03 Jan 04 - Aboard the Direct Tui in Tauranga
0730 - Down to breakfast. Meet the new passengers who came aboard n Australia - Lyle and Ruth. They seem like very nice folks. Like all of the other people in the lower hemisphere, they seem to think I have an accent - can you imagine <smile>?
Then back up to my cabin to fuss with my laptop a bit to make sure all systems are functional before we depart tomorrow at 0800. I have lots of programming planned for the return leg of this journey.
The Captain just came by to say hello and to tell me that customs will be
down in the conference room a at about 0930 to meet with us. I'm
requested to fill out a form again and to meet with them.
Odd
how official machinery works. I've been loose in the country since
December 21st and only came aboard last night at 2300 but now I'm to meet with
customs again so I can go into Tauranga this morning.
AH! Now that I've actually looked at the form, I see that it is a
departure form so things make a bit more sense.
John and I were set to meet at about 0900 to go into ton and share a taxi. I guess this will put the plan back for a bit. Going to take the laptop into town and revisit the Internet place there to upload/download E-mail and web pages. I was able to do everything except E-mail in Gisborne.
Here are some pictures of the ship and the loading machinery dockside:
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I took a long walk today and climbed Mt. Maunganui and circumnavigated its base as well. Mt. M is a great touristy town. Reminded me a lot of Laguna Beach in California. During my walk, I ran into John. He'd been to the salt water hot springs. Then I continued on towards the mountain itself.
John said climbing the mountain was hard because of the grade. He was right. I had to stop periodically and to pace myself. At one point, I ripped off my shirt because I was getting so hot and in the process, I tossed my glasses into the grass under the bench I was sitting on. Later, when I reached the top, I realized that I had no glasses and I remember taking off the shirt so I had a strong hope that I knew where they were. While I was up top, I watched a ship come into the harbor. it was the British Enterprise. I was bummed because I wanted to go down the mountain by a different path than I'd come up but I knew that once I went down far enough to recover the glasses, i wasn't coming back up again! So ... I went down. At the bench, I had some anxious moments before I found the glasses. They are very cool ones with automatic darkening and the lower portions of the lens let me read close up while the upper parts have zero prescription.
Once down again, I was on the track which goes around the base and I continued my circumnavigation. This place was the one I'd seen as the ship pulled into Tauranga harbor back on December 20th. It was beautiful then. Now, close up, it was gorgeous. One of the prettier places I've ever seen.
After I finished walking around the mountain, I went back into the town of Mt. M and began the search for dinner at a nice sidewalk cafe. I finally found what I wanted and I sat and had an excellent meal and three (count them - three) glasses of wine. Whew. Then I caught a cab back to the ship.
Here are many photos from today's journey:
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| Tauranga | Tauranga | Begin Mt. Maunganui | |
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| Playing in Tauranga Harbor behind Mt.Maunganui | Start of the walking path around Mt. M | ||
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| View from up top. | |||
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