The Ports Keep Coming, But I Rebel

Days 46-48, South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand Cruise

Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 17-19, 2022; Gisborne and Tauranga, North Island, New Zealand.

After a flurry of new-to-me New Zealand ports since leaving Sydney more than a week ago, I’m back in familiar territory. I’ve been to some northern New Zealand cities and ports on two previous cruises. I don’t know if it is that familiarity, the forecast of rain each day or the knowledge that my cruise will end soon, but I have found my energy for exploring has waned.

So I declared Thursday a sea day, even though we were anchored off Gisborne. It is a long boat ride to the port, with the tenders pausing occasionally as commercial traffic comes and goes. I did not have an excursion booked, and I will be back here in February, so I stayed on board, catching up on blogging, sketching and watercoloring. It was a delightful day.

Our next port was Tauranga. Last time I was here, I took a fun tour to Rotorua, a town renowned for its geothermal activity and living Māori village. When we returned to the ship then, I thought the port town of Maunganui next to Tauranga looked fun to explore. So now I took off on foot to walk the few blocks from the ship to the business district. A number of tour companies had set up booths, but by mid-morning most of their tours were fully booked.

The main streets are lined with retail stores open for the start of their summer season. The restaurants were closed until lunch or dinner. I browsed, tried on a few clothes but didn’t buy. I think my interest in shopping was stronger five years ago. There is something about watching all those things you once bought being sold at an estate sale that makes you think twice about more purchases.

While the passengers were enjoying the town or tours, the crew was busy filling our water tanks. During the process they discovered a leak, which led to a 30-minute shutdown of the potable water. These things happen occasionally when you cruise. It’s easy to forget all the maintenance and repair work that goes on behind the scenes.

During the afternoon, the captain announced the cancellation of our stop the next day in the Bay of Islands. The anchorage is open to the weather and the forecast wasn’t favorable. My excursion there, a brunch cruise to the town of Russell, was cancelled a few days ago because the tour operator had Covid. As I had been to the Bay of Islands and town of Waitangi twice, I hadn’t planned a substitute tour. But now we would spend the night and next day still docked in Tauranga.

Once again, I decided to enjoy a lazy day on board the ship. The view of Mount Maunganui from the Crow’s Nest was beautiful, and I used the opportunity to design, write and order my Christmas cards. They should arrive about the time I get home. It was fun to review my year in photos on my iPhone, which is about the only way I can remember what happened.

This isn’t the first time I have designed and ordered my cards online during a cruise. Five years ago, I found a Starbucks in Honolulu (not hard to do), where I could upload my design using a decent internet connection. This year I am using my Solis Skyroam, a small hotspot device that operates off cellular signals in 150 countries. It’s pretty useless while at sea, but now that we are sailing close to land, I used my unlimited-data monthly plan. It’s much faster than the ship’s internet, and I can connect several devices at a time.

By the time we left in the late afternoon, the wind and waves were building. Even the tug accompanying us struggled. We may have a choppy night.

We have 11 new Covid cases, according to the captain’s most recent reports. That takes us to 52 total since he began reporting them anew a little more than a week ago. We are still masked.