Kiwi and Avacado

Thursday, February 21, 2013
Tauranga, North Island, New Zealand
The Daily Programme announces that this is the “Maiden Call to Tauranga, New Zealand,” for the Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth. The most populous city in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga has only been around since 1963. According to the Cunard newsletter, here avocado and kiwifruit is grown around Te Puke (place your own joke here). When you arrive there, the place is actually Te Puna. Not as funny.

Having been unimpressed by QE shore excursions in both Samoas, we decide to be on our own here. As is our custom, Paul is up early and quietly out of the cabin for coffee at the Lido two decks up. Gloria snoozes on for a short while and we meet up when we are both ready to greet the day.

 A quick check of the internet reveals that, sadly, the JJ’s explosion has been labeled as being “fatal.” 

 After breakfast, we strolled into downtown Tauranga. Starbuck’s gives you an internet password when you buy a coffee and strictly limits how much information you can download. After looking a one article about the JJ’s disaster online, we had reached our limit so we left Starbucks and went to Zeytin which was unlimited and had better coffee.

 
Back to the wharf we investigate local tours. We decide on one that takes us around town, to a museum, to sample kiwi, and back. Too much time was spent at the museum and not enough time spent elsewhere so I continue to feel we are “snake bitten” when it comes to touring.
We spy some old Bentley’s at the curb and immediately think of Erin, and by extension, Denise, Larry and Max. We wish they were here. (The Kiwis are very polite, but somehow I think everyone loves Denise and her honest straightforward way of communicating...translation; F Bomb Mother F***er. Actually it would be fun to tour with them. It’s been a great day; Phone calls with my children, 78 degrees and sunny and not a care in the world. We are so far removed from everything that the stress doesn’t reach us. Unless you consider what you might wear tonight and what entertainment to choose to pass the later part of the evening to be stressful. We don’t leave the dining room until 10.30pm. No blue hair /blue plate special for us with dinner at 5pm. I woke up thinking of Kansas City and JJ’s and how much those that are injured must be hurting. It is all so sad, and it would seem that it all could have been avoided, at least the injuries part, if only they had called for evacuation earlier and with more urgency. Things like this give us pause to think about the people we care about, and today I am happy that all my “peeps’ are okay. So indeed a good day!)

We head back into town after the tour for a lunch and find a fine garden in a trendy café where we engage two Brits and two Kiwis in conversation and enjoy two glasses of wine over a salad for G and a wrap for me. A toddler roams the garden and I think of Miles and Henry and Darby and Jack.

 The guacamole appetizer was exquisite. The wine was better.

 The wifi is so-so here but we get updates on Rudd family activity and news from home. A monumental snowstorm is imminent in Kansas City. Wish you were here.

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