March 22, 2014. Auckland, New Zealand. The Solstice.

At breakfast I ordered a long black for me and a flat black for Ken. I did not bat an eye, now did I stumble. Once I ordered a tall black. Jurden reminded me that in New Zealand, a tall black is a basketball player, while a long black is a cup of coffee, so in the month I have been here, I have become a Kiwi. Their rugby team is called the All Blacks, after their uniforms, so named by the media in 1920 when they won the world cup of rugby. Now, all their teams have something black, the baseball team the Black Caps etc. etc. Every where in New Zealand there are public toilets which are clean and always supplied with toilet paper. That tells you the state of the country. It is clean and orderly. The people are energetic, hard working and pleasant. On Thursday, Gill and I were standing looking at a building, trying to figure it out when a lady stopped to ask if we needed help. This incident had occurred twenty times sine our stay in New Zealand. People help each other. Now we board the Solstice to see the country from the sea, just as Captain Cook did years ago. From the ground, New Zealand is a beautiful country. Now we will see it from the water.