Today is the first of eight ports that we are doing in New
Zealand. But, first let me tell you what we witnessed last evening. Apparently
one of the crew who works in the laundry had a heart issue. So, the air-evacuated
him from the ship. It was on deck 8, but we were on 7 and could see through the
glass ceiling on the pool what took place. It was very interesting.
This morning while we were doing our laps on
the ship, we had a lot of dolphins swimming around. Here is a great picture of
them doing synchronized swimming.
Because of all of these ports on top of each other, I could
get behind in posting, but we will see.
Here we were on a self-guided walking
tour. This place is so lovely. Once the capital of New Zealand, the charming
port town of Russell was the first European settlement in the country. Today,
this former whaling port boasts a scenic waterfront and quaint colonial-era
buildings. Russell was once a raucous place. The Māori who
lived here in the 1800s (and called it Kororāreka) took advantage of trade with
the whalers and English ships that made their way into the Bay of Islands,
exchanging timber and food for European goods, alcohol and firearms. The port
soon became known as a rowdy area. Respectability was gradually restored—partly
by missionaries, partly by treaties, and partly by prosperous new mining
operations.
As we got off the tender we were handed a map
of the town. The green line on it is where we walked here. In total, we walked
3.75 miles. And, there were lots of hills.
As we got off the ship we turned
left and our first stop was by an old fig tree that dated back to 1870. Next to
it was the Duke of Marlboro Hotel. It is noted as it received the first liquor license
for New Zealand. This is the fourth iteration of the hotel. The first three
burned down. The other thing of interest here is the Customs House, which is
now the police station.
Here we left the waterfront and
decided to go up to lookout point. It was a steep walk, but the flora was
beautiful, as well as the views. The monument is a sacred site of the Maori. Here
they laid their dead and washed in Kororareka in days gone by. It is called Te Hikuwai.
Once we came down from there we
decided to walk to the other side of the island to a place called Long Beach.
Along the way, again the scenery was beautiful. There was a community cemetery
on our way. Everything was so clean and neat.
We were now ready to go back to
the waterfront and continue our ‘official’ tour. The first stop was Christ
Church. It was built in 1835 and is the oldest remaining church in New Zealand.
The Anglicans built it and Darwin made a contribution to its building. The
English and the Maori worshiped here together. This was the first place where
you had this occur. It was hit when the English were firing on the town to take
it from the Maori, and you can still see the where the bullet went in.
The next stop was the Pompallier Mission. A group of French
Marist Brothers – including Jean Baptiste Pompallier, after whom the property
is named – arrived to set up a Catholic Mission in the settlement. Built in
1842, Pompallier Mission originally housed a printery where Church texts were
translated from Latin to te reo Māori, then printed and bound. Today the
Printery stands as New Zealand’s oldest industrial building, as well as the
oldest of rammed-earth construction, distinctly French in style and making use
of local materials including sand, rock and timber. The English would not loan
the French money or sell them timber, so they had to build the building using
the sand and rock. The equipment they used is in the house.
The Mission’s original printing press, fully restored to working
order. To bind the books they also had a tannery here. It was very interesting.
The last official stop we made was at the Customs House, which
is now used as a craft market.
We were then tired and hungry and caught our tender to the ship.
It was a great day and a great tour.
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