Live From Diamond Princess – March 10, 2018 New Zealand 12 Day

March 11, 2018 - At Sea to Auckland

Welcome back!

Turnaround day was pretty painless and exactly in accordance with the letter they provided in the cabin. Our cruise cards are good for the entire sequence of cruises, we are not changing cabins, so one issue was gone. For those of us going ashore, we were able to leave as soon as clearance was obtained. Just go out the door, show the In-Transit card and off we went. For those staying on board, a meeting in a central place to zero the ship – beep you out on your old card, beep you in on your new card. On the way back in we just pretty much walked through everything. It was a breeze.

So we have, had, two, attractions left on our Iventure cards and I wanted to go the Maritime Museum and the fish market. Luckily they are close together. For some reason, Google was not showing ferries yesterday. At all. They kept wanting us to get on a train, the light rail, etc. Knowing the ferry stops in Pyrmont Bay, next to the Museum, and closest to the fish market, I knew I just had to find the right ferry. We still had our Opal Cards as well. It was a really nice ferry ride across the harbor, under the bridge and over to Pyrmont Bay, on the west side of Darling Harbor. It was raining when we got off the ship, but then it stopped before we got on the ferry.

We walked to the fish market, rather than riding the Light Rail. The fish market is about as large as the one in Melbourne’s Victoria Market, but almost all the vendors will cook what you buy or have prepared sashimi, sushi and cooked seafood to sell. They will even cut your purchase into sashimi. There is also a couple of other vendors like a deli vendor with cured meats and cheeses, an organic produce vendor, a souvenir vendor and a juice/smoothy vendor. The main restaurants were not open as it was early in the morning. So we settled for some fantastic grilled baby octopus and fried salt/pepper calamari. It was the best meal we’ve had on the entire trip. Breakfast of champions!

This place has all kinds of seafood, live and dead. Tanks with crabs, abalone and lobsters (bugs) – nothing too exotic – and freshly caught salmon, sea trout, barramundi, cods, shrimp, squid – cooked crabs of various types and cooked lobsters (bugs) – there was even a place to purchase fish heads for soups and stews. Sushi, sashimi, poke, oysters, bento boxes were laid out in ornate presentations in grab and go packages. It was a sight to behold. Lots of fun, free to enter, highly recommended.

We topped breakfast off with a smoothie and headed to the light rail station, catching a train to the Pyrmont Bay stop on the light rail and entering the Maritime Museum. The interior displays are interesting, especially the model triple expansion engine, and fun. With several movies about ships and events. They also have several native peoples displays and an arctic display. You could easily spend 2-3 hours inside seeing everything – but the stars of the museum are the static ship displays. The more modern destroyer, the submarine, a replica of Cook’s ship and another sailing ship. Its amazing to me that Cook sailed in such a small ship. There are yachts bigger than this thing! While you cannot go everywhere within these displays, there is enough to give you a flavor of how small the spaces are and how dangerous it is to be running through these things!

The museum is a great place to visit and highly recommended. Especially for anyone interested in maritime history.

We caught the ferry back to circular quay in the hopes of scoring a roo burger for lunch, but it was Saturday and all of the restaurants were packed. We did score a picture with one of the street performers – a statue person levitating above the ground. Great costume, great visual, well worth the $1 for the picture! (The engineering of his hidden support system was pretty incredible.)

So we settled for an ice cream, wandered back aboard ship and prepped for the afternoon. We did not have to attend the drill, but during the sail away party we did see the Diamond Princess medical team(s) in action. Someone got hurt pretty bad as all of the medical teams, all of security, several crew response personnel and a gurney team raced through the pool area, up the stairs to deck 15 and forward. I’m still not sure it wasn’t a drill as we did not hear any announcements, but I was impressed with the speed and organization of the response. Nice to know you would be well taken care of. Based on this event we expected the ship to turn around, or stop and transfer a seriously injured patient to shore, but we didn’t. Could have been a drill, but boy was the response serious if it was. Very impressive.

We did the Sterling Steakhouse last night. The coupon book has a BOGO offer for embarkation night only. Since we planned to visit the steak house anyway, why not on a BOGO night? It was very good. Hands down the best meal on the ship so far. Steaks were well seasoned, the sides excellent, service was good, wine was better – the view across the water was fantastic, very romantic, very nice.

We also found a place and music to dance to. The Domino Duo is the resident wheelhouse “ballroom” dance band. We had not tried their music on the past cruise, preferring the rock and roll party bands for variety. But the Domino Duo was really nice to dance to and listen. A wide variety of dance styles, from Bolero to Waltz. Very nice.

Oh yeah, and we did lose an hour last night, and will again tonight, and my left over minutes from last cruise did not roll over.

So let’s preview the cruise.

So now, back to the ship. Here is some info from the first patter of the cruise. For those of you keeping track we have Gennaro Arma as Captain, Craig Dauphinee as Hotel General Manager, Caroline Desbuquois as Entertainment Director, Marcus Prince Juanta as Cruise Director, Maarit AArtoaho as Customer Services Director, Steve Reynolds as Food and Beverage Manager, Dirk Daumichen as Executive Chef, Adrian Cristian as Maitre’d.

Jon Persson is the solo pianist, strings are the Angelic Dreams Duo, party band is Euphoria, wheelhouse is the Domino Duo, Kory Simon is the Crooners Pianist, David Barrett is the Solo Guitarist/Vocalist and the Destination Expert is Luca De Pasquale.

In the summary of entertainment we have Bravo, I Got The Music, Piano Man and Born to be Wild as production shows. We also have Simon Cotter for Comedy, Lena McKenzie as vocalist, an Everly brothers tribute act, Haka the Legend, probably during the late night Auckland departure, Rock and Roll night, Country and Western night, Karaoke, Marriage Match and Yes/No. MUTS movies were not listed.

Ok, well, that should set the stage for a great 12 day cruise with 6 ports in a row. This is going to be a killer cruise, in more ways than one!

ccrain,

Thanks for the great review. Looking for the other port visits since I'll be visiting AU and NZ for the first time in October.

Safe travels,

So looking forward to your next "Live From" your commentaries are always so descriptive and entertaining.

Judy

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March 12, 2018 – At Sea Headed To Auckland

Apparently there is a cyclone in the way. I looked at the Ocean Weather Graphics website and wave height around the north end of the islands looks pretty bad. Not sure which direction it is headed either. Although the weather in Auckland for tomorrow looks decent. Here on the ships we are being buffeted by winds. Sea swells are not too bad, but the winds are causing a lot of motion. Judy is, as is typical, flat on her back riding out the motion. Without an IC on the ship, there is no place to get a bite to eat in the relative comfort of deck 5 midships. I will have to fetch stuff for her.

If anyone has a chance, could they post the latest weather information? The internet connection is as slow as ever with the ship’s motion like this.

I am pretty much not affected by the ship’s movement, so I wandered around yesterday. Went to the CC meet and greet in Skywalkers. Put some names and faces together after almost a year on the roll call. A lot of us will be on the next cruise to Tokyo as well. Met with Frenchie, the ED, as well. We have sailed with her before as well. I think for the most part the new ED/CD concept is working out. The new CD position offers more contact time with the guests and less paperwork, while the ED position offers a more managerial role. It does show in that CDs have far more time to chat, talk and interact with the guests rather than having to run to answer a page, or get to a meeting or file that report.

I did see Bravo yesterday. Having seen Encore on the Island last October, I have mixed feelings. Bravo is more of an opera setting, with less opera tunes, rock and roll actually, a single string rather than a section, and more highlighted couples dance. A beautiful contemporary routine and a three person Tango were very well done. Encore had a much more elaborate set, more operish in music selection, less featured dancing and a full orchestra. Hard to say which one I prefer since I am not an opera fan. I did enjoy the music and dance of Bravo more, but I appreciated the orchestra and the technical lighting, staging and timing of Encore more. In either event, I consider them a must see on either ship so that you can make up your own mind.

Good news and bad news on the food front. Since it was formal night and Judy was staying in the cabin, we did not dress up, so I ventured into the HC. Only the prime rib, with a generous dollop of horseradish mixed with sour cream, was exciting. The rest was kind of blah. The calamari salad needed more vinegar and onion, the zucchini salad a bit more vinegar and onion, plus maybe a hint of salt and pepper. But the Pizza was very nicely done, with a very flavorful crust, and with just the right amount of ‘char’ - the latest food buzzword for burnt but not too badly burnt.

Today is another day at sea with tomorrow being a noon arrival in Auckland. We lost another hour last night, so it is 0700, or 0500 Sydney time, in the Patisserie this morning having coffee with Joana (the barista) and Anna (the server). A great crew to wake up to in the morning – Joana especially is always smiling! This particular coffee bar opens at 0600. The one in the pool area at the entrance to the HC opens at 0530 to service the HC.

Some random information about the ship for those coming in on the March 22 repo cruise. Marcus will be leaving as CD on the 22nd. His replacement I have never heard of and can’t remember her name. We will also get a Japanese CD at the same time to train up for the Japanese season. (I forgot to ask Frenchie when she is leaving!)

Daytime events are pretty standard. Trivias, games, demonstrations, line and ballroom dance classes, health seminars and a destination lecture. No enrichment lectures on this cruise, which actually is not surprising as we only have 4 full sea days. I expect there will be an enrichment lecturer on the next cruise as there are a bunch of sea days there.

Tonight is the Rock and Roll dance party at 2130 in Fusion. Dancing in Explorer’s with Euphoria and in the Wheelhouse with the Domino Duo.

I should mention something very interesting. The entire interior of the ship is NON-SMOKING. There are a few exterior location where smoking is allowed, but NOT in the Casino or Churchill’s bar. This makes the Casino a pleasure to walk through!

So that’s basically it for this morning. Later!

Love your posts looking forward to our trip in October

Due to dissipate , down to tropical storm now

Tropical Cyclone Hola

Last Updated: 3/10/2018, 7:00:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

MSGID/GENADMIN/JOINT TYPHOON WRNCEN PEARL HARBOR HI//

SUBJ/TROPICAL CYCLONE WARNING//

RMKS/

1. TROPICAL CYCLONE 12P (HOLA) WARNING NR 019

01 ACTIVE TROPICAL CYCLONE IN SOUTHPAC

MAX SUSTAINED WINDS BASED ON ONE-MINUTE AVERAGE

WIND RADII VALID OVER OPEN WATER ONLY

---

WARNING POSITION:

110000Z --- NEAR 28.7S 173.4E

MOVEMENT PAST SIX HOURS - 175 DEGREES AT 18 KTS

POSITION ACCURATE TO WITHIN 020 NM

POSITION BASED ON CENTER LOCATED BY SATELLITE

PRESENT WIND DISTRIBUTION:

MAX SUSTAINED WINDS - 055 KT, GUSTS 070 KT

WIND RADII VALID OVER OPEN WATER ONLY

BECOMING EXTRATROPICAL

RADIUS OF 050 KT WINDS - 110 NM NORTHEAST QUADRANT

090 NM SOUTHEAST QUADRANT

065 NM SOUTHWEST QUADRANT

055 NM NORTHWEST QUADRANT

RADIUS OF 034 KT WINDS - 180 NM NORTHEAST QUADRANT

215 NM SOUTHEAST QUADRANT

160 NM SOUTHWEST QUADRANT

090 NM NORTHWEST QUADRANT

REPEAT POSIT: 28.7S 173.4E

---

FORECASTS:

12 HRS, VALID AT:

111200Z --- 31.8S 174.6E

MAX SUSTAINED WINDS - 045 KT, GUSTS 055 KT

WIND RADII VALID OVER OPEN WATER ONLY

EXTRATROPICAL

RADIUS OF 034 KT WINDS - 125 NM NORTHEAST QUADRANT

330 NM SOUTHEAST QUADRANT

170 NM SOUTHWEST QUADRANT

110 NM NORTHWEST QUADRANT

---

REMARKS:

110300Z POSITION NEAR 29.5S 173.7E.

TROPICAL CYCLONE 12P (HOLA), LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 288 NM EAST OF

KINGSTON IS., HAS TRACKED SOUTHWARD AT 18 KNOTS OVER THE PAST SIX

HOURS. ANIMATED MULTISPECTRAL SATELLITE IMAGERY DEPICTS A FULLY

EXPOSED AND ELONGATED LOW LEVEL CIRCULATION CENTER, LENDING HIGH

CONFIDENCE TO THE INITIAL POSITION. THE INTENSITY ASSESSMENT OF 55

KNOTS IS BASED ON A PGTW CURRENT INTENSITY DVORAK ESTIMATE OF T3.5

(55 KNOTS) AND A 102205 METOP-B ASCAT IMAGE SHOWING A REGION OF 50-

55 KNOTS WITH AN LLCC BECOMING INCREASINGLY ASYMMETRIC. UPPER LEVEL

ANALYSIS SHOWS SIGNIFICANT VERTICAL WIND SHEAR AFFECTING THE SYSTEM

DUE TO A DEVELOPING SHORTWAVE TROUGH JUST TO THE WEST. SSTS IN THE

REGION ARE NEAR 25 CELSIUS AND DECREASING RAPIDLY AS IT CONTINUES

ITS POLEWARD TRACK ALONG THE WESTERN EDGE OF A DEEP-LAYERED

SUBTROPICAL RIDGE TO THE EAST. TC 12S IS QUICKLY TRANSITIONING INTO

A COLD CORE EXTRATROPICAL SYSTEM AND WILL COMPLETE ETT IN THE NEXT

12 HOURS. THIS IS THE FINAL WARNING ON THIS SYSTEM BY THE JOINT

TYPHOON WRNCEN PEARL HARBOR HI. THE SYSTEM WILL BE CLOSELY MONITORED

FOR SIGNS OF REGENERATION. MAXIMUM SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT AT 110000Z

IS 28 FEET.//

NNNN

Following along.

Keith

I hope you enjoy this eg.

Which ports are scheduled?

March 13, 2018 – Headed to Auckland

Thanks for the weather update everyone! Internet is way to slow to pull up that kind of data. Seas and winds are still rough this morning – even here in the Atrium this morning. We arrive in Auckland around noon. All aboard is 1930. We have to be back on board by 1700 though. There is a Maori show in the theater at 1845, one time only. Got to see this one.

We plan to do public transport on the new trains to the Domain, and then use one of the three circle CBD Loop busses. With two ships in port, Sun Princess is doing turn around today as well, the HOHO and other venues will be pretty crowded.

I also have to find some fast wifi as several programs and apps need updating on various electronics – including one of Judy’s Ipad games. I had to update one of my critical VPN server apps at sea, which ate over 60 minutes of on-line time, but without which I could not access the work servers. Already found out where the crew goes, so we are headed there as soon as we get off (tell you later). Will pick up AT HOP cards at Britomart afterwards. We plan to hit up the food court for lunch/dinner as well as get all of our Souvenir shopping done in Auckland to clear the decks for the later ports. Probably will do the tower as well. Nothing is scheduled so we plan to play it by ear for the most part. I will be interested to compare Auckland to Sydney and Melbourne.

The ports on this cruise are Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Akaroa, Dunedin and Fjordland Scenic cruising. All in a row. 6 ports. We have excursions scheduled in Akaroa (On Your Own), Wellington (WETA backstage tour) and Dunedin (Taleri Gorge Train), with DIY running around in all the others.

We did not make it to the Rock and Roll party. We danced in the Wheelhouse to the Domino Duo and that was challenging enough. Tai Chi in Fusion was interesting enough in the morning with the ship movement. When the ship is moving this much, Judy is either parked in the Atrium or in bed. (When she is in the Atrium in a non-IC ship, I have to shuttle food down.) So I went to the Elite Lounge. The HC had some fresh cut, perfectly ripe kiwi fruit (who would have thunk it!) that was absolutely delicious. Brought a bowl down to Judy in the Atrium for dinner/dessert.

Oh BTW, they do have a crab shack on board, but for Lunch! And its in Sabatini’s. Interesting choice. Its $29 (AUS$). The Island had Alfredo’s in Sabatini’s for lunch, which I preferred.

Currency exchange is being offered at the Passenger Services Desk for NZD$. 1NZD$ for 0.85 AUS$ and a $6 AUD per transaction.

That’s it for now. Daylight is breaking. Time to start the day. Later…

Currency exchange is being offered at the Passenger Services Desk for NZD$. 1NZD$ for 0.85 AUS$ and a $6 AUD per transaction.

 

Official rate today is 1 NZD$ = .9306 AUS$ or 1 AUS$ = 1.0704 NZD$

So if Princess is selling 1 NZD$ for only $.85 AUS$ that is a bargain (until you add in the transaction charge). Or is Princess giving you .85 AUS$ for each 1 NZD$ ?

Official rate today is 1 NZD$ = .9306 AUS$ or 1 AUS$ = 1.0704 NZD$

 

So if Princess is selling 1 NZD$ for only $.85 AUS$ that is a bargain (until you add in the transaction charge). Or is Princess giving you .85 AUS$ for each 1 NZD$ ?

I just quoted from the Patter. I suspect they are selling 1 NZD for 0.85 AUS$, which is almost 10% below the official exchange rate. Cheaper than Travelex.

March 14, 2018 – Tauranga

Yesterday was one of those cruising days when Murphy pays you pack for near perfect cruising days. The ship was late getting into port – about 12:50 when docked. (The Sun Princess was apparently two hours late into Auckland on a turn around day.) But unfortunately; a) everyone was awake and wanted off the ship, and b) the port authorities decided that one gangway was all they could handle, so c) we did not alight onto New Zealand soil until 1415. With only three hours ashore, we needed to be back to see the Haka show at 1815, which meant on board by 1715, we canned the plans for the day and did basic walking around, shopping and internet updating.

Murphy followed us to the grocery store when in the self checkout line, the machine insisted that I had placed an extra item in the bag and wanted me to remove it, and of course it wouldn’t do anything else until I complied with its orders. After arguing with the machine for a few minutes, removing stuff and replacing it, and with no attendants around, we aborted and went back to the full check out line to get manually checked out by a real person. Prices, BTW, are slightly higher, relatively speaking, in NZ, than in Australia. Even considering the exchange rate, stuff is not cheap here, but not outrageous either.

Free internet at Starbucks was both slower and faster than the ship. I did manage to get my apps updated, but Judy only got a small fraction of her stuff updated before we had to head back to the ship. I need to figure out a better internet solution for these long trips. Updating my 200+MB stuff required almost two hours at Starbucks. The t-mobile works well on the cell phone for mapping and basic facebooking, emailing, messaging, etc. The hotspot is pretty much useless for computer connection as it is throttled to a theoretical 256kB/sec. But updating large apps or downloading large documents is not workable on ship’s wifi and free wifi ashore is typically too crowded to be useful either. I am going to experiment in Tauranga this morning at McDonald’s. We arrive early enough to beat the ship crowds.

So far, all reasonable per day Myfi devices I’ve looked at are throttled after a certain download per day down to 2G speeds. Some are 500MB, which I don’t like. I want at least 1GB and I only want to pay on a per day useage basis, not a daily charge for the duration. Hopefully something will pop up before September.

So back to Auckland. The City Link busses were almost empty, but looked comfortable with large windows. Our original plan to use them looked pretty workable. Even in the rush hour, more people were walking or driving than riding the busses. We did not get a chance to use them, or the trains, but with a stored value card system, like the Sydney OPAL card, it should have been relatively easy.

The CBD was crowded, but not as bad as Melbourne. Lots of construction going on which affected both foot and vehicle traffic. Auckland was much more “American” feeling than Melbourne, which actually felt more European, or Sydney, which has a vibe all its own. It felt a little like San Francisco or Seattle.

Even worse than Melbourne was the walk on the left or the right issue. It was Brownian motion at work as the ‘center of mass’ of the pedestrian stream would wander from the right to the center to the left and then back again, interrupted at various spots by construction barriers, cars in the middle of the street and the ever present clump of tourists stopping to take a picture or have a conversation in the middle of the sidewalk.

They were checking IDs at the gangway to re-board the ship and in spite of many notifications that ID would be required, there was a line of people who didn’t have theirs. This took one of the two port security staff off line to coordinate with ship’s personnel to confirm the person’s identity, and slowed the checking to a crawl. We actually didn’t get back aboard till 1730. Then it was a race to clean up, grab a bite and make it to the theater to get a seat in 20 minutes or less.

So Haka the Legend was interesting, BUT it was recorded for TV viewing and we could have watched it on TV with little loss of fidelity. Not knowing what to expect, I wanted to see it live. Two other shows we have seen, the Hula show in Honolulu and the Tahitian show in Papeete, did not translate to the TV very well. Those shows used large numbers of people, with motion and activities happening across the entire stage. In order to ‘experience’ the show, you need multiple cameras, cuts and edits, otherwise you are stuck with a simple wide angle shot of the stage which leaves out most of the ‘personality’ of the show. Haka the Legend uses 9 people at most and they are clustered in the center of the stage. A single wide angle shot would have captured the essence of the show with just a slight loss of ‘personality’.

My recommendation is to view the show on the TV and spend the extra time ashore.

So off to Tauranga this morning. Later!

March 15, 2018 – Napier

We arrive in Napier around noon today. All aboard is 1830. We don’t have much planned for this port other than possibly the Aquarium or the Faraday museum or both. It’s a container port, so shuttling is mandatory. The shuttle drops off at the i-site in downtown Napier, on the coast, just north of the aquarium. It is free. We’ll see how this compares to Auckland.

Tauranga was a great port. Up there with our favorite cruise ports like Hobart, Flaam, Ketchikan, San Diego and Nawilliwilli. The ship docked in the port of Mt. Maunganui. (Downtown Tauranga is actually a $10 NZD shuttle ride away.) Lots of stuff to do close by, shops, restaurants, climb or walk around Mt. Maunganui, go to the beach, surf, paddle board, wave ride, people watch, etc. Very clean port, very nice people from the crossing guards to the restaurants to the grocery stores to the shop owners.

Weather was gorgeous. Blue sky, nice fresh breeze, warmer in the sun (but not killer hot), cooler in the shade. A perfect day for hiking, strolling and beach activities.

We were able to leisurely stroll around the town picking up free wifi and updating our apps, then doing a little shopping, hiking around Mt. Maunganui (lots of cool stuff and great photographs), watch a guy ruin a circular saw, have a great Thai lunch, finish updating all the electronics and experience some of the cleanest public and well equipped restrooms we’ve ever come across.

There were quite a few book on the spot tours available at the dock, as well as a few taxis and a lot of private tour groups meeting.

There is free wifi, unlimited, at Burger King, but its bandwidth was really limited. Each of the ANZ bank locations in town also has a free hotspot, BUT, limits you to about 250MB total per device per day across all locations. We ended up finishing downloading everything at the restaurant which had free, for customers, wifi and lots of bandwidth.

Hiking around Mt. Maunganui was the highlight of the day. Lots of interesting photograph opportunities. We did not go to the top, which is accessible via two trails. We stuck to the 2.5km loop around the base. (Note that the base trail has washed out in one location and a bypass with steep stairs is available – so wheelchairs and strollers cannot do the complete loop.) The base loop has rocky shores, sandy beaches, ships passing very close, lots of birds, seals, lots of plants, trees and a very interesting geology.

The beaches on the east side of the town are white sand with good potential for surfing in the right conditions. There were even a couple of vendors with paddle board and surf boards rentals, as well as surfing lessons. We did notice a UV index billboard. It was 10 yesterday and in the high 8-12 range – which indicates ‘seek shade’ or glop on the SPF 500+. We retreated to the shade of a restaurant and nice cool drink.

For lunch we found a great Thai restaurant, Taste of Asia, in downtown Mt. Maunganui. A little green curry with mixed seafood and massaman curry with chicken. This was good stuff, Highly recommended.

So let’s add the new coffee card controversy to the missing buy one, get one for $1 happy hour. As the Princess main board has indicated, the new coffee cards have expiration dates. Here on the Diamond, they have run out of the old coffee cards without expiration dates and have not been issued the new cards with the expiration dates, so they have had to produce – copy and print on board – cards themselves – but they are only good, period, on this cruise. They are not good on any other ship or any other cruise. That is very controversial on board right now. Now the ship’s baristas may honor it on the next cruise if you are B2B, but it probably wouldn’t be honored on the Sea Princess next week as there are a lot of people staying a night in Sydney and catching the Sea Princess to do a round Australia cruise. Lack of planning on your part should not constitute an inconvenience on my part…

Later all…

Hope you are having a great cruise.....:):):)

Bob

So, my $7,000 cruise might cost an extra $36.00 or if I want two glasses of wine each afternoon it might add as much as $200.00 to the cost of the cruise. So irrelevant I’m not going to give it a second thought.

March 16, 2018 – Wellington

We went through a series of squalls last night. The latest one this morning had the entire cabin shaking, squeaking and leaning to one side, then the other. Uphill to the bathroom and back both ways. Got to get up and at it this morning as we have an 0800 arrival and a full day planned.

Napier was very nice and interesting. The Art Deco reconstruction of the town is unique. (After its almost total destruction by an earthquake and fire, they rebuilt the entire town, or most of it, in an art deco motif. Hasting was re-built in a Spanish Style.) It’s a very good port and unlike Auckland, the port authorities have the right attitude – get them off the ship and spending as fast as possible. The shuttle service ran like a tender system with everyone meeting in Savoy on Deck 5 and getting a ticket. We went right at about 1200, we docked on time, and only sat for a few minutes before getting on a shuttle bus to the I-Site on Marine Way. The shuttle dropped us off at the Aquarium, their second stop. We did the aquarium, saw them feed the little penguins (they are so cute!), wandered the exhibits, walked the big tank, it was a small but very nice aquarium. We both enjoyed it a lot. Don’t miss the giant squid exhibit – and that is considered a small version of the species!

The ‘beach’ at Napier is a grey gravel beach that was uplifted some 12-15 feet during the earthquake. A little larger than pebble or pea gravel sized, its actually harder to walk through than sand. The Marine walk way between the Aquarium and the I-site has parks, gardens and interesting fountains. While there was a light cloud cover, the day was very warm and the sunshine was bright.

We walked back up to the I-site and went into town looking at the classic cars, available for guided tours around town, window shopping and looking for previously marked restaurants. The ANZ bank locations had a lot of crew in front accessing the free internet. Most restaurants have internal wifi that is password secured. The town is easily walkable, with plenty of sidewalk space and walking malls.

We ended up at the Asian Emporium right on the main drag. Highly rated on Tripadvisor, we had lunch/dinner. The salt and pepper calamari was excellent. Their 12 hour braised lamb over polenta with peas, roasted garlic and fruit caviar was apparently award winning and I see why. Hands down a great lamb dish. Judy had the fish and chips with perfectly cooked chips and the Lemonfish, not Cod, was different, but tasty. Service was excellent. Ambiance, in Art Deco style, was unique and interesting. Highly recommended.

There was quite a line getting back on the shuttles to the ship. The reason was that most of the shuttles reverted to their actual mission of school bus to take kids home. That caused a bit of a backup while most of them were off line. When they returned, the line moved very quickly. Once again, they were checking IDs at the port and wonder of wonder, everyone on our bus had their ID!

Today the port of Wellington has the same restrictions and a shuttle service to the town near the I-site. There is a lot to do in Wellington. We have a WETA Backstage tour scheduled and we have to see the Te Papa museum.

So off we go!

March 17, 2018 – Christchurch

Rockin and Rollin along. Very windy this morning and last night. Ship’s movement actually woke me up several times last night. You know, the sort of ‘did we hit a deer’ wakeup call! Not light enough to see the sky, but I can see the whitecaps next to the ship. Since this is a tender port I hope we make it in, but wind like this can cancel a tender port in a hurry.

Windy Wellington lived up to its name for sure. 160+ days a year with 60 knot winds or higher. Why there isn’t wind turbines everywhere, I don’t know. They could power New Zealand. A kind of grey sky day, not cold or chilly, but not warm either.

First off, Wellington is one of the hardest cities I’ve had to navigate since Naples. Its not laid out in squares or even 45’s, but roads angle and meet at 15’s, 30’, and 135’s. And the street signage is difficult to find. Even locals we talked to didn’t know the street we were on, Victoria, at the time. Even with Google it was hard to get oriented in the proper direction.

As in Napier we had to do shuttle busses. But unlike Napier, this place was even more ready with a continuous stream of busses that did not require a ticket. Just que up, off the ship and onto a shuttle bus which dropped you off at the main bus stop on BRANDON street, south of the cable car and I-Site at the city offices. Our pickup point for our tour was the I-site.

Two must do’s were on our list. The WETA Cave and the Te Papa museum. I booked the ‘There and Back Again’ 2 hour tour on TripAdvisor. It’s a Viator tour, also owned by TripAdvisor, that has booking integrated into the TripAdvisor website. I though I would give it a try since they had a 100% refund policy up to 7 days prior.

Unfortunately, somehow, our booking got screwed up somewhere in the process. They had to scramble to make room for us in a day when all the tours were sold out and then they had to reverse our tour schedule to do the tour first, the DVD second, instead of vice versa. The DVD isn’t essential to see first, but it does put everything into perspective.

The tour company picked us up on schedule at the tour bus stop near the I-site. We had really good commentary over to WETA, interesting tidbits here and there. We were able to take some photos outside with the Troll before the tour and then we, and one other couple, got sorted into a tour group with Zack of WETA. Do not expect a Hollywood backlot tour. You basically go into 4 rooms, stuffed with props from various movies, and the number of movies and TV shows WETA worked on goes back to 1997 and Ray Bradbury Theater. Hercules and Zena, some of the first productions in New Zealand, were the first forebearers of Lord of the Rings. The props ranged from swords, futuristic weapons, models up to a fully size fully functional, except for the mounted tri-barrel, WARTHOG! BUT, do not touch and no pictures were allowed until the final room. Want to touch the Mithral chain mail Frodo wore? Want to stand by a full size model of the one armed bad guy in the Hobbit? (Can’t remember his name.) These four rooms were just way too cool. The tour was about 45 minutes and the video was about 20 minutes. The timing did not allow much time for shopping in the WETA cave, the only downside to the tour. They needed to add at least another 15 minutes for a bathroom and shopping break. BTW – the WETA cave itself is free to enter and buy. Want a reproduction of Sting? Or the one ring? They have a website you can purchase this stuff through, but here you can see it live.

Some of the props in the rooms were for the Gallipoli exhibit at the Te Papa museum. An Enfield rifle at 2.5x scale. Why 2.5x? We had to go to Te Papa to find out…

Te Papa is the National Museum for New Zealand. Entrance is free. This is the Smithsonian version for New Zealand. A lot of displays are constantly being added and moved around. The building itself is huge with high ceiling. There are a lot of display on the Maori, the immigration waves to New Zealand and a machine that tests whether or not you would be allowed to immigrate to New Zealand today. Basically unless you have over $3M to invest, you are not getting in if you are over 45. You have to have a job, or lots of money and be under 45 to be allowed into the country as a potential resident. (There are additional exemptions for refugees.)

But for me, the Gallipoli display, put together by WETA, was the most unique and impressing storytelling display I have ever seen. The venue, which is always crowded, is a walking path through a sequence of static and interactive displays laid out in a chronological manner, but centered on a particular individual’s Gallipoli story. That individual, and a particular circumstance, is modeled, in a 2.5x static 3D scene. You can walk around the scene, and photograph with no flash. Its very hard to describe, but Google has some photos and layouts. After the scene there are displays of items, circumstances and written descriptions on the wall and the floor pertinent to that person’s story. Incredibly impressive story telling from a very unique perspective and in a very compelling and personal way. The nurse has tears running down her cheeks that are simply moving. The private’s story is just 12 hours long! The look on the doctor’s face! In a word – WOW! This is a do no miss…

A fan of WETA could easily spend an hour just perusing the cave itself, much less take the tour. The Te Papa museum is easily a 3 day adventure to see everything. Plan on at least 1 hour to go through the Gallipoli venue, and then plan to go back to see it from the beginning for another hour. Te Papa is more of a destination than a museum.

So hopefully, we are off to Christchurch today on a ‘on your own’ excursion. I chose that in order to get an early tender and a way into Christchurch at a reasonable price. Wind is still blowing and I suspect any decision by the Captain will be at last minute once we get into the bay.

So later!

March 18, 2018 – Dunedin

Even earlier today. A 0700 meeting in wheelhouse for our excursion, the Taleri Gorge train ride. Not even light enough to see the sea state, but the wind is nowhere near as bad as yesterday morning and the ship isn’t rocking and rolling that much.

Akaroa is a very nice, quaint little seaside village. We chose to do the Christchurch on your own, but you should be aware that there is effectively, only 3.5 to 4 hours in Christchurch itself. A 20 minute tender ride to the dock, a 1 ½ to 2 hour bus ride got us to Christchurch at 1045 and pickup was at 1445. Enough time for us to see part of the Botanical Gardens, the truck garden and the heritage rose garden, and have lunch at Fiddlesticks. (How can you not have lunch at a place called Fiddlesticks?)

A lot of people stayed in Akaroa. There are restaurants, shops, a beach, some walking paths, but quite frankly there was only at most a half day of stuff to see and do in Akaroa proper. Christchurch was the draw for us and we knew we would have limited time there, but it was a place we really wanted to see. The Botanical Gardens did not disappoint, although we are a bit late into the fall for the really good blooms on the flowers. The truck garden near the caretaker’s cottage, and restaurant, was very interesting and we got a chance to walk around it with one of the caretakers. Late season apples, pears, pumpkins, squash, carrots, some lettuce, peas, beans, herbs and some tomatoes were still in the garden. The huge oak trees in the gardens were dropping acorns as well. The roses were in late season bloom with a lot of rose hips and limited blooms, but they had planted other types of flowers in the beds to make sure there were some flowers. A very nice and well cared for garden.

The entrance to the gardens was very crowded as there was an Indian festival of Color going on. People were getting ‘colored’ by handfuls of brightly colored starch thrown, or shot out of cannons, while very vibrant and rythmic, almost Bollywood style but different, music played via mega watt loud speakers. They were having a blast, dressed in white and ending up every possible color under the rainbow. One of the chaperones, the DJ, inadvertently got blasted by one of the cannons and had to practically take a shower in the bathroom before getting back on the bus. It was interesting to say the least.

The Avon river also had a boat ride. Not a gondola style, but an English push pole type boat. There was also a trolley and a Hop On, Hop Off bus operating. One item of note, the bus did not drop us off at either of the locations noted on the map they give you on the bus, but at a third location, the Art Gallery. Updated maps were being provided at the stop by Tourism personnel. I had pretty good connection via Tmobile at 3G speeds. Good enough for Google maps to locate where we were. But interesting enough, Google maps did not have much detail for the countryside drive. For that I had to turn to Maps.me and their downloaded open source maps that provided much better detail of the coastline around the Akaroa area and the trip into Christchurch.

The city has not been completely rebuilt from the 2011 earthquake – although new construction is everywhere – there are still buildings being renovated and empty spaces of land where building once stood, but were razed to the ground. But the city definitely has the new car look with an occasional older building being renovated, but mainly newer, modern buildings with a lot of visible structural seismic reinforcement. After the almost uniform art deco, but soft style of Napier, the collage of modern low rise architecture is actually quite clashing with straight edges and perfect angles becoming a jungle of geometric shapes, and quite frankly, pretty drab colors. Maybe it was the overcast day, but the city could use a little Feng Shue here and there! Still very interesting to see how the seismic reinforcements were used as part of the aesthetics.

On the other hand, the Art Gallery building was stunning. Glass frontage with geometric shapes, but arranges in graceful curves. The glass gave it a slightly ethereal look from the side. It was definitely an architect’s dream design and a builder’s nightmare…

The bus ride itself was very nice with Ted as our driver. Pointing out interesting sights and locations on the way over and back. Being a native to the area, and long time bus driver, he knew all the spots to point out in plenty of time for camera work. Very enjoyable ride – although the bus could have used some work as the seats were not all operating properly. Some reclined and did not un-recline, some didn’t recline. But it was better than some of the re-used school busses we have had on other excursions – and the A/C worked! One thing to note is that the bus ride up the mountain and down the other side just out of Akaroa is pretty windy and bumpy. It could cause issues for those susceptible to motion sickness – Judy wore her bands.

The day was overcast and on the verge of rain showers, but they never developed and we even had glimpses of sunlight and blue sky on the way back to the ship. We got back to Akaroa at just about 1700, with the last tender at 1730. Thankfully the wind had not picked up and it was a pretty smooth ride back to the ship.

One of our favorite activities, the deck party, held in Fusion, was scheduled for 2200. With an 0700 meeting in the Wheelhouse in the morning, there was no way we were going to make that. But the 22 day repo cruise to Tokyo will give us plenty of opportunity for those activities.

Later!

March 19, 2018 – Approaching the Fjords

Weather overnight was supposed to be very rough. This morning I can hear it and feel it, but not as bad as the first day back across the Tasman sea from Sydney. The new TV system doesn’t have the ship stats ‘channel’ to see wind speed and direction over the deck and sea state. The winds were supposed to be over 100km/hour this morning.

We did the Taleri Gorge train trip yesterday. Very expensive, but very nice. Princess did a good job, from the train sitting dockside to the meals and drinks on the ride, the timing and the delivery back dockside on the train. I debated between this trip and the Trans-Alpine train in the previous port. The details on the Trans-Alpine train showed that half the trip, or more, was by bus, but this trip was completely train, from beginning to end.

Much like the train up and down the hill in Flaam, Norway, this train goes from the dock in Port Chalmers up the Taleri gorge to the top, then backs down the same track to the train station in Dunedin, where people on subsequent tours like Larnach Castle get off, and then continues back to Port Chalmers. (The engines basically switch ends of the train, but the cars stay in the same orientation.) The scenery is fantastic, from the farms along the valley floor, to the deep, rocky gorges along the track, to the trestles over the rivers and tunnels the train goes through. It’s a great visually stunning trip.

This is not the same trip that the public can take to Taleri Gorge. The entire train is dedicated to Princess passengers. The cars, there are three main types as seen on the railway website, are arranged with tables in the center of each set of 4, in some cases 2 depending on the car, seats facing each other. So if you are seated looking forward, you will be riding backward on the way back.

The best viewing of the first half of the trip, the valley, the city, the farms, is on the left side on the way up. The best views of the second half of the trip, the gorge, the river, the bridges, is on the right side on the way up. The best option is to ride up on one side and make friends with the couples across the aisle on the opposite side and switch at the top for the ride back.

There are viewing platforms spaced along the train on the generator cars. Our closest was one car back. Getting there can be a challenge as the train ride is not the smoothest. Lots of lurching, rolling from side to side. The viewing platforms are open air, can be quite chilly and have no seating. They are also very crowded once you get into the gorge area. Using the viewing platforms is almost a necessity as the angle of the sun into the train car and the window structure made autofocusing on anything other than the window very difficult and the smaller windows of our car did not make for great photos.

Snacks, drinks, lunch and bottled water is provided on the train. We started with juice, tea and a gingerbread train shaped cookie, followed by cheese, crackers and wine (local cheese and local wine). Lunch at the top was a rolled sandwich, potato salad, quiche, carrot cake and grapes. All you could drink wine, beer, soft drinks, tea, coffee and bottled water. It was all very nice. Service was great. Almost all of the personnel were volunteers that have been doing this for years. Karen, our hostess, was great in pointing out interesting sights coming up, some history, in addition to the running main train commentary, and other, more personal, tidbits of information.

The train stops at the top for about 20 minutes while the engines switch ends. There was a little market at the top with some handcrafts and trinkets. There was also a souvenir cart on the train with lots of stuff on which to spend the last of your New Zealand dollars! Guess what the kids are getting for Christmas!?!

Princess will fill the cars for the most part, and you do not get a choice of cars. Depending on when you board a particular car, you have your choice of seats. Restrooms are in the front of each car, when functioning, but the location of the viewing cars varies. Just keep in mind that the seat you choose will be going backward on the way back unless you can swap with others. There are overhead netted racks that will hold all but the largest of backpacks, so storage of ‘stuff’ is not an issue.

All in all, an excellent excursion. Highly recommended for sure…

Last night was also the Most Traveled Party. As the previous party, this was a cross between a luncheon and a cocktail party with the foods not the standard hors devoures, but more elegant small plates, like coconut shrimp, scallop, ceviche, lots of fresh sashimi and sushi, and a tower of proscutto with selected cheeses. The captain stayed quite a while and talked to all the tables. It was very nicely done.

We actually went to Liar’s Club last night! It was fun, but they must be running out of words as 3 of them I’ve actually used in my lifetime. Petcock, Farding and Gestic, but alas, the 4th word mixed us up, so we did not end up with any Champoo…

I must mention once again the great service we are getting, especially in the Patisserie for our morning coffee. Anna and Joana almost have it ready for us when we arrive in the morning. Joana’s smile lights up our morning, and minutes after Judy sits down, Anna has her black coffee, in a to go cup, hot water and three lemons, plate and spoon, delivered to the table. These girls are a joy to be around in the morning.

Well, a few days rest before Sydney, then a nice bunch of sea days to Darwin. We have lots of excursions to new places scheduled on the next cruise, but at least there will be no 6 ports in a row!

Later!

Ccrain loving the recalls of your trip follow my trip ports 2016 October,you have told the tales exactly like I felt akaroa went to a sheep shearing and dog trainers property,misty rain and it was quite horrendous return with tender leaking in every space, the family who prepared morning tea I've never forgotten how lovely they were. Stories he told of visitors from USA and Canada sending him new boots and clothes humbled by the visit, hope it's smooth on return to Sydney.

Glad to hear positive news from you 😎🐨🇦🇺

March 20, 2018 – At Sea Back To Sydney

That was some stormy weather yesterday. Looks a bit better today with some clouds, less wind and less swells. Judy might be able to get out of bed today! Early morning coffee with the girls. None better.

Yesterday was the Fjordland scenic cruise part of this cruise. We went in the middle of a storm with high winds, rain and rough seas. However the heavy rains contributed to one of the most spectacular waterfall display in Milford Sound I have every seen. Water was pouring off the cliffs of the fjord. The normal waterfalls were in full flood stage with tons of water just thundering off the cliffs. But the most incredible sights were the dozens of smaller waterfalls that would run down in parallel to a cornice and then get blown upwards by the winds, their water simply disappearing as it flowed upwards into the clouds.

WOW!

Pretty incredible sights. Yes, it was rainy and misty and hard to see, but that rain was what was causing the waterfall action. If the sky had cleared for just a few minutes, it would have been spectacular, but we had to settle for overcast, misty pouring rain. Still, a pretty fantastic sight to behold.

BTW – The TV system went out last night. Shipwide. Even in the crew quarters. And its still out this morning. Might make for a real boring ride back to Sydney. Justice League is/was on demand. I like the movie, even more so than Thor Ragnorak - Judy disagrees.

Anyway. Back to Sydney and Turn Around Day – Which promises to be rainy and windy according to the forecasts.

Later!

March 21, 2018 – At Sea to Sydney

Another hour back last night, so we are now back on Sydney time. Still no TV – having to rely on my video files on my Surface Pro – binge watching the 3rd season of JAG – back in the day when TV series were 20+ episodes a year, so we have lots of JAG and lots of House to watch.

Sea state is rather rough. Large swells, some wind. Last night was an intense electrical storm lighting up the cabin several times with huge strikes. Very bright considering they were 15-20 seconds away.

Not much happening on the days at sea with a significant sea state. Judy has been pretty much horizontal. I’ve just been wandering around. The HC had an interesting noodle bar for lunch yesterday with a pretty intense broth, noodles and a selection of biminibop items to add. (Red chili paste, fake crab, nori, sliced pork loin, bamboo shoots, green onions, sesame seeds). While not in the same league as some of the Asian-style broths we’ve had in the past, it was pretty good and a welcome change from the normal HC fare.

Its been a nice few days to recover from the ports in New Zealand. The ports were all interesting – I only wish we would have had more time in Auckland. But we’ll save that for another cruise, plus there are still more ports we want to visit. This may require a land cruise in the near future.

So we will catch up with everyone on the next cruise – 22 days to Tokyo from Sydney.

Later….