Our position at noon today. The South Pacific was a little rough again last night but by noon it is starting to smooth out a bit. Sunny skies and 79 degrees up on pool deck. I think I said our next destination was Auckland but it is actually the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand. We will be at anchor there Saturday morning at 8:00am. Another sea day tomorrow enroute there.
BACKGROUND INFO:
Before we arrive in New Zealand, I think I should give you a short anthropology course about the Maori people. They are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand who arrived from eastern Polynesia in several waves of canoes in the 13th century. During the next few centuries the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture that became known as “Maori”, with their own language. They formed tribal groups which fought each other, practiced cannibalism, and built some of the largest war canoes ever.
European settlement of New Zealand began in the mid 1600’s with the arrival of Captain James Cook and others. Unfortunately, some of the early Europeans ended up on the Maori’s dinner menu. European and American whalers and sealers came in the 1780’s and many Maori became crew on these whaling/sealing ships. Muskets were introduced in the first half of the 1800’s and resulted in some very bloody intertribal warfare called the “Musket Wars”. It is believed that half of the 100,000 Maori at the time were killed. At the same time, diseases such as, measles, small pox, and the flu brought from Europe killed 10% to 50% of the Maori. The census of 1896 showed 42,000 Maori. Back then only 40% of all female children died before the age of one. The population level gradually stabilized and began to recover so the 1936 census showed 82,000 Maori.In the 2013 census, there were about 600,000 Maori making up 15% of the New Zealand population. They still face significant economic challenges, with lower life expectancy and incomes. They suffer higher levels of crime, health issues, and educational under-achievement.
A unique part of the culture of the Maori is their use of permanent body and face markings (tattoos) called “Ta moko” for both men and women. Receiving moko between childhood and adulthood was an important milestone and accompanied many rites and rituals. It was a definite status symbol to have tattoos.
Another unique part of their culture is the haka dances. The haka is a traditional war cry, dance, or challenge of the Maori which were performed before a battle. It was to invoke the God of war and to frighten the enemy. It involves fierce facial expressions, and grimaces, poking out of the tongue, eye bulging, grunts, cries, and the waving of weapons. Today they are performed for various reasons including putting on a cultural show for us tourists. We have seen these performed on other Pacific islands during our travels, and believe me, it’s pretty darn scary. I know we will be seeing this during our time in New Zealand.
I hope this will help you understand and appreciate early New Zealand history and some of what we will be experiencing during our 8 days of visiting New Zealand. This will be our first visit here and really looking forward to it. Our friends who have traveled here extensively say it is incredibly beautiful and the people are super friendly. I am looking forward to sharing our adventure here with you.
WHAT WE DID TODAY:
Good news to report. Rebecca says she is much better today and can breathe, smell, and taste again. Still coughing some though. My lower neck still a problem but hopefully time will help it.
I tried to call my parents today but satellite coverage not allowing phone service off the ship. The internet is also very slow and uploading photos takes forever. At least email is working.
At noon today Chef Michael and his galley team set up a buffet inside the galley. You walk through the galley where lots of different foods are presented for photos and dining. Rebecca and I walked though and just took photos. I will attempt to put them on tomorrow's blog post. Maybe internet will be better then.
I am having my hair cut later this afternoon up in the Canyon Ranch spa. Rebecca had hers cut there the other day and cost her $92. Think mine will cost $38. Yikes!!
This evening we will be dining with the Parsons in Compass Rose. Tonight's headliner show is featuring a comedian, Dan Chopin.
BACKGROUND INFO:
Before we arrive in New Zealand, I think I should give you a short anthropology course about the Maori people. They are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand who arrived from eastern Polynesia in several waves of canoes in the 13th century. During the next few centuries the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture that became known as “Maori”, with their own language. They formed tribal groups which fought each other, practiced cannibalism, and built some of the largest war canoes ever.
European settlement of New Zealand began in the mid 1600’s with the arrival of Captain James Cook and others. Unfortunately, some of the early Europeans ended up on the Maori’s dinner menu. European and American whalers and sealers came in the 1780’s and many Maori became crew on these whaling/sealing ships. Muskets were introduced in the first half of the 1800’s and resulted in some very bloody intertribal warfare called the “Musket Wars”. It is believed that half of the 100,000 Maori at the time were killed. At the same time, diseases such as, measles, small pox, and the flu brought from Europe killed 10% to 50% of the Maori. The census of 1896 showed 42,000 Maori. Back then only 40% of all female children died before the age of one. The population level gradually stabilized and began to recover so the 1936 census showed 82,000 Maori.In the 2013 census, there were about 600,000 Maori making up 15% of the New Zealand population. They still face significant economic challenges, with lower life expectancy and incomes. They suffer higher levels of crime, health issues, and educational under-achievement.
A unique part of the culture of the Maori is their use of permanent body and face markings (tattoos) called “Ta moko” for both men and women. Receiving moko between childhood and adulthood was an important milestone and accompanied many rites and rituals. It was a definite status symbol to have tattoos.
Another unique part of their culture is the haka dances. The haka is a traditional war cry, dance, or challenge of the Maori which were performed before a battle. It was to invoke the God of war and to frighten the enemy. It involves fierce facial expressions, and grimaces, poking out of the tongue, eye bulging, grunts, cries, and the waving of weapons. Today they are performed for various reasons including putting on a cultural show for us tourists. We have seen these performed on other Pacific islands during our travels, and believe me, it’s pretty darn scary. I know we will be seeing this during our time in New Zealand.
I hope this will help you understand and appreciate early New Zealand history and some of what we will be experiencing during our 8 days of visiting New Zealand. This will be our first visit here and really looking forward to it. Our friends who have traveled here extensively say it is incredibly beautiful and the people are super friendly. I am looking forward to sharing our adventure here with you.
WHAT WE DID TODAY:
Good news to report. Rebecca says she is much better today and can breathe, smell, and taste again. Still coughing some though. My lower neck still a problem but hopefully time will help it.
I tried to call my parents today but satellite coverage not allowing phone service off the ship. The internet is also very slow and uploading photos takes forever. At least email is working.
At noon today Chef Michael and his galley team set up a buffet inside the galley. You walk through the galley where lots of different foods are presented for photos and dining. Rebecca and I walked though and just took photos. I will attempt to put them on tomorrow's blog post. Maybe internet will be better then.
I am having my hair cut later this afternoon up in the Canyon Ranch spa. Rebecca had hers cut there the other day and cost her $92. Think mine will cost $38. Yikes!!
This evening we will be dining with the Parsons in Compass Rose. Tonight's headliner show is featuring a comedian, Dan Chopin.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.