Our wonderful journey continues across the South Pacific
until we docked in Auckland New
Zealand on Monday January 27 (actually January 26 2014, New York time and
date)
.
Briefly, New Zealand is a country of 2 islands, the North
Island, which has a population of 3 million people and the larger South Island
that has 1 million residents. Auckland, the capital city, has 1,400.00
inhabitants.
The country was first inhabited by the Maori people who
arrived from Polynesia 1400 years ago.
They were and are a warlike culture.
The great British explorer and map make, James Cook, sailed through
around 1788.
Abel Tasman, a Dutch
explorer discovered the islands in the 17th century but did not
land. The Tasman Sea and Tasmania to the north and west ere named after him.
Soon after Cook, British settlers arrived and almost
immediately conflicts with natives arose as the settlers took more and more
land. In 1840 when Maori chiefs and the Crown signed the Treaty of
Waitangi that dealt with land issued, the treaty, as you might imagine,
gave all the advantages to the British. By 1939, almost 100 years after the Treaty was signed, Maori retained
just 1 percent of the South Island and 9 percent of the North Island.
New Zealand remained a
sleepy outpost of 1 million or so people until WWI. As member of the British Commonwealth, the
country joined the war effort. 100,000 men (10% of the total population) joined
the armed forces. At the end of the war,
18,500 had been killed, and 50,000 wounded.
So, almost 7% of the nation’s population, and 14% of the men, were
affected. The majority of these
casualties occurred at the Battle of Gallipoli, one of Winston Churchill’s
prime acts of stupidity.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/gallipoli.htm
The nation sank into a
depression starting in 1921, as its major export partner, Britain was unable to
pay for timber or meat products as they had run out of money.
The nation was slowly recovering, when WWII
arrived and again New Zealand soldiers played an outsized role. After the war New Zealand grew as more
immigrants arrived from Europe and Asia, many from war torn countries.
The country grew and
prospered as international travel expanded.
Today, New Zealand may be one of the cleanest places on our planet, the
public, totally clean toilets all over the cities and country side impressed
us.
New Zealand has an extremely
friendly and courteous population, and remarkably beautiful vistas, beautiful
harbors, magnificent plains, fjords, and the Southern Alps
Auckland the capital city
has the highest percentage of boat ownership in the world (around 1 for 4
person, incredible) and New Zealand’s skillful sailors have taken a major role in
the America’s cup sailing races.
Unfortunately, the enmity
between the “white settlers” and the Maori remains. The Maori are spectacular
players on the championship Rugby team which has helped their integration. They
are feared by the British players, particularly since they use their war call
and facial display to frighten their opponents.
Our first day in Queensland, New Zealand is in
Auckland, we spent it on a " hop on hop off” bus.
We first visited an
aquarium built by Kelly Tarlton, a New Zealander who became wealthy thru “wreck
salvage diving”. He built the
“ UnderWater World Sea
Life Aquarium
This fabulous place, a
huge Penguin colony as well as a large underwater walkway enclosed by glass
that has large fish swimming beside and over you. This was the first aquarium constructed like
this in the world and has been copied since like in Malta. The museum also
contains Admiral Scott’s rooms and equipment that he took to the South Pole.
The second day, our visit to the Auckland
Museum, a beautiful building, where we were first entertained by a group of
Maori singers, dancers and warriors was very impressive
We then had a 2 ½ hour tour of the Museum with a docent which was wonderful, viewing mostly Maori artifacts including an 85 foot war canoe, 5 feet wide carved out of a since tree trunk. The top floor of the museum is a tribute to the New Zealanders lost in WWI, all the names are etched in granite. The flags of the allied nations fly in the atrium. Strangely enough on this floor, there is also an unscratched Japanese Zero from WWII as well as a beautiful British Spitfire (only 1 of 4 remaining. One is in the Smithsonian in Washington, I do not know where the others are). Beside the Spitfire is the Rolls Royce 12 cylinder engine which you can fire up by pushing a button
Then back to the boat for the short sail to Tauranga, the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty, really a large working port just south of Auckland. Many people visited Hobbiton, the movie set for the Lord of the Ring trilogy – a fabulous movie as you might know. Peter Jackson who directed these films is from New Zealand. WE just relaxed on the boat.
New Zealand, as so many of
you know is a country filled with Vineyards.
The most popular grape is Sauvignon Blanc but all varieties are
produced. We did not visit any vineyards
as time didn’t permit to take land tour to good ones.
After leaving Napier, we
celebrated Anči’s 70th BD with a group of our new friends and Vicky
Van Tassel’s birthday too. (she is one of our Whisper performers). The Chef
Jerome prepared the menu that Anči set up and the dessert was a copy of our
wedding cake: Croquembouche.
Next Blog will deal with the South Island land excursions to Mount Cook.
Remember that your comments are welcome.
