This is part 8 in a series of travelogues about a vacation trip down under for myself, my partner, and 3 other family members.
The story so far:
Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour.
Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea.
Part 3 included a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, to see Tasmanian Devils and other fascinating animals from Down Under.
Part 4 was a drive-by sailing through the Sounds of New Zealand.
Part 5 explored the city of Dunedin in what was a cool, drizzly, spring day in New Zealand’s south-east.
Part 6 had us docked in Akaroa NZ, with a bus trip over to Christchurch, visiting a sheep farm along the way.
Part 7 took us to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, on the southern tip of the north island.
Tonight, we will see how kiwifruit is grown, stopping at Tauranga, NZ.
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TONIGHT’S FEATURE PRESENTATION: Tauranga, NZ
Note: The photos in this diary are hosted on flickr. You can see larger versions of each image by right-clicking on the image, and selecting “Open image in new tab”. Or the equivalent for your device/operating system/browser.
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As the good ship Celebrity Solstice sailed away from the port of Wellington NZ at 6PM on a springtime Tuesday, we left behind a mixed bag of weather: cloudy and cold, to sunny and cool, and everything in between. But no matter what, the views all around never stopped being spectacular.
The next day was all at sea, as the ship made its way up the eastern coast toward the next port of call. On these cruise ships, there’s an entire staff under the Cruise Director (who almost never is named Julie) who come up with a seemingly never-ending list of things to do on board. A bit of something for everyone, and that is especially true on at sea days. There are musical performances all around the ship, tech talks on aspects of operating and navigating the ship itself, cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, games, contests, slot machine tournaments, trivia, shopping, port and tour advice, cocktail parties, behind-the-scenes tours, on and on and on.
On this day, I went to an invitational backstage event at the ship’s main theater (which seats up to 1,400 people per show—it’s a pretty big room all on its own). Of the five of us travelling together, I was the only one who went to this particular event. Those of us in attendance were divided up into groups and led through the backstage areas by members of the cast. My group was led by AJ, a singer/dancer, and Joe, a dancer. They showed us both the men’s and women’s changing rooms, where various costumes, wigs, makeup, microphones, and other bits and pieces are arranged prior to each night’s performance. There’s a different production number almost every night.
The performers work under different contracts from the majority of the ship’s crew. Performers generally sign on for 8-month contracts, mostly have private cabins to live in, and have the run of the ship except for certain areas like the casino and a couple of the specialty clubs. Regular crew members have much more restricted movements: they are not allowed to be in “public” areas of the ship at any time, unless required by their specific job duties or by special permission. Performers are generally free to mix and mingle, if they so choose.
Following the backstage event, I stayed in the theater for a scheduled talk by the cruise director, Ben. He talked for about an hour on his relationship with Steve Irwin, the well-known, and now deceased, Australian wildlife enthusiast and star of The Crocodile Hunter. At one point in his career, Ben worked for Steve, and got to know Steve and his family quite well. At the time of this talk, Steve’s daughter Bindi was a competitor on Dancing With the Stars in America, which she would go on to win with pro dancer Derek Hough. Ben shared funny stories, photos, and videos, and also included a video recorded by Steve’s wife Terri, especially for Ben’s presentation.
Later in the day, we all went up to the top of the ship to watch the Hot Glass Show, which I’ve written about previously in Part 2 of this series.
After one more night at sea, we woke up the following morning to enter the port of Tauranga. It was to be another cloudy and cool day. Our tour that morning took us around an oceanside drive, the location of incredible beaches, and beautiful (read expensive) homes.
Our first stop of the day was at The Elms, established in the 1830s by British missionaries as a Christian station. Here, you can listen and learn about the buildings and the people who lived and worked in them, or enjoy the many plants on the grounds today.
Back on board the bus. In New Zealand, you don’t just get coffee, you get a little somethin’ somethin’ with your coffee. And plenty of mojo. Satisfaction, apparently, is assured.
Wait, what’s that? A giant bird? It’s a kiwi!
Well, a model of a bird, built over-scale and standing beside a bush where tourists might happen by. My earliest remembrance of such a thing was in the long-running comic strip B.C., which first appeared only a couple of years after I was born. That must mean that I, too, am long-running. Better than the alternative, I guess.
One of the animal characters in the strip is an apteryx, who self-describes as “a wingless bird with hairy feathers”. That phrase is etched into my brain from so many years ago.
There are several varieties, if I may put it this way, of things known as kiwis. There’s the bird, formally of the genus Apteryx. And there’s the New Zealand people, often called Kiwis, and that is not considered to be an offensive term. At least by the ones I’ve met. And of course, there’s the kiwifruit, that we have really come here to learn about today. New Zealanders nearly always say kiwifruit, whereas in North America we usually say kiwi to mean kiwifruit.
We have arrived at Kiwi360, a kiwifruit orchard not far from Tauranga.
[As I prepared this diary, I discovered that Kiwi360 closed permanently just last week. We were there in November, when it was still a popular attraction, though not yet in full swing of the tourist season. Apparently the entire property was sold to another company that will continue the fruit business, but is not interested in operating the tourist side at all.]
That big slice of kiwifruit at the front of the property is a metallic structure that you can enter. Climb up the stairs inside to the observation deck, and you can gaze out over the farm, or at least the entrance to it.
Although New Zealand is a major producer of kiwifruit, the vines are actually native to China, and were first brought to NZ in the early 1900s. In China, the fruit was traditionally harvested from the wild. In recent years, cultivation and farming of kiwifruit has increased in China.
As you approach the orchard, you can’t help but notice rows of trees, often spruce, acting as wind barriers. These help to protect the kiwifruit vines.
The fruit vines themselves are arranged in neat rows, with a grid structure giving them support from above.
Wooden beams and wires give plenty of support to the heavy weight of large quantities of fruit.
The support structures are approximately head high, depending where your head is at.
Kiwifruit vines are gender-specific: there are male and female plants. Only the female plants bear fruit.
In this orchard, we were told, the male and female vines are carefully interspersed, to maximize cross-pollination and therefore fruit production. Each new growing season, the orchard rents a million bees. These bees-for-hire are moved from orchard to orchard. The flowers are abundant.
And the female flowers will soon bud with miniature fruit.
Spread out horizontally, the fruit gets plenty of sunshine.
With so many fruit hanging there, it must be quite a sight when they get close to harvest time.
These cuts in the vine stems are intentional. We were told that the cuts force the vine to concentrate its energy into fruit production, and that the stem will eventually repair itself.
The most common kiwifruit variety is the green fuzzy fruit that you may be familiar with. A golden variety, which is even sweeter and juicier, was hit by an infection a few years ago. The golds are gradually making a comeback, and production should be much better in another couple of years. Meanwhile, gold kiwifruits are fairly hard to come by in North America, and quite expensive. We had the opportunity to eat some golds while in New Zealand, and they are spectacularly delicious.
The non-orchard grounds attached to this farm are filled with plenty of lush vegetation.
I love the shape and color of this lone bush standing next to a tall barrier.
We returned to Tauranga in time for a late lunch at a local pub/restaurant.
At Latitude 37, I had a burger, which was quite good. And I can attest to the tastiness of the local Monteith’s beer.
“Top Trumps” is apparently a card game that I’d never heard of before seeing this sidewalk sign. Feel free to make up your own jokes.
And under a cloudy sky, we’re back to our home away from home.
In the next instalment, we will visit Bay of Islands, NZ. It’s the last stop before our final destination of Auckland.
Top comments for Sunday April 24, 2016
From watercarrier4diogenes:
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Flagged by Calfacon:
This comment by dkmich in RFK Lives’s diary “Jack Keane, key military advisor to HRC” lists some better uses of wasted money.
Top mojo for Saturday April 23, 2016
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