In a late southern hemisphere summer of this year my wife and I took a cruise across the Tasman Sea from Sydney to Auckland. We sailed in The Westerdam, a twenty-year old ship of the Holland America Line. The following are some images of the journey:
The Westerdam at the cruise liner terminal in Hobart Tasmania.
Leaving Sydney harbour.
The Melbourne skyline. I lived in this city almost 50 years ago, in a suburb called Toorak, situated about two miles to the right of the large buildings in this picture. I was on assignment from Ford of Europe, a bunch of us investigating the purchase of a shareholding in the Japanese company Mazda.
Hobart was the most picturesque of the towns we visited, mainly a fishing and personal boating harbour.
Our cabin was on the port side of the ship, fortunately directly above the portal where the pilot was dropped and collected.
After the long sail across the Tasman Sea we made landfall at the famous Milford Sound in the glacier country of the South Island.
Dawn was breaking as we moored in Dunedin, the architecture of the town mirroring the Scottish town after which it is named, a statue to Robert Burns in the town centre.
The azure colour of the sea at the pier in Timaru, the attraction of this picture.
There was a storm in Cook’s Strait, making the crossing from South to North Island dangerous for smaller boats. This sombre view of the shore near Wellington is evidence of the conditions. Wellington the capital of New Zealand is on the fault line and experiences in excess of 100 earth tremors every year.
The town of Napier was destroyed by an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter Scale in 1936. They rebuilt the town but made a decision to make it an Art Deco town. It is quirky and interesting, and I decided to reflect that style by using only black and white pictures, two of the architecture and the third the woman driving her Model 10 Austin to the docks to entertain the passengers, together with other classic car owners and a three piece band.
Tauranga, with nearby Rotorua, is at the heart of the Maori culture. The last picture is of Mountain Maunganui, guarding the entrance to the harbour.
A final sea view, reflected sunset in the Bay of Plenty.
The city of Auckland from across the bay.
Comments are closed.