R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 78

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Kiwifruit Country and Te Puia Māori Village

Kiwis in Kiwi Land

Yes, our ship was still in port over in Tauranga. And, yes, today was a very busy day, as you’ve seen these past two weeks. So far I’ve shown you the Rotorua geothermal area, the Living Māori Village, the redwood forest of Whakarewarewa, and rafters going over the falls at Okere. Can’t be a whole lot left to do, right? Wrong. Today we begin with Kiwifruit Country, a tourist attraction north of Okere Falls.

Kiwifruit Country

We arrived there courtesy of our tour hosts ...

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Rotorua’s Redwoods and Okere Falls

Silver Leaf Fern

We’re still in and around Tauranga and Rotorua for today’s blog article, but we’re heading away from these towns and into the nearby forests. Just minutes from downtown Rotorua lies a redwood forest. Yep. You read that correctly. Redwoods. As in, the same type redwoods for which areas of northern California are famous.

Whakarewarewa Redwood Forest

The redwoods here, however, are not quite as large as the ones I highlighted in my article on Muir Woods, as you can see fro...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating New Zealand; Rotorua and Tauranga favorites 1

Guardian

Today I present the first of two Rotorua area Fun Photo Friday favorites:

Redwoods Forest Whakarewarewa Best Buds Steamed

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Whakarewarewa and The Living Māori Village

Whakarewarewa Geothermal Trail

The geothermal trail here at Whakarewarewa is quite impressive. As I told you on Monday, here you’ll see everything from steaming geysers:

Pohutu Geyser

To bubbling pools of hot mud:

Whakarewarewa Geothermal Trail

And lots of color to boot:

Whakarewarewa Geothermal Trail

But farther up the trail is the Living Māori Village:

The Living Māori Village

And inside the village you’ll find lots of Māori culture. Here is a workshop dedicated to M...

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Rotorua Hot Springs at Whakarewarewa

Rotorua geothermal hot springs

We departed Napier and headed north some 278 nautical miles/320 statute miles/515 kilometers for Majestic Princess’ next New Zealand port of call, Tauranga. Here we had a long day ahead of us, for once again Ursula had us booked on a tour. One stop this day was at the Rotorua geothermal area, which is within the Whakarewarewa Living Māori Village.

Rotorua geothermal hot springs

Here, along the Whaka Geothermal Trails, you’ll find everything from bubbling ...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating New Zealand; Napier Favorites 3

Lofty Lion

A Fun Photo Friday last look of beautiful Napier before we head out next week to our next circumnavigation destination — Rotorua geothermal parks, Maori Culture Centre, and various places near our destination port of Tauranga, New Zealand.

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Napier; Enjoying Random Sights

Hawke’s Bay Club (fourth oldest club in New Zealand)

I’ve already described for you in this series the various areas Ursula and I walked in Napier. So, today, we’re just going to look at random photos from this trip:

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Napier Classic Cars

Proud Austin owner

We lucked out on this visit to Napier, as we had on a previous trip to Curaçao (see: Cruising for Classic Cars in Curaçao) and stumbled upon some real automotive beauties. But unlike our classic run-in in Curaçao, these examples for the most part predated Ursula and I by a few decades.

OLDsmobile

As such, I won’t even hazard a guess as to the years and models of the cars you’ll see today, except to say that most appear to date back to the 1920s and 1930s.

Hupmobil...

Washington, D.C. Seditious Insurrection — a letter to my Senator Ted Cruz

9 January 2021

The Honorable Ted Cruz
United States Senator for Texas
United States Senate
404 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Cruz:

I am a proud American patriot who, over the course of my 34 years, five months of government service, have taken three times the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The first time was upon my military enlistment. The second was during my reenlistment. The third and final time was upo...

Postponement of This Week’s Series of New Zealand Articles

Recent events have overtaken even this blog. As such, this week’s continuation of my series on circumnavigating New Zealand is now rescheduled to resume on Monday, 18 January 2021.

I cannot in good conscience continue as though nothing has happened, for indeed something profound, historic, and devastating to our nation and our international standing did in fact occur. Therefore, for the first week since I started this blog nine years ago, there will not be the usual three or more articles...