Traveling across the globe with good friends and the Gazette

Joe and Karen Wilkens, Maori Chieftain, and Chris and Jim Blake - faithful Cape Gazette readers - receive a warm welcome after finally arriving in Tauranga, New Zealand. Their trip began with a relaxing week on Trinity Beach in Cairns, Australia, where they enjoyed day trips to the Daintree Rainforest, one of the oldest rainforests in the world, and they dined on kangaroo pie and crocodile sausage. In Port Douglas, they snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef. After boarding the Viking Orion in Sydney, stops were made in Melbourne at the infamous Bondi Beach and Hobart. They sailed the Tasmanian Sea to New Zealand. In Dunedin, they got to see yellow-eyed penguins, rare blue penguins, New Zealand fur seals and albatross. The highlight of the trip was when they arrived in Tauranga. It was an incredible experience to witness the culture of the Maori People, Polynesians who migrated there 1300 years ago, who are peace-loving people in spite of their intimidating appearance in their welcoming ceremony. And for Maori, no matter how much traveling they were doing, he finally had the opportunity to get his hands on a recent edition of the Gazette.