THE BAY OF ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND
This is our last post as tomorrow we fly home from Auckland. This area is gorgeous as you can see. The 1st photo is as the ship came into this bay a week ago. We toured the Waitangi Treaty House where the Maori treaty was signed in 1840. Then the ship sailed to Auckland where the Shadow bunkered overnight in the harbor much to the Captains dismay, but we got this view of the city all night. Next we headed north out of the city and stumbled into this fabulous B&B run by 2 Americans and with a room and view to die for. The next day we discovered that Bill’s back, which started to be tight toward the end of the cruise, was now worrisome. So for the last 6 days we have been in plan B. We reached Paihia where Bill has been rehabbing and resting for 5 days. We took the ferry over to Russell (overview with busy harbor) and other than that Sally has taken a flight to Cape Reinga (see pictures of the lighthouse and the coast from the plane) and I also took a short drive over the million-dollar view road. But don’t feel too bad as the sunset view is what we see from our motel room and patio, we have enjoyed that so much and the owners couldn’t have been more hospitable and helpful. Today we are flying to Auckland instead of driving and Bill we hope will be ready for the flight tomorrow. Thanks for following our trip as we somehow feel still connected this way. All our love and we are anxious to talk to you all.

Fiji
Lautoka, the sugar city is on the western side of Viti Levu, the largest island in Fiji.
These 332 islands in the Koro Sea are truly a holiday destination. Everyone greets you with “Bula”. We had heard of the recent riots in Suva but that is quite away from where we landed and we found the Fijians very friendly. This is the most multicultural population in the So Pacific. We visited the Garden of the Sleeping Giant which is an orchid garden started by Raymond Burr to preserve his own collection.
The most unusual invitation we have ever had occurred at the Shangri La resort where we were invited to join 4 other couples from the ship to renew our wedding vows bedecked with leis along the ocean. The minister wrote vows very applicable to our age group. It was 3 Americans, 1Scottish and 1English couples…so you can’t say it was just those crazy Americans. What fun that was.
Unfortunately we learned as leaving that someone we all knew from the ship had died that afternoon swimming at the same resort.
We’re off to New Zealand and tonight we have dinner with the Italian Captain who is married to a Maori Kiwi and we hope he will give us some inside information on what to see on the North Island.

Tonga
Our call here in Nuku’alofa was a contrast of extremes. This land which is the first to “see a new day” because of it’s location at the dateline and which is also known as the Friendly Islands completely surprised us. We walked in town in the am only to find whole blocks devastated and barren down to the concrete foundations. As we began to talk to a shopkeeper we got the whole store that on Nov 16th there had been riots and many Indian and Chinese shops had been burned down. The King died in Aug 2006 and all homes and buildings were draped in purple and black banners of mourning. We saw the lovely church and the modest Victorian home of the royal family. Yes, what we expected: the men were wearing the distinctive mats over their clothing and the women with the kiekie, a decorative waistband made of woven strips of pandanus.
Our treat was the Silversea cultural program that afternoon, not the normal tourist trap. The sister of the king attended and we were treated to a Tongan feast and the sweetest children dancing and playing their instruments.