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| Australia & New Zealand Cruise 2019 Part 3 - Burnie, Christmas, Fiordland, Dunedin and Akaroa |
The Queen Elizabeth
In the morning we walked to the taxi rank at the Railway Station and it cost just over 21AUD to go to the Queen Elizabeth. Our CheckIn was supposed to be later to match the arrival of flights from the UK but we used our Diamond priority to get on board early and were able to join the Grills checkin line, just as we usually do in Southampton.
Burnie, Tasmania - 23rd December
Our first port on the cruise was Burnie in Tasmania, the next morning. Tasmania was not known to be an island until Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumnavigated it in 1798-99. Van Diemen's Land was the original name for the island of Tasmania in honour of Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. From the 1800s to the 1853 abolition of penal transportation Van Diemen's Land was the primary penal colony in Australia and some 73,000 convicts were transported to the island. Male convicts served their sentences as assigned labour to free settlers or in gangs assigned to public works. Only the most difficult convicts were sent to the prison known as Port Arthur, near Hobart. The settlement at Burnie was originally founded in 1827 and named Emu Bay. In the early 1840s it was renamed after a director at the Van Diemen's Land (VDL) Company, William Burnie. In 1856, Van Diemen's Land was renamed Tasmania, honouring Abel Tasman the first European to find the island.Then in 1871 tin was found at Waratah and it became the richest tin mine in the world. The VDL Company moved its headquarters to Burnie in 1875 and transported the tin from Mt Bischoff Mine to the Burnie Port on a horse-drawn wooden rail tramway which was eventually replaced in 1884 with steam trains and steel rails. The first breakwater was completed in 1890 creating the deep water port. Burnie was the main port for the west coast mines after the opening of the Emu Bay Railway in 1897. This triggered a boom time in Burnie and the city's fine Federation architecture was built between 1890 and 1915.
Forestry had a major role on Burnie's development in the 1900s with the founding of the pulp and paper mill in 1938. Burnie was officially proclaimed a city by Queen Elizabeth II on April 26, 1988. The key industries are heavy manufacturing, forestry and farming. Burnie Port is Tasmania's largest general cargo port and was once Australia's fifth largest container port. This, along with the forestry industry, provides the main source of revenue for the city. On arrival in the port our first surprise was an enormous pile of wood chippings which were going overseas for processing and then returned for making paper.
With about 40 per cent of Tasmania designated as world heritage area, national parks and reserves, tourism and cruise ships is becoming an important income stream. Burnie City Council provided a free shuttle bus service from the ship to the Makers' Workshop, and onwards to the Arts Precinct and the Central Business District. It was not allowed to walk out of the port area and the shuttle bus was compulsary. Opened in 2009, the Makers' Workshop features a visitor's centre, historic displays, gift shop, art gallery and studios where local artisans demonstrate their skills and showcase their wares. It was a good place to start a walk along the waterfront to the CBD, instead of using the bus. The city had useful shops including a pharmacy, a supermarket selling cheese from King Island, and two bottle shops which had a wide selection of Tasmanian wines. We passed the Arts Precinct which comprised the Regional Museum and the Regional Art Gallery on our way back towards the Makers' Workshop. The Regional Museum was founded by Peter Mercer with objects he had been collecting since 1942 and opened in 1971. In addition to numerous collections charting Burnie's history to the present day, 'Federation Street' recreates life in 1900 when Burnie was at the height of its first economic boom. It is next door to the Art Gallery.
In the Makers' Workshop we had collected a leaflet about the Federation walks of Bernie . There are two types of Federation buildings: civic architecture and residential architecture. Examples of civic architecture are described as Federation Free Style. The buildings are non-residential and included hotels, banks, public buildings, Dental Surgery and churches. The civic buildings were made of the traditional 'Burnie brick' which gave a cohesive character to the city. Corner buildings are splayed and features are included from Romanesque, Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, with columns, curved arches, towers and verandas. Early examples had cast iron balcony and veranda decorations, replaced by machine cut timber and fretwork from 1900 onwards. The leaflet showcased the Ikon Hotel, four banks, two churches, the dental surgery and the Post Office. We should have taken more photos.
At this time many fine residences were built in the Federation Queen Anne style adjacent to the burgeoning Burnie town and on the hillside. Queen Anne was the dominant style of domestic architecture in Australia in the decades immediately before and after 1900.Timber was abundant in the forests around Burnie and so were available for the walls. The two most interesting houses were large and prominant on the hillside. Wyona at 7 William Street was built for the jeweller E A Joyce and is a large house with many bay windows and balconies. Nearby is Kandaha at 34 Queen Street with cast iron brackets, fringe and railings. Both houses are numbered Tasmanian Heritage properties. 1 and 3 Princes Street are also numbered Tasmanian Heritage properties. Francis Tallack built a group of four houses and himself lived in the first house. He also built 24 and 28 Queen Street.
Beyond the city and near the Makers' Workshop there is a Little Penguin colony and we assumed some penguins also lived in Burnie because there were a few manmade shelters between the beach and the railway line. There is also the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden about 10 minutes drive outside the city, and the Hellyers Road Whisky Distillerie. The Burnie Attractions Bus provides a HopOn HopOff service at 40AUD to these places when cruise ships visit.
Christmas on the Queen Elizabeth
Fiordland
This was our second visit to Fiordland by Sea, the first was on the Queen Mary 2 on our way from Auckland back to the UK. We have also visited Milford Sound many times by van and Doubtful sound a couple of times by boat and coach from Te Anau. The sequence this visit was opposite to the Queen Mary 2. We started with Milford Sound arriving just after dawn at 0645 to pick up our pilot at the entry. We also had the benefit of a commentary from a DOC ranger who joined us from the pilot boat. We watched most of the transits from the Commadore club where we had grandstand view and could quickly nip outside for pictures. The scenery is magnificent in Milford Sound but we had been spoilt on the previous visit which was a maiden by Captain Rynd who was not only a New Zealander but also knew the area intimitely have walked the Milford track several times with his family. He had been determined to emulate the trip boats by taking the Mary, the largest ship to every visit, up to and virtually under the largest of the waterfalls under the eyes of the watching publicity helecopters. This was a more routine and conservative visit.
Milford Sound has a very narrow entry, and the ship has to turn within the Sound before exiting through the same gap. There are always fishing boats and many trip boats fed by an endless stream of coaches from Te Anau and further afield. The cloud was low in places giving a mystic appearance on enrty but cloudbase lifted enough on occassion to see the top of Mitre peak and thewaterfalls in their full splendour. When the QE turned she was well beyond Mitre Peak and quite close to the end of the Sound where it was a relatively easy manoeuvre and we got good views of Waterfalls. The Lady Bowen Falls are named after the wife of the 5th Governor of New Zealand and is the more spectacular of the two permanent waterfalls; the other is the Stirling Falls. We slowly eased back out but without the bonus on our last visit when the QM2 went and stood near to the Lady Bowen waterfall and gradually edged forward until she was a hundred metres, not as close as the trip boats but still very close for such a large ship, before the bow thrusters blasted the waters and we started to ease back out. I have included a couple of pictures from that never to be repeated experience!
There was then a short break to get breakfast at 0845 before we worked our way along the coast prior to rentering through the Thompson Sound at about 1230, passing Secretary Island on the Starbourd side. We quickly worked our way back into a front seat in the Commadore club before entering Doubtful Sound itself. There is a big hydroelectric scheme which draws water from lake Te Anau through a long tunnel exiting into Doubtful Sound and powers the Aluminium smelters at Bluff. On our way out an interesting building was pointed out - There is no building allowed in the Fiordland National Park but the Sounds themsevles are not all park of the protected area which allowed someone to build an home on stilts just below high?? tide mark.
One again proceeds down the coast before once more entering the Sounds network at Breaksea Island at circa 1500 and passing another huge island, Resolution Island to our Starboard. My now the skies were clearing and we had some magnificent views withing Dusky Sound which was again visited and mapped by Captain Cook. On the way out we passed some islands giving good shelter where he had anchored. He was apparently running out of names for all of his discoveries and it is simple named Anchor island! We were finally back on the open ocean at at a little after 1615. The scenery in the Sounds was magnificent as always and one could never tire of its every changing moods of which we saw many during the single day.
Dunedin
We were on deck early to look for northern Royal Albatrosses and petrels as the Queen Elizabeth approached Taiaroa Head at the entrance to Dunedin Harbour. It was possible to see little white blobs sitting on the hill below the viewing hide, which were albatross on their nests. There are 36 eggs reported this year and incubation takes 79 days; the first is due to hatch at the beginning of February. The best views are from the ocean and in the past we have enjoyed the Monarch Wildlife Tour which operates from Wellers Rock Wharf. There was a good view of the colony of NZ fur seals as we cruised past. We followed the Noordam, a similar sized Vista class ship, along the narrow dredged channel into the Port of Dunedin.
The port is a distance from the town and there were free shuttle buses to the Octagon in the centre, next to St Paul's Cathedral. We have visited Dunedin often when we visit the South Island so were content to only walk around the centre. From the Octagon we walked up to St Joseph's catholic cathedral at the top of Rattray Street. The Speight's Brewery was also in Rattray Street and we were at the wrong time for a full tour but they offerred us a shortened special version. There was plenty of time to learn about the foundation of the Speight's Brewery where the first brew was in 1876 by James Speight (The Prize Beer Maker), Charles Greenslade (The Maltster) and William Dawson (The Brewer). The Brewery was rebuilt in 1940. The brewing process uses the fresh spring water from directly below the brewery which is then de-oxygenated. The Gyle Room contained 7000 gallon fermentation vats made of kauri in the 1940s. After the tour there was the opportunity to taste the beers and shop for souvenirs.
Returning to and crossing the Octagon we looked at shops along George Street. There is an excellent dairy, the Rob Roy, at the cross of George Street and Albany Street. It is not far beyond the Knox Church. Their learner cones are single scoop, their single scoop are doubles and their doubles are four scoops. We have been there before and know that even with our addiction to icecream we can only manage a single (double) scoop. Retracing our steps towards the railway station we stopped at the Countdown supermarket to check whether they had two of the 2019 Prize-winning Trophy wines : the Lindauer Vintage Series 2017 and the Villa Maria Cellar Selection Syrah 2018 which was voted NZ Wine of the Year. We must buy more when we start our proper holiday in New Zealand. Having seen the Taieri Gorge tourist train depart from the port in the morning we managed to arrive at the station when the smaller train from the seaside arrived back. It is so nice to see these heritage trains running to schedule and so busy.
Akaroa, Banks Peninsular (for Christchurch)
Akaroa is the major town onthe Banks Peninsular and is a favourite destination as it is not only a beautiful area in its own right but is also a convenient port from which to visit Christchurch, the more so after the earthquake damage to Lyttelton which is much closer. The Banks Peninsula is a very self contained area with a rugged coastline to the south-east of Christchurch. It has a lot of associated history and was originally a French colony, having been purchased by a whaling captain in 1838. The French had sent a couple of ships intending to raise the flag there and claim the whole of South Island for France but were delayed by repairs after a storm and after the French sailors were indiscreet the repairs went slow and there was time for a British frigate to get there a couple of days ahead and raise the union Jack in 1840 shortly just before the French settlers arrived – despite considerable disappointment they decided to continue their plans for the settlement. The permanent population is only 550 but there are many holiday homes.
When we visit by car we often take the high road round the Banks Peninsula looking down on Akaroa harbour from all sides of the old crater walls before descending to back to Akaroa itself. The scenic drives are the highlight with the many side roads to small ports to explore. It takes a almost a full day to do do justice to the round trip. The views all the way round are excellent and we stop many times and do many the side trips down to the major East coast bays namely Pigeon Bay with its wharf and the start of the Pigeon Bay Walk which takes 5 hours return along the side of the bay to visit the point, then Little Akaloa and across then on the back road to Okains bay where there is yellow sands and rocks covered in Mussels to collect and eat.
Akaroa itself has a number of interesting buildings as well as small but interesting museum covering the French background and also Whaling, the original activity in the area. Many of the exhibits are in store at present. Akaroa is the departure point for a number of Dolphin watching and Whale watching trips which need to be booked well in advance. In 2013 when we visited Akaroa on the Queen Mary 2 we had enjoyed a sailing cruise on a vintage yacht, the 47ft classic A-Class keeler Manutara. The hull was one of many designed in 1946 by Jock Muir, from Tasmania. This example was built by Salthouse and Logan in Auckland in 1962, and is a mixture of Australian hardwood, Kauri and Teak. The yacht was moored at the wharf when we got off the tender but we decided against a trip which would have been in the afternoon and would have been tight for time.
The old town still has a French influence. Jewellery made of the unusual and expensive Blue Pearl is sold at the wharf and there are many craft shops and souvenir shops, as well as pavement cafés and fish-and-chip shops. The two craft markets were both busy as they always set up when there is a cruise ship in port and Pauline bought a small patchwork table centerpiece from the person who had made it locally for our cabin. she also gave good advice on potential accomodation for future shore based visits. The cafes and restaurants were also doing well and we directed many people from the wharf along the shore to the supermarket and main shops. Local seafood, fish, cheeses, beers and wines are delicious. Although very close to Christchurch, which is just over the hill, there had been little structural damage from the earthquakes although some of the public and historic buildings were initially closed, awaiting structural checks. The Coronation Library has recently reopened and we spent some time in there talking to the curator and collecting some looks in French and some aviation magazines before walking along the long beachfront promenade. We inspected several ice-cream shops before obtaing some excellent ones almost opposite the tender pier.
Akaroa Lighthouse: A highlight in Akaroa is to the Lighthouse. This imposing, six-sided, wooden lighthouse is one of the last of the "standard" design of wooden lighthouses particular to New Zealand.The lighthouse was first built on a rugged headland at the entrance to Akaroa Harbour, more than 80 metres above sea level. The site was chosen in 1875 and the lighthouse built in 1878-79, to a design that was developed by an engineer, John Blackett, for New Zealand conditions. The materials were brought in by ship to a landing in Haylocks Bay, near the site, and hauled up a specially built road to the top of the headland. A road from Haylocks Bay was constructed first to allow building supplies into site. The road, 500 metre long was dynamited out of solid rock for nearly its entire length and took 10 months to complete. The lighthouse frame was kauri with a double skin, the bottom half of which was filled with ballast to hold it down after a southerly storm completely demolished the first framework during construction. It was a rugged and bleak site - Mr William Black, overseer of the construction work, died of exposure while traveling from the site to Akaroa Town in 1879.
The light first shone on 1 January 1880. It had clockwork mechanism which required winding every two hours so was always manned. The light was originally kerosene but latter changed to a double bulb system. In 1977, the old lighthouse was replaced by an automatic light. The following year a Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed in Akaroa and bought the lighthouse and equipment for $1. By the year's end the tower had been cut into three pieces and manoeuvred over steep and narrow Lighthouse Road down to Akaroa, where it was re-assembled on Cemetery Point. Its historic equipment, which had been salvaged before the tower was moved, was then re-installed and lovingly restored by The Akaroa Lighthouse Preservation Society. A roster of volunteers 'man' the light house to enable the public to visit and view this iconic historic Akaroa landmark and it is now open for viewing many days rather than just Sundays (2-4pm). Beyond the lighthouse is the Britomart monument where the British raised the union jack to claim the territory just before the french settlers arrived. Next time we visit we must go to the Garden of Tane which has many interesting trees and includes a cemetery. It is also an option to climb to the top of Stony Bay Peak and enjoy the panoramic views.
The Cruise will be continued in part 4 covering Wellington, NZ, Auckland, NZ (Overnight for New Year Fireworks)
