Tauranga

Beautiful bechs of Tauranga
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2.28.2007 Tauranga, New Zealand

Tauranga is the principal city of The Bay of Plenty (Named by Capt.Cook in his journal 10/8/1769. This area is blessed by a good climate and fine beaches. It is a thriving agricultural area especially noted for the cultivation of kiwi fruit. It has a large port and being only 2.5 hrs from Auckland serves as a resort. Tauranga played a significant role in New Zealand’s history: many of the wars over Maori land were fought in this area in the early 1860’s. It was after the famous Treaty of Waitangi, in which Maori chiefs acknowledged British sovereignty, that Tauranga started to become a thriving farm community and port. Our tour today took us through some expensive beach front area with 2 to 5 million dollar homes (exchange rate $1.00 US= 1.38 NZ) on our way to the Mills Reef Winery in the suburb of Bethlehem. There we were served delicious local canopies and a sampling of their wine. The Sauvignon Blanc 2005 was excellent. The views were wonderful and we enjoyed the singing and playing of a lovely harpist. From there we drove up to Minden Lookout point where we enjoyed spectacular views across Tauranga Harbor to Mattaken Island. Returning we drove along Ocean Beach Road and Marine Parade, where some of NZ’s most expensive real estate can be found. We stopped for a tour of the Elms Mission House. It was built between 1835 and 1847 by a pioneer missionary, Archdeacon Brown. He first came to New Zealand in 1829 and played a major role in helping to achieve peace with the Maoris-learning their language and teaching them how to read, write and speak English. The house is the 2^nd oldest wooden house in NZ, having been continuously lived in by descendents of Brown who sold it to a historic trust in 1997. The property is beautifully maintained and landscaped. It contains separate buildings including Brown’s library, a chapel, a barn and other out buildings-all in well preserved state.

A $5,000.000 oceafront home
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After returning to the ship I attended two lectures- one about the immigrants from England that landed in Lyttleton (Christchurch) in 1858 by Lecturer Paula Smith of Christchurch where we will be touring three days from now. The other lecture was an interesting one about the development of the film industry in New Zealand and the impact that making the movie” Lord of the Rings” in New Zealand has had on this country. The lecturer Ian Brodie was proud to have appeared in the film. Everyone here is proud of their country. And from we have seen they have a right to be.

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Sallie invited our newest friend, 97 yr. old Ilse Smith and another widow passenger ,Eva-Maria Woerner from Germany to join us us for cocktails and dinner. We had a delightful evening and the four of us cannot get over Isle. She is remarkable in every way. One sad note- a 75yr old American male passenger had a heart attack and died while snorkeling in Fiji. We had not met them but those who had, and particularly some of the staff, thought they were great.