Day 17 – Bay of Islands, NZ – Sun, Mar 4, 2018
This morning while we were walking on the Promenade Deck, it
started to mist. At first it was quite nice, a light mist. Then it got harder to see out of our glasses and eventually it progressed to heavy rain.
We had breakfast in the Marketplace, hoping for the rain to stop. We’ve been lucky in every port so far on this
trip. In Stewart Island it was drizzling
a bit, then stopped in time for our wildlife boat tour. In Wellington it rained in the morning, and
our tour had been moved to the afternoon and the rain had stopped. The first day in Auckland it was raining and
stopped just as we left on our City Highlights tour. It looks like our luck has run out in the Bay
Of Islands. It continues to rain hard
and the online weather report says 100% chance of rain all day. Not very encouraging.
There are 150 islands scattered about in the Bay of Islands,
ranging from uninhabited boulders rising just above the water, to populated
islands. It makes an interesting
landscape. In 1769 the English explorer
Captain James Cook dropped anchor in the Bay of Islands and set the wheels in
motion for its settlement by the English.
At 11:00 am there was a break in the weather! We hopped on a tender.
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Inside of a tender. |
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We noticed this sign in the tender. Clearly if you haven't eaten enough on the ship, you can get tender food. |
First we walked to the Waitangi Treaty
Grounds, a short distance from the tender pier.
This is where the treaty between the Maori and the British was formed in
1840, making NZ part of the British Empire.
We took the city sponsored shuttle into the town of Paihia
(population less than 2000), the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands. We wandered around a bit, then walked the
1.25 miles back to the tender pier. It
was a pleasant walk along a beautiful beach, and across a one lane wooden
bridge.
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Area right by the tender landing. |
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Paihia main street. |
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Some kind of moss or lichen growing on the trees. |
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She really is a beauty. |
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The single lane bridge we walked over, tender port is on the right. |
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We weren't sure what this was. |
Dinner was in the Waterside Dining Room. We decided not to post any more food pictures
– I’m sure you’ve all gotten enough of the “flavor” of Crystal dining. All we
want to say, it was another fabulous meal.
The evening’s Production Show was “Crystal in Motion.” Even though we saw that one at the beginning
of our last segment we decided to go again.
It is a variety show giving a sampling of the entertainment to come on
the segment. They actually had changed
it up a bit and it was very enjoyable.
Afterwards we went to the movie:
“Money Monster” with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. We had seen it before, but decided we had
enjoyed it enough to see it again. It’s about
a financial TV host and his producer being put in an extreme situation when an
irate investor takes them and their crew hostage.
Today we walked 6.5 miles, 15,589 steps, and climbed 29 flights
of stairs.
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