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Sailing AWAY from the sunset last night. Beautiful!! |
Seabourn's first stop - Tauranga, New Zealand
Last night was very smooth sailing. The gentle rocking of the ship was like knock out drops. I was out like a light in no time at all and woke up in Tauranga.
Stevie had arranged a private tour through "Tour by Locals". We disembarked the ship to meet Julie and her vintage Rolls Royce for a tour of Tauranga and the neighboring countryside.
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Ponga Trees resemble palms |
Tauranga, the principal city on the Bay of Plenty, is the largest export town in New Zealand. It's also one of the primary kiwi fruit and orchard regions and the gateway to the geothermal park, Rotorua. My biggest surprise was the vegetation, which is almost tropical. Ponga trees dominate. They look like giant ferns with their curled shoots unrolling. They grow tall like palm trees. The Maoris used Ponga leaves for houses because the leaves repel water and made their homes water proof. I commented that they looked like something out of Avatar and Julie said Avatar was filmed locally.
Kiwi Fruit grows on vines like grapes |
knocked together causing blemishes on the delicate fruit.
Hopefully you'll get the idea of the tree walls. Kiwi are inside the walls. |
Most of the building in KatiKati have murals depicting times gone by. |
After all the gold is retrieved, this quarry will be filled with water |
Stevie and our guide Julie at Ohinemuri Estate Winery |
Summer Vegetable Tart prepared by Chef Missy |
Anthenree Homestead |
After lunch, it was time to head back to towards the ship. By now, we'd been in the car for hours. We chose to do the rest of our sightseeing "drive by" style. We did a "drive by" of a beautiful little place called Anthenree Homestead. A lovely little home that has been renovated by ancestors and converted into a restaurant. Look kids ... it's Anthenree Homestead. Then on the the beach where we had a good look, then a quick tasting at Mills Reef Winery in Bethlehem. By then, after seven hours in the lovely vintage Rolls Royce, it was time to get back to the ship. Don't get me wrong. We had a great day of sightseeing, but enough already.
We cast off around 5:30 making our way to Wellington. We had a fabulous dinner poolside at the Patio Grill and then I was rocked to sleep by the hum of the Odyssey's engine and the gentle sea.
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