Day 48: Gisborne, North Island … New Zealand

Thursday, 23 February 2017
At Sea — South Pacific Ocean … En Route to Wellington

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:15p (NZDT) … UTC 8:15a (23 February)
Temp: 65.3F (18.5C)
Position: 39.13.75S / 178.03.78E

People don’t take trips … trips take people.
~ John Steinbeck ~

As big and busy as Auckland was yesterday, Gisborne — the second port on the Divine Down Under segment of our RTW voyage, and the unofficial “Chardonnay Capital of New Zealand” — was small and quiet.  Perched on the easternmost edge of New Zealand, the town is in an area rich in history.  According to the oral stories of the Māori, this is where they first came ashore at Aotearoa [New Zealand].  As well, this is where Captain James Cook first made landfall.  Today, it was our turn to land near those two spots.

We make our own landfall not too far from where Captain Cook made his in 1769.

After a much appreciated morning at sea, we arrived in sight of Gisborne around 11:30a.  Since our loosely-formed plans would be keeping us in town, we dallied on the ship to give tourgoers — both Oceania and private — first dibs on the tenders going ashore.  By 1:00p, we were on a boat for the 15-20 minute ride to the tender pier just past the commercial wharf where three cargo vessels were berthed … no wonder Insignia had to anchor in Poverty Bay.

On shore, we were greeted by a group of young people performing a welcome haka.  We bid them Kia Ora and walked on.  I knew from having studied Google Earth that we needed to head up along the river to cross over to the other side to get into town, so that’s what we did.  Along the way, friendly Gisborners in bright aqua colored t-shirts stood ready at frequent intervals to answer questions and provide directions.

The plan for the day was to seek out street art along what is described as the Mudge Mural Meanderings.  Graeme Mudge, who received the Queen’s Service Medal in 2012, is known in Gisborne as having spent the last 45 or so years doing pen and wash pictures of every building in every district of the region.  He also painted colorful murals.  To find them, however, we needed a map.  And to get that map, we needed to go to the iSite first.

Rather than taking a shortcut through town, first we followed the Turanganui River — born from the joining of the Taruheru and Waimata Rivers.  Then we walked along Waikanae Beach overlooking Poverty Bay.  The advantage to our route — in addition to lovely scenery along the way — was that we found a couple of the murals, as well as the statues of James Cook and Young Nick.

Waikanae Beach Reserve

When we arrived at the iSite, the woman behind the desk said the trail map had not been published for several years, but she managed to unearth one from a binder, so we were good to go.  We didn’t find all of the murals, but at least we had a fun excuse to wander around the city as we went walkabout.

“Farmer’s Market” Mudge Mural.

While we were at it, we stopped at Pay ’n Pak to get some apples — whole fruits are not allowed at the buffet for the duration of our time in NZ … and maybe Australia as well.  Fear of fruit flies is a very real thing in NZ.  We saw this firsthand in 2015 when the big news on TV was the tracking of four — yes, just four — fruit flies that came into the country with a shipment of goods from Australia.

We completed the mural search by crossing over the two rivers that join to make up Turanganui.  Eventually we found ourselves back at the tender pier.  It was after 5:00p by the time we were back on the ship.  With no fumes in the air, the veranda was a lovely little haven … until the late afternoon chill drove me inside.  This part of the world is one of the few places on our itinerary where I imagine the words “chill” and “cold” will be part of the description of our day.  Wish I could bottle the air to use later in our voyage.

Tomorrow is another morning at sea, followed by our third port call in NZ — the last one on North Island.  I was going to brave the cool night air and sit out on the veranda to read for a while before bed, but the fumes are once again strong … this is getting quite tedious.

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