Voyager of the Seas Picture Review Dec 2012 Australia & New Zealand Cruise

[Iluvcruising2]

Otherwise, you may end up in one of these. Good luck!

[Iluvcruising2]

They have interesting names for the geological features.

[Aviator of the Seas]

This was our rental car, a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder. It had 347,000+ km on the odometer. It worked just fine though. It must have been very well maintained.

 

 

Ha. I still have one of those. Handed it down to a daughter. Very good vehicle!

[Iluvcruising2]

Walk 1 and 2 were fairly easy. Walk 3 was a bit more challenging, because it was undulating. I recall many steps too.

 

Edited December 30, 2012 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

But Walk 3 was most definitely worth it. I would say go for it!

[Iluvcruising2]

See the bubbles? Now, don’t try washing your hands there….

 

[Iluvcruising2]

That’s the Oyster pool. It looked like an oyster.

[Iluvcruising2]

This marked the furthest point of our walk, at exhibit number 18 on the map. (Lake Nagakoro Waterfall). There is a sign there which says that we were approximately 35 minutes from the Visitor Centre. I don’t recall seeing any spectacular waterfall though. We got here at 11:20am.

[Iluvcruising2]

You can see fellow visitors to the thermal wonderland in the background.

[Iluvcruising2]

I think this was called this the Devil’s cave.

 

[Iluvcruising2]

I timed our walk at the Thermal Wonderland from the start till the end. We completed it in 65 minutes. We spent a very short time in the shops before making our way back to Rotorua. The plan was to grab some lunch before going to the Rotorua Skyline gondola and luge. On our way, we stopped at a supermarket called New World Westend. We had lunch at McDonalds (which was on the way) before arriving at the Skyline Gondola at about 1:25pm. http://www.skyline.co.nz/rotorua/

Edited December 30, 2012 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

A very scenic cable car (gondola) ride.

[Iluvcruising2]

We bought a family ticket which gave us 8 Luge Rides and Gondola return. The views at the top of the hill were very good, you could see Rotorua quite clearly. There was a restaurant that looked quite busy. We headed straight to start taking the Luges. Turns out that our kids were a bit too short to ride the Luge alone, so they rode with us. In case you are wondering what a luge is - http://www.skyline.co.nz/rotorua/ssr_luge/

At the end of the Luge ride, we have to take chair-lifts up. The kids absolutely loved it!

[Iluvcruising2]

The view from the chair lift. You could hear all the excited screams (of both kids and adults like myself) as the luge zoomed down at high speeds. I must say that the ride down was very exhilarating.

One minor downside. The ride down can get very bumpy (especially on the least difficult course called scenic ride). The luge has no suspension whatsoever, therefore your body has to absorb the shocks.

After 4 rides, I can tell you that my buttocks were hurting.

[Iluvcruising2]

We took the luge a total of 4 times. Each time (luge ride downhill, chair lift up again) took 20 minutes. Thereafter, it was time to head back to the ship. We had to take the gondola down again. This picture was taken at 3:10pm

[Iluvcruising2]

For the drive back to the ship (Salisbury Avenue, Tauranga), I fiddled around with the GPS to make sure that the route back was via the State Highway rather than the Tauranga Direct Road. This route turned out to be a much easier drive, though less scenic. Time-wise, it was about the same, 1.5 hours. We had to fill up the car to full tank of petrol before returning her to the ABC car rental staff who were waiting for us at the port gate. We arrived at the port gate at 4:45pm.

Returning the rental car was a breeze. We slowly made our way back to the ship. Boarding was smooth, no queues this time. We went back to our cabin to chill out, and wait for our 6pm dinner seating.

[Iluvcruising2]

Got the C&A Invite to the Top Tier party.

[scottishwee35]

When was the last time you came to Singapore?

 

We are changing and evolving very quickly. Plenty more to do here these days, compared to even 3 years ago.

 

Here is our official tourism link -

http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/experience.html

 

I hope you visit us again real soon! :)

 

My first visit was 1988 for three nights at Orchard Street, that was fab times and beautiful hotel Mandrain then flew to Australia to visited my cousin and visited Brisbane for Expo88.

 

then my husband and two kids went by 9 years ago with his in law but I was disappointed that we stayed in India area for 2 nights and Raffles hotel was changing too and not allowed men short in the hotel... Never mind but the weather was pour of raining that was April. We were hop on hop off bus and it was good but we came off to the park unfortunately the weather was heavy raining and thunder. We give it up and back to hotel... which was a great shame...

 

I must said that the Airport was so best in the world I have seen. Because the staff and people was so friendly and help us with luggages and make us very welcome. When we arrived Australia and it turn out different way.

 

My cousin live in Australia,visited Singapore few months ago and told me about new park and hotel etc.

 

I talked my husband few days ago that I would like go back to Singapore and Australia again hope ful one day maybe just two of us...

 

I was looking on Royal Caribbean and see that one cruise from Singapore to Australia and I quite fancy to do that go to Singapore for few days then cruise to Australia then visit families...hopeful do that one day

 

Scottishwee35

Edited December 30, 2012 by scottishwee35

[Iluvcruising2]

Dinner menu – yums.

 

Edited December 31, 2012 by Iluvcruising2

[Iluvcruising2]

Prawn Ceviche – Very yummy!

[Iluvcruising2]

Vegetable Samosa

[Iluvcruising2]

Beef Kebab, Rocket and New Potato Salad. (Never figured out why the “Rocket”.)

[Iluvcruising2]

Thai Style Prawns

[Iluvcruising2]

Buttermilk Fried Chicken – kids loved this!

[Iluvcruising2]

Vegetable Pad Thai – errrrm, a miss I would say.