Day 18 ~ Two Toilets and a Tree

“Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.”
~ Sammi Baker, our retiring cruise director extraordinaire

Bay of Islands, NZ

We started the day with low expectations. Bay of Islands, NZ is a tender port, and the sea had been pitching so, we ate breakfast at the Panorama Buffet with half an ear cocked for the announcement that we’d have to skip this port of call. On our South Pacific cruise with Holland America in 2016, we missed 3 islands this way. However, the captain of the Pacific Princess didn’t give up and once we entered the bay, the water quieted enough for tender operations to go forward.

Here we are all dressed to brave the elements in our Cruise Specialists jackets! Thanks again to Teresa Skeim,our excellent travel agent!

Excited didn’t begin to describe how I felt because we were scheduled for one of the first excursions I’d booked for this trip many many months ago. We were going to visit the Glow Worm Caves! I’d been jazzed about this since seeing them in a PBS David Attenborough special on New Zealand. The bioluminescence of these remarkable creatures seems otherworldly (Think Pandora!)

Evidently there were plenty of other passengers who wanted to see them too, because there were several buses headed that way. However, our driver didn’t take us to the cave immediately.  Instead we drove out of town and into the countryside through driving rain and low-hanging fog. What we could see of the northern island of NZ reminded me of the Ozarks—green rolling hills and lots of trees (albeit very different varieties than we have in MO.)

After a long trek, we stopped for a photo op at Kerikeri. These structures are the oldest European structures extant in NZ—the Stone Store (for storage not shops) and the missionary house built of Kauri wood. The rollicking stream is fresh water above the collection of stones and brackish salt on the seaward side. It’s a beautiful spot, and I wished we could have had a tour of the buildings.

But we were herded back into the bus to push on to our next destination which was...a public toilet next to a strip mall with a $1,$2, $3 & More Store.

It takes a long time for 42 passengers to take a comfort break with only 4 stalls total, and frankly it hadn’t been that long since we left the ship, but  when you’re out and about, it’s wise not to let a rest stop pass I suppose.

Kauri trees do not taper, but maintain the same circumference from bottom to top, reaching up straight as an arrow to find sun above the rest of the forest. If a parasitic plant attaches to it, it will shed that section of bark. The forest boasts one tree that is 4000 years old.  

Then we arrived in the Puketi Forest. It’s quite magnificent and I had the sense of being transported back in time to an ancient world where trees lived for millennia and humans were just a blip on their timeline. We did in fact see a Kauri tree (4^th largest tree species in the world) that was 1200 years old. 

The forest floor is littered with cast off leaves and bark, the canopy so thick overhead it was a wonder that any of the rain made it through to us as we walked the raised pathway, and the air redolent with the sweet breath of green growing things. 

A veritable Eden

I would have liked to stay longer, but we were urged back to the bus for our next stop which was…another public toilet.

However, this one, located in the whimsical little town of Kawakawa, was quirky and interesting. It was designed by the famous architect Hunderwasser (Am I the only one who thinks it’s kind of funny that a toilet designer’s name means “Hundred waters”?) Anyway, our driver gave us 30 minutes to explore this funky, artsy little town, which stretched into 40 thanks to a few stragglers.)  

Finally, we were off to the Glow Worm Caves. I was so excited! I was fascinated by these strange little beasties and couldn’t wait to see them with my own eyes.

But when we got there, the guide met our bus with the news that they were closing the cave because the incessant rain had flooded them. Though all the other buses from the Pacific Princess had made it in, we were NOT going to be allowed to see them. (Once we returned to the ship, I learned a van load of people had also been denied the opportunity to see this biological wonder.)

After our driver’s gross mismanagement of our time, he had the gall to say, “Well, that’s a wee bit disappointing.”

You think?

You could feel the “wee bit” of disappointment settle over the bus like a wet army blanket. It was a very quiet drive back to the ship. And the fact that it didn’t take long to reach the tender dock only added to my sense of having been robbed of a special experience for no good reason. The name of the excursion was Glow Worm Cave & Puketi Forest, not Two Toilets and a Tree. Why hadn’t they put the first things first?

I was feeling pretty grumpy. Even the dolphins playing alongside our tender only rated a small smile. But then while we were eating a very late lunch at the poolside grill, I saw another passenger in a motorized wheel chair. He stopped and looked longingly out over the bay. He couldn’t even leave the ship since Bay of Islands was a tender port.

It made me reexamine my attitude. I’d seen some interesting and awesome things on my excursion and set foot on a whole new country here at the bottom of the world. In the long view of things, I really had nothing to complain about. I was ashamed of my inner fuss-budget.

P.S. About gasoline prices in Bay of Islands: This is for my dad who likes to keep track of such things. Signs at the stations proclaimed that gas was $2.03 and diesel $1.97, but before you get too excited, Dad, those prices are PER LITER!

P.P.S. Happy Birthday to my mom. It’s the 10^th here, so my wishes are a day early but I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow when it’s your real Bday! Love you & Dad so much.

P.P.P.S. Princess refunded 50% of our excursion price to our shipboard account without us having to ask, which I thought was decent of them. I’m fast becoming a devoted Princess cruiser, especially on this exquisite small  ship.