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Life After Brown
Around the world with Traveler
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<blockquote data-quote="traveler" data-source="post: 259157" data-attributes="member: 1954"><p><strong>Re: Around the world with Traveller</strong></p><p></p><p>Our first stop in New Zealand was the Bay of Islands. The actual town was Paihia. After looking at the map and listening to the Port Lecturer on board I decided that this port was best approached using a ship sponsored tour. This was a "tender port" which means that the ship is to big to dock at any facility currently available. Also, in a tender port, usually the first folks to exit the ship are the paid tours. The folks setting out on their own have to get a "tender ticket" and wait for and available boat. I must say that this ship, the Statendam, was very well run and if you arose and get yourself ready early enough to get a number 1 or 2 ticket, you were able to get the very first tender before any of the tours were ready to go. That was the case in Laihina, Maui and here too but never count on that. Well, my estimations were correct. There were very few taxi's available and no rental cars to be had that I could see.</p><p></p><p>Our tour took us first to the Glow Worm Caves. The native guide at the cave gave us the history of the cave's discovery and also described these little critters we were about to see. The cave was formed by a stream that was bottled up on the far side of the hill. Little by little it wore its way through the hill as it is today. Eels live in the stream and one they call Elvis was summoned with a piece of meat in the water as we entered the cave. The stream is but a few inches deep and in a few minutes you could see Elvis' dorsal working its way upstream. We never did get a good look at him but he looked to be about a meter (3 feet) long. We were told that eels are the opposite of most fish since they live in fresh water most of their lives and go to the sea to spawn. The first section of the cave has some small stalactites but that is not its claim to fame. After going a few hundred yards in the guides lights are put out and looking at the ceiling is like looking at the stars on a cloudless night away from the city lights. The only difference is that all the "stars" are about the same size. These little critters live in their tiny hammocks while they dangle sticky lines down to catch the tiny flies that are attracted to the light. When one is caught, the haul them up for a meal. Sounds like on heck of a good life until you learn they spin cocoons after about 11 months, hatch as flies. They have mouths but cannot eat, they mate, lay eggs and die in about three days.</p><p></p><p>The next stop was the Kauri Forest. These trees are roughly their equivalent of our Redwood or Sequoia forests. The oldest tree is estimated to be 2,000 years old. They were logged extensively in the colonial period but thankfully some were saved. It is estimated that one of the larger trees contains enough wood to construct ten houses.</p><p></p><p>After the tour returned we immediately took the shuttle bus into town. There we walked a bit and settled into one of the small sidewalk café's for fish and chips. They sure do know how to do fish 'n chips, delicious. There is another town that is just a ferry boat ride across the bay but we didn't feel we had the time to explore that town, Russell, so we took a slow one mile walk back to the ship and observed the scenery.</p><p></p><p>Tauranga is tomorrow's port. A wonderful little town according to the Kiwi I met in Western Samoa but we didn't spend any time there except to drive through. More on that tomorrow.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="traveler, post: 259157, member: 1954"] [B]Re: Around the world with Traveller[/B] Our first stop in New Zealand was the Bay of Islands. The actual town was Paihia. After looking at the map and listening to the Port Lecturer on board I decided that this port was best approached using a ship sponsored tour. This was a "tender port" which means that the ship is to big to dock at any facility currently available. Also, in a tender port, usually the first folks to exit the ship are the paid tours. The folks setting out on their own have to get a "tender ticket" and wait for and available boat. I must say that this ship, the Statendam, was very well run and if you arose and get yourself ready early enough to get a number 1 or 2 ticket, you were able to get the very first tender before any of the tours were ready to go. That was the case in Laihina, Maui and here too but never count on that. Well, my estimations were correct. There were very few taxi's available and no rental cars to be had that I could see. Our tour took us first to the Glow Worm Caves. The native guide at the cave gave us the history of the cave's discovery and also described these little critters we were about to see. The cave was formed by a stream that was bottled up on the far side of the hill. Little by little it wore its way through the hill as it is today. Eels live in the stream and one they call Elvis was summoned with a piece of meat in the water as we entered the cave. The stream is but a few inches deep and in a few minutes you could see Elvis' dorsal working its way upstream. We never did get a good look at him but he looked to be about a meter (3 feet) long. We were told that eels are the opposite of most fish since they live in fresh water most of their lives and go to the sea to spawn. The first section of the cave has some small stalactites but that is not its claim to fame. After going a few hundred yards in the guides lights are put out and looking at the ceiling is like looking at the stars on a cloudless night away from the city lights. The only difference is that all the "stars" are about the same size. These little critters live in their tiny hammocks while they dangle sticky lines down to catch the tiny flies that are attracted to the light. When one is caught, the haul them up for a meal. Sounds like on heck of a good life until you learn they spin cocoons after about 11 months, hatch as flies. They have mouths but cannot eat, they mate, lay eggs and die in about three days. The next stop was the Kauri Forest. These trees are roughly their equivalent of our Redwood or Sequoia forests. The oldest tree is estimated to be 2,000 years old. They were logged extensively in the colonial period but thankfully some were saved. It is estimated that one of the larger trees contains enough wood to construct ten houses. After the tour returned we immediately took the shuttle bus into town. There we walked a bit and settled into one of the small sidewalk café's for fish and chips. They sure do know how to do fish 'n chips, delicious. There is another town that is just a ferry boat ride across the bay but we didn't feel we had the time to explore that town, Russell, so we took a slow one mile walk back to the ship and observed the scenery. Tauranga is tomorrow's port. A wonderful little town according to the Kiwi I met in Western Samoa but we didn't spend any time there except to drive through. More on that tomorrow. [/QUOTE]
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