Loves' 2023 World Cruise

February 11, 2023 We had a short stay in Hobart, Tasmania.    Not long enough.     Tasmania is an island State of Australia, about the same size as West Virginia with a population of about 550,000 and nearly 40% of those folks live in Hobart, the Capital.     So outside of Hobart the rest of the country is sparsely populated. Tasmania’s climate is not too hot (average high in the 70’s in the summer) and not too cold (average in winter in the 50’s).     They almost never get any snow except at the very highest mountain elevations.    The temperate climate is surprising because it is only 1200 miles from Antarctica.    England began populating Tasmania by exporting convicts to the country in 1803.    The convicts did a lot of the early infrastructure work and many became successful farmers, whalers and business people.    Most of the 5 to 10 thousand indigenous people died off while fighting the...

  February 6 - 8 We took a bus tour and visited some highlights of Wellington.     Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is hailed by many as the “coolest little capital in the world.”   It is located at the southwestern tip of the North Island overlooking Cook’s Strait.   The city has a lot of features similar to San Francisco…lots of steep hills, narrow streets, a cable car and Victorian style houses.     Our bus took us first to the hilltop terminal of the Wellington Cable car where we had a panoramic view of the city and the bay.   Then we visited the Botanical Gardens of Wellington.   While the rose garden was just beyond prime and had taken a beating from recent storms, it was still beautiful. The flowers and plants in the green house were beyond description.   Our iPhone cameras don’t do justice, but we include a sampling.   Finally, our driver took us to the top of Mount Victoria where we got an even better view of th...

February 4 and 5,  2023 Rotorua Rotorua is a port city in the Bay of Plenty.   It is best known as the gateway to bubbling mud pools and thermal fields with erupting geysers.   It has also has miles of white-sand beaches and is a major port for exporting wood and Kiwi fruit.   The Bay of Plenty region is New Zealand’s major producer of Kiwi fruit which is the country’s largest horticultural export - some $3B in 2020. There is a higher percentage of Maori residents in the Rotorua region than in most all other NZ regions.   The Maori arrived in NZ in the 13th century, followed by the British 600 years later.   The culture of this region is significantly influenced by the Maori. We didn’t get to see the geysers and such in the thermal fields but we went to the wonderful white-sand beaches and got to see acres and acres and acres of kiwi fruit plantations.   Kiwi fruit grows on trees which are planted close together so that their branches intertwine making...

  FEBRUARY 1 - 3, 2023 Our ship captain had to cancel our first stop in New Zealand due to weather.   They have been deluged with rain… much like California was earlier this month.   So we docked in Auckland two days ago just before another downpour and high winds. Yesterday we were able to go ashore.   We had booked a tour of the Sky Tower and Aquarium.   The road to the Aquarium was flooded out and so they replaced that part with the Weta Film making museum.   That was an experience.   There are a lot of movies produced here… most notably the Lord of the Rings.   Weta specializes in the special effects.   Our tour guide was a nut and we had a lot of fun seeing how really weird things are created.   Their latest is Origens - a sci-fi extravaganza.   Leaving Weta we took a high-speed elevator to a viewing platform on the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere rising some 1076 ft.   We exited the elevator an...

January 27, 2023? Our entertainment crew is always looking for something to celebrate and reduce their champagne inventory.   Yesterday was CROSSING THE INTERNATIONAL DATELINE.   So a good celebration we had.     We crossed it last night and January 28 disappeared.   We woke up to Sunday January 29.   Saturday January 28 just disappeared.     So, it happened that so did Vera’s birthday!   So she gets to stay 82 for another year! (Smile) As we head West we’ll lose an hour every 500 miles or so (time zone change).   So by the time we get home we’ll have given back the day we gained and be back on good ole Central time and the right date. We spend our days reading, walking around the ship (4 mi day), listening to music and Vera sometimes works on the community jigsaw puzzle.   There’s a wildlife expert on board who helps with sightings (birds, whales, flying fish) and talks about how to preserve their habitats.   There are present...