Friends of the Chronicle Mary and Gary Baker recently took a trip to Australia. They tell of some of their many adventures.

Our great adventure down under continued for 2 weeks on the Holland America Line’s Noordam for a cruise to New Zealand.

The ship can house close to 2,000 passengers. It included amenities and activities, movies, several musical groups and stage shows, cooking demonstrations, Microsoft classes, casino, gym, and several restaurants and bars.

With a 2-day cruise before arriving on the coast of New Zealand, there’s lots to occupy your time.

Each night, there was a stage show and old blues music in the BBKing Blues Club and classical music in Lincoln Center Live.

We passed in and out of 2 time zones.

Our first view of New Zealand was the beautiful waterfalls as the ship entered Milford Sound. The weather was rainy, windy, and foggy; we could hardly see mountains. Later, the ship passed through Doubtful Sound.

The first opportunity to set foot on land was at Port Chalmers.

The port was packed with tons of California pine logs destined for Japan and China to be made into furniture. Logging is big business with many areas stripped of trees. New trees are planted to continue the business.

Our bus tour took us into Dunedin where we visited the Olveston mansion and botanical garden.

The century-old mansion was built by a wealthy lover of the arts who made his fortune importing pianos.

The bus passed by the world’s steepest residential street, Baldwin Street, a 35-degree incline.

Our evening ended at the BBKing Club where we were entertained by Maori storytelling. The Maori are New Zealand’s indigenous people with fascinating history, culture, and stories.

New Zealand has 2 official languages, English and Maori. Schools teach both languages.

We woke up the next morning to high winds which kept us from taking the tenders into Akaroa.

Because of the small port, the cruise ship was anchored offshore. We were to arrive into the port by tenders.

Port authorities would not allow the tenders due to 30-knot winds. So, our day was spent working out in the gym and taking in the many shipboard activities as the ship headed for Picton/Wellington.

As we ate breakfast, we noticed a pod of dolphins running beside the ship. The winds continued, but the sun came out for a beautiful day. We spent the day lounging.

April 13 dawned with us taking the bus into Picton.

We were met as we disembarked with a group of local ladies who greeted us with lapel pins for the guys and flowers for the ladies. Again, the port was loaded with huge piles of logs.

We walked through the local marina and a steep nature trail with the guide explaining about local plants and trees.

A highlight at the end of the tour was some hokeypokey ice cream. It is a honeycomb and toffee flavored ice cream. Manuka honey is a big part of Australia/New Zealand culture.

Our tour bus took us to the Marlborough district where we stopped at the Makana Candy Shop and were given free samples of the chocolate.

Our drive took us through miles and miles (or should I say, kilometers) of grape arbors. Wine is also a big export of New Zealand.

On Palm Sunday, we caught the tour bus into Wellington and drove to the botanical gardens, then to Mount Victoria.

The tour took us through some expensive neighborhoods and a working class neighborhood.

We stopped for photos at the Parliament Building, then to Old St. Paul’s Church.

Back on the ship, we tried to walk the deck, but it was too windy. We watched from the stern as the pilot boat alongside was struggling with the high waves and wind.

It finally moved to our ship’s wake.

Next: Possum World in Napier

Email your travel stories and photos to JerryBellune@yahoo.com .