I went ashore the next afternoon and had look around Dunedin, we were on the south island with the weather about the same as the south of England. The people were very friendly and were mainly of Scottish descent, there was a statue of Captain Scott of the Antarctic in the town square as this was his last contact with civilisation before his ill-fated expedition in 1912. The drinking laws were the same as Australia which meant that the pubs closed at 6pm, my mates and I overcame this by signing in at an hotel where we could drink as long as we liked, we had a good night but I got the last boat back at midnight as there was nothing to stay ashore for really.
We sailed up the east coast of New Zealand stopping at Wellington but nobody was allowed ashore as we only stayed a few hours, then we sailed up to Napier on the north island where the skipper said we would stay for five days.
Napier was a town which had almost been wrecked by an earthquake in 1934, as we tied up alongside, I was one of the squad who jumped ashore to tie up the ship to the jetty. After she was tied up an oldish couple who had been watching us started to talk to me, they told me their name was Sutherland and they asked me if they would like to bring a friend to tea at their house that evening, of course I agreed and at about 5 o'clock I was piped for and a car was waiting to take my mate Gypsy Lee and myself to the Sutherlands for tea.
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