Tasmania

Our first cruise together has started. The audience is quite different from the camping site that we are more familiar with. Many things are clearly designed for consumer-oriented travelers who want to make little effort. It is difficult to teach the children about modesty and order when the room service cleans up twice a day and food and shopping options are available around the clock.
There are meetings of all orientations. Care for a selection? "Singles meeting," "Military meeting with the environmental officer," and even "anonymous alcoholics" can come together here. Lovers of all sexual preferences also find suitable counterparts here.
A selection of the offered activities also gives an idea of different interests. "Make your own poi balls" (?), "the art of towel folding," "footprint analysis," "body sculpting training" (?), "lose up to 20cm in one session" (?), "eat more to weigh less" (?), and a few days later you can also find out "what you can do with poi balls" (didactic stock knowledge like in the 60s...)
Anyway, Frederic is playing soccer on the top field, Lennard is crafting during the child care, and we have access to fitness equipment and swimming pools to somewhat compensate for the abundant culinary offerings. Most of the driving is done at night, so that you can participate in completely overpriced excursions during the day. We prefer to organize our own excursions. The savings so far are already in the four-digit range...
A slightly uneasy feeling came over us during the drive along "white island". The smoke clouds testify to the volcanic eruption from 2 weeks ago, in which some tourists lost their lives.
Our first stops in Tauranga (Maori for "resting place for canoes") in the "Bay of Plenty," named by Captain Cook in 1769, brought us beautiful beaches and a magnificent view from Mount Maunganui.
Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and has consistently maintained its 30s architecture, including the corresponding vehicles. The aquarium is not quite as old, but a modernization would do it good. Interestingly, there is an informative room there on the topic of "earthquakes". On the east side of the North Island, the Pacific Plate is subducting under the Australian Plate, and on the west side of the South Island, it is exactly the opposite - no wonder that there are faults at the interface near Christchurch.
In Wellington, the windiest capital in the world, we forgot our money and credit card on the ship, so the children did not get the chance to ride the cable car and had to climb the steep slope to the botanical garden without technical aids.
Akaroa, the oldest town on the South Island, was founded by French settlers. Traditional baguettes are offered in the bakeries, and there are many excursions to the New Zealand Alps and boat trips with the opportunity to observe the little Hector dolphins. The marine mammals love to be pushed through the water by the bow wave, so we always had a few dolphins accompanying us on the journey. To our delight, numerous seals of all sizes also made an appearance.
In contrast, Dunedin was founded by the Scots. The characteristic Scottish house style was supposedly transferred here, which can perhaps be recognized at the train station building. However, a little Scottish tradition is still lived here: bagpipers in the park and there is also a Scottish shop. The colony of breeding albatrosses could only be guessed at from the ship in the hailstorm.
The cruise through Dusky, Doubtful, and Milford Sound is probably even more impressive in bright sunshine, but even so, the steep cliffs, the numerous waterfalls, and the snow-covered peaks are beautiful to look at. Comparable scenery is probably only found in Norway.
The daily routine for the children during the crossing to "down under" is as follows:
Breakfast - kids club - homeschooling - lunch - kids club - pool - dinner - kids club - sleep. Paradise conditions for the whole family.
In Hobart, our first stop in Tasmania, there is an extremely unusual museum that was built by an autistic person. He made a lot of money by counting cards in casinos until he understandably received bans everywhere. He then taught other players to count cards and received shares of their winnings in return...
In New Zealand, rat-like mammals are hunted as potential kiwi predators, while in Australia, the "Tasmanian devil" has been chosen as a protected creature and is raised in similar conservation centers as the kiwi in NZ. In the Bonorong Wildlife Centre in Hobart, injured animals are cared for until they can be released. An information leaflet stated that when checking on injured animals, you should always look in the pouch to see if there might still be offspring to save...
Short, challenging mountain tour up Mount Wellington through rainforest, pine forests, and scree. Magnificent view, but freezing wind.
The family fireworks for New Year's Eve already took place at 9:30 p.m., so we didn't have to torture the kids to stay up until midnight.
Since the bushfires in New South Wales are now completely out of control, our stopover in Eden was ironically replaced by Burnie in northern Tasmania. The penguins living on the beach there are out hunting in the sea during the day, but a few of them have stayed in their burrows and occasionally peek out.
On the drive along the coast towards Sydney, you can see the smoke plumes. An area the size of the Netherlands has been destroyed so far. Actually, we were planning to drive to this region with the rented motorhome from January 6th, so we will have to adjust our travel plans accordingly and head north.