Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

White Island was a rugged cruise to an active New Zealand volcano in the South Pacific

My cruise ship shore excursion to an active volcano on White Island off the north coast of New Zealand in 2013 was the strangest and most exciting tour of my life. It never was a trip for the queasy or careful.

(This report was updated on December 8, 2019, after the volcano exploded on White Island. My guide from 2013, Hayden Marshall-Inman, was killed.)

David Molyneaux, with gas mask, on White Island

At least one American expert on volcanic activity told me that White Island was highly dangerous. Maybe that’s why some cruise passengers chose to remain above the island, booking a flight-seeing tour offered by several ships.

The report that follows was not a recommendation to fly above or to board a boat to the island on a tour from Whakatane, near New Zealand’s port of Tauranga.

It was written as a tale from a traveler who made the questionable sea journey.

White Island, formed by volcanic eruptions, is a world of gaseous steam and serious acid, where the ground shakes from the Ring of Fire that burns below the rim of the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

A gruntled American cruises in a sea of Chinese on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation

Ovation of the Seas moves its homeport with the seasons in a grand circle, including Tianjin (Beijing’s seaport), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney, Australia. Cruises cater to Chinese passengers when the ship sails from China. 

Congee and condiments await the breakfast crowd in China at Windjammer Marketplace on Ovation of the Seas. (Photos by David G. Molyneaux TheTravelMavens.com)

HONG KONG

Gone was Johnny Rockets, a fast food mainstay of Royal Caribbean cruise ships. So, a meal of burger and fries was difficult to find on the 4,180-passenger Ovation of the Seas during a five-night voyage into the South China Sea.

No problem, however, if your taste runs toward noodles. A new, flashy Kung Fu Panda Noodle Shop was ready for business on the sun deck. 

The Kung Fu Panda Noodle Shop

At the breakfast buffet in the Windjammer Marketplace, congee and its side dishes were spread out over an entire station, accompanied by pickled mustard plant, salted duck eggs, Chinese mud carp, bamboo shoots, pickled tofu and some other items I did not recognize.

Eggs to order?

Not on the breakfast buffet menu, though I learned later during the cruise that such a request was possible during non-peak hours. Pre-cooked fried eggs were piled into a big bowl, because passengers in China do not want to wait for such items to be prepared for them, explained Orlando Rosa, the ship’s food and beverage manager.

At lunch, a lonely American food counter in the Windjammer included some pre-cooked hamburgers, a little lettuce, tomato slices and a platter of French fries getting limper by the minute, as passengers ignored this staple from the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, several decks below, Michael’s Genuine, an American gastropub designed by Miami’s award-winning chef Michael Schwartz, was serving little in the way of pub grub. The most popular item was the daily special at $35 — an ample whole fish, with head and tail, and assorted vegetables in a very spicy Chinese pepper sauce. 

Popular on Chinese cruises for lunch at Michael’s Genuine American gastropub

You get the picture

When Ovation of the Seas cruises in and around China — it is based year-round in Asia or Australia — passengers get a Chinese experience, from food throughout the ship to a second casino added for high rollers that bustled each evening while the vessel’s bars and lounges were empty.

When lunch at a cruise port is a welcome excursion

When you are planning a port day for an upcoming cruise, and are looking to step away from the typical tour paths, consider lunch.

One way to get a feel of a port is to taste it. I look for casual spots that attract locals, have reasonable prices, and menus with regional specialties.

 

Lobster soup in Iceland (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

For cruisers, most meals ashore are lunches, as ships tend to leave port before dinner, though some smaller cruise lines, such as Azamara and Windstar, stay into the evening.

Lunch might not be your focus on an initial port visit, but you may find that such a meal ashore is your best opportunity to meet local residents, to soak in an unfamiliar atmosphere, and perhaps to manage a food order in a foreign language. Yes, you could go back to your ship for a free lunch; there’s always a burger aboard. But where is the travel adventure in that?

Here are recommendations for a special experience at some of my favorite cruise port stops:

Australia's island retreat for lizards and wealthy sailors

Fourth and last in a series from Queensland, Australia

Lizard Island, a beachy piece of the 1,200-mile Great Barrier Reef, is named for its primary inhabitants. They are joined, especially in Australia’s winter, by sailors, fishermen, campers, and other world travelers drawn by the reef's bounty.

Beach at Lizard Island Resort, Australia (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Most of Lizard Island is a national park. Swimmers and sunbathers head to secluded beaches, divers to the inner and outer reefs. The island’s Cod Hole is a dive site known for a dazzling array of tropical fish and the massive Potato Cod.

Two types of island accommodations are worlds apart.

Overnighters -- those without a boat for sleeping -- must carry all their gear to the camping area, which is 3/4s of a mile from the small plane airstrip. No supplies are available to the public. Click for park info.

Where the wealthy gather for a while

Or, if you have some serious folding money in your bank account, you may book a cottage at the famed Lizard Island Resort, which will pick you up at the airstrip, and transport the minimal amount of clothing that you will need, contained in the overnight bag that the plane will allow.

From Daintree to Cooktown, Australia's history and tropical treasures

third in a series from Queensland, Australia

Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia, is a world treasure. Most of the huge park is tropical rainforest, some of which has existed continuously for more than 110 million years. It may be the oldest rainforest on Earth. Some plant and animal species have been found nowhere else on the planet.

Protecting cassowaries

You can book a ride (or rental car) into Daintree from Port Douglas, north of Cairns, but you won’t get through it, toward Cooktown, without a four-wheel drive vehicle, such as those operated by guides from Adventure North.

Over rutted road, through crocodile-infested streams, and across one river on a cable-drawn ferry, an Adventure North guide carefully drove me  and my partner Fran Golden along a coastal road that is impassable in the wettest season.

Cairns, Australia, where crocs keep the beaches empty

second in a series from Queensland, Australia

Much of the land accessible to travelers along the coast in northern Queensland, Australia, lies between Cairns and Cooktown. From Sydney, I flew into Cairns, then made my way north through Daintree National Park.

Ballooning out of Cairns, Australia (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

The primary reason to go to Cairns is to book a snorkeling or diving boat to the Great Barrier Reef, either out of Cairns or nearby Port Douglas to the north, where I ate my first spangled emperor for dinner (look it up). The Reef, at 1,200 miles long, is the world’s largest living organism.

Getting to the outer reef and back by boat takes a full, long day, though there are shorter snorkeling and glass-bottom boat trips to inner portions of the reef. Prices are $80 and up.