Wrap Up

Thanks for following our blog.  If you are seeing it for the first time, it reads in reverse chronological order so to start at the beginning, scroll down and click "older posts."  The first post was 12/22/15.

As a way of wrapping up this trip, I will share the wisdom I have gained during this adventure. Hopefully this will enrich your next trip Down Under.

 Ten Things I Learned Down Under

1.  Fly Business Class.

2.  Plan ahead and order Opera tickets at the Sydney Opera House before you go.

3.  Fly Business Class.

4.  Visit the Wither Hills winery in Marlborough, NZ and stay for lunch.  Order the Mussel Chowder.

5.  Fly Business Class.

6.  Visit Napier and rent bicycles.  Ride the 12 K loop, along the water, that takes you by 5 wineries.

7.  Fly Business Class.

8.  Visit Queenstown, ride the Shotover Jet Boats, then go to the Wakatipu Grill at the Hilton Resort and Spa and order the lamb chops.

9.  Skip Wellington.

10.  Fly Business Class (If you don't, your children will.)

Waiheke Island

Wow!  A thirty five minute ferry ride from Auckland brought us to the magnificent Waikeke Island. I hear Lonely Planet lists Waiheke (pronounced: Why hickey) as one of the top five places in the world to visit. I agree.

Check it out:

An island of vineyards and beaches that are stunning. Great place to vacation. Great place to live. 

Enjoyed a delicious wine tasting at Stonybridge Vineyard

Rangihoua Estate was a lovely olive oil place where we learned how to make olive oil. 

And the finale was lunch at :

The three curly blonde girls: 

Auckland - City of Sails

I hope you're not getting bored with this blog. I'm not. This has been such a great trip and I doubt I would remember half of what we did if not for this blog. If you're reading this, thanks for following along. 

Today we came ashore in Auckland and toured the central part of the city. We ended up at the Auckland Museum and even though we have been to countless museums, it was very interesting. We learned more about the immigration of the first settlers and of course, more about the Maori people. Today they make up a tiny part of today's population and almost all are inter-bred with other cultures, yet their culture dominates in NZ. And, it is very cool. 

Even though it is the national bird of NZ, the kiwi is endangered and practically extinct. The closest we got to seeing one was this stuffed specimen in the museum:

Next - off to a neat little Aquariam where they had a huge display of live penguins. Very, very cute and they loved mugging for photos:

They look stuffed but they are alive. (I wish I could upload my video to this blog.  I haven't been able to do that.)

As it turns out, Marc caught a cold and was pretty miserable today. Here he is eating ramen noodles on our terrace:

Here he is sleeping while I write this:

I am eating take out Thai food and enjoying this view:

And this - which is our ship, Le Soleal, leaving Auckland with a new load of passengers:

Hopefully Marc will recover by tomorrow to enjoy our last full day in Auckland before we pack up and head home into the blizzard. 

I have to say that even though we have been traveling three weeks, I hate to see this trip end. It's really been fun. 

Our little gang all dressed up a couple of nights ago:

The boys from Europe:

Stay tuned...

Tauranga - Rotorua - Whakarewarewa

What a day we had today!! Our first stop was Whakarewarewa which is not the real name of the village - it's the shortened name - the full name is on the sign below:

And - the name means: The Gathering Place of the Army of Wahio.  Locals refer to it as Woka. 

This is a living Maori village - in other words - people still live there - I think about sixty. These are the people of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao. These are some of the original inhabitants of NZ and the came in big canoes from Samoa - or somewhere near there. 

The amazing part is that the village is smack on top of an active geothermal environment - one big hot spring.  Hot steaming pools are all around and there are frequent geysers. The steam their food in the thermal pools. Here's some corn cooking- it's floating in a mesh bag in the spring:

Then we ate it:

All of the food for all the families in the village - as well as for tourist guests is cooked in a steam box hangi. People put their aluminum pans into the box in the morning And when they come home, they take out their pans and have a delicious slow cooked meal. There are no kitchens or ovens inside the houses. 

It's hard to describe this place but we loved it. 

Then we went to another Maori Village- which was not inhabited but more of a cultural experience. - and it was!!

We didn't even have time to explore the port city where we docked - Tauranga. However, we drove through and it is a lovely beach town. Very active with surfers and an active beautiful beach scene. 

Tomorrow .... Auckland. 

On the Bridge

We are at sea all day today and the time is flying by. It's the last day for shopping in the ship's store so I am stocking up on stunning French cotton shirts.  There are lots of lectures, a movie and even a Bingo game. 

A highlight was a visit with our Captain on the Bridge of the Le Soleal. Captain spent over an hour telling us the history of navigation and also how the ship worked. He was very funny and extremely informative. Amazing stuff!

Napier!

Who knew??

The greatest town in New Zealand - so far - is most definitely Napier. This beautiful little city of about 60,000 was completely destroyed by an earthquake on Feb 1931. Rather than abandon the devastation, they decided to rebuild. Two private people (rather than the government) oversaw the reconstruction of the town and it was rebuilt by May 1932 -- all in the Art Deco style. It is an absolutely gorgeous display of Art Deco architecture. I've got a few pics of the buildings but it doesn't capture how nice it is. 

But it does show how blue the sky is here. We had the most picture perfect warm, sunny day. 

In addition Napier has a gorgeous waterfront with beaches and boats and everyone is out enjoying the water. Again, pictures don't do it justice:

After a walking tour of the Art Deco buildings , we had a tour of the whole area on a railless train which was great fun!

Later I shopped a bit --- fantastic shops-- and Marc checked out the local bike paths. Turns out this gorgeous place is the cycling capital of NZ. I'm not sure if I can get him to come home with me. 

Great town and gorgeous day!  Heading back to ship to eat again. Speaking of eating -- look how we have porked up:

February will be a diet month!

Wellington

Quiet day today in Wellington. It's the second largest city in NZ and the capital of the country.  Population around 400,000. 

It's a very windy city:

However we were extremely lucky - it was sunny with no wind. As you can see in this shot of the harbor - the sea was as calm as a pond:

Here's another:

We visited Te Papa which is an extensive and exquisite museum. I recommend it highly. We had a Maori guide and we are starting to learn more about these native people of New Zealand. 

Marc and I decided to stay in town in the afternoon and had a mediocre lunch. (We should have returned to the ship for lunch where the food continues to wow us. ). We did walk a few miles this afternoon - which we really needed to do. 

Highlight of lunch was this BitterBitch IPA which Marc enjoyed: