New Zealand and Australia November 2016

We were going on this cruise/trip by ourselves, then, Cathy's sister Nancy and her husband Mike decided to join us. We booked our trips separately, but, ended up in cabins right next to each other. On top of that, when we were on the flight out of SF, they ended up in the seats right in front of us. How amazing is that!

We left Atlanta on Nov 5. Flew to SF for a 13-hour flight to Auckland. We arrived in Auckland on the 7th, 2 days later due to the international date line. We couldn’t check into the hotel till later in the day, so, never ones to sit around, we went to the wharf on Quay St and the Auckland Maritime Museum.

While  in the  Museum, unbeknownst  to us, Nancy and Mike, who were staying at a different hotel, arrived at the Museum. We never saw them till the next day on the ship. The Museum contained maritime items from early settlers  up to Sir Pete Blake’s, America’s  Cup  winning yacht, Blue Water Black Magic.

Later in the afternoon, our New Zealand  friends, Neal and Megan and their son Hunter invited us to dinner. We has a great home cooked meal with mussels and lamb. It was great catching up with Neal, our adventure racing friend who moved back to NZ a few years ago.

The next day, Neal and Megan took us on a mini-tour of Auckland. We climbed Mt. Eden for a panoramic view of the city. We could see both the east and west coast of NZ from the top.

From there we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Wintergarden. The Museum had very interesting sections about early settlers and NZ's participation in the 2 world wars.

Neal had a tennis match that afternoon, so, Megan dropped us off at Queen’s Wharf for our cruise on the Holland America, Noordam. Noordam  holds almost 2k passengers and crew of about 800. Even so, boarding went quickly.

The first port on our cruise was Tauranga. We climbed Mt. Mauao and ended up walking 12 miles around the town and the mountain.

We were back in time to play trivia. We played twice a day on this cruise. Lost that one by tie-breaker.

The next day we were in Napier/Hawkes Bay. We climbed up to Bluff Hill Overlook, a much longer hike than we thought.

At the top, one of the locals told us of a short cut back, so, we at the bottom in a jiffy. On the way down, we discovered Centennial Park with a nice waterfall and gardens.

Day 3 we were in Wellington, the capital of NZ. Mike and Nancy spent the day with us. After disembarking we walked  to old St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. The Cathedral is completely made from wood and is now only used for weddings and tourists.

From there we went to the Beehive and Parliament Building. Across the street from there was the old Government Building, the 2^nd largest wooden building in the world, built in 1876.

From there it was a walk to the Wellington Cable Car, which transports people 120 meters above the city. It was a cloudy day, so, the view was not very good.  

Then we walked down the hill to the Botanical Gardens. Very nicely laid out, using the natural hills, rocks, trees, streams and waterfalls for a beautiful display of nature.

Our last stop of the day before returning to the ship was the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has an  amazing, recently opened exhibit on Gallipoli. The other interesting sections were the exhibits on the original settlers of New Zealand .

Picton would have been a nice port if it hadn’t rained and was very windy. We spent most of the day doing stuff on board the ship.

Akoroa was a very nice village, one of our favorite places on this cruise. We took the tenders to the dock. Flowers were everywhere. We went to Sunday mass at St Patrick’s Catholic Church.

We bought some New Zealand rocks at a shop with rocks and minerals from around the world. From there we went to Giant’s House, an amazing place built by Josie Martin over the last 20 years. The entire gardens are done in mosaic. We saw Jan, the Activity Director from the ship here. One of our New Zealand highlights.

We also visited the lighthouse.

Our last day in NZ was in Port Chalmers/Dunedin. We had to take a bus from the port to city center. Since it was a rainy day, we also took a bus tour of the city. The tour started at the city center, the Octagon.

The tour took us all over town to historic sights, views of the city from the hills and around the bay.

After the tour, we went to the Otago Settlers Museum and the Chinese Gardens.

The next day we were cruising through Fiordland National Park with the highlight through Milford Sound. The weather was perfect for the Sound cruise. There was a heavy rain before we arrived, so, all the waterfalls were running. There are only two permanent waterfalls in the Sound.

Viewings the sights is not the only thing we do on cruises. We participate in all the competitive  events we can. So far, we have won team trivia twice, name that movie and a scavenger hunt once each. With three of the next four days sea days, there will be many opportunities for other events.

We made the best of two sea days on the way to Australia. Some people like sea days. Sea days are not our reason to be on a cruise. The fewer the better for us. The first day at sea had rough weather, even outside decks were closed. Everyone was walking around like they were drunk and holding on to the railings. Many people did not show for dinner or other events due to the rough seas. One person told us it was their roughest day in 12 years of cruising. Swells were 15-20 ft. We kept up with our usual activities though, finishing up the night at the disco. Even though there was a lot of movement of the ship,. it wasn't helpful for our dancing. We still closed down the disco as we did every night.

Earlier that  night, for the third night in a row, we won trivia. It took a few days to find some good teammates, but, we ended up with a strong team.

We usually ate dinner with Mike and Nancy about 8pm. After dinner we'd go to the show. Some were better than others, but, it was always entertaining watching Nancy fall asleep, no matter the show.

After traversing the rough Tasmanian Sea we were in Australia. Melbourne, our 1st stop, ended up being a shorter day because of some new immigration requirement. By the time we got on the bus into town with Mike and Nancy, we only had five hours before we had to go back to the ship. We walked around Federal Square and took pictures of some of the historical buildings.

From there we took the tram to the massive Queen Victoria Market.

By  the way Melbourne  has the largest tram system in the world. From there we went to the Melbourne Museum. The natural history part, especially, through fossils and rocks and minerals were exceptional. Then we rode the tram on the city circle to see more sights and back to the ship.

We went right by Tasmania two days earlier, but, returned to it this day, docking in Burnie. Things were pretty spread out for walking, so, we took the hop-on hop-off bus. We went to the city overlook.

From there we went to the Ema Valley Rhododendron Garden. It is completely run by volunteers and is the only place with every species of Rhododendron  in the world.

From there we went to Fern Glade Nature Preserve to look for platypus  and wallabies. We saw a platypus and missed a few wallabies.  We will have opportunities to see more.

That night we won trivia for the 5^th time! The next day, was our last sea day. We won afternoon trivia for the first time and our 6^th time overall.

Eden was our last port before disembarking in Sydney. It was another small port with not much going on. We went to the Killer Whale Museum and walked by the cliffs and beach.

This was our longest cruise and we weren’t sure about being on ship that many days. It went fast though and we really enjoyed the trip. We have already booked longer in the future. In the 14 days we traveled a total of 3192 nautical miles, about 3670 regular miles.

Our first day in Sydney started with a hour wait for a taxi after disembarking. The good news was when we arrived at our hotel at 10am, our rooms were ready. The 4 of us were in the same hotel.

We dumped our bags and went for a 6-hour, 10 plus mile walk down by the water. We walked around Wooloomooloo Bay and the naval base.

From there we walked through the Botanical Gardens to Mrs. McMacquaries Chair, where we got our 1^st view of the Sydney Opera  House.

From there we went to the Opera House, ate lunch and walked around the Circular Quay.

Then we went on the bridge walk. Lots of noise from all the cars but great view.

After that we walked through the Rocks. By then Zach's Achilles were screaming and we took the most direct route back to the hotel to end our day.

The next day, there was a forecast of afternoon showers, so, we rode the ferry to the 100-year old Tarongo Zoo in the morning. Great Zoo with great view of city.

From the zoo we went on the ferry to Darling Harbour. About the time we arrived at Darling Harbour the rain started. The rain was on and off for the next two hours. Unfortunately, as we were walking  through the Botanical Gardens to the Art Gallery of New South Wales the rain started up again.

We arrived at the AGNSW later than expected, but it was open till 10am on Wednesdays, so, no worries. We enjoyed several hours there before returning to our hotel.

Our last day in Sidney, we met Nancy and Mikes friends, now our friends, Murray and Marg. We walked all over downtown Sydney. We met at the Town Hall.

From there we went to Queen Victoria Building, the old rail station, now the Christmas building.

From there we went to the Sydney Tower for our “Thanksgiving  Buffet”. No turkey but kangaroo  on the menu, exactly what Zach wanted for Thanksgiving . The Sunday after we got home, Cathy did cook a Turkey! (She likes it better than Kangaroo)

After that we stopped at St Mary Catholic Cathedral.

We ended the day at the Australian Museum. Then back to our hotel for drinks.

The next day it was back to the USA.