5 January 2025
We boarded the Seven Seas Explorer on Friday, January 3, 2025. A beautiful day and we were able to walk down to the port from the hotel (luggage had been transported earlier to the ship). The port in Auckland is lovely, busy, lots of bars and restaurants with some very high end shops near by. Really a lovely easy city. VERY clean and friendly people. The ship is lovely though I think Alix and I both prefer the Voyager.
Taking excursions that are inland allows one to see more of the country than just the coast. We were in an area called Bay of Islands, fairly rural. On our first excursion we traveled to the Kawiti Caves there were on private property to see glow worms. Not a lover of caves, this one was quite beautiful and very dark – no artificial light but we did have a few lanterns. The stalagmites and stalactites were so pronounced and in all sizes. Once well into the cave, the lantern was turned off and the top of the cave could have been the night sky full of stars but in fact were glow worms…i.e. maggots. They came in three colors – blue, white and green, depending on their state of development. They eat moths, midges and flies…they are about the size of a matchstick. We were not allowed to take pictures of the glowing worms…
From there we traveled to the Puketi Kauri Forest and had a great walk in this beautiful forest of trees that stand 150 feet high and are up to 2000 years old. It is truly a site to behold ~ and the great thing about NZ is there are no snakes, poisonous spiders or other scary critters…more on critters in another post.
I love the way the ferns look woven throughout the forest
A petrified snail shell – from the forest.
We also visited a fun little town – Kawakawa. It has a tourist street car down the middle of the road on tracks and the most creative bathrooms… designed by the Austrian artist…
The unique bathroom decor of Hundertwasser Public Toilets and wonderful wall murals and planter. NZ seems to have a lot of murals – most very interesting with a story.
Aspects of Wonder and Wander 