RTW 2024 Carefree Travel

  Tomorrow, Leap Year Day, February 29th, we will land in Sydney, Australia. It's a country so big that it always feels like you've only seen a tiny fraction of it whenever you leave. So we'll be hitting different ports over eleven days, and I'll write up each of those.  One quirky thing I've always loved about Australia is the banknotes. Almost every country has far more exciting and colorful banknotes than the US. They're all a uniform green (aka the greenback) and a uniform six inches long. Which is great as a standby tape measure but otherwise incredibly dull. Australia was the first country to develop and circulate the polypropylene polymer notes. These are way more durable (you cannot tear them with your hands), easier to clean, and 100% recyclable. They also got smart and eliminated the $1 note in 1984 and the $2 note in 1988. (cough, cough - US Treasury, take note: even the Brits have done this!!) The Aussie technology is so good that they either print ...

The Tasman Sea is the body of water that separates Australia and New Zealand. We're crossing it now - which takes about 70 hours on a cruise ship. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 was the first known person to cross it. Tasmania was later named after him, and he also christened Nieue Zeeland when he discovered those islands. British explorer Lieutenant James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s during his three voyages of exploration Geographically, the Sea is over 1400 miles wide and has an area of almost 900,000 square miles. It's defined as a marginal sea, meaning it's bounded by other seas and oceans. Although not quite as deep as the Pacific, ocean depth gets down to 19,500 feet (5900m), and its seafloor is eloquently stated to be "ooze." That depth is quite impressive when you realize that New Zealand, as part of an ancient continent called Zealandia, broke away from Australia over 80 millio...

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, located at the extreme southern end of the Northern Island. Even though it is the seat of government, it's only the 3rd largest city, with a metro population of about 450,000 (less than 10% of total pop). It's been the capital since 1865, but that is not enshrined in any legislation. That's just by general agreement. Can you imagine any other country doing that based on a handshake? Trivia answer here: it's also the most southern capital of a sovereign state at 41.3 degrees. Yet, leaving the bay, you can see the Southern Island barely 15 miles away! It's also the world's windiest city, with average wind speeds of 17 mph. Before European colonization, the area in which the city of Wellington would eventually be founded was seasonally inhabited by indigenous Māori.  Wellington and its surroundings have been occupied by various Māori groups since the 12th century.  Kupe was said to have stayed in the harbor from c. 925...

Napier is a city on the eastern seaboard of the North Island and is the heart of what is known as the Hawkes Bay region. It's famous for two reasons. First, it is "wool central" for the country - actually for the entire Southern Hemisphere. Second, it is the Art Deco capital of the world. In February 1931, the city was leveled by an earthquake. Not only were hundreds of homes and commercial buildings destroyed, but it reconfigured the town by creating almost 10,000 acres of new land, raised almost 10 feet out of the bay and above ground. The town rebuilt itself with an Art Deco theme - that is present everywhere you look. The area has a very temperate climate - ranging from a high of 77 in summer to a low of only 59 in winter, with an average of 6 rainy days a month. What's so important about that? It means that it is Wine Country! There are many vineyards in the Hawkes Bay area, and we got to visit one for the day. Regent threw a massive party at the Mission Estate W...

Today, we visited Tauranga. It's a city about halfway down the eastern side of the North Island. Demographically, it's the fifth largest city in NZ at 161,000 and is growing fast. Although it's known for trade, business, and a huge harbor - it's famous for two things. First, it is a surfing and beach paradise. Together with its cousin, Maunganui, it features a massive beach used for national volleyball and lifeguard competitions. Second, it is the Kiwi capital of the country. That's kiwi, as in the fruit, not the bird or the people. So, true, we visited on a Saturday, but the beach was jammed with food trucks, commercial tents, and the tents of local surf and swim clubs. There is not a parking spot to be found. Allison described it as a high-class Jersey Shore town. The Bay of Plenty, where the town is located, was the first landing spot of the  Maori back in the late 1200s. You can understand why they settled here with a temperate climate, sheltered harbor, and ple...

Another fantastic day in NZ. Auckland is the largest city in NZ, with a population of about 1.5m. That means 30% of the country’s total population. The city is built on top of 52 volcanoes, dating back some 200,000 years - which are now dormant.  The last one blew up about 600 years ago, creating the offshore island of Rangitoto. There are still a few crater remnants in and around the city, but most have been flattened and now have commercial and residential buildings on top. Imagine the real estate listings for that. The Auckland Volcanic Field is considered a rare monogenetic volcanic field, with each volcano erupting only once, usually over weeks to years before cessation of activity. So, there is a possibility that another NEW volcano will go boom at any time. The climate is defined as subtropical, so the yearly average temperature is 60F/15C. It reaches 82F/28C in summer (Jan/Feb) and drops to 35F/2C in June. Snowfall is extremely rare: the most significant fall since the sta...

Day 47: We made it to New Zealand. This country has been at the top of our bucket list for a long time. Researching this blog caused me to lose many misconceptions about the country's history. Starting with the fact that New Zealand was the last major land mass to be discovered and populated by humans. There's a little debate about the exact date, but sometime between 1250 and 1320, Kupe, a Polynesian explorer, landed on NZ. The Maori culture says it was forty generations ago, which equates to about 1000 AD. Archeologists say the discovery was caused by people fleeing a large Indonesian volcano eruption in 1257. No matter how you look at it, humans have been treading the landscape for less than 1,000 years.  In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman "discovered" New Zealand from the European viewpoint. Cartographers labeled his discovery Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland - and the name was later anglicized to New Zealand. The Maori name is Aotearoa, meanin...