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

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Onwards to the Antartic Ice adventure.

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I think the major highlight of Kelly Tarlton would be the Penguin exhibit. I don’t know if there is any other such exhibit in the world.

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These were the penguins and they were really close! (Separated by a glass panel, of course)

I have never been so close to these lovely penguins.

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Another cute shot.

Some write-up on the penguin exhibit.

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She was making new snow!

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Jellyfish, in motion.

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A small café.

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For me, the highlight of this place were the penguins. That alone was enough for me to recommend this place. Of course, there were many other interesting exhibits too, but I have seen similar exhibits elsewhere around the world. (e.g. there is an Underwater Aquarium in Singapore too)

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Sorry, you can’t have me for dinner.

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I don’t think the seahorse parent could be giving their kids sufficient personal attention!

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Finding Nemo!

More of Finding Nemo.

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I wouldn’t mess around with this chap. I wonder what they have been feeding him with!

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A very cloudy day. Auckland city centre was on the other side of the bay.

This poster was at the carpark. When you finish viewing the exhibition, the exit is on the other side of the carpark, a short walk back to the entrance.

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The Kelly Tarlton’s shark bus. Very catchy. We finished the exhibition quite quickly and waited to take the bus back to Auckland city centre. We were the only passengers on the bus. Journey took about 10 minutes.

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This was the scene at downtown Auckland where the bus dropped us off at 1030am. Quite chaotic, as you can see. Many people were waiting for the bus. The driver said that he could only take 21 in his bus. Not sure what happened thereafter. Now you know, if the cruise ship is in town, the 10:30 bus is going to be really packed.

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Downtown Auckland. This is the junction of Quay Street & Queen Street. We were very near a shopping center.

Bought some stuff for the kids at this shop. The winter stuff were discounted at 50%.

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There was a large food court on the 2nd floor of the shopping centre, with plenty of food options.

I noticed plenty of places selling sushi and the sushi pieces were huge, compared to the typical serving in Singapore.

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After lunch, we just walked around the city on foot, visiting souvenir shops and whatever that interested us. It was more a leisurely walk. We contemplated going up the Sky Tower (now the clouds look to have cleared) but decided against it. We passed interesting signs like this. Two cruise ships were in town.

Walked past the entrance to a Backpacker hostel. My kids were asking us what this was all about. Yeah, those were the days, when my wife and I travelled Europe, staying at hostels. Nostalgic.

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A picture of the street.

There were also some Chinese restaurants, here was a menu. No, we didn’t patronize these. No real urge to have any Chinese food. Anyway, I have the good old Fried Rice onboard the ship! J

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Fast food – gives you a sense of the prices in Auckland.

Another view of the ship across the road. The shopping center I was referring to was that near. As we still had some time, we just wandered around the various shops.

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We made a stop to have some Hokey Pokey ice cream.

 

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Crystal Symphony behind the pier.

 

Edited December 31, 2012 by Iluvcruising2

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You could get tickets to many places from the pier too.

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We got back to the ship at 3:15pm. Voyager departed punctually. A good view of Crystal Symphony.

 

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Very fun to watch the ship leave the pier. We were leaving early because we needed the additional hours to get back to Sydney by 10am on Day 14.

Another view of the Crystal Symphony.