A moderate swell developed late yesterday and into the evening last night. Most of the time the stabilisers completely eliminated the ship’s roll the odd large wave would “beat” the system and we’d roll a tiny bit. There was much more movement last night than at any other time on our cruise so far. The Captain woke woke everyone around 7am with an announcement that we should either remain seated or stay in bed for the next 15 minutes as it would get a bit rocky. Easy decision for me (according to Helen) - I was still snoring away in bed anyway. Entry to the harbour at Napier involved turning side-on to the swell just before passing the breakwater. Both the reduced speed and the closeness to the breakwater meant that the stabilisers could not be used. The ship started to roll quite a bit for a few minutes until we got inside the shelter of breakwater.
Today’s shore stay was the shortest of the cruise – leaving port at 2pm. Still this was enough time to take the Napier Art Deco walking tour. We were off the ship and had joined the tour by 9:30am - that’s a record for us. We are usually thinking about joining a bus queue at this time. Completely rebuilt after the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in 1931 that lasted for around 5 minutes (and devastating fires that followed), Napier is now famous for its classic Art Deco architecture. Almost the entire business area was rebuilt in the two years following (at the lowest point of the Great Depression). The one exception to this was the Public Trust Office (constructed using reinforced concrete instead of masonry).
Naturally the walking tour started with a short lesson in Architecture and early 20th century design styles. We learnt that with so much work to be undertaken in a very short time, local architects engaged numerous graduates and undergraduates to assist. This, together with a desire by locals to minimise the amount of decorative masonry elements in the new structures meant that the latest decorative styles using reinforced dominated the redevelopment. In addition to the classic Art Deco form we were shown examples of Spanish Mission, Stripped Classical and the use of New Zealand’s unique Maori art throughout the town.
In recent times the community has picked up on the uniqueness of its history and successfully and enthusiastically promotes itself especially for the cruise ship clientele. On our return from the town, seven members & partners of the Napier community (dressed in period costume) had assembled vintage cars from - (you guessed it . . .) the 30’s period.
Talking to one of the driver/owners as we waited to board the ship, he revealed that he is an enthusiastic Geocacher – an interest I’ve also developed over the past few months. The most interesting part of our conversation was he had based an entire travel itinerary (during a recent holiday in Europe) around locating Geocaching sites. Certaily takes the concept of relying on the recommendations of locals to a whole new level! Once again we were farewelled by local musicians playing on the wharf. On this occasion we were serenaded with a five piece jazz band playing a number of standards and concluding with Auld Langsyne as we pulled away from the wharf.
Leaving port was interesting as it was only a small harbour. For the first time this cruise we were assisted by 2 tugs as well as the ships own bow and stern thrusters. The large swell outside the harbour was refracting around the end of the breakwater and creating quite a bit of movement of Volendam at our berth.
I was quite surprised by the size of the port for such a modest sized regional town. The quantity of timber and containers being exported was pretty amazing. Did I mention the woodchip stockpile . . . . . ?
Lunch today was barbecued prawns and bugs on the Lido (pool) deck as we started the overnight leg to Tauranga. The swell has continued to ease all day so we’ve hardly noticed any pitching and the stabilisers have got any potential rolling action completely sorted.
More tomorrow.
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