We were docked in Papeete, Tahiti, when we woke up on the morning of March 24.  HAL calls this an overnight stop but as a practical matter its only a one day stop that lasts through the evening since we would depart at 5:00 AM the next morning for the neighboring island of Moorea.  You have to read these itineraries carefully to understand what you are really getting.  This was our third visit to Papeete  and the previous visits can be seen here:

     https://baderjournal.com/2016/02/13/papeete-tahiti/

     https://baderjournal.com/2018/05/18/papeete-tahiti-2/

This  was the first time we didn’t have an out of town expedition, so there is a lot in those posts you won’t see here.  As MARVEL character Phil Coulson memorably said (over and over)  “Tahiti is a magical place.”  But if you have seen the TV series you know he hadn’t actually been there, while we have.  We don’t know if “magical” is the word we would choose, but it is certainly a very beautiful island. 

     We left the ship after breakfast and were greeted at the dock as in the past by some local musicians and one lady handing out frangipani flowers.

     Turning right as we exited the new cruise terminal we entered Pa’ofa’i Gardens, a long park stretching along the water from the port.  This is a large and green park with a great deal of local fauna (hundreds of species of native French Polynesian trees, bushes and flowers), along with a number of interesting small structures and even playgrounds.  It has a paved path passing along the marina near the cruise port, which houses many small boats.

     The park had a number of large outdoor sculptures by local artists and of course, this being French Polynesia, a lot of beautiful flowers.  We also saw a number of birds, most notably some small colorful birds like ones we had seen before in Nuku Hiva and a whole lot of chickens.  We were told that the free range chickens, which can be seen all over the central city but especially in the park, are maintained here because they eat dangerous centipedes that apparently are plentiful here (and serve as Sunday dinner for anyone who can catch them).  This park was, we understand, constructed as part of a project to modernize the marina and opened in 2010.

    The most interesting part of the marina modernization project for us, however, is the artificial coral reef being built and cultivated along the waterfront.  The last time we were here (about 8 years ago) we saw rope netting stretched along the low wall at the edge of the water and we could see some fish under the netting, which can get in through openings in a wall a few feet into the water near the boat moorings.  However, they have apparently seeded the ropes with coral and today we could see the progress the coral has made to turn the rope netting area into a coral reef.  Coral grows very slowly but after 8 years quite a few small colonies with multiple colors were evident through the water.  This is a working cruise & cargo harbor so the water isn’t as transparent as we have seen on some other islands we have visited, but it was clear enough that a few of our pictures turned out quite worthwhile.  Unfortunately, the few with fish did not.  Imagine what this will look like in another 8 (or more) years.  It is rather unusual these days to see an expensive project like this undertaken that will only really pay off far in the future.

     We decided to walk inland a bit to Bougainville Park, a nice green space named after the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the world (and after whom a spectacular tropical flower is named).  But this required crossing Boulevard Pomare, which seems to be the main thoroughfare in town with a lot of traffic and few drivers willing to stop for pedestrians.  After some walking we found a traffic light and managed to cross over.  The park has a nice monument topped by a bust of Bougainville, an early visitor to Tahiti in 1768 who claimed the island for France.  This shady park is a nice respite on a hot day.

     The center of Tahiti is quite mountainous.  On our way to Bougainville Park we had a nice view of a neighborhood built on a steep incline with a cloud topped mountain behind, clearly visible from the center city.  One reason we have enjoyed walking in this town is the large wall art that characterizes the city.  We have noted them on past visits and saw more today.

     Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia and after exiting the park we came to the building where the assembly of French Polynesia (the legislature) sits.  Place Tarahoi is the governmental center in Papeete.  It was the site of Queen Pomare IV’s royal mansion until the French declared Tahiti a protectorate in 1843 and then used the building as a colonial headquarters.  The mansion was taken down about 1960, although a reportedly faithful reproduction was later built a few blocks away that is now the town hall of Papeete (which we did not see).  The distinctive Territorial Assembly building opened in 1960 on the site of the former royal mansion.  The building was surrounded by fencing with a guard at the gate so we took a picture and were about to leave when he gestured to us to come over.  He was really friendly and outgoing and assured us we were welcome to come in and explore the grounds on our own.  So that was what we did.

      Behind the building is the Jardins De L’Assemblee De La Polynesie Francaise (Gardens of the Assembly of French Polynesia), much of which was part of the royal gardens when the Queen lived here.  We have read that few tourists make it here because it is not easy to find, but it is certainly worth seeking out.  This was a really nice walk under the tree canopy out of the sun.  But before we reached the gardens we passed a large and interesting room in the Assembly building that was open to the outside.  Inside the room, which is called “Te Fare Ara” (room of awakening), was a rather stunning lighted version of the canoe emblem from the flag of French Polynesia and the floor was coved in a shallow layer of very reflective water. 

     In the gardens we walked past stone sculptures and large old trees and many blooming flowers.

     Exotic looking ducks were walking around and fish swam in the ponds, some of which were rich with water lilies.

     On the way out of the gardens we came to a memorial to Pouvana’a a O’opa, the father of the French Polynesia independence movement.  He fought for France in World War I, but after World War II he was very active in resisting French rule.  He was elected to the French National Assembly in 1949 and reelected twice, was a leader of local government after 1958 and was imprisoned by the French in 1959.  Pardoned in 1968 by President de Gaulle, he was elected to the Senate of France in 1971, serving there until his death in 1977.  The monument was erected in 1982.  Not too far away was a huge tree growing by the edge of a lilly pond.

     We headed for the Municipal Market, a very lively two story facility full of vendors selling food and flowers on the first floor, with handicrafts, jewelry and tourist mementoes on the second floor (along with a prominent bar).  On the way we passed yet another arresting example of street wall art and the Catholic Cathedral.  The yellow and red cathedral opened in 1875, the oldest Catholic church in Tahiti.  We saw the inside of the cathedral on a previous visit but we have read that it is often closed to visitors these days.

     We have visited the Marche, as the market is called, on each of our previous visits and did some shopping on each visit.  This time we visited but did not buy.  Particularly noteworthy is the jewelry made of local black pearls for sale on the second floor for relatively reasonable prices (although notably higher than last time we were here).  But it’s a fun place to visit even if there is nothing you want to buy.

     We headed back to the ship, but first we stopped for a very late lunch at Le Retro, a cafe whose sidewalk tables we had sat in for a beer and (delicious) french fries on a previous visit.  It is reputed to be a very popular spot in Papeete and we can understand why, since our modest lunch (hamburgers and Hinano beer) was very good and the staff were very friendly.  A singer named Joe Dassin, an American who grew up in France and sold some 24 million records, died in this spot of a heart attack in 1980 when the restaurant was under another name.  There is a memorial plaque near the entrance.

     After dinner we attended a dance performance by a Tahitian group at the Main Stage on board.  We have seen similar performances in the past and, really, the first time was the best (maybe because it was new to us).  But this group was quite good and their performance was very energetic and enjoyable.  It must take a lot of practice to learn how to make your hips shake that fast, and the energy this kind of performance requires is only for the young we think.

     We spent March 21 in Nuku Alofa, the capital and largest city of the country of Tonga.  Nuku Alofa is on the northern coast of Tongatapu, the largest of the 171 islands (45 inhabited) that make up the country, the southernmost group of islands in the western Pacific (Tonga means “southwards”).   Tonga’s population is about 100,000, of which 27,000 live in Nuku Alofa proper and almost 75,000 in its metro area.  Tonga is distinguished by two facts:  1)  it is the only island country in the western Pacific never colonized by Europeans, and 2) it is the only independent indigenous monarchy in the Pacific.

     Tonga was first settled by Lapita people, most likely from Melanesia, about three thousand years ago.  This may have been one of the first stops for the Polynesian navigators who spread throughout the Pacific over time.  By the period between 1200 and 1500 CE the Tongans were the dominant and most influential culture in the western Pacific.  What has been called the Tongan Empire, probably more of a trading and cultural association under Tongan leadership and control, included parts of Fiji, Samoa, Niue, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands.  Tribute was paid to the Tongan royalty through a ceremony called “Inasi,” probably every year.

    European ships made a few brief visits as early as the 17th century, but Captain Cook was the first to make a study of the place, visiting three times between 1773 and 1777, even attending an Inasi tribute ceremony.  Cook called these the “Friendly Islands” because of the welcome he received there.  Whaling vessels sometimes visited during the 19th century and some Tongans were even recruited to join whaling crews.  Protestant missionaries arrived during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 

     Tonga was united into a single kingdom in 1845 by a man who was crowned king under his Christian baptized name, King George Tupou I, whose family have held the throne ever since.  In 1875 he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy and instituted a number of reforms.   To stave off German colonial interest, Tonga signed a treaty with Britain in 1900 making it a protected state, meaning Britain controlled its foreign policy while the Tongans retained internal sovereignty.  A consul was the only British representative in Tonga and he had no role in its government.  Tonga gained full independence when the treaty ended in 1970.  However, the struggle for full democracy continues in Tonga.

     We left the ship in mid morning.  There was a long walkway to the port gate leading into the city and there were several vendor tents set up along it.  We agreed to meet Karen and Donna at the vendor tents.  We got there first and had to wait a little while for the others.  But we waited inside the tents because this was easily the most oppressively hot day we had on the entire trip.  Anyone who might have been reading along will recall that we have noted a number of times how hot it was in a number of the ports, but none of them were like this.  Even walking to the vendor tents was taxing.  So how hot was it, you might wonder.  Well if the internet knows what it is talking about, the temperature in Nuku Alofa on March 21 reached 88 to 90 degrees, but the humidity was about 82% and that combination gives a Heat Index (“feels like”) of 106 to 115 degrees, which it is pretty much what it felt like.  And standing in the sun would make the heat index up to 15 degrees higher, also consistent with what it felt like to us.  The National Weather Service warns that weather like this puts you in danger of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

     Of course, we didn’t know all this at the time, but we could feel the heat well enough to know from the beginning that this was going to be a relatively short walk.  Helpfully, many of the main landmarks that first time visitors (like us) want to see are pretty close to the port (in fact most could be seen from the ship’s upper decks). Passing through the port gates we walked up the main street, stopping in several ho-hum stores because Donna and Karen had some things they needed.  This street was very busy.  The first place of interest we came to was the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua, a round Catholic church with a large cone shaped roof in the center that opened in 1980.  Its interior is supposed to be very interesting, but we couldn’t go inside because a funeral was in progress.

     Turning right we walked down the road to the Centennial Church.  The first Methodist missionaries arrived in Tonga in 1832 and Christianity spread rapidly, particularly in Nuku Alofa.  The Free Church of Tonga was founded by King George Tupou I in 1885 to ensure local Tongan control of church assets and finances.  The Centennial Church was originally built in the mid 1880’s and the royal family attended its services until the 1950’s.  The church was substantially renovated in 1985 but in 2018 Cyclone Gita destroyed most of it, leaving only stone walls, and it has not been repaired (Gita also destroyed the Parliament building and hundreds of houses and small businesses).  It must have been an impressive church in its day.

     Just down and across the street was a very large fenced green area called Mala’ekula.  This is the royal burial grounds exclusively for the current, Tupou line of monarchs beginning with George Tupou I, the uniter of Tonga in 1845.  He was the first one buried here in 1893, and his progeny have been buried here with him, most recently King George Tupou V in 2012.  There are statues above several of the tombs but we don’t know who is who.  King George Tupou I is buried in the middle, without a statue on top of his tombstone but with a sculpture of a lion nearby.  This entire large grounds is inaccessible to the public, who can only look at the tombs from afar behind a tall iron fence.  As you can see from the last picture below, we were standing pretty far away when these pictures were taken.

     Just before we turned north toward the waterfront we came to the Centenary Chapel, built in the 1950’s.  This was the result of a church schism (this stuff is too complicated to understand, much less explain) in the 1920’s when the Queen tried to reconcile warring factions in the church and  rejoin the Methodists in Australia, but there were many holdouts who wanted their church to be independent.  Anyway, this is the church the royal family attends today, quite convenient to the royal palace that is right down the street.  We know that some HAL passengers have seen them here when their ship stops in Tonga on a Sunday.  It is less distinctive, in our view, than the Centennial Church must have been before 2022.  As you might imagine, if you try to research these things online you will find a great deal of confusion between these two churches with very similar names, both started (at different times) by the royal family.

     Walking what seemed a long way down toward the water we came to the Royal Palace.  Built in 1867 of kauri wood, it is in Victorian colonial style with traditional Tongan touches.  The palace is the monarch’s home and it is not open to the public, but it can be viewed through the almost 10 foot tall metal fence.  it is perfectly seen from the ship at the dock.

     Walking down to the palace gates had taken us within eyeshot of Zaandam at the dock, but the whole area in front of the palace was fenced off.  So returning to the ship required us to walk all the way around the route we had come by.  On the way back we stopped in briefly at the Talamahu Market, the city’s main central market with lots of local produce and a plentiful variety of handcrafts.  We didn’t stay long though, because we were tired and not really very interested in shopping.

     We were back onboard the ship before noon, indeed a short walk but covering quite a bit for the time spent.  Before going up to the pool side grill for lunch though we each took our second, and very refreshing, shower of the day!  We mentioned above that many of the places we visited could be seen from the upper decks of the Zaandam at the dock, so here are pictures of a few of them.  In addition, not far to the west of the palace was the Cenotaph, a monument commemorating the Tongan soldiers who participated (and some who died) in World War I.  Many of these were Europeans resident in Tonga when the war began, but there were several dozen ethnic Tongans who enlisted and fought with the Maori brigade of the New Zealand forces.  The Cenotaph was commissioned in late 1923 by then ruling Queen Sālote.  Interestingly, ANZAC day is celebrated here every April.

     Thus ends our visit to Tonga.  We sailed off for three welcome days at sea to reach the Society Islands.

     The morning of March 18 found us anchored in the Bay of Islands near Waitangi, where the English – Maori treaty that is considered New Zealand’s foundational document was signed in 1840.  We had visited here once before, 6 years ago, which you can see here:  https://baderjournal.com/2016/02/20/waitangi-new-zealand/  And we had seen the actual Waitangi Treaty a few days before in the National Library in Wellington.  While it is certainly worth visiting, the admission to the treaty grounds now costs $75 NZ per person for foreigners like us, so we were happy we had visited it before and decided to spend our port visit in the nearby village of Paihia.  We took the tender to the Waitangi dock then boarded the shuttle bus to Paihia.

     Paihia began as an Anglican mission founded by Henry Williams and his family in 1823.  Henry Williams translated the Bible into Maori and also made the translation of the Waitangi Treaty into Maori, which continues to be controversial to this day because of possible inaccuracies in this Maori version that was signed by their chiefs.  Students at Williams’s mission school played New Zealand’s first game of cricket in 1832 and in 1835, during a visit by the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin was a spectator at  another match there.  After the mission closed in 1850 Paihia declined to a very small settlement.  Paihia’s population today is about 1,640. 

     The Bay of Islands is a popular vacation spot among New Zealanders.  It was named by Captain Cook in 1769 after he climbed a tall hill and counted 100 islands (there are actually 144).  Zane Grey wrote a book set in this bay after a sport fishing visit and today the area is famous for its big game fishing.  The Maori have been living in this area for some 700 years, since the arrival of the Polynesian migration canoe Mataatua.  The town of Russel, on an island across the water from Paihia, was the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand.

     The shuttle dropped us off at a multi use building containing tourist information and a gift shop that was next to the dock for recreation boats.  This was at the foot of Williams Street, which seems to be the town’s main road.  The bay looked beautiful with boats on the water and there was an interesting wood sculpture of thee dolphins in front of the building.  We walked up Williams Street.

     A little way up we came to the library, which we had visited last time when it was closed.  Today it was open so we were able to see the inside.  The library is in a house built by the Williams family, descendants of the original missionaries, in the early 1920’s.  It became a public library in 2003.

     We continued up the street on our leisurely walk.  We bought some hokey pokey cookies and stopped into a honey store (really, that was all they had) for some Manuka honey, a New Zealand specialty.  We looked around inside a craft show where Mary bought some earrings and when we emerged we noticed a small plaque on the wall memorializing the three local fellows killed in World War II.  We decided not to climb up to the lookout, which we had done on our first visit.

     When we came out of the craft show we ran into our tablemates and friends, Steve and Kelly, who tipped us off that they had visited the old stone church where a construction crew was at work replacing the plain stained glass windows with new ones reflecting local history and culture.  We walked down Williams Street, stopping for some delicious hokey pokey ice cream (the last hokey pokey on this voyage).  When we reached the bottom of Williams Street we turned right to walk down to St Paul’s Anglican Church.  We walked past Paihia Village Green, a large grassy park next to the library that has an interesting Maori sculpture and hosts a farmers and craftsperson market on Thursdays.  On the other side of the street was the waterfront, again presenting a nice view of the bay.

     It wasn’t much further before we came to St Paul’s Anglican Church (also called Williams Memorial Church in honor of the Williamses) set back from the street on the side of the road opposite the shore.  This was the site of the original Williams mission.  The first church was built on this spot in 1823 and this one has been here since 1926.  It is built of local stone and wood.  We were happy to see when we arrived that the stained glass window installation was still in progress.  Three of the new windows had been installed when we got there, and there was an existing stained glass tryptic over the altar depicting New Zealand birds.  A church with stained glass windows depicting local landmarks, events and/or wildlife is always of interest to us, suggesting pride in the locals for their home city or town.  The three new windows included one with Reverend Williams and three Maories whose identities we don’t know, one showing the Williams family with two children (they eventually had eleven), and one showing what looks to us like the front of a Maori waka (large migration canoe) with probably the original church in the background.  Since they were still being installed while we were there these are among the first, if not the very first, pictures of them installed in the church.

     We walked back into Paihia and rode the shuttle back to the Waitangi dock, then tendered back to the ship.  We sailed out through the bay as the sun was lowering in the sky and casting shadows on the rocky sides of the islands.  We also caught sight of the “R. Tucker Thompson,” an 85 foot schooner modeled on a 19th century halibut fishing ship.  First launched in 1985, the ship now  provides day trips for visitors during the season and a venue for sailing lessons for young people during the winter.  It was a very nice evening as we sailed away from our last port in New Zealand.

     When we woke up on the morning of March 17 we were . . . still at the dock in Auckland.  At our age the mountain climb in Devonport the day before was enough to make us want to take it easy today.  We decided to walk out of the port and explore some nearby neighborhoods.  So today was a bit of an anticlimax for us after Devonport and we are afraid it will be that for you too.

     Still on the wharf area we came to a World War I memorial called the Memorial Beacon just before reaching Quay Street. The first WWI memorial in New Zealand, it was first erected on the waterfront at the end of 1915 while ANZAC troops were still fighting in Gallipoli.  The 19 foot tall structure was not a memorial to the New Zealand war dead but to honor the employees of the Auckland Harbour Board who had enlisted in the ANZAC forces for the war.  The memorial was designed with a red glass ball on top containing an electric light to help guide ferries to their proper berths.  Intended as a living memorial, additional plaques were added later to account for newer events (like the armistice in 1919).  The memorial was removed and placed in storage in 1969 and apparently forgotten until 30 years later it was found and brought back to sit in front of the Marine Museum, but without the light and its supporting ironwork which were never found.  In 2022 it was further restored, with a new glass ball and ironworks crafted to duplicate the original, and placed near its original spot on the wharf where we came upon it. 

     We turned left on Quay Street and walked on toward the east.  Today was St Patrick’s Day and we noticed several pubs with patrons, some in green hats and costumes, crowding through the doors as well as at sidewalk tables.  It was till morning(!) but they had drinks in hand.  We did not stop to join the merriment.

     After walking a while we turned right and walked inland a block or two into the Britomart section of Auckland.  This was an area of mullti-story office and residential buildings along with high end shops and restaurants.  Takutai Square was a large grassy park surrounded by tall buildings.  When we were there a very large movie screen was sitting along one side and the lawn in front of it was scattered with blue and yellow beanbag chairs. During warm weather free movie nights are presented here to crowds that sometimes grow to 1,000 or more.  Several eateries were around the edges, some with picnic tables in front.  Throughout this area and the neighborhood there were gray tile surfaced mounds about 2 feet tall with glass tops.  These were a mystery to us, but later we found out that they are skylights for the Britomart train station underground.

     Heading back in the general direction of the port we walked down a pedestrian lane lined with expensive shops, restaurants and even a drag club, before reaching a courtyard with a striking outdoor sculpture sitting in front of some restaurants.  It is called “Pou Tu Te Rangi” (standing posts that reach for the heavens) and dates to 2011.  A pou is a Maori boundary post and there were seven of these carved wooden posts in this artwork.  The artist was Chris Baily, whose grandfather was one of the Maori dockworkers on the wharfs here. 

      Back on Quay Street we walked west, passing an almost 10 foot tall bronze sculpture on the sidewalk called “A Māori Figure in a Kaitaka Cloak.”  It was unveiled in front of the post office in 1967.  Sculpted by Molly Macalister, it was the first public sculpture in Auckland commissioned from a woman artist.  You can’t really see it in this picture, but he is holding a short club in his right hand, a symbol of peace because it is facing down.  Further along we walked through a small park that had a distinctive granite water fountain with a gold handle and a black “vandal shield” on top (intended to protect the spigot from damage and contamination).

     We walked on to Viaduct Harbor, west of where we were docked.  This is a marina for what look like small yachts or sport fishing boats.  We walked all the way around the harbor on sidewalks covered in red, brown and yellow tiles in a Maori diamond like pattern called Patiki, which is used in Maori weavings and symbolizes hospitality.  The pattern comes from the flounder, a flat diamond shaped fish that was plentiful in these waters.  It is quite startling and attractive.  The harbor walk is surrounded by fences, one on the land side and one by the water.  Each of the stone posts on the land side fence has a plaque recounting a piece of the maritime history of Auckland, which were quite interesting.

     On the way back toward town we walked over two draw bridges.  The first was the Wynyard Crossing Bridge, built in 2011 and about 100 meters long.  It has a metal colored railing and opens in the middle to let large boats in and out of Viaduct Harbor. 

     The second was the much smaller,and 90 year old, Viaduct Bascule Bridge, which has a red Maori arched gateway on its western side.  This bridge was involved in a famous incident in 1966 when a pirate radio station denied a license to broadcast in Auckland attempted to take their broadcasting boat, called Tiri, out of Viaduct Harbor to broadcast from international waters in the Hauraki Gulf.  Calling the ship “unseaworthy,” the authorities placed it under arrest, but on the evening of October 23 a crowd gathered because of rumors that the ship would set sail (it was Sunday when the bridge was usually left up all day for boats).  The police started to lower the bridge as the ship started to move but 3 of the ship’s crew stood under the jaws of the bridge to stop it.  The lowering stopped but the ship’s mast got caught as it tried to pass under.  The crowd helped pull the ship free with a rope but not before the police climbed aboard and arrested the crew.  The crew were exonerated at their trial and on Nov. 21 the ship began broadcasting from the international waters off the shore of Auckland.  This pirate broadcasting continued until 1970 when a broadcasting license was finally awarded.  The station is still broadcasting in Auckland under the name “Radio Hauraki: New Zealand’s Original Pirate Radio Station.”

     We walked past the Maritime Museum, which had on display on the street outside a famous racing yacht called KZ1 that had been the challenger in the 1988 America’s Cup race.  It had a then cutting edge design that made it one of the largest (with a 153 foot mast) and most powerful single hull racing yachts in the world.  But the San Diego yacht club used a double hull catamaran that took the cup, although it was controversial because the rules were changed before the race to permit multi hulled yachts to compete for the first time.  Only the hull is included in the display and from the street you couldn’t see the deck, only the white hull.  We stopped at the Portofino Cucina Italiana, close to where we ate the previous night.  We had a very good pizza and Mary had a Tuatara beer.

     It didn’t take long to walk back to the ship but we noted that this walk turned out to be much longer than what we contemplated when we left the ship. Just before reaching the ship we stopped into the Ferry Building for some gelato, hoping it wouldn’t be the last on this trip. Thus ended two very rewarding days in the endlessly interesting port of Auckland.  On the ship just before our first visit here in 2016 we overheard one passenger telling another she was not going to leave the ship here because “I have been to Auckland.”  We have now been here three times and would have no trouble finding more interesting things to see or do if we came again.

     We arrived in Auckland on the morning of  March 16 for a two day visit.  Auckland is a very interesting city, the largest in New Zealand, with a lot of things to do.  We have visited here twice before, in 2016 and 2018, which you can see here: 

     https://baderjournal.com/2016/02/22/auckland-new-zealand/

    https://baderjournal.com/2018/05/31/auckland-new-zealand-2/

Quite a bit of background is included in those posts that won’t be repeated here, including visits to the War Museum and the Tower which are among the main attractions.  We decided this time to spend our first day across Waitemata Harbor in Devonport,  just about a 10 minute ferry ride from where our ship was docked.  This turned out to be a very good decision (Mary’s idea).  We left the ship in mid morning and, after some confusion caused by what turned out to be poor or misleading suggestions for saving money on the ferry ride, we boarded the ferry to Devonport at the Ferry Building next to our dock.  They had a tap and go payment system as you boarded the boat, which was quite easy and you didn’t have to handle a paper ticket.

     There appears to have been a Maori settlement here beginning in the 14th century but the first European settlers were a family responsible for maintaining a signal station established on Mount Victoria by the Royal Navy in 1841.  It was one of the first European settlements in the Auckland area.  The Royal New Zealand Navy still has an important base here.  The settlement was originally named Flagstaff (because, of course, there was a flagstaff at the signal station) and was renamed Devonport in 1859 after an English naval town of the same name.  The population of Devonport today is about 5,000. 

     Leaving the ferry dock we walked through a nice park called the Windsor Reserve to Devonport’s main street called Victoria Road.  Most of the buildings on this road date from the early 20th century.  The first building at the bottom of the hill was the Esplanade Hotel which opened in 1903, and next to it was the tourist information office where we picked up some maps and advice.

    At the edge of the Windsor Reserve was Devonport’s World War I memorial, a 7 foot bronze sculpture of an ANZAC soldier atop a stone plinth, dedicated in 1924.  The sculpture, by a local artist who was a veteran of Gallipoli, portrays a soldier with hat in hand and shoes untied, intentionally made to contrast with other soldier sculptures in New Zealand all showing soldiers in full dress holding rifles and all (according to the sculptor here) looking very much alike.  Intended to look more realistic, this is colloquially known as “the untidy soldier.”  The picture below shows the original plaque with the names of Devonport’s WWI dead; plaques were added later on other sides of the plinth for the war dead from WWII, Korea and Vietnam.  Above the names on the WWI plaque it reads “Remembering these dead, let the living be humble.”

     Devonport’s first library was a section of the Council’s Chambers that opened in 1878 in a building designed to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.  The room was free for all members of the community but it closed in 1897 for financial reasons.  An independent Devonport Library opened in a separate concrete building in 1930 and it moved to a new brick building in Windsor Reserve in 1954.  The current modern building, made of wood and glass, opened in 2015 and is also located in Windsor Reserve (you can see a piece of its roof in the War Memorial picture above).

     We thought this was a very special and beautiful library.  It is very open and inviting with many places to sit down and read.   As is often true of buildings and public spaces in New Zealand, the library has a Maori name:  Te Pataka Korero o Te Hau Kapua and Moari design is used in many contexts throughout the library.

     Among other interesting things the library has a large set of Terra Cotta tiles mounted above a fireplace representing all (we understand) of the ferries that have operated between Auckland and Devonport during the library’s existence.  It also has a set of automatic return shelves, on which you can place your materials for return then print out a return receipt after the pop up on the attached video screen.  A slot in the wall for after hours returns is labelled in Maori (which we can’t translate but probably means After Hour Returns).  A poster of a cat reminds patrons to return their library books “Right Meow.”  And they even have a resident Justice of the Peace (a real one) at a desk in a window corner for anyone who needs their services.  How convenient is that?

     Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this library was one we discovered upon leaving it.  One day in 2002 a cat wandered into the library and made himself at home.  The community took to him so the architects of the current library designed a special cat door that operates on a microchip that allows the cat, and only the cat, to come and go at night from the staff workroom, which is sealed off from the collections.  The cat was named Benjamin and he often spent his days wandering the town’s streets while spending nights in the library.  But the streets are not as safe as the library and in January 2017 Benjamin died when hit by a car while sleeping in a gutter of a street.

      But that is not the end of Benjamin’s story.  the community raised close to $10,000 for a bronze statue of him, sculpted by one of the librarians, showing him sitting on a stack of books.  It can be seen today, as we did, not far from the library’s entrance.  A bronze plaque on the plinth reads, in part:  “Benjamin the Library Cat, 2000-2017 . . . Loved by locals, Feared by dogs , , , Missed by all (except the dogs)”

     A magnificent Banyan tree was nearby in the Reserve and walking up a little further to the corner of Victoria Road and Flagstaff Terrace we came across a fountain first erected in 1903 as a memorial to the two Devonport men who were killed during the Second Boer War in South Africa, the first international war in which New Zealand’s army fought.  The fountain was originally bronze with three horse heads surrounding the water spout.  In 2009 the bronze horses were stolen but they were replaced in 2010 by cast iron horseheads and the entire fountain was painted black.

     We continued up Victoria Road, enjoying all the old character-filled buildings.  The Devonia Building, for example, was built in 1923 and is a protected historic structure.  The road got steeper as we ascended.

     Eventually we came to a sign that said to take the right fork to go up Takarunga/Mount Victoria.  This is a dormant volcanic cone with a summit some 220 to 270 feet high (depending on who is measuring) and is the tallest of three volcanic hills in the Devonport area.  As mentioned earlier, the first European structure in Devonport was a signal station on top of this mountain to direct ship traffic.  I (Rick) wasn’t sure climbing a mountain was a great thing for Mary to do since her replaced knees had been giving her some trouble, but she said lets start up and we can always turn around if it gets too hard.  (I have heard that line before!)

     So we started up the steep path.  It was a well built and maintained paved path with steps at the steepest points.  About half way up we might have decided that we were high enough, but then a group of young people passed us, one of them carrying a baby.  Well, if she could do that we couldn’t just give up and go back so we continued on to the summit.  It was a clear day and the views of Auckland from the path were excellent.

     Well, the views from Mount Victoria were so eye catching that we neglected to take any pictures of the summit of the mountain itself.  But there is one picture below of Rick sitting at a picnic table on the summit, just to prove we actually made it there.  The summit was a very large grassy area with some small hills near the edges and there was, of course, a signal station located there.

     The side of the summit away from central Auckland had a particularly spectacular view of Rangitoto Island, a volcanic shield volcano whose lava covers the whole island.  Although some people lived there in the past it is now a natural reserve.  Auckland sits on a volcanic field with around 50 volcanoes and Rangitoto is the youngest (last erupted about 600 years ago) and the largest.  At the bottom right of the picture are some people on the shore looking at Rangitoto across the water who are standing among what look like large mushrooms with white stems and red & white polka dot caps.  There are a number of them on the summit of Mount Victoria as well.  They are actually air vents for two water reservoirs inside the mountain that were constructed in 1894 and 1911.  These ducts were painted green until 1988 when a couple of young “guerilla artists” repainted them as they look today.  The community liked them and they have been maintained and repainted when needed ever since.  It looks like a scene from Super Mario Brothers.

     We returned down the mountain by a different path (shorter but steeper) on the Rangitoto side of the island.

     Back down in Devonport we stopped for a late lunch at an Irish pub called The Patriot and sat at a sidewalk table in front.  The food was really delicious and there was way too much to eat.  Rick had an Irish stew cooked inside a large pastry shell and Mary had a large hamburger with a Guinness.  A group of seagulls were hanging around, undoubtedly hoping for leftovers, and did a lot of fighting and squawking for positions on top of a parked car nearby.  After lunch we walked up to the Victoria Theater, which has a gelato stand outside near the sidewalk where we rewarded ourselves for a successful climb.

     On thing we hadn’t counted on when eating such a hearty late lunch was that we had reservations for dinner at an Auckland restaurant called Soul to celebrate Mary’s birthday the day before.  It was an Italian restaurant within walking distance of the ship and it was good, but it would have been a better experience if we hadn’t already filled up in Devonport only a few hours earlier.  We managed to put away most of the food we were served anyway.  The sidewalk outside Auckland’s port is lined by a fence with very distinctive red light posts.  We have seen them before on previous visits, of course, but I think when we walked back to the ship after sunset tonight was the first time we had seen them alight.  (The daylight pictures below were taken the next day.)

     Overnight stays in port provide an opportunity for the ship to present local talent on the main stage in the evening, and tonight was no exception.  We attended a performance by a troop of Maori dancers.  They were really quite good and very colorful, with tattoos and traditional dress.  Among other things they performed the Haka, the traditional Maori war dance, with bulging eyes and extended tongues intended to intimidate the enemy.  New Zealand’s national men’s rugby team, the All-Blacks, one of the world’s winningest teams in any sport, perform the Haka before every international match.  They also performed a traditional dance in which a woman twirls white fluffy balls on long strings, which looks like a difficult maneuver particularly when keeping time to the music.  A good time was had by all.