Napier, New Zealand

The view from Cape Kidnappers in Napier, New Zealand

Napier, NZ
ms Amsterdam
February 9, 2013

"Jim, would you please go up to the bridge and tell the captain that I am not pleased
with the current location and to move the damned boat to the proper dock as promised."

Into each life some metaphorical rain must fall and today it's our turn. First of all we
had to leave Tauranga late because of the tides which meant bouncing along at 20+
knots instead of our usual regal 15 to 18. We still arrived about three hours later than
scheduled in Napier and thus lost our spot at the spiffy, close-to-town cruise dock.
We are in the commercial port surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of containers,
many of which are refrigerated so make a lot of noise as do the giant lift trucks that
are constantly in motion moving the containers from here to there and making a loud
beep-beep-beep whenever they are backing up. And it smells like diesel. And everyone
who just wanted to spend the day wandering through the streets admiring the Art Deco
architecture (the entire town was destroyed by an earthquake in the 30s and rebuilt in
the style of the day) has to take a 20 minute shuttle from pier to downtown. Because it is
a commercial pier, passengers and crew are not allowed to walk off but must be driven
through the gates. We had to do this in Lima, too, so when we return to the ship an
official will board the bus, count noses and make sure each person has a ship ID card
before opening the gate.

So before we leave on our excursion, postponed until the afternoon I will take just a little
time to whine, bitch and moan. I'm overdue.

Okay. All better now.

We can't remember why but we booked a shore excursion to Cape Kidnappers and the
gannet bird breeding colony. We had an adventure! In fact, we went on a Gannet Safari.
We drove all the way from one side of Hawkes Bay where the town of Napier is clear
around to the other side and Cape Kidnappers Station. This is a huge chunk of property
that has gone through several hands and is now owned by an American. He made a
lot of road improvements, planted timber (they grow a pine related to the Monterey
Pine that is harvested and exported mostly to Asia) and built a lodge and golf course.
Lemme tell ya, you REALLY have to want to play that course because it is a good 45
minutes from the station entry gate (a station is essentially a sheep or cattle ranch) on a
winding, hilly, narrow road to the road leading to the lodge and course.

We went past that, the end of the paved road, and went on an even narrower gravel
road the rest of the way. The sheep are all over the place; I really don't see how they
keep up with where they are. Some cattle, cows and calves are also grazing. This
ranch (think the size of the Ponderosa but looking more like the coastal hills of central
California) is also a protected area and when they say protected they mean from
predators. The owner had a fancy-pants fence built entirely around the place. It's about
four or five feet tall, made of metal with metal screening that is buried 20 inches into
the ground. This is to keep out rats, ferrets, stoates and cats so the rarer and nearly
extinct native birds can be relocated inside of the fence and flourish again. Especially
the kiwi. The kiwi is a chubby, flightless, defenseless bird that is nearly extinct. There is
a national movement to Save the Kiwi so the search is always on for a location without
predators. Happily they seem to be thriving at Cape Kidnappers.

After another 45 minutes or so we arrived atop the point at Cape Kidnappers and
the gannet breeding ground. You can hear and smell them before you see them but,
Bam!, there they were, hundreds of them. One breeding area is on top of the bluff
and the other way, way down on a promontory at sea level. They look like large gulls
with golden heads but are actually a type of booby bird. They nest on the ground with
the male and female taking turns sitting on the egg. We saw a lot of the chicks easily
differentiated by their fluffy down. Our guide told us that they weigh about 50 grams at
birth and will gain another couple of kilograms before they make the one migratory trip
in their lifetime before returning to their breeding ground. There was a lot of swooping
around and then lots of bird kisses when each bird returned to its nest and mate.

And the views. Spectacular! There are very steep, tall cliffs at this end of Hawkes Bay.
The water is a milky jade green color close to shore and then darkens to a Prussian
blue as it gets deeper father out. The water is a bit brisk (lots of mental translation
between C and F!), high 50s, low 60s. We reluctantly boarded our little safari buses to
go back down that winding road---one way in, same way out.

We thought we would be driven straight back to the ship, but when we got back to sea
level we made a "comfort stop" at the safari headquarters and were surprised with a
bountiful and delicious tea---cakes, cookies, muffins, tea or kiwi or orange juice, a big
variety of stone fruit and the. best. strawberries. ever. E.V.E.R. As each of us bit into
one our eyes widened in disbelief. Beyond lip-smacking good.

This area of New Zealand is quite temperate, gets 50 or 60 inches of rain and 300+
days of sun each year. It seems they can grow everything. We drove past apple, peach
and plum orchards, nut trees of all kinds, citrus, kiwi, vineyards and acres of vegetables.
There are little villages spotted around the bay. Napier appears to be a very popular
beach resort and has a flat pedestrian/bike-way that runs for miles and miles and miles
along the bay. Next time we're definitely going to rent bikes!

And once again, lovely, cordial people everywhere. No wonder New Zealand makes
potential immigrants jump through hoops otherwise half the world would relocate down
here. I'd do it for the strawberries alone!