Tauranga New Zealand

Hi Guys,

Tauranga – New Zealand 9 March 2011

(Longitude: 39 xx’South   Longitude: 176 xxx’ East)

(Time +13 GMT)

Tauranga was decided as our alternate port of call due to the terrible damage inflicted on Christchurch following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

The Aurora started a relief fund which we unloaded in Auckland, a total sum of £7,300 and 4 palettes of clothing (which included two pairs of my (unworn) underwear for which they specifically requested).At this point in time, we are not to know that the more powerful earthquake in Japan is yet to happen.

The whole area is a delightful bay of inlets and lagoons protected from the Pacific Ocean by a large spit of land ending in the extinct volcano Maunganui. We are taken into town by shuttle bus, but the end of the tour ends up back at the ship. We go on a tour of a small town, now abandoned but restored to the time of the turn of the 20^th century for the tourists. We go on to the Elms Mission Station and see the work done when the missionaries arrived. Apparently, the whole house, yes the whole house was constructed from one Kauri tree. There is a picture of two men sawing this 10 ft diameter log maybe 30 ft long, “Top dog” overhead and “bottom dog” in a pit. The log was floated down from the Auckland area behind a ship and hauled up a hill to the building site. The timber provides structure, flooring, ceilings, walls, outside clapboard, doors, architraves, cabinets, staircase etc but the roof was metal.

We travel on to a farm stall where we had ice cream. One or two scoops of ice cream and your favorite berries (frozen) are placed into a conical screw device and out comes the mixed ice cream and berries into the cone of your choice. We are given the 50c tour of the Kiwi fruit facility. How Kiwi grew had been a mystery to me but I now discover that they grow very similarly to grapes on a vine. The vines are grown over an open framework like the start of a barn but no siding, sunlight and rain can come in and it is easy to walk under the hanging kiwis to pick them.

We go back into town and find a sandwich shop which is served by young people (something we do not get aboard the ship). Young girls carry babies at the hip, place them down and serve us beer and terakihi (the catch of the day) with chips, just delicious. It is just a short walk back to the ship for a 5:30 getaway.

Mounganui at Tauranga harbor

Roy in front of Maunganui

Susan at the Shoe Repair

Kiwi Fruits growing

The city of Tauranga has a population of 109,000 and is located on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand in the Bay of Plenty region. Tauranga in Maori means an anchorage or resting place and the name would suggest that the area around the present city was settled by the Maori, who made the sea crossing from Polynesia, possibly as early as the late 12^th century. In October 1769 Captain Cook was impressed by the agricultural riches that he named the region the Bay of Plenty.

Some of the earliest settlers in the Tauranga area were missionaries and established the Elms Mission Station in 1830. The Maori and settlers entered into a dispute about the land occupied by the settlers which lead to the Land Wars of the 1860s. The Battle of Gate Pa at Tauranga took place on 29^th April 1864 and resulted in a famous victory for the Maori over a numerically much larger British force (2,500 cf 200). The battle was conspicuous for the acts of kindness shown by the Maori to the British wounded. The Maori chief, taught Christian ways, made up a document generally listing 4 rules of war and the principles that should be employed for the wounded. Sounds like the beginnings of the Geneva Convention to me.

Tauranga is the gateway to Rotarua with the surrounding region of geysers, boiling pools of mud, mud fumaroles, volcanoes, hot thermal springs and Maori villages. Rotorua, nicknamed Sulphur City, is located on the side of Lake Rotorua and is approx 45 miles from Tauranga.