa, Tonga and had to take the ships tenders (small boats) to the main dock in the center of the city. It’s a town, really. Sandy and I rode an air-conditioned bus on our tour of the island. We started at the royal palace where we were informed that the king was out of the country. We took pictures behind locked gates and then got back on the bus. Our guide was a young man with a woven skirt of fronds that told us that the king was in his mid-seventies and had never married – so no heir to the throne. He has a younger brother in his sixties that will take over when he passes and that brother has children that will succeed when necessary. However, things are subject to change as there is a strong political movement in Tonga away from the monarchy and towards democracy.
Tonga is very poor but the guide explained that if you walk into the country and pick fruits and vegetables and then walk out of the county to the seaside and fish - there you go – you have everything you need . We went to the tombs of the past kings (13 buried here) and it was quite impressive with large statues on high pedestals of the former rulers and large marble crypts. This too is behind a wrought iron fence with no access. However the guide spoke with reverence about the royal families.
Again as in Samoa there is a strong Chinese presence and some country and municipal projects are financed by the Chinese government.
We drove to Captain Cooks’ landing site. In 1777 Cook landed on Tongatapu and his arrival paved the way for the introduction of Christianity and that has had a profound and lasting effect on the Tongan way of life. The church of Tonga (its own denomination so we gathered) was a huge fortress/armory type building that seemed very distant from being churchlike. One of the villages we drove through had 23 different religions in that one area. I wondered how such a poor country could subsidize that many churches and a traveling companion pointed out the money collected in advanced nations for “missionaries” supports the efforts.
We saw Ha’amonga Hinge stone built around 1200AD. The giant stone has an arch that is 15 feet high and weighs around 80 tons. Like Stonehenge the gate is considered to have astronomical significance or to be a seasonal calendar for planting and harvesting. Because Tonga lies on the International Date Line our guide stated that the stone was the first place in the world to welcome the new millennium in 2000.
On Tonga cemeteries are very important and the Tongan people feel that no one dies but they live on and should be respected and revered. There are flowers and quilts and headstones and each town has its own burial grounds. No front yards though.
Tonga is the only place on the world that has flying foxes. Near as I can tell they are huge bats with wing spans up to three feet. We didn’t see any!
Next is Auckland, New Zealand – till then….
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Samoa
Apia, Samoa
As we docked we were greeted by a Samoan band playing “You are the sunshine of my life” followed by women and men dancers and singers doing traditional songs.
This is an island that takes you back in time to 40 or 50 years ago. The temperature was in the eighties and sunny and we toured in an open window bus. Samoa is very green and lush and the people are very friendly. As a matter of fact as our bus would pass through villages or rural housing almost everyone would look our way and wave. Old, young and in between seemed genuine in their appreciation of tourists. I noticed very, very little indifference on the part of onlookers. Our bus took us on a scenic drive along the northeastern coast to Falefa waterfall an area that once served as a trading post for the local beach whalers in the early 1800’s. Now the falls convey the natural beauty of the many scenic delights on the island.
Here’s a couple of interesting things about Samoa. There is a new stadium for the country and lots of new construction at the local university and all paid for by the one and only country that has an embassy on Samoa: China. At one point only English with a bit of French were taught in the university but now Chinese is taught and the Chinese population is currently at 3 to 5% but growing.
Beloved family members are buried in the front yard! Graves are covered with marble or concrete slabs of about 4 ft by 8 ft in size. Some are plain and others have elaborate covers and flowers everywhere. When I was younger we spent many a Sunday visiting the graves of relatives at the cemetery and it was usually an all day affair or close to it. From a childs point of view it would have been something to just walk out the front door say a prayer and then have the rest of the day for play. But even in Samoa it is more complicated than that. Beloved family members are in the front yard but all else are buried in the national cemetery. So that black sheep son or nasty in law are off to a communal burial and although it’s the law in Samoa that all must attend church (of their choice) every Sunday lots of anger and misunderstandings within families about front yard burial take place.
We visited a tropical garden with an abundance of tropical plants, flowers and fruit trees. Native young men scurried up coconut trees and threw down dozens of coconuts split them easily on a spike, cracked the interior open with a machete and served the freshest of coconut milk. Fresh fruit was spread on tables for us to sample and it was only slightly off putting that women in native dress kept fanning off the flies from the fruit.
Till next time…
As we docked we were greeted by a Samoan band playing “You are the sunshine of my life” followed by women and men dancers and singers doing traditional songs.
This is an island that takes you back in time to 40 or 50 years ago. The temperature was in the eighties and sunny and we toured in an open window bus. Samoa is very green and lush and the people are very friendly. As a matter of fact as our bus would pass through villages or rural housing almost everyone would look our way and wave. Old, young and in between seemed genuine in their appreciation of tourists. I noticed very, very little indifference on the part of onlookers. Our bus took us on a scenic drive along the northeastern coast to Falefa waterfall an area that once served as a trading post for the local beach whalers in the early 1800’s. Now the falls convey the natural beauty of the many scenic delights on the island.
Here’s a couple of interesting things about Samoa. There is a new stadium for the country and lots of new construction at the local university and all paid for by the one and only country that has an embassy on Samoa: China. At one point only English with a bit of French were taught in the university but now Chinese is taught and the Chinese population is currently at 3 to 5% but growing.
Beloved family members are buried in the front yard! Graves are covered with marble or concrete slabs of about 4 ft by 8 ft in size. Some are plain and others have elaborate covers and flowers everywhere. When I was younger we spent many a Sunday visiting the graves of relatives at the cemetery and it was usually an all day affair or close to it. From a childs point of view it would have been something to just walk out the front door say a prayer and then have the rest of the day for play. But even in Samoa it is more complicated than that. Beloved family members are in the front yard but all else are buried in the national cemetery. So that black sheep son or nasty in law are off to a communal burial and although it’s the law in Samoa that all must attend church (of their choice) every Sunday lots of anger and misunderstandings within families about front yard burial take place.
We visited a tropical garden with an abundance of tropical plants, flowers and fruit trees. Native young men scurried up coconut trees and threw down dozens of coconuts split them easily on a spike, cracked the interior open with a machete and served the freshest of coconut milk. Fresh fruit was spread on tables for us to sample and it was only slightly off putting that women in native dress kept fanning off the flies from the fruit.
Till next time…
Friday, February 6, 2009
Honolulu
Honolulu. Sandy and I decided to not do a tour as we have both been to Honolulu before several times and decided to do our own thing and revisit Waikiki Beach and the Royal Hawaii Hotel (The pink lady). Hawaii has always been special to us and we both feel totally relaxed and at home here. We wish we could scoop up all our family and friends and bring them here and stay for a long while. We arrived in time for lunch on the veranda overlooking the beach and Diamond Head.
Sandy and I both went swimming and wanted to take the big outrigger canoe to surf the waves but alas it was not to be as we were too far away. We dried and walked the International Trade market and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the people.
In the Hawaiian language Honolulu means “sheltered bay” or “place of shelter” and it lived up to that again for us. Oahu and Maui are our favorite islands and we have been to all except Molakai. In the 2004 census the population for Honolulu was 377,260 and that of the city and county (essentially the Island of Oahu) was 900,000. Of course over six million visitors arrive every year.
Mid afternoon we went back to the ship for the half time show and the last half of the Super Bowl. Go Sixburgh! At dinner we waved our napkins – close as we could get to the yellow towels- in celebration.
Till next time.
Sandy and I both went swimming and wanted to take the big outrigger canoe to surf the waves but alas it was not to be as we were too far away. We dried and walked the International Trade market and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the people.
In the Hawaiian language Honolulu means “sheltered bay” or “place of shelter” and it lived up to that again for us. Oahu and Maui are our favorite islands and we have been to all except Molakai. In the 2004 census the population for Honolulu was 377,260 and that of the city and county (essentially the Island of Oahu) was 900,000. Of course over six million visitors arrive every year.
Mid afternoon we went back to the ship for the half time show and the last half of the Super Bowl. Go Sixburgh! At dinner we waved our napkins – close as we could get to the yellow towels- in celebration.
Till next time.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Guatemala: After transiting the Panama Canal our first stop was in Guatemala. We had an all day excursion compliments of American Express. It was sunny and warm and very green. We boarded a modern air conditioned bus and set off for an hour and half drive to the ancient town of Antigua. After the dock area the scenery became more lush but mixed in with very poor housing from place to place. Women carrying baskets or linens on top of their heads, men dragging wood logs pre cut every few feet or so (for easy sale by the piece later?) with axes at their side. Busy scenes popping up every now and then and then back to trees, fields and climbing up into the mountains. After a half hour or so the driver stopped for us to disembark and take pictures of three active and most beautiful volcanoes. We no more than stepped off the bus when one of the volcanoes started erupting.
Quick visions of Pompeii popped in my head but the majesty of the moment overtook them and we all ooo’ed and aaa’ed..
We continued on to La Antigua Guatemala (commonly referred to as just Antigua or La Antigua) a city in the central highlands of Guatemala famous for its well preserved Spanish Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches. According to the 2007 census the city has some 34,685 inhabitants. Central park is the heart of the city.
After touring for several hours including a visit to a Jade factory and a horse and carriage ride we reboarded the bus for a three mile trip to a working coffee plantation for lunch and visiting. Native women danced and exhibited weaving and other crafts. The lunch was set up buffet syle in the middle of the court yard surrounded by mountains and flowers and greenery that were all quite beautiful. Lunch was traditional Guatemalan food and was delicious. Of course, the coffee was wonderful. After dessert of what I guess was deep fried donut with honey on top we toured the area for coffee harvesting, cleaning, spreading in the sun and finally warehousing of the beans. Interestingly the beans are white and only brown after roasting. The plantation owner, Senor Sanchez (educated at Cal-Poly) was there and made for a wonderful host and presented us all with a pound of his private brand coffee. Depending on customs I look forward to sharing.
Last a street scene from Antiqua:
Till next time…
Quick visions of Pompeii popped in my head but the majesty of the moment overtook them and we all ooo’ed and aaa’ed..
We continued on to La Antigua Guatemala (commonly referred to as just Antigua or La Antigua) a city in the central highlands of Guatemala famous for its well preserved Spanish Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches. According to the 2007 census the city has some 34,685 inhabitants. Central park is the heart of the city.
After touring for several hours including a visit to a Jade factory and a horse and carriage ride we reboarded the bus for a three mile trip to a working coffee plantation for lunch and visiting. Native women danced and exhibited weaving and other crafts. The lunch was set up buffet syle in the middle of the court yard surrounded by mountains and flowers and greenery that were all quite beautiful. Lunch was traditional Guatemalan food and was delicious. Of course, the coffee was wonderful. After dessert of what I guess was deep fried donut with honey on top we toured the area for coffee harvesting, cleaning, spreading in the sun and finally warehousing of the beans. Interestingly the beans are white and only brown after roasting. The plantation owner, Senor Sanchez (educated at Cal-Poly) was there and made for a wonderful host and presented us all with a pound of his private brand coffee. Depending on customs I look forward to sharing.
Last a street scene from Antiqua:
Till next time…
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