New Zealand Day 10 Travelling home

Day 10 Travelling home

We had a well-deserved sleep-in and then went down to the dining room for breakfast. Even though Johnny had organized for a late check- out, we thought it best to do the full pack up and store our bags in the hotel store downstairs. We took a walk down Queen St to the wharf, but the QE has long sailed. We walked across a bridge to the revived Wyndham Quarter, which was a hive of activity. Building works were going on everywhere, converting the once industrial area into a beautiful dockside precinct. We guessed that this was in preparation for the America’s Cup defence in 2021 as the Emirates crew headquarters was also down there.

We walked far into the distance and came across a distant wharf where the super-rich tie up their super rich yachts. There was one monster that John and I guessed must have cost at least 50 million. Wrong! Later research showed that in 2008 it cost about 300 million.

Walking back, we stopped for a coffee and then walked back to the hotel for our luggage. Luckily, the airport shuttle bus picked us up at the door of the hotel. We wound our way through the city and finally hit the freeway. Johnny had already checked us in so we checked in our own luggage and went to the Diners Lounge upstairs. We had a lovely lunch and able to charge up our devices for the journey back to Melbourne. Virgin had a lot of in-flight entertainment but to access it you needed your own phone or I-pad. The journey home was uneventful but the descent and landing in Melbourne was a bit bumpy. Still, a strong tailwind delivered us home earlier than expected. As planned Ginny was there to deliver us home.

We’d has a lovely time away but it was great to arrive home. We set to unpacking and washing clothes straight away and before we knew it it was 10pm (or midnight NZ time). Bed!

New Zealand Day 9 Auckland

Day 9 Auckland

Leaving the ship was fuss free. There was not even a passport check. After breakfast and a turn around the deck, we mustered in the Royal Court Theatre and then led out to the gangplank. It was a short kilometre walk to the hotel on Queen St, where at the City Life hotel we were upgraded to an apartment – and an early check-in at 9am.

We stashed our bags and were quickly back on the street. We walked up to a flower-filled Albert Park that overlooked the city below and passed the University of Auckland. We found our way to the Auckland Domain and the Wintergarden, which had an impressive array of exotic flowers in a classical conservatory setting. The long walk up the hill and through the gardens left us feeling a bit tired and thirsty so a stop at the Wintergarden Cafe was called for. It was also an opportunity to text Ginny and confirm the pickup details.

Leaving the Wintergarden we crossed to the museum and war memorial, which held a commanding site overlooking Auckland. There was a terrific display of the cultural artefacts of both Maori and other Pacific Islander nations. There was a realistic volcano exhibit and a house that you could enter and experience what an earthquake shock felt like. It felt like someone had punched the floor with a huge metal club.

For us though, the highlight was a virtual tour of Antarctica. This was the first time Johnny and I had used VR technology and it was pretty amazing. It felt as if we were a step away from the guides and the feeling of being in the helicopter was so realistic that I had to look up in the air to stop that sickly feeling. After that we had a spot of lunch in the museum and completed a tour of the war memorial.

With feet feeling the 14,000 steps we had walked, we decided to walk down to Parnell Rd and catch a bus back to the hotel for a cup of tea and a rest. While I was resting, Johnny did a search for nearby Asian restaurants.  It was a pleasantly warm evening so we walked past a few and finally opted for Thai food, then a walk back to the hotel to watch TV. The streets were still full of young people so the mood of holiday persisted.

New Zealand Day 8 At sea

Day 8 At sea

This day was all sea travel as our ship made its way to Auckland. It was a warm, sunny day. We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit as there was no reason to hurry breakfast and prepare for land based activities. After breakfast we headed for the Royal Court, where Sir Robert Parker talked about the waves of migration to New Zealand. He was a lovely speaker that had a great way of sprinkling personal anecdotes through the factual stuff. When that finished there was just enough time for morning tea and then sat through another talk by a bloke that seemed to have a really varied career spanning advertising and law enforcement.

By now the sun and the lounges on the top deck were getting too hard to resist and we took a book up there. The sun was glinting off the water and the sea was given a deep blue hue by the sky which was by now blue and virtually cloudless. After an hour or so it seemed to get too hot do we went down to the pool area on deck 10. Rather than a full lunch, we had a plate of fruit, cheese and crackers from the lido out on the deck.

As the ship continued its northward journey, we passed White island where a couple of weeks ago, a volcano exploded, killing several and leaving many others with burns and other damage. Through the binoculars, we could still see some smoke issuing from the volcano, but in the blue skies and sunshine it looked benign and we could hardly imagine the loss and devastation that had taken place. The skipper came on to tell us that as we were sailing by, some more volcanic activity was taking place.

Hiccup! Johnny misplaced his phone and we had a bit of a scramble about trying to find it. It had been found by the deck staff who had safely stowed it in the purser’s office. Panic over we settled into a long session of snoozing and reading, as we waited for afternoon tea. This time, we had scones with jam and cream up on the deck next to the pool. This is the life.

We sent some of the next hour packing our bags as the luggage had to be deposited outside our room that nigh in time for an early disembarkation the next morning. After a change of clothes we decided to celebrate the end of a lovely cruse with a cocktail.

The passengers were all aglitter as it was gala night. We hasn’t paid much attention to all this so when we turned up at the restaurant, John was stopped and asked to put on a tie. We had our last night in the Britannia. The sky was cloudless and our table next to the window allowed us to enjoy a wonderful, cloudless sunset. Our two waiters gave us a nice farewell note and a folder with all the menus we had enjoyed. Even though we needed to plan for an early start, we still decided to attend one last show in the Queen’s Court. It was a high energy show based on the songs and dances from a wide range of Hollywood musicals. It really was something spectacular. We made it back to our room in time to get our bags outside our room by the 11.00pm deadline.

New Zealand Day 7 Napier

Day 7 Napier

We had learnt not to trust the shipboard summary of things to do and see in the ports we visited. They had understated the population of NZ by 20% and quite frankly made each of the ports sound dull. Our experience was that there was a lot more to do and see than the QE literature had indicated. For the Napier stop Johnny decided to do his own research on the internet.

I was getting quite used to this idea of going to sleep and being magically transported to the next city. Napier, I expected to be quite small, but to me it looked about the size of Geelong. The 1931 earthquake had decimated the city and it was completely rebuilt in the Art Deco style. Building after building is in that elegant style even today and the streets are full of cars from the period and old gentlemen with blazers and boaters driving the tourists around.

The weather was expected to be a bit unsettled so we set out with shorts and carried raincoats in our day packs. There were so many tourists pouring across the road from the shuttle busses put on by transport authority for the Cunard passengers, that the lollipop ladies worked some lightweight boom gates to stop the traffic.

Even though it was Sunday morning, the streets were full of tourists. We walked along one of the main shopping strips and visited an Aladdin’s cave of art deco clothing, house hold goods, art work, jewellery and toys at the antiques centre. They actually make a lot of new clothing in the Gatsby style for the many thousands of tourists that flood into the city for Art Deco week in February. Apparently everyone gets into the swing of things and even the navy and police get into the spirit.

All the street signs were written in an Art Deco typography. Above every shop, there were still building details and colour schemes that were in that early 20^th century style. Apparently, the 1931 earthquake uplifted a whole section of land along the seafront and extended the city significantly. As well as the vintage cars, there were a couple of vintage busses that the town council had bought from San Francisco. At great expense they were restored and outfitted for NZ conditions. They cost a million dollars but when the venture was found to be ill advised, they were sold off for $30,000. When we saw them, the buses were being enjoyed by tourists who crowded on to the open back section to take photos.

We stopped for a morning coffee at a funky little Turkish restaurant. Later as we toured around we found several other Turkish restaurants in the area. The coffee was good and it gave us a chance to have some respite from the rain which was by now, coming down solidly. The road surface was hot so the rain was turning to steam as it landed. We zig zagged through the streets but by the time we got down to the seafront we had half decided to take the next shuttle back to the ship. The rain was coming down quite hard. We passed a series of six Victorian houses on the seafront, built by a local farmer for his six daughters. I thought that sort of thing only happened i in Cyprus.

We caught the shuttle but by the time it has driven along the seafront and started on the return, the rain had stopped and glorious sunshine changed our mood and that of Napier. We hopped back off the bus quite close to where we had been initially deposited.

So far all we had seen in New Zealand was unfailingly polite and considerate behaviour, but Napier showed us another side. At the end of one of the main streets, a group of young indigenous people had gathered and were behaving for all the world as if they were a bit tipsy. One girl was waggling her bum at us and others were shouting and falling over one another. Everyone seemed to be ignoring them so they eventually moved on. As we moved down the street towards a path that would lead us up to one of the hills overlooking the city, some young jerk took offence at John crossing the road (legally and with a green light), hooting his horn and coming a bit too close for comfort. There are stupid people the world over.

Well, there is was. Another bloody great big, steep hill. I needed the steps to make up the 10,000 so off we set. The path zig-zagged its way up the hill and it promised a wonderful view across Hawkes Bay. The path rose up from behind one of the churches and the land for the path was donated to the city by a local benefactor. It all looked very promising as we set off. When we got to the top, the path ended abruptly and we seemed to be in someone’s parking bay. At the top of the hill was a lot of expensive housing but not even a park bench for the weary climber. I guess they didn’t want to encourage interlopers like us. So after a quick consultation with the internet, we headed through the suburb to a set of steps that landed us back at street level.

Working our way back to the bus we found a large Asian supermarket and bought a bag of pea chips. Perfect, we thought, to have with a beer on deck as the ship pulled out of Napier later that evening.

Napier was a busy place on this Sunday. We were getting a bit tired by this time and decided to head back to the shuttle. If we hurried we could get back for a quick snack at the Lido and maybe even catch the afternoon movie on board. It all went like clockwork and that was what we did. I quite liked the film Denmark and afterwards returned to the Lido for afternoon scones before heading back to the cabin for a rest and the chance to consult the daily newsletter for what sort of entertainment was available after dinner.

Dinner was back in the Britannia. It was another very nice dinner. We didn’t hang around though as we planned to go to the show on the Queens court Theatre. It was a stunning mixture of ballet and circus arts. The couple performing were from Sydney and genuinely looked as if they cared for one another.

We danced! After the restaurant, we walked past the Queen’s Court where it was party night. We had stopped by several times before and jiggled quietly in the corner as other took to the floor. As we watched they struck up moon River and it was a waltz. The last time we had waltzed to Moon River, it was on our wedding night, 40 years ago. We slipped onto the dance floor and it felt wonderful.