Alice and I did visit here last year on Celebrity, so we knew what to expect. We decided to take the free shuttle from the tender pier to Paihia. This was just a 5 minute ride. The town has not changed much. Next to the shuttle stop was the tourist info office. Across the street was the local craft market that goes up on cruise days. We enjoyed this last year, so we headed straight for it. All of the products must be made by the vendor. No China imports here.
The first stall was a maker of New Zealand jade jewelry. We had helped the economy last year, so we we just scanned the tables as we walked by. Passing knit wares, leather bags, drawings and more jewelry, we arrived at a booth of handmade glass beads and jewelry. This lady makes all of the beads herself. Then she selects certain beads to make pendants and bracelets. Her work was very attractive, and we started talking with her. What a fascinating lady.
In the course of our conversation she mentioned that she had been in Scotland last summer. As we looked at her wares I asked if she had family there. We'll sort of she said. Her daughter and her husband teach people how to do ocean cruising by taking them across oceans on their boat for a fee to learn the ropes. This sounded familiar to me from ads in Cruising World. Sure enough, when I asked her daughter's name, she told us she s Amanda Swan Neil. The very person I have read about. This opened the floodgates and we talked for about 45 minutes.
This lady, Lindsey, and her husband have sailed around the world. This is how Amanda developed her skills and love of the sea. Lindsey used to quilt onboard. She has an attic full of them. Then she started the bead hobby during her time ashore. Now she does it all the time. We did buy a necklace and Lindsey made earnings to match as we waited. All reasonably priced. These are a perfect remembrance of a beautiful lady and her many stories.
We finished the craft market, and headed to the library for their free internet. The result was the same as last year. Logging in was a breeze, but because so many people were trying to use it the speed was worse than on he ship.
Our next stop was the craft hall. As we walked in we were greeted by the lady at the stall right next to the door. We had visited with her at some length last year. Again, we talked at some length. We have all had an interesting year.
Moving on we quickly surveyed the other offerings. At the last table we encountered an elderly woman who sold jewelry made using paper beads she made. We had also seen her last year.
This was fortuitous because Alice had done a craft on the ship to make paper beads to use to make a necklace and earrings. It was a disaster. The beads were made by wetting and wrapping self adhesive wallpaper around a skewer. When dried the beads were to be varnished, removed from the skewers and strung as a necklace. Fine plan, but the wallpaper adhered to the skewers. After much soaking and forcing we finally got enough beads to finish the project three days later. We asked the bead lady what her secret was. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bead roller. She showed us how to use it. The metal end of the tool has a slot for inserting the paper strip. After two wraps she applied Modge Podge to the paper and quickly rolled it up. Then she took it from the tool and slid it onto a knitting needle to dry. Her next tip was to cut a potato in half and stick the needles into the rounded side. Now you have stand to use for applying the varnish spray.
We will look for the bead roller at home. Using her techniques will make future projects a breeze. We left her happy to have been of help as long as we don't compete with her. We all smiled.
Now we walked into the neighborhood before returning to the retail district. We walked along the shore, and it started to rain. We ducked into the gift shop at the ferry pier. By the time we made it around the aisles the rain had stopped. We went to the ferry office to check the schedule for the ferry to Russel. We were disappointed to see that in order to catch the last tender to the ship we would only have an hour in Russel. We were glad we had done this last year.
We returned to Amsterdam with time to relax before sailing away. This was a happy return visit.
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