David & Janis' Viking World Cruise January 5 - May 5, 2018

I'm writing this blog post on Thursday afternoon.  We were scheduled to arrive in Napier, NZ at noon today and leave at 6 p.m.  Janis and I were looking forward to this visit because we've heard so much about Napier and because we signed up for a three-hour coastal and river valley bike ride that sounded particularly interesting.  But it was not to be.  The captain announced around 11 a.m. that because of rough seas and high winds he felt it necessary to cancel the visit.  He came back on the public address system a bit later to say that we were then passing Napier if anyone wanted to look at it as we went by.  I ran back to our room for my camera, but by the time I got to a viewing deck it was effectively all over.  I am posting a few photos to show what I was able to see, which was not much.  But, as you can see, a few photos show the pilot boat alongside our ship and the pilot getting back onboard the pilot boat.  That obviously means he/she had been on the ship, so I assume

It is Thursday morning, February 1st.  Yesterday we docked in Tauranga, NZ's second largest port.  Tauranga is on the Bay of Plenty.  The entrance by boat is dramatic because the first thing one sees is Mt. Maunganui, an imposing extinct volcano that helped shape this area which features gorgeous white-sand beaches and beautiful blue water.  The Maori arrived here in the 13th century, followed by the British 600 years later.  Tauranga is best known as the gateway to the bubbling mud pools and thermal fields of Rotorua.  As usual, I like to begin with some photos of our arrival.  We start with these views of sky and ocean when we first opened our curtains.  Note the small bronze statue in the water at the entrance to the harbor.  It represents Tangaroa, the Maori god of the sea whose role was (still is??) to protect the sea.  Also, I can't resist watching the tugs as they help move the ship to its dock.  Finally, a shot of a container ship just leaving as we were arriving, illus