We were informed yesterday today’s visit to Napier was cancelled because of a forthcoming storm system with high winds and seas that prevent tendering from the ship to shore. At breakfast time from our room it was not particularly bumpy and the waves looked rather large, but when on Deck 2 and eating breakfast we were closer to the 40ft waves! At 10:00 a.m. we had made good progress along the coast and the winds had dropped to 32 m.p.h. with a temperature of 14C.
An idea of what we could have seen in Napier is provided by an 19th century guide book, “Explorations around the Coast of New Zealand”. “New Zealand is the tourist paradise. From north to south it is the land of mountain, lake and river. Both islands are for the most part of little breadth and are intersected by a great backbone of mountainous ranges. Napier is the principal town and can be reached by rail or sea. As the steamer sails up the bay the town stretches along the shingly beach and behind it the hills. The port cannot receive the larger vessels.” Hence the tendering needed from ships like ours.
As the day closed the wind eased though we are in the Southern Ocean Oscillation Zone, where the former surrounds Antarctica and meets three of the other oceans producing frequent storms.
