Cruising Capetown

April 7-9, 2013 Capetown, South Africa

the crazy road along the coast

Today we were in Capetown, South Africa.  We went on a Cape of Good Hope tour.  This took us to the point that is the furthest south and west that you can get on the continent of Africa.  We passed the point that is the most southern in Africa during the previous night. 
Our drive was a long one on a zig sagging and high road.  It went down the coast. 

the funicular at cape point

 

 

 

 

At the Cape , we took a funicular, a type of train, up to the top lookout.  We also climbed up to the old lighthouse. 

 

african penguin

Next we went to the Boulder Bay where they have African penguins.  We walked along a wooden boardwalk out to where the penguins nest by the ocean.  We saw a lot of African penguins.  We even saw some babies and eggs.  I saw one swimming in the ocean.  It was cool to see the penguins.

see the egg

 

 

 

After lunch, I bought an African instrument called a marimba.  It is played with your thumbs and has a hole like a guitar.   It is made out of a coconut. 



lazy cheetah

 

 

On our second day we did something really exciting.  We went to a cheetah reserve.  We saw about a dozen cheetahs here.  They are trying to help save the cheetahs. 



me petting the cub

Mom & I did a cub encounter.  This means we got to go in a pen with 2 baby cheetahs.  They are 9 months old and have been here since they were 1 month old.  We got to pet them on their sides and backs.  You cannot touch their tails.  They wouldn’t really settle for a photo op because it was rainy and cool.  Normally when it is warm they are laying about. 

beautiful cheetah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a macaroni penguin

In the afternoon we went to an aquarium.  We saw Macaroni penguins, a ton of fish.  We also saw a huge eel.  They also had a great white shark there.  It was scary looking. 



me in a tank of clown fish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

great white

 

Our last day in Capetown, we went shopping for souvenirs.  We went to a craft market and I even got a magic set.  We also bought one for Lito, our wine steward, because he like magic a lot. 

napier, new zealand

Sat. Feb 9, 2013.

We were in Napier, NZ today.  This is a town that is Art Deco.  They had lots of cool old cars from the 1920s and 1930s.  There were people dressed in costumes.  They were having a bagpipe contest.  It was like a band contest.  We watched that for a bit.  

Afterwards, we walked down the promenade to the National Aquarium.  We saw a real cool scooter park with ramps like a skateboard park at home.  At the Aquarium we saw a Kiwi.  There were 2 of them, a brother and sister that were hatched there.  They were Northern Brown Kiwi.  There are 4 main  types of kiwi-  large & regular Spotted, Northern & Southern Brown. 

They also had a neat Little Penguin (also known as Little Blue) exhibit.  Many of them are rescues.  Some are missing a flipper and one has a paralyzed right flipper.  Many of the rest were abandoned chicks.  They fed them while we were there.  They are the smallest type of penguin, only about 18 inches.  This is much smaller than the Kings we saw in Auckland, they get to about 38 inches.   We also saw pregnant seahorses and baby seahorses- you could barely see them. 

Tonight’s show was a ventriloquist.  He was funny.  He had a baby puppet, an old man puppet and a crow.  I got to meet him after the show and take a picture.

Auckland New Zealand

Auckland, NZ Feb 5- 7, 2013

We are sailing away from Auckland, New Zealand toward Tauranga, NZ.  We have spent the last 2 days in Auckland.  The native people who live here are called Maori.  We met some today at the Auckland museum.  I took a picture with them- sticking my tongue out.  This is what the Maori do in their war dance- called the Haka.  We found out they carved boats and houses to tell stories to pass down in history because they didn’t have a written language.  We also saw lots of statues and art from the Maori , culture there.   

was i a maori in a past life?

 

Earlier in the day we took a ferry to Devonport.  This is an island in the Auckland harbor.  We walked on the beach and collected shells.

Yesterday, we rode the hop on hop off bus (known as Auckland Explorer bus) to the aquarium.  They had fish of course but they also had penguins and an Antarctic exhibit.  There were stingrays and seahorses too.  The penguins were the best. 

king penguins

 

There was a Gentoo that followed my brochure  wherever I moved it.  If I can post a video later I will show you how funny it was.  They also had King penguins there. 

After this we rode the bus to Parnell Village.  There was a cool shop which sold local crafts.  I got a top shaped like an acorn.  It spins on the top and bottom.  We had a quick bite at the BurgerFuel.

 

 

 

 

sky tower

In the afternoon, we went to the Skytower.  It is taller than the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney tower.  We rode in a glass elevator with a glass bottom panel. You could see down the elevator and out to the sky.  On the observation deck you could stand on a glass floor and I did!  We went up to the top observation too- 722 feet up.  While we were up there people were doing the Sky Walk- walking on a platform outside the building.  People also jump from the tower too.  Mom thinks they are crazy.  Emily, our ship’s librarian did this.

 

 

 

 

At night, on the ship, they had another local show.  This time the Maori came and told their traditional stories. 

The first night we were here, we walked around the harbor.  We saw the America’s Cup yacht, the KZ1 which competed in big sailing race.  There lots of other fancy boats in the habor.

More later.

A day with the birds

1-16-13  General San Martin, Peru.  We went on a tour.  We saw fossils in the desert next to the ocean.  We went on a speed boat to see Humboldt penguins.  We saw 3 types Boobeys, a type of bird.  We saw boobey and penguin chicks.  They were cute and fuzzy.  We also say sea lions, including babies and the big bulls (male ones).  A nice man gave me a shark’s tooth and I bought a sea lion tooth on a  necklace. 

 

 

 

Right now we are on the way to Easter Island- we are at sea for 4 days.

I will post more photos later when we have a better internet connection

Updated with new photos!!!!!!

lots of humboldt penguins

big male sea lion aka bull