I know, you are probably fed up with the weather comments, but today was awful once again! When it wasn’t raining the clouds were low and now we are out at sea the fog horn is sounding it’s mournful note!

We spent about an hour in each Sound, and they would have been fantastic in the sun. The waterfalls were everywhere and some of them rather noisy with the amount of water rushing over the rocks. We had a 2-hour transit between Dusky and Doubtful and then 3 hours on to Milford. We stopped in the middle of the bay at the end of Milford Sound to collect passengers who had done an overnight tour and then the ship did a 360 degree turn to allow everyone another view and then another 180 degrees to head back out of the Sound and into the Tasman Sea.

2 more days of cruising and then Sydney.

Lots of go today. Watched the clever manoeuvring once again of docking. The ship turned 180 degrees, reversed into our spot and then sideways to meet the dock without feeling it at all.

Had some breakfast and then left the ship about 9 (in the rain!!!!) to wander into Port Chalmers. Very nicely, just across the main road, there was an indoor market place full of home-made crafts and related items. Some amazing and beautiful stuff.

Came back to the ship as it was still raining and I had a 11.15 meet (originally at 9 am) for a tour. Well, we waited and waited (in the rain). Apparently because the train (for another tour) ‘parks’ in front of the bus parking area, the bus can’t get out until the train leaves, which meant they ran late, and so my bus was delayed 35 minutes.

I did a wildlife cruise in Otago Harbour which was great. Lots of cormorants and gulls, terns and swans, little blue penguins kept popping up for a look (they have all been microchipped), NZ fur seals and albatrosses on the headland. Saw 2 different albatrosses, a close-up of white-capped ones, and the royal at a distance as they were sitting on nests. It did finally stop raining, but it was still very grey.

Then back to the ship to collect Mum for a bus trip into Dunedin. Sadly, because I had been delayed so much we caught the last bus out of the port (the only passengers and we got a free trip) and enjoyed the 25 minute trip into Dunedin. This bus was also the last one out of Dunedin, so we couldn’t have a look around, but at least we did get into town.

We have been watching the last of the passengers arriving and we should be leaving very soon. And now the sun is shining!!!!!!!!!

This has been our last NZ land day. Tomorrow we cruise Fiordland and the Sounds, then 2 days cruising back to Sydney.

Well this blog is going to be short and sweet, we didn’t do anything today at sea. Couldn’t even sit on the balcony, it’s got really cold. Not much sun around either so not the best of days. Ship rocking a little more than usual, but Mum seems to be coping with it OK.

Did do some fleeting bird watching, they are amazing these sea birds, how they effortlessly glide over the tops of the waves.

I have a wildlife cruise tomorrow in Dunedin Harbour, as if I haven’t had enough time on water, lol. Then meeting a local munzee hunter, so we will get into the town on a shuttle for that.

The first photo shows the glimpse of sun we had leaving Wellington.

Welcome again to wet Wellington, lol. We have had our sunny day, very wet and cold here in Wellington. Mum wasn’t doing a tour here, so after breakfast I left Mum warmly ensconced in our room and braved the elements.

The tour started at the base of Cable Car Alley in the city, and we climber 120 metres in 5 minutes, with a couple of station stops on the way. It also had light shows in the tunnels. At the top were the botanic gardens, a cable car museum (not open for another 30 minutes), a café and lots of rain. The driver/tour guide had said not to go into the gardens, don’t know why, so we had a 50-minute wait for the tour to continue. I managed to find a few munzees to kill the time. You can tell how wet it is around here by the amount of lichen growing on the trees, lol.

From there we had only had a few minutes on the bus to the Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary. It was raining last time I was here too!!!

ZEALANDIA is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore a Wellington valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to their pre-human state. The 225 hectare ecosanctuary is a ground-breaking conservation project that has reintroduced 18 species of native wildlife back into the area, 6 of which were previously absent from mainland New Zealand for over 100 years. 

Anyway, this time I did the guided hour-long walk through the rain, mud and puddles, but it was good fun. Lots of birds to listen to, several visible ones and a good guide talking about them, the plants and the history of the place. It had been a reservoir, and the water is still there, but a 5.5-mile feral animal/predator proof fence has been constructed around it allowing the birds, reptiles and insects to live protected. NZ does not have any native mammals except 3 species of bats, so it’s their bird life that is important. Several rare species are surviving well at Zealandia. We saw several tui, kaka (parrot) and pateke a rare duck. He was funny, a mallard came along looking for food and the much smaller pateke chased him off several times.

All the land surrounding the reservoir had been cleared for grazing, but it has now grown back to a lovely forested area and will be even better when the high canopy trees are old enough to be high canopies!

After the tour (the rain stopped as we got back onto the bus) Mum and I had lunch and then we caught the shuttle back into Wellington which dropped us off outside the biggest wooden building in the southern hemisphere, very impressive, it takes up an entire block. I was meeting up with another munzee hunter, so we chatted whilst Mum played Pokemon.

We have another day cruising tomorrow on our way to Dunedin.

Well considering we dawdled around the coast, we were actually late docking, must have been someone in our way, lol. So all the tours were delayed and from having been brought forward half an hour yesterday our tour was an hour later than expected today.

We are docked at a working port, with tons of radiata pine logs waiting to be shipped out. We watched the unloading of trucks during breakfast, very deft and quick, stacking the logs in long piles, everything running like clockwork. The trucks loaded with logs are constant, they just keep coming. It’s one of the busiest ports in NZ, not only timber, but lots of varieties of fruit and vegetables also exported through here.

In sunshine, we caught the Hawkesbury Bay Express, an on-the-road train and trundled around the streets of Napier. It had been levelled back in 1931 by a massive earthquake, so the new town was built in the art deco style by architects who were forward thinking and had some common sense. The driver/tour guide said it only took 2.5 days to put telecommunication fibre throughout the whole town as the infrastructure had been planned well back in the thirties. The size of the roads and awnings also played a large part in the designing. There had been a huge fishing bay before the earthquake, which vanished when the land was raised several metres and it’s now used for agriculture and horticulture.

We left the train in Napier and had a wander around the shops. There are lovely gardens all along the shore. It’s a lovely little town, 57,000 inhabitants, lots of trees and hills!

After a late lunch we have been entertained on our balcony by the band down on the docks and a selection of vintage cars appeared for photo opportunities.

Wellington tomorrow.

Isn’t it sad when there’s all that amazing food on offer and all we felt like last night was a bit of fruit for dinner! Anyway, another day at sea today, and it was a really slow one. Napier isn’t very far around the coast, so we are crawling along, I had thought when I woke up that we were stationary, but not quite, lol.

There was an event tonight especially for the members of the Crown & Anchor Society (the Royal Caribbean loyalty club). The entertainment director showed us how they set up the ‘largest screen at sea’, 125 ft long x 25 ft high and curved so that it displays fantastic images. Along with the robot arms & screens we saw the first night, we watched a ‘visage’ of Da Vinci’s flying machine flying over the Acropolis and the Colosseum. Beautiful images indeed. There was then a presentation to the top cruiser on board (1000+ nights cruising). Finally, the giant screen had an ocean symphony with lots of musical sea creatures, good fun.

Then we had a late dinner, and as I had left my phone behind charging up, there was a lovely sunset!! Looks like tomorrow may actually be sunny, fingers crossed!!

Couple of photos of us leaving Tauranga, we spent ages watching the pilot boat until it retrieved him!

Started the morning off watching the Radiance of the Seas (with tugs) manoeuvre itself between us and the front of the wharf. Didn’t look like there was much room and I bet everyone on the bridge was watching closely LOL. Very clever and competent.

It was rather a miserable morning. Our tour meeting point was on the wharf at 10.15, in the rain and puddles, until we got on the coach. We had been going to a lookout for a scenic view but that was scrapped as the clouds were way to low to see the lookout let alone look out from it. So we were going to see a waterfall which the driver/tour guide said would be spectacular with all this rain. Then the traffic came to a grinding halt, someone had obviously had an accident, so the bus did a u-turn (it wasn’t a very wide road for that) and we didn’t get to the waterfall. However, he did take us for a lovely countryside tour, very hilly, very picturesque as the rain had actually stopped and there was a smattering of blue skies and sunshine. We did stop at a lookout just out of Te Puna and did get out of the coach, but by then time was against us and we headed back to the ship.

Watched laden container ships leave the harbour and Radiance depart, so it must be just about time for us to leave as well. Day at sea tomorrow.

Big day today. After breakfast we made our way down to the Royal Theatre, were given our bus ticket number and then waited for our tour number to be called. Down a couple of flights of stairs, through the check-out and on to the tender. Amazingly enough we were the first off the tender and the first on the bus. Our tour was diverted from its usual roads because the centre of Auckland had been closed off for the Santa Parade. Lots of NZ Christmas trees just starting to bloom, and lots of them were really big, lichen covered trees. Our first stop was a huge rose garden, lovely odour wafting around and a wide range of colour. Then onto the Winter Garden, not only ponds, fountains and gardens but a hissing gander protecting his goslings! Some rosellas eating grass seeds, lots of sparrows and a pair of blackbirds foraging beneath the palms. Mum pokemoned her way away the walk back to the bus, lol. From there we had a drive over the big Auckland Bridge, back again and then under it. Had a look at the area that’s being redeveloped for the America’s Cup in 2021, and then back to the ship.

After a spot of lunch and settling Mum back in our room, I caught a tender again over to the port and met up with a local Munzee hunter, and then back to Mum and a bit of relaxing & writing before dinner.

Well the decision to take the tender or not was decided by the ocean and the Captain. There was too big a swell, which made the tendering process unsafe, so the ship left the Bay and headed out into the Southern Pacific Ocean for the day. BTW, The Bay of Islands is actually a submerged valley and the islands (around 144 of them) are all that remain of the mountain tops.

So once again another lazy day, doing nothing much.

Just as well we did pop up to dinner last night, they had roast duck, which Mum thoroughly enjoyed. We had a game of Tantrix when back on our balcony which was fun, Mum won it.

We have a coach trip tomorrow in Auckland, so hoping the weather improves enough so we can see something, so far all we’ve seen of NZ was hidden under low cloud or fog. Lol.

We did manage to find the back of the ship after dinner, just kept walking to the back of the Windjammer.

And if it’s possible to do even less than the day before, this was it, lol. Apparently, we had a rough night, I did notice it once in the middle of the night, but Mum didn’t feel it and was fine this morning, so maybe she has her sea legs now! Another hour added to the clocks, so 5 hours ahead.

A very grey, blustery day. Not sure if it’s low cloud, fog, rain or sea mist out there lol. Sometimes even the horizon was blotted out and just a mass of grey! Lots of white caps on the waves and spray off them with the wind, but it has calmed down a lot now, not much white at all.

We have delayed going to dinner as neither of us is really hungry, but we will pop up there shortly to have a look at the spread.

First stop tomorrow, Bay of Islands, but as it’s a 20 minute tender, Mum would rather not do it, I’m still thinking about it.