New Zealand speak: Sweet as

Translation: Thank you, it’s all good, no worries, you’re welcome and that’s cool!

Recognized as one of the ‘fruit bowls’ of New Zealand, Gisborne’s climate and fertile soils create a perfect environment in which to produce an abundance of fruits and vegetables including citrus, kiwi fruit, sweet corn and grapes!

And, to date, it has been my favourite town to visit. For me, it encapsulates the essence of everything we have seen in this beautiful country. It is as green as green as far as the eye can see. Towns are nestled in valleys surrounded by rolling hills and grazed by fat sheep.

Te Puia, where we visited yesterday, is also home to the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute.

The mission of the Institute is to teach students the traditional methods of carving wood and whale bone using the tools their ancestors used.

While at the Institute, we were treated to a display of Maori dancing:

It’s fascinating to see the range of thermal activity going on in the valley and quite a sensory experience. Steam creeps out of fine cracks in the rocks everywhere, and it winds around stubby shrubs perched perilously on ledges. Even in some of the boiling hot pools there appears to be some type of plants or algae growing.

With all of this there was the ever present smell of sulphur wafting up the nostrils!

Mike and I enjoyed a lovely walking tour of Auckland which, in some ways, reminds me of San Francisco but with less steep hills yet providing a great work out!

Our tour guide, a native of Auckland, describes the city as a work in progress. The city council is trying to install an underground train network and Brits know how messy that process is! The city wants to become pedestrianized, much to the dismay of retail owners. Sneaky Auckland City Council is slowly widening the pavements and eventually drivers will realize that a two-lane road is now one way! Can you imagine this being done anywhere else?

We are now in Auckland, north island, New Zealand. With a population of some two million people, it is the country’s largest city.

The best views of the city are to be seen from the Sky Tower offering amazing 360 degree viewing decks with the highest one sitting at 722 feet (220 metres).

After 3 1/2 days at sea, our ship has finally arrived in New Zealand where our first port of call is the Bay of Islands on the North Island.

The Bay is home to 144 islands, ranging from rocky outcrops to large inhabited islands with private farms. A couple of the islands are privately owned.

Here’s what’s available on board!

The Atlantide restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This is an a la carte experience and is the main restaurant of the ship.

La Terrazza offering a buffet breakfast and lunch and an al la carte Italian menu for dinner.

Indochine open for lunch or dinner and offering fusion food such as Indian, Thai and Korean.

The Grill, al fresco dining on the pool deck offering a buffet lunch and a “Hot Rocks” experience for dinner where guests cook steaks on the rocks brought to the table.

Kaiseki offers a Japanese experience for lunch or dinner. We dined here on our second night and it was truly spectacular. Guests pay a $40 per person supplement.

La Dame open for dinner only and offering gourmet French cuisine with paired wines for each course. Guests meet the full cost of the experience.

Silver Note offering guests a jazz club experience with Tapas, music and dancing.

Still peckish … The Arts Cafe offers light snacks from 6 am to 11 pm; Spaccanapoli an al fresco pizza restaurant open from 11 am to 10 pm; or, 24-hour room service which is included in a the cruise price!

Mike and I are now onboard our cruise ship “The Silver Muse” and, at the time of writing, we are in the Tasman Sea en route to the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New Zealand.

Silversea cruises offer an all-inclusive experience for their guests with routes to all seven continents.

Before showing you around our suite, let me give you some statistics of our ship; it has a passenger capacity of some 596, a crew of 411 and 298 suites each with a veranda and a personal butler!

Brisbane street names were chosen from British royalty with streets running in a north easterly direction named after queens – Anne, Elizabeth and Mary. Streets running in a north westerly direction are named after kings – William, George and Albert.

If you want to give your credit cards a serious work out then head to Queen or Edward streets in the heart of the city. Home to over 500 brands and six major shopping centres, you’ll find the complete alphabet of high-end retail therapy shops from Burberry and Chanel to Dior, Fendi and Gucci!

Too high end? Brits will be relieved to know that long after Woolworths and The Body Shop disappeared from our high streets they are both alive and well here down under!

After a series of successful attacks by Japanese forces, including the raid on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 and the fall of Hong Kong and Singapore, the city of Brisbane became the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander for the South West Pacific Area.

In the US as in Britain, strategists focussed first on the war against Hitler, fought out in Europe and Africa. MacArthur had to take on Washington in order to get resources to defend Australia and turn back the Japanese advance. 

Under MacArthur’s leadership, Brisbane became a valuable staging area for a counter offensive led by American, Australian and British forces. Over the coming war years, the city’s population exploded from 350,000 to some two million troops who would pass through the region.