After departing New Zealand our ship headed in the general direction of Hawaii.  However, we made two stops at South Pacific island ports, Lautoka, Fiji, on the island of Viti Levu, and Apia, Samoa.  This was my first trip ever to any of the Polynesian nations that have been pictured as glamorous and enchanting in movies and television.

Our first stop was Lautoka, Fiji.  My wife and I walked from the ship into the town.  We walked down the main street and headed back toward the ship.  We walked along a sea wall that ran parallel to a small mostly industrial area near the port.  My first impression was that Lautoka is a decaying town.  The town seemed to be covered with a grimy film.  It was hot and very humid.  My impression was not very positive.  We saw some interesting examples of third world industry.  My favorites included a sugar cane processing factory, which included a small narrow gage private rail system that moves raw sugar cane to the processing plant, and a carton manufacturing plant that featured a wood fired boiler.  They had wood stacked up in their central courtyard ready to toss into the boiler.  We could see sugar cane being burned in the fields, which may account for the grimy feel of the town.  I should also mention we saw a mountain of pine wood chips ready for export to some type of processing plant.  The wood chip plant had its own conveyer belt and dock.

I talked to a number of my fellow cruisers about their impressions of Fiji.  Most people had a different perspective than mine.  Those that took a boat trip to a private island for an all you can eat and drink beach day had a great time.  Some of those that took a longer walk and saw more of the town had a more favorable impression than mine.  Some of my fellow travelers loved shopping in the local stores for very low priced goods.  We were told that Fiji has some magnificent beach resorts on the other side of the island.

Today, we spent a few hours in and around Apia, Samoa.  This is the country of Samoa, not American Samoa.  I had the opportunity to see some beautiful coast line on a very hot and humid day.  I learned a little bit about Samoa's village oriented culture.   We did a drive by of Robert Louis Stevenson's former home, which is now a museum.  There a number of western churches in Samoa, including the Mormons, Methodists, Catholics and others, that have spent the past 180 years or so trying to convert the natives.  I saw US football goal posts on school yard sports fields, which was unexpected.  I understand that the resort areas are on the other side of the island.

I just didn't see or feel the allure the South Pacific has for some people.  I know many people dream about traveling to the South Pacific for its beautiful beaches and relaxed environment.  I definitely understand the relaxed part of South Pacific life.  I didn't see many people doing a lot of work.  I wouldn't make a special trip back to this part of the world.  Hawaii and some places in the Caribbean are far nicer places to visit.  However, I am sure I didn't see the best that Fiji and Samoa had to offer.  Maybe I will sail by this part of the world at some time in the future and get a second impression.

We are now sailing to Hawaii.  We will be visiting Oahu, Maui and Kona before we had back to the US mainland at San Diego.  It is a few minutes before Thanksgiving Day begins in the United States as I write this blog.  In a few hours we will cross the International Date Line and have another Thursday and we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day a few hours later than our fellow citizens on the continental US.  I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to see many different aspects of life in Asia, Australia and the South Pacific on this trip.  We must all remember that there are many different peoples living the world we share.  It is inappropriate for anyone or any group of people to think that they know or should dictate how other people live their lives.

TPM

I didn’t think walking in front of the Citigroup Centre in Auckland, New Zealand on a rainy, spring Saturday would be particularly interesting today.  My wife and I had concluded two uneventful days in Bay of Islands and Auckland on the north island of New Zealand at around 2:30 pm.  The rain had stopped so I decided to go out for a walk to get some exercise before the all aboard time at 4:30 pm.

As I walked up Queen Street, the main street in Auckland, I saw a group of people marching a couple of blocks ahead.  They turned to my left and began walking down one of the side streets.  Since I had no particular agenda I decided to find out what the demonstration was all about.  The group stopped in front of Citigroup Centre and began a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and anti-US protest.  I watched for a bit and decided to cross the street so I could better see the signs being displayed and hear the speaker standing in the bed of pick-up truck that had stopped in the street in front of the  building.  I watched and listened as about 100 demonstrators and a half a dozen speakers participated in the demonstration.  I have no idea what the name of the organization is that sponsored the event or the names of the people that spoke.  What I can say is that they were pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and anti-US.  I assume that the march and demonstration was caused by the recent escalation of conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  What I didn’t understand is why they were protesting Citigroup!  I looked inside the building through the glass doors and read the list of organizations occupying space in the building.  It took a few seconds to figure out why this was the location of the protest.  There was my answer; the Consulate General of the United States has space in the building.  Somehow the group got access to the building and raised the Palestinian flag on the flag pole.  The group in the street cheered wildly in support of the Palestinians.

Here are some to the highlights of the signs carried by demonstrators and the speeches by the people that spoke to the crowd from the pick-up truck.  These are just a few of the many points the group made concerning the Gaza conflict.  One sign declared that the Palestinians have been the victims of a Holocaust from 1948 to 2012.  The Israelis and the US, by its support of Israel, are guilty of conducting genocide against the Palestinians.  It was stated Israel is a terrorist state.  One speaker called for the Egyptian Army to fully support and defend the Palestinians with its soldiers, tanks and other weapons to take on the Israeli Defense Force.  The group called for a boycott of Israeli goods.  Rocket attacks on Israel by the Palestinians are fully justified since the Palestinians are no match for the Israeli Defense Force war machine and its US armaments.  Hamas was not mentioned by name.  The speakers simply called them the elected government of the Palestinians, which they are.   From the perspective of the demonstrators they rocket attacks on Israel are fully justified due to the actions of Israel’s government.  According to the demonstrators the Palestinians are innocents in the conflict.  The rally concluded with a number of participants throwing shoes at the building and landing many of them on top of the roof of the entry to the building.

I saw several people with video cameras recording the demonstration.  Many people were taking photographs.  There may be a video of the event or highlights on YouTube, but I have no idea who was taking the videos.  I may have been the only American that witnessed the event live.  It did not appear that other cruisers or tourists were watching.  It appeared that everyone watching was local.  The local police were watching the demonstration.  It was peaceful so there was no reason for them to take any action.  As I left the area to continue my walk the leaders of the protest appeared to be conducting interviews or having discussions with various people.  New Zealand demonstrated it supports freedom of speech and assembly and the protest  group took advantage of those freedoms to express their views.

I didn’t expect my report on New Zealand to focus on the events of less than one hour after my wife and I had spent two days enjoying the natural beauty of the north island and getting some understanding of New Zealand’s history and culture.  What will stick in my mind was the very anti-US statements made by a small group of demonstrators in front of Auckland’s Citigroup Centre on a rainy November Saturday afternoon.

TPM

We just completed the final stop in our 5 port visit to Australia.  We started in Darwin, a small city of about 110.000 people in northwest Australia.  After visiting Darwin we sailed east along the north coast of Australia.  Our second port of call was Hamilton Island, a resort off the northeast coast.  After a short visit we sailed to the south to visit Brisbane, a city of over 2 million people, on the east coast.  Our next stop was Sydney, further south from Brisbane on the east coast.  We spent two full days in Australia’s largest city.  Our final stop was the small town of Eden on the southeast coast.  Each of our ports of call was interesting in its own way and gave us some of the unique flavor of the land down under.

Darwin was featured in the movie Australia a few years ago.  After visiting the city and seeing some of the older buildings and World War II memorial, I understand the history of Darwin much better.  Two major events have occurred in Darwin since its founding, the Japanese air raid a couple months after Pearl Harbor and Cyclone Tracy, which essentially destroyed the city a number of years ago.  Darwin is essentially a new city.  While we didn’t get a close look at its major harbor expansion construction activity, we were advised that billions of dollars are being spent to increase Darwin’s natural resource exports.  For example the Japanese are making huge investments to increase Darwin’s liquefied natural gas export capacity.  Northwest Australia has a very low population density.  It was very hot and humid on a spring day.  Darwin’s wet season was just about to begin.

Hamilton Island was a nice family resort.  Our day in port occurred simultaneously with the US presidential election results.  I wasn’t very interested in looking at Hamilton Island when the election was at stake.  Our visit was brief.  After the election results became clear it was time to get some sun onboard ship and just relax and begin preparing for four more years of Obama as President and the continuation of a divided government.

I really enjoyed Brisbane.  I was asleep when we cruised up the Brisbane River to our dock.  I woke to find a wonderful city all around us.  Brisbane and the state of Queensland experienced horrible flooding in January 2011.  There was no evidence of damage that I was able to see.  We did see a couple of markers indicating the height of the flood waters.  The damage had been all cleaned up.  Brisbane appears to be a very wealthy city.  The Brisbane City Council has made many major investments in public parks and building over the years and turned old dock areas into wonderful residential districts.   The city was beautiful.

Late in the evening we sailed down the Brisbane River back to the ocean.  I had the opportunity to see the massive port and petrochemical processing facilities that must be the economic engine of Brisbane.  It was almost midnight and a bit chilly out on deck as we sailed by incredible numbers of what appeared to be petrochemical storage tanks.  The industrial heart of Brisbane was physically separated from its residential and general business district.  Brisbane is an example to the world of how to combine major industrial operations with a beautiful city.

I don’t know what to say about Sydney other than it might be the most beautiful city in the world.  My wife and I were awestruck by Sydney’s unique blend of historic buildings, giant skyscrapers, gardens and parks.  We spent most of our time in the downtown city area but we visited the Sydney Tower to get a good look at the entire metropolitan area.  The entire harbor area is magnificent.  I really enjoyed “The Rocks” area of Sydney.  “The Rocks” is the original city area that has been repurposed into primarily a residential and shopping area.  I loved the time we spent walking through and around “The Rocks”.  We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House.  We walked across the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  I could go on and on about Sydney.  If you like coastal cities, Sydney are a place you must visit.  It is magnificent.

Eden is a small coastal town that was once a place where whalers hunted whales.  It is very tranquil.  The townspeople were very friendly.   It was an unseasonably cool day.  It is a place one should go if you just want to get away, relax and look at the ocean.I really enjoyed my first extended visit to Australia.  Everyone we met was extremely friendly and helpful.  I hope to return to Australia before too long and visit more of Australia’s great cities and the Outback.

We are now on our way to New Zealand. 

TPM

We are cruising off the coast of Northeast Australia in the late evening of Tuesday, November 6.  In the United States election day has begun in the eastern US states.  However, many people voted absentee as we did or used early voting opportunities to cast their votes.   So many of us have already participated. 

I wish I could write that this Presidential election was the most important of our life time.  Unfortunately, I don't believe that is true.  The reason is the neither candidate is willing to talk about or propose the massive restructuring of the US government and its various programs that is required.  The Tea Party and the Fix the Debt groups have addressed the huge fiscal issues we face to some degree but nobody in a position of real power has stepped forward to offer the massive restructuring program that is necessary.  Massive restructuring will be painful to many people.  It will happen at some time, one way or another.  To think a major restructuring can be avoided by making short term counterproductive decisions is insane.   It is far better to have a controlled restructuring than an uncontrolled restructuring.  There are many examples of this type of situation in the history of the world.  Bad things happen when massive government restructuring occurs.

I hope Mitt Romney is elected because he is clearly is the most qualified for the job that is required.  However, even if he is elected there is no guarantee that he will address the fiscal issues with a rational approach.  Politicians don't like creating pain for voters.  It is really tough to vote in a Presidential election when you don't think the Presidential candidates are really committed to steer the nation on a course that is needed to avert the huge fiscal issues that are coming. 

We all have to make a decision on who to vote for and then make subsequent decisions based on what actually happens.  We need to hope for the best and prepare for a future that may not be the best.  I wish all US citizens good luck today.  We will need it.

TPM

We just completed three days of "visiting" Indonesia.  We had a glimpse into the culture of the large island nation.  It is extremely difficult to make any broad conclusions from the limited amount we observed but we did see some things that are worth reporting.

Our three days were spent on three of the Republic of Indonesia's 17,508 islands.  We also saw many very small Islands in our travels in the seas, bays and straits that surround the islands.  We spent the first day in central Java after docking at the port of Semarang on the north shore.  We were a couple of degrees south of the equator.  Our second stop was Lembar on Lombok, part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands.  Our third stop was in Slawi Bay so we could visit the Komodo dragons in Komodo National Park on Komodo Island.

We got our first glimpses of Indonesia a few minutes after we left the harbor in Singapore.  It is a 45 minute ferry ride from our pier in Singapore to the nearest Indonesian islands.  Indonesia exports natural gas to Singapore via underwater gas pipelines.  We were told about 80 percent of Singapore's power is generated from power plants burning natural gas imported from Indonesia.  We saw a number of natural gas production wells along the coast lines of Indonesia as we made our way from Singapore to Semarang.  We also saw a small number of small LNG tankers waiting offshore.   We didn't get any details on the scope of Indonesia's natural gas industry but it appears it is fairly robust.

I had never heard of Semarang before visiting the city on this trip.  There was a good sized modern port built on reclaimed land.  We docked in an area with a couple of container ships.   The original Dutch colonial part of the port was estimated to be a couple of miles from our port location.  The Indonesian's made a significant investment in the development of the port to meet their need to support modern shipping.

We traveled from the north coast of central Java to the south central part of the island.  We saw a few modern buildings and what appeared to be a couple of small areas of upper middle class houses.  We saw slums in the city and small towns and very primitive housing in the villages.  We saw many small shops of all kinds that ranged from reasonably nice to tin shacks that appeared not to be busy.  We visited a historic Buddhist temple complex that was very well maintained.  We saw lots and lots of agriculture throughout the day.  There were rice fields everywhere and many fish farms.  It certainly appeared that the people of Java would be well fed by their own agricultural production along with their fishing fleet.

The island of Lombok was another step down in terms of development.  We had to use our cruise ships small boats to get to the pier using a tendering operation.  There were no facilities in place to support our ship.  The best thing I can say about Lombok is they appear to have a very productive agriculture industry.  We saw huge amounts of rice paddies, corn fields, fish farms and many other agriculture production areas.  It appears that the people can easily feed themselves.

We went to a historic temple complex that was in very bad shape.  The one English language sign at the entrance was almost completely covered in rust.  The complex was full of vendors and trash was everywhere.  This place could have very nice if anyone cared enough about it to provide a reasonable level of maintenance.

We had lunch at a seaside "resort" restaurant.  The Indonesian food was very good.  The resort compound was surrounded by a wall.  We ate on the lawn by the pool in the back of the resort.  Vendors hawking all kinds local stuff peered over the wall and watched us have lunch and tried to get us to come over and buy some of their stuff.  I have to give credit to the local people regarding their energy in trying to sell souvenirs to our tour groups throughout the day.

We got a few glimpses and a bit of information about the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia.   But we didn't get enough information to draw any conclusions about any aspect of the colonial period.

We saw four Komodo dragons on Komodo Island.  It was hot, humid, and dusty at the end of its dry season.  I was very surprised.  I thought the place would be very tropical.  The climate was more like Southern California or the hottest parts of the Mediterranean.  There were a little over a thousand villagers living near the National Park living a subsistence lifestyle.  One of the tour groups visited the village today and a Komodo dragon decided to visit the village.  The dragon turned around and left after the local kids threw rocks at it.  There are no fences or pens at this national park.  The entire island is open for the dragons and the other animals that live there to roam.

We did see a few new buildings under construction at our first two locations with bamboo scaffolding on every one.  Everywhere we went in Indonesia we saw new or recently built Islam mosques.  There isn't a lot of money to build many new buildings in the places we visited but every city, town and some villages have mosques rising above all other buildings in the town.  Islam is alive and well in Indonesia.  There are some Buddhists, Hindus and Christians in the places we visited but Islam is the dominant religion.

Indonesia is a large and complex nation.  We got a few glimpses of it over three days.  I am not sure if I want to see any more.  But, many people believe the Indonesian island of Bali is the most beautiful place in the world.  However, there are large numbers of Indonesians that have left their country to live and work in the Middle East, Malaysia and on cruise ships because living is so difficult in Indonesia.

Sailing on to Darwin, Australia

TPM