Btimmer

We're a couple of days from Papeete and the outside temperatures are getting much warmer. Sunbathing was in full force today. Here's a 170° stern view. Tonight is formal night, but we continued our dining in the Lido Marketplace where there is a wonderful grill station. We've finally cleared the wait lists for snorkeling excursions in Papeete, Moorea, and Honolulu.

Here's a peek at some of our room decor. Angela brought these along for the Polynesian / Hawaiian portion of the cruise. Princess continues to have problems with an inaccurate schedule on the APP and it isn't synched with the printed Patter. Crossing the dateline is the likely culprit.

Today we are in lala land after crossing the international dateline yesterday. It's day 13 and we are observing a second April 21 (Sunday). The schedule on the APP does not have the correct schedule and the Princess Patter (printed schedule) doesn't show all events. We did have an interdenominational service this morning and it's the first time I can recall doing Sunday on adjoining days.

Life is short so today we sampled a premium dessert before dinner! Yummy! Also, we cleared the standby list for a snorkeling trip on a catamaran on Day 2 in Papeete. I just missed lasting 3 minutes on the Yes/No game show. But I won a water bottle. And finally we enjoyed 2 sets of Patrick McMahon, a terrific country singer from Western Australia. We have seen him previously a number of times on HAL cruises.

We're on day 2 (April 21) of the segment to Papeete. We're crossing the international date line and we'll enjoy April 21 again tomorrow. Below is a map of our current position.

We're about to depart Auckland after a nice visit here. We visited the Weta Studios unleashed near the Sky Tower and went up the tower. We also imbibed in a real donut at Dunkin' Donuts.

This morning we are in the Bay of Islands, NZ. It blue skies and gorgeous! We have a Princess Excursion.

We're back in the ship after a wonderful trip to Hobbiton. It's totally dark at 6:40pm and we should be departing shortly to catch the tidal flow properly. Here are a few pictures from Middle Earth. Fake tree

We visited Hobbiton two years ago and hadn't read or watched anything Hobbit or Lord of the Rings oriented. Hobbiton was awesome and it's why we are returning. And, yes, we've binge watched the entire Lord of the Rings series.

We just arrived in Tauranga and were among the first off the ship. We got the last 4 tickets for a private excursion to Hobbiton! Score! Here's a few pictures with Mt.Maunganui in full view.

This afternoon passengers formed the Majestic Princess choir and performed in the Piazza. My wife us in the black and white wavey top in front. Angela with Morgan, the choir director

Yesterday we spent most of our time on a Princess excursion to Shenandoah (you can read all about it in my daily blog found at https://timmer2024mp.blogspot.com ) Additionally we took the cable car up to the top of the hill and strolled back down through the botanical garden. While it's the end of the season, I still was able to take a few flower and wildlife photographs. Try to get straight lumber out of this tree!

We just returned to Wellington for a medical emergency disembarkation. We only got about 1/2 hour out of the port before returning.

Today we reached our first port (Picton, NZ) on this cruise after 3 days on the Tasman Sea. This ship takes the waves well and apart from the end of day 2, it's been relatively stable. The Captain took us on a southerly course to avoid a big storm to the north. Picton is a small town on the north part of the South Island. The inter-island ferry runs from here to Wellington on the north island which is our next port of call. We didn't book any Princess shore excursions and decided to walk the town and perhaps visit the Kaipup Sanctuary which can be reached only by boat or kayak. The first part of the day we walked the town's Main Street called High Street with all sorts of cafes, shops, grocery stores, ATM's etc. Nearby was a small craft market with all kinds of crafty items. To access Kaipupu Sanctuary which is free, all one needs is boat transportation and we purchased tickets on the 12 noon Beachcomber Cruises water taxi. It's only a 5 minute ride to the island and the trail around the island is 2.7 kilometers or 1.6 miles and we walked it in just over an hour. Parts of the trail are quite steep and we saw a few birds, but we could definitely hear them. After returning to the dock we walked over to the Edwin Fox Museum which holds in a drydock the remains of the merchant ship Edwin Fox which was built in India and served as a refrigeration ship for beef carcasses before surrendering that machinery to a land based operation. The stripped ship then languished for many years before being floated to its resting place in a drydock. It's not going to be restored; only preserved. Afterwards we returned to the ship on the port provided shuttle (we docked at a log loading berth about 10 minutes from the city center, and shuttles were required to leave the ship and get to town. It was a nice day albeit a chilly one. The sailaway should be quite pretty and I have a nice seat in the Hollywood Conservatory which faces forward. Below are a few pictures from today including one of our track. I got in 11,202 steps as of this writing. Our anchorage Log yard next to the ship Majestic Princess berthed in Picton Entrance sign to the sanctuary A few of the birds we saw. We heard lots more. Edwin Fox in drydock Model of the Edwin Fox in her heyday Our day's track

As we complete our first full sea day, there's definitely been motion to the ocean. Most of our activities today have revolved around Maori presentations. I also learned we only have around 3,000 passengers or 75% capacity. The ship definitely doesn't feel crowded. Here's a picture of the Maori dance activity.