Tauranga, roughly meaning safe anchorage, is recognized as the landing place of some of the early voyages and canoes from Polynesia in the 13th century followed by the British 600 years later when Captain Cook sailed into the area in 1769. 1/3 of Rotorua’s population today is Maori, the highest in NZ. A Maori community […]

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”  ~  Jacques Cousteau Oh how I remember loving to watch the underwater adventures of Jacques Cousteau on TV in the late 1960’s. 

New Zealand is one of the last lands to be settled by humans. It is two large islands split by the Cook Strait. Our first stop is the north tip of the North Island, the gateway to more than 150 islands that comprise the Bay of Islands.  Waitangi played a central role in the history […]

Nautical Term of the Day  –  Over the Barrel The most common method of punishment on board a ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, a mast or “over the barrel” of a deck cannon. Reminds me of Mutiny on the Bounty Suva is the largest city in the South Pacific and […]

The highest elevation of Tongatapu, the largest of the 169 Tonga Islands, is 213 feet.  Its flat tropical landscape is composed of coral limestone with fertile volcanic soil.  Nuku’alofa is the cultural and political capital of Tonga and hosts the wooden Royal Palace built in 1867, the Royal Tombs and the spot where Captain Cook […]

  Nautical Term ~ of the day ~ Slush Fund A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff, called “slush,” was often sold ashore by the ship’s cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a […]

Approaching Tahiti We don’t want you to think it’s all blue skies here 🙂 Rainy day activities 🙂 And tomorrow the sun will come out for my walk in the park 😉 Now for some serious shopping!  The Tahitian Black Pearl only comes from the Tahitian Black Lipped Oyster, lower center photo. They can take […]

  “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable.  It is designed to make its own people comfortable.”   ~   Clifton Fadiman I wonder if that was what Herman Melville thought when he landed here in the 1840″s and was greeted by cannibals.  I decided not to write on […]

  The planning of the building took decades with $50 million first being donated by Walt Disney’s widow, with the final cost of the building being $274 million.  Besides the magnificent architectural design by Frank Gehry, the acoustical architecture, by acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, was integral in making it the dream they envisioned.  Note the huge […]

I think we only saw maybe 2 or 3 of the fish on the card of possibility. I finally got some photos of a Pelican up close and in focus!  I’ve been trying to do so unsuccessfully since the Caribbean.