Tracking the Higher Ground

A Nice "Track"

In New Zealand they speak English, but you have to be careful, because it is not always the “English” that you are used to. I think that once they got so far away from the home of “English” they decided to tweak the language to their tastes.

There are many examples of words that have taken on slightly different meanings down under. The one that I noticed was the word “track”. Down here it means trail, as in hiking or walking trail. Regis and I have been making good use of the New Zealand tracks during our explorations.

We have always enjoyed walking and hiking, and when on the cruise ships, I have often looked out from the ship and seeing a high point on the land, think, “That would be a good spot to get some pictures.” As a result, we often find ourselves searching out trails leading up to these high points of land. Here in New Zealand these trails are often called “tracks”. We have found a few of them.

Instead of purchasing the high priced Ship Approved Excursions, we often just walk off and explore on our own, and often on these self-guided tours we find these New Zealand “tracks” calling for our attention. They have proven to be very worthwhile side trips.

Our first “track” was in Hawaii, where we hiked up to the top of Diamond Head, but I already

A Great View!

told you about that, and on Hilo, (Still Hawaii) we hiked to the Akaka Falls. On Pago Pago we tried to find the trail to a National Park, but never found it. On Dravuni Island in Fiji, we hiked to the highest point on the mountain for terrific views over the whole island. In Easo Lifou, New Caledonia we found a track up to a lovely little church on a cliff overlooking the island. In Noumea, New Caledonia, while walking around the town I discovered stairs leading to a track again up to a high point giving another excellent view of the town.

Once we reached New Zealand we discovered that what we were doing was following

Climbing in "Stile"

“Tracks”, and I already told you about the great tracking we did in Port Chalmers, where we found two tracks that kept us from visiting Dunedin. Then in Akoroa after a morning exploring the town we found a track leading up a hillside occupied by “Haggis on the hoof” where we found another Noordam couple enjoying the beautiful view over the town’s harbour.

Switchback to get to the top

By this time we were really getting into this “tracking” around, and in Picton, New Zealand we headed directly to a marked track that led up a mountain to look-offs and down to Bob’s Bay, named after a man who created this track by hand many years ago. This was probably the longest track we took and led to fantastic views out over the area. Wellington had wonderful views but we took a tour and the bus took us up the ‘Tracks”, and although we had a track all mapped out in Napier, we ended up in Jail (Just a tour; don’t fret!).

It was worth the climb

By the time we reached Auckland, we were ready for some easier tracking and I was only too happy to allow my cousin and her husband to drive us up the tracks to get the views over Auckland.

However, after all our tracking over the South Pacific Islands, I think we managed to counteract the wonderful meals on the cruise ship . . . . our clothes still fit.

Chickens, Statues & Flowers

Port Chalmers

After a while, you learn not to take everything you hear as gospel, so when we were told that there was nothing much to see in Port Chalmers and we should take the shuttle into Dunedin, we considered this, but decided to explore the town first.

One nice thing about coming into small ports on an 85,000 ton ship is that you get a pretty good view of the town from the ship. Although the surrounding hills were taller than the ship’s 12 floors, there were no buildings in town to rival our height. As we docked, I could see some sort of a tall monument off to one side and an obvious look-off on a high hill behind the pier where we were docked. These two attractions were our focus as we explored the town.

The Garden

A walk up towards the monument took us past a lovely stone church and I met a friendly black & white cat who required some attention, and a gentleman from Ohio living now in New Zealand who was out walking a borrowed dog – an interesting start to our exploration. Part way up the well-marked “Track” (New Zealand for trail I believe), we found the “Lady Thorn Rhododendron Garden” in an old rock quarry; a sort of mini Butchart garden. All the plants were in full bloom and there were lovely benches and walkways through the plants.

Continuing on the track we found the monument to Capt. Scot, and a marvelous selection of poultry wandering wild around the little park surrounding the monument. Although there were no houses close by, these birds were in excellent

What are you doing here?

health and appeared to be well fed, so I suspect they were not completely “wild”.

Although this area of the world has a climate similar to our own back in Nova Scotia, just with their seasons mixed-up, the trees and plants are completely different. It is spring here now, and everything is lush and in bloom. I was very impressed with the variety and abundance of plants growing along the roads and tracks. I discovered the reason, as our walk ended back down at the harbour where I found another simple monument to a Magnus Sinclair, a local resident who promoted the beautification of the area with plantings of local flowers and plants. The local residents had obviously adopted his vision, as buildings, residences, and even industrial sites had lovely gardens and plantings decorating them. Even the container pier where we were docked had a beautiful walkway through local vegetation part way around between the fence and water. We walked in a garden, with stacks of containers on one side and the ocean on the other.

An Odd Statue

Although this walk gave us a good dose of our daily exercise we enjoyed it so much that we set off after lunch in the other direction, following the water around, and back to the look-off over the ship, discovering a delightful sculpture garden hidden away along the track.

None of these lovely local attractions or unique features of Port Chalmers were mentioned in the “Location Guide Talks”, where the town was presented as the “Gateway to Dunedin”, and we never did actually get to Dunedin. I wonder what is there?

Oh No Its Raining!

Sailing Into Doubtful Sound

After we left Milford Sound, we were back in rough seas for a while before turning into Doubtful Sound. The gentle showers in Milford turned into a downpour in Doubtful. My initial reaction was concern that this would ruin the view as we went through this attraction, but in actual fact although it made the views different, it added and improved them as well.

With the rain pouring down, I couldn’t go out on deck, but my balcony provided shelter from the rain and wind and provided a spectacular viewpoint.

Black & White

The rain turned the normal green scenery into black and white, and anything any distance away faded into the rainy haze, and the mountain tops disappeared into the clouds. My photos showed gray-green in the foreground, dark blue next, and then various shades of gray as the more distant peeks and cliff faded into the rain.

When the rain slackened off, and the ship moved closer to the edges of the Sound, the rich green of the trees clinging impossibly to almost sheer cliffs came back into view only to fade away as the rain increased again. Looking up, the tops of the peeks clung to tendrils of low clouds and disappeared in the mist.

Rain Has Decreased

The rain, instead of ruining the view, added to it.

Breakfast in the Fiord

Entering Milford Sound

I woke up when I felt a change in the rhythm of the ship, and pulling open the balcony curtains revealed jagged cliffs and tree covered mountains instead of the usual waves and whitecaps. We had arrived in New Zealand and were entering Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park. There had been some question about whether we would be able to witness this New Zealand attraction because navigating the 85,000 ton Noordam into the narrow passage is only possible in calm winds and gentle seas. It hadn’t actually been cancelled, but after crashing through 5 meter swells for two days many passengers were expressing doubts about being able to get into the fiord. The captain had obviously decided he could make it, and was sliding the ship into the fiord early this morning.

After gently slipping between cliffs and mountains we got to the end of the fiord, and the ship stopped and swung 180 degrees around to head back out. Instead of immediately starting out of the fiord, an announcement came over the PA system that we would sit here for 30 minutes to enable a passenger requiring medical attention to be transferred to shore.

Tea on the Balcony

A good time to take a breakfast break and so I went up to the Lido to battle the crowds to bring back coffee, tea and the ships delicious Dutch raisin rolls with raspberry jam. As the navigation crew skillfully held the ship in place at the end of Milford Sound, we enjoyed a breakfast on the balcony wrapped in plaid blankets surrounded by mountain scenery.

Leaving the Fiord

After we finished breakfast, the ship began the passage back out to sea, and the wind and swells had picked back up, so where we crept into the sound slowly, the ship quickly accelerated to 14 kts and we left the fiord under power, enabling the captain to better control the ship against the winds and waves. In short order we were back at sea and the ship was again rocking and rolling in southern ocean swells.

Wallaby Burger & Beer

Regis meeting a Wallaby

After a day exploring a new city, I love finding a local Pub where they serve good hearty local beers, preferable local craft brews. Finding some nice local food specialty to snack on with the beer main course is even better. Everything came together here in Hobart Tasmania during our visit.

Although the captain had cut our stay in Hobart short so he can try to outrun a storm on the

Yup, Cobras in Tasmania

way to New Zealand (Who says cruising isn’t exciting?), we still had almost a full day to explore the city. So far, my impressions of Australia are very favorable. I loved Sydney and Hobart was just as nice. It is a clean, vibrant, modern city with lots going on. We arrived on a Saturday and Hobart has a really fabulous market that takes over an entire section of the downtown, with local fresh produce and hundreds of local craft-people selling unique hand made products. How about a lovely hand carved wooden bow-tie for my Tux? Although I have one more Gala night on the cruise requiring formal wear I did pass on this unique item, but I may try my hand a making one at home . . .

SPRING!

One nice thing about visiting the southern hemisphere in October, is that it is Spring here and everything is green and the flowers are blooming, and a walk through a residential area allowed us to see some beautiful gardens just coming into their best. Having two springs in one year is great!

Sampling the Local Brew

Getting tired, thirsty and hungry after a morning of exploring, I led us back to a pub I had noticed offering 16 local craft beers, and I discovered they had a Sampler tray where instead of having to only choose one or two beer, I could try five of them. They were all good, but then I have not found too many brews I do not get along with. Among their Gourmet burger selection we discovered a Wallaby burger, and Regis reluctantly agreed to try it (We were sharing). The meat was shredded instead of a patty, and to be honest it was like pulled pork only a little bit stronger tasting. I enjoyed it, but Regis’ imagination kept her imagining cute little hopping animals, so I got most of the meat . . .

Down Under at Last

Sailing Into Sydney

After almost 30 days at sea, we finally arrived in Australia, and at 6:00 am, we sailed into Sydney Harbour.

It was not an easy journey to get there.  After leaving New Caledonia we sailed through seas of almost 4 meters, so the ship was bouncing and pounding through heavy swells and waves. As we walked around the ship there were noticeably fewer people out and about. I think many passengers were finding the rough seas a bit unsettling so were staying close to their staterooms. Many of the people I saw around the ship were complaining about the rough ride. I imagine most people were happy to feel the ship pull into the calmer waters of Sydney Harbour.

Just fitting under the bridge

We were docking at the White Bay Cruise Terminal, and the Noordam is the largest ship that can make it this far into Sydney Harbour. It still has to be timed closely so the tide is low enough to give the ship’s funnels the two meters clearance under the bridge. This timing worked well, however and the sun rose as we entered the harbour allowing everyone to watch as we slowly made our way into one of the most beautiful harbours in the world.

Sydney Harbour really is spectacular. It is deep and long, allowing the largest ships to get far inland. Of course there is the iconic Opera House sitting right out into the water underneath the city’s famous harbour bridge. We had to make two tight turns, which forced the local ferries to stop and wait for us the get around and once we reached the cruise terminal, the ship swung completely around, and the captain backed us neatly into the mooring.

Barangaroo Park

Sydney is a beautiful city, with a pleasant combination of modern buildings and old historical landmarks. I was especially pleased to find walkways all along the waterfront. It is a particular annoyance of mine to find prime waterfront locations sold to big resorts and hotels that then block access for the public. Increasingly cities are seeing the value to creating “Public” areas along the waterfront and Sydney is following this example. I was able to walk all along the waterfront from the Opera House back to Darling Harbour with only a short break where a waterfront park was being constructed. One section called Barangaroo was once a huge concrete pier and has been reclaimed and converted into a beautiful park with trees, sandstone breakwaters, and trails for walkers, joggers and bicycles. Of course there is lots of commercial development along this same waterfront, but attractive public walkways have been maintained and you do not find yourself blocked by fences and exclusive resorts hotels. Even the converted warehouse condos in Dawes Point feature walkways all around them.

One nice thing about cruising is that you get a taste of many different places and it is brief stops on cruise journeys that have brought me back to places like Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. Sydney is certainly a city that our one day visit made us put it on a list of locations to visit again.  

Why is my Ship Listing?

Cruise ships, even ones as big as the Noordam, move around a lot as they navigate the oceans, and you get used to the constant rhythm of the ship. However the movement usually goes both ways; the ship goes down in the bow only to return as the stern takes its turn on down stroke. A rocking to the starboard is always followed by a equal rocking to port.

This Ship is not listing . . .

I was a little surprised when I felt the ship list one way and not return to level. Sitting in the restaurant, I felt the ship shift to one side and remain there. With a clear view out both port and starboard windows I could see sky out one side and ocean out the other. A walk up to the aft pool deck showed a clear, steady 10 or 12 degree list to one side. The horizon behind the ship was no longer straight, and the water in the pool instead of splashing back and forth was down on one side and overflowing on the other.

A quick tour around the ship did not find crew members scrambling to emergency stations, the list did not seem to be growing worse, and our speed remained a steady 18.9 kts. By the time I made a tour of most of the ships outside public areas we were mostly back to horizontal, so the problem seems to have been fixed, the testing of ballast tanks or stabilizers successful or whatever . . .

Sailing Out Of Sydney Australia

The most interesting thing about this was that except for one couple who noticing me staring out at the crooked horizon, and commented casually on the list, no one seemed to notice. People remained in their deck chairs reading their kindles, bridge games continued in the games room, and no one but me seemed to get up from their breakfast to see what was happening. I am not sure anyone noticed?