New Zealand
My cruise ship makes stops at a few working ports not usually home to passenger cruise lines, they're far more practical and industrial and not at all g lammed up for visitors like the cruise terminals are. At most of the working ports you'll see shipping containers stacked high in primary colours with speckled rust across the obnoxious corperate branding. There's a constant hum of machinery and giant cranes moving overhead that feel unsettling to walk beneath. Not the most pleasant start for visiting a new place. Here in New Zealand the working ports are mostly used for timber transportation and the first view sets the scene for these ports perfectly. Without stepping off the ship you can already smell the newly chopped wood and fresh mountain air, as you walk down the ramp to the dock you start to see logs stacked high at an impressive scale and variety, but still completely dwarfed by a backdrop of mountains that stretch the horizon. Trees, mountains a...