Austraila & New Zealand Cruise Journal

Day One and Two: Feb 24th & 25th, as you lose a day as you pass over the International Date Line. On the 24th, we made our way to SLC airport with plenty of time should there be any issues or long lines at security. To our surprise, it was rather calm and checking our bags was not a big deal all the way through to Sydney. Our first leg was via Sky West under the United Express banner to Los Angeles. There we changed planes making it to the gate just as they started to board. We are all crammed in like sardines in coach. We were in row 41 just in front of the mid ship galley that limited how far our seats would recline. The plane was an older 747 long range bird. No individual entertainment system like we enjoyed on Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong. I did my usual light, not quite deep sleep, sleeping most of the way down, awake for the food breaks; can’t pass up those great airline meals. LOL

Day Three, Feb 26th, Arrived in Sydney and found our transportation from the airport to the hotel. It was a Toyota MiniBus, for about 12 passengers, with a trailer for the luggage. However, Judy and I were the only passengers this trip. The driver was an older man from New Zealand; he said he was a Kiwi. He was a very aggressive driver and tailgated the entire way into the city. We took so many turns that I had no idea where we were. But we finally arrived at our hotel, which was very close to the harbor and the cruise ship terminal. It was good that the transportation was a flat fee and not time and distance. We walked around the dock and surrounding shops doing what tourists do. That night we boarded an old Danish made tall sailing ship for a cruise around the harbor, halfway by motor and the return by sails. It was a wine tasting and finger foods cruse. It was not a small amount of wine they served, so I got a good buzz off of some very nice Australian wines, Black Label was the brand.

Day Four, Feb 27th, The next day we purchased all day jump on – jump off bus passes and did two different tour loops, one of the inner city and the other the outlying areas, including the clothing optional beaches. I didn’t even try to get Judy to get off the bus and walk along the sand. Oh well, I can just dream of the sights that might have graced my eyes, if we had enjoyed the surf and sand. I was amazed at how informative they are. They pointed out the strip clubs and adult video shops along this road and were proud of their nude beaches.

We got off on Oxford Street where the annual LGBT Mardi Gras parade would be starting in several more hours. But we did not wait, as we wanted to see more of the city. However, that night we watched live TV coverage in our hotel room. Censorship is not a problem here, as they showed naked bodies and one of the drag queen hosts kept using fuck as he talked about “how fucking great” a float was. Whenever I travel to these more open and free countries, I am always reminded how much censorship is placed on our “Free Speech” in America. LBGT openness is gaining greater acceptance, demonstrated by how many police men and women, fire brigade personnel, government employees and military all had floats and marched in the parade. However, they are also struggling the same as the US for marriage rights, which the parliament turned down on a 54 to 4 vote this session. They are hoping the courts will consider their case of equality. Unfortunately they do not have a constitution like the US that guarantees human rights and equality. Most of the coastal cities are very liberal, but the interior is very religious oriented. Thus the reason the majority of parliament is associated with this larger religious constituency. They do have legal civil unions, but not with all the same rights as marriage attached to them.

After lunch and the bus tours, we headed for the wild animal museum and aquarium. In the first one they had crocodiles, koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and different birds. In the aquarium they had many tanks with all sorts of fish and sea creatures, then underwater tubes to see the larger fish, sharks, sting rays, and turtles. Plus an impressive coral exhibit.

Day Five, Feb 28th, we checked out of the hotel and dragged our luggage to the ship, stood in line to board and then made our way to our cabin; small, but very nice. We went out on deck to watch us sail though Sydney Harbor out to the Tasman Sea. On top of the ship is a great spot for photos of the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and opera hall, designed by a Danish Architect and built with Danish and Swedish materials.

Day Six, March 1, at sea all day today in the Tasman Sea, very choppy waters. The ship has pitched and rolled all day, making it difficult to walk without losing our balance. However, the way to know a drunk is they are the only ones walking a straight line. Not a lot to do today, we slept very late, but got up in time for lunch. Saw a cinema in the very small theater and walked about the ship, then more food and now typing this journal. As I type this we are being serenaded by a string quartet, very lovely music. Judy is in her natural state of reading a book. This is the only time she can relax and enjoy a good book.

Day Seven, March 2, at sea all day, again rolling and pitching, making it difficult to walk around the ship. It was a lazy day. Attended a lecture on the ports we were about to enjoy and the geology of the two islands. Napped a little and ate a lot. There was an evening show which was OK but not of the caliber we had on the last ship we were on (Norwegian). But this is a much smaller ship, so that may explain it.

Day Eight, March 3, got up very early, 6:30 am to stand on the forward deck to watch the sun come up in the Milford Sound Fjord as we entered it. However, the sky was overcast, and it was quite windy and cold. We stuck it out and saw some very beautiful waterfalls spilling over into the fjord. One was Stirling Falls. The fjord has very steep walls of volcanic rock carved out by ancient glaciers. There had been rain earlier, so there were small and large waterfalls everywhere. This fjord is not too long, 8 miles, and at the end we stopped and some passengers got off to do a land tour to the other side of the island, where they will re-board the ship. We elected not to spend the extra thousand dollars each to take the land tour. We sailed next into Doubtful Sound, then into Dusky Sound, and then headed for Dunedin.

Day Nine, March 4, docked at Dunedin (dun-edin). We headed out on our own in the morning taking the shuttle from the dock to the center of town. We walked to the famed rail road station with its mosaic tile floor with old steam trains in them and stained glass windows also with steam trains. The station was built in the 1860’s during the local gold rush of that period. We then ventured to what is called the First Church. It was built by the first settlers upon arrival to the area. The congregation was a break off of the Scotch Free Anglican Church from Scotland, from which most of the settlers came. After a bit of walking around town, we took an organized tour of the area. We had tea in an old manor house which is used for public needs, such as weddings. It sits on a hill above the bay and has beautiful gardens. After tea, with English scones and pancakes, fresh strawberry jam and real whipped cream (yum), we were treated to bagpipes, Scottish dancers and a story about Haggis; very entertaining. Judy tried some of the haggis and said it was like a mild or bland sausage made with lamb and oats and cooked in a sack made from the stomach of the lamb. We also received a mini-bottle of scotch whiskey. Then back to the ship for departure. As we left the bay, we passed one of the few Albatross sanctuaries. There were several dozen birds sitting on the cliff edge or in flight above it. We are told they have the largest wing span of all known birds and can live at sea for months before returning to land.

Day Ten, March 5th. Next stop is Christchurch. As we are told, the town was not named for the church built there, though it is in the center of town, but for the university in Cambridge England where the first leader of the town was educated. It is also the second largest city in NZ. The town actually is located a few miles behind a range of tall hills from the bay that we docked at. We had an early morning tour of the area that included a drive on a dirt road along the bay, and then traversed up over the hills on a very narrow windy road, passing cars and people in this large bus. We walked thru the grounds of Mona Vale, formerly the private residence and grounds of a rich family, but now more of a public place for weddings and other happenings. When we finally arrived in the main business district of the city, we got off the bus and walked around the town square, where a flea market was setup in the town square. Cathedral Square is also the location of the Anglican cathedral. There was live music and street cafes.

The cathedral has the typical Christian cross design but instead of stone block for the arched roof, it was of local timber, with stained glass windows and a marble floor. Unlike in Europe, no graves under the floor, nor did they have the large wood and gold carved scriptures behind the altar. We took in the Canterbury Museum, which had stuffed members of every bird species in NZ represented, as well as a real Egyptian mummy and a whole section on the Antarctic. Got some great pictures. As the rain started to fall, we hopped aboard the shuttle bus back to the ship.

Day Eleven, March 6th. We left the north part of the South Island for the south part of the North Island and the capitol city of Wellington. Initially the governor appointed by Great Britain lived in Dunedin, as it was the major port for trade before the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal opened and changed the trade routes. Then the capitol moved to Auckland. But it was felt when they became independent from Britain that Wellington was more central to both islands, thus they moved the capitol there. This also was possible because of a 11.2 earthquake in 1850 that raised a large portion of land under the bay by about 2 meters above sea level and extended the flat land of the city by a couple of miles into the bay. Most of the homes are built on the sides of the steep hills surrounding the flat city center. It is amazing how they built these with stilts with long staircases needed to reach their homes, small single car garages at street level. One would not want to forget something in the car and have to hike the 50 or 100 feet of elevation of the steps. Also, how would they move large furniture items up to their homes? Some have installed small personal trolleys or lifts on a rail from the garage to the home. We were told that one very rich family has a home on top of one of the hills and no road near it, so they fly a helicopter from the base to the home. They must have to coordinate with whoever is the pilot for leaving or arriving at the house.

Now for me, knowing that they have had two known earthquakes around 11 on the seismograph that raised two parts of the bay, the earlier in 1660 that raised land between the land and an island to make a land bridge, which is now their small airport, I would not build an expensive home on an unstable soil steep hill or on the silt bed raised in the 1850 earthquake. But that is just me. After the tour, we got off the bus in downtown and walked maybe a mile or so to the big museum called Te Papa. They had a traveling exhibit about Pompeii with some artifacts and body casts found there. They also had a 3D animation movie about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. What it must have been like for the inhabitants who lived thru the blast, not knowing what was actually happening to them. There was a giant squid preserved in formalin. It had to be at least 20 feet long. They also had an Anne Frank exhibit with video of survivors of the holocaust that now live in NZ. In another post I will express my thoughts about the similarities of that period and what is happening in the US today. We toured a lovely old Cathedral (St Pauls) built in 1866, and drove to the top of Mount Victoria, where we had a fabulous 360 degree panorama of the city. We stopped at a botanical garden with lovely roses and begonias, and a Japanese garden with an eternal flame. We also had a ride in their cable car up a steep hill.

Day twelve, March 7th. We were to go to Napier, but a major storm came up and the harbor was unsafe for our large ship to enter, so we are remaining at sea and heading to our next port of call, Tauranga, if the storm does not force us out of that one. Today has been a day of rocking and pitching in the large swells due to the storm. We slept some, Judy read her many books, walked about the ship and ate, ate, ate… Aw, cruising, so much food and so little time to cram it all down. I have always said I want to come back as a nice house dog, where you can eat and sleep a lot and play a little. I now realize that cruising meets that desire in my current life. LOL.

Day Thirteen, March 8th. Our next port is Tauranga. We actually docked at a smaller town near Tauranga. We met up with an Australian couple and did a walkabout along the beach and around the end of the short peninsula that has a volcanic dome. We hiked around the base, not to the top. All in all we walked a good 6 or 7 kilometers. Judy and Kerri took the shuttle bus in the afternoon to Tauranga to do some shopping. I stayed on the ship and took a snooze after that ambitious walk about.

Day Fourteen March 9. White Island. We arrived off the shores of the island in the early morning. White Island is an active volcano with fumaroles steaming and emitting dangerous gases in the crater. We circled it for a couple of hours, and then passed by the Mercury Islands and Hole in the Rock. We could not enter the Auckland harbor until the Louis Vuitton sailing races had finished for the day at about 8:00 pm local time. It was a beautiful sight seeing the city lights in the distance as we made our way through the passage to the pier. There were several apartment buildings on the pier from converted warehouses and one of them is a small Hilton Hotel. The rooms sit only about 25 feed from the edge of the pier where the ship tied up. Guests of the hotel came out on their balconies to greet us, and we yelled back and forth to them, most of them being Japanese young adults.

Day Fifteen, March 10th. Auckland, We took a city bus out to the zoo and wandered among the birds, reptiles, exotic animals and local animals. We especially wanted to see a live kiwi bird. Kiwi’s are nocturnal, so the exhibit was darkened and we could just make the birds out when they came close to the glass. They have very long beaks, and their nostrils are at the end of their beaks, which is quite unusual in the bird kingdom. Then we visited the transportation and technology museum. We saw the Antarctic display and Hillary’s exploration to the South Pole in the 1950’s. There were displays of old telephones and telegraphs, automobiles, trains and airplanes, with a controversial one about a guy who might have invented a plane and flew it at or before the Wright Brothers. But there is no definitive documentation that it actually flew. There was a lot more to see, but my body was weak, my feet killing me, and we both needed a rest, so we headed back to the ship. Later, we got back off, and walked to where a number of fabulous large yachts were moored in the harbor near our ship.

Day Sixteen, March 11th. Bay of Islands. Took the tender to shore to a small town. There was a small park with a crafts fair going on, I think it was more for the cruise ship and a way for locals to capture some business. There was a small tourist shopping street that we perused for half the day, then back to the ship for more food and sleep. Later that day, we watched a school of dolphins cavorting in the bay near the ship.

Day Seventeen, March 12th At sea all day on our way back to Sydney. Attended a lecture on the formation and wonders of our oceans. Earth is 70% water, and there is nothing like being at sea hour after hour to make one realize how large the oceans are. It is amazing that with primitive instruments, men were able to row small canoes from the Hawaiian Islands to New Zealand. What brave and skilled people they were. We also attended a lecture on Charles Darwin and his travels on the Beagle. Then off to the Lido Buffet. Not much to do, just rest and eat…

Day Eighteen, March 13th Another day at sea heading for Sydney and the end of our sea voyage. This time, the Tasman Sea was not quite as rough. We had dinner in the main dining room, where the waiters did a little performance dancing and singing as they brought the food. Dessert was baked Alaska. They did not carry it flaming down the aisles as we had seen on our Europe cruise of 1989, but it was tasty nevertheless. The food was uniformly good on this cruise, and service was excellent.

Day Nineteen, March 14th. Pulled into Sydney Harbour early in the am. Judy woke at 4 am, misread her watch and thought it said 5 am, showered, then discovered her mistake, but was fully awake by then. I stayed in bed sleeping while she went up to the most forward part of the ship, the Crows Nest, and watched the sail-in to Sydney, passing under the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge (are we too tall? Guess not, as the smokestack is still intact), and by the Sydney Opera House. After a last yummy breakfast and chit chat with the Australians, we headed off the ship and to the airport. All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately our flight does not leave until late afternoon and we arrived at the airport at 9:30 in the morning, so we have several hours to kill at the airport. After a very long flight in steerage, we both will be back to work tomorrow.