Chronicle readers Gary and Mary Baker share more about their adventures in Australia and New Zealand.

April 15 found us in Napier, a 1920’s era town with lots of art deco buildings.

As we walked into the downtown area, we came across the Charleston Pharmacy. The owner explained that he was intrigued by Charleston, SC, after visiting the previous fall.

A sign proclaiming Possum World came to our attention so we ventured inside.

Possum fur is woven with Merino wool into some soft clothes and gloves. There was a display of possums along with a group of possums on the top of an old vehicle singing “On the Road Again.”

As we climbed off the bus back at the ship, we were greeted by some local folks dressed in 1920’s vintage clothes beside their antique automobiles. A group of musicians serenaded us with 1920’s era music.

Dinner on the 16th was Asian inspired. The waitresses were dressed in traditional native clothing.

The 2 young waitresses we encountered frequently are natives of Indonesia. They took great pains to find us seats in their area of the crowded dining room.

Auckland was next on our itinerary.

We took the hop-on hop-off bus to several points around town then got off at the local museum.

We later took the ferry to Devenport, a small port across the bay.

As we walked the town, we came across an elderly man playing a Chinese violin, pretty much a skeleton of a violin. It had 2 strings with the base made from snake skin.

He was playing for donations and explained that he was on his way the next day to Beijing.

On the morning of April 18, we caught the tender into Waitangi and took a bus to glow worm cave.

The cave is on private property, owned by a Maori family on protected land.

The glow worms are about an inch and half long and cling to the ceiling of the cave. They capture insects for food and live in large colonies following the path of water flowing in the cave. They glow to entice the insects to their web-like lair.

As we climbed the narrow passageway in the dark, their glow resembled a constellation of stars, highlighting the many stalactites and stalagmites in the cave.

The bus stopped in the small town of Kawakawa, known for artistic public rest rooms designed by Frederick Hundertwasser, an Austrian.

The rest rooms are decorated with wavy lines, ceramic tiles, small sculptures, and colored glass.

A later excursion took us to a rain forest preserve where centuries old Kauri trees loomed over the area.

On the way back to the ship, the bus stopped at a reconstructed Maori village.

On Good Friday, we were back at sea for 2 days.

After a morning walk of a mile around the deck, we later joined a 2K Cruise for a Cause cancer walk in honor of a good friend Donna Griffin.

Several hundred of our fellow passengers walked to raise money, distributed pro rata by the cruise line to countries represented by the participants.

Next: Australia honors its war dead