To All My Hal Friends, What A Great Day To Be Alive

[Chivalrygirl]

I just want to share with all my HAL friends that love to know what is going on downunder my awesome morning.

 

The arrival of the Queen Mary II into Auckland this morning, it sure was worth the 5.30 am start, and the excitement of a Kiwi skipper bringing her into port and blasting on the hooter, WOW how awesome is that?

[Sailorgirlseattle]

Very cool! Is this the ship that left San Francisco last week? My hubby was there business and watched her leave ... and now you watched her come in. How cool!

 

And LOL at our language differences! I KNOW what you mean by "hooter" but that word sure means something different over here! :D :D :D

[waiting2retire]

Awesome pics, Chivalrygirl! She is big, isn't she? I would love to live near a port; unfortunately we don't get to see these ships here in Toronto!

 

Glad you had a great day!

 

Bonnie

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Val, what great pictures, thanks! Is this the first time the QM2 has come to New Zealand?

[Chivalrygirl]

Val, what great pictures, thanks! Is this the first time the QM2 has come to New Zealand?

 

 

Hi Karin and others

Yes this is her first time down-under, and yes she sailed from Frisco down to here then on to Sydney.

Karin as you know Auckland is known as the city of sails, and this morning just showed why, north head was absolutely jam packed with young and old and all their dogs as well. A wee boy standing behind me said to someone he had been awake from 1 am, he was just so excited about coming to see the ship.

Bonnie, she is huge, too big for our cruise terminal, she is parked up at a container wharf, as we watched them trying to berth her, it was more like pulling and shoving it sure took a long time. I picked her up from miles away on the other side of the harbour as I was driving home about midday, she is so big she is very, very visable.

[waiting2retire]

Auckland is known as the city of sails

 

I did not know that (there's a whole lot about your part of the world that I don't know :o ), but I am fascinated by the number of small craft visible in your photo. Are there always that many boats around, or were they out in force today to usher in the "grand dame"?

 

Someday, I will see for myself on a fabulous "down under" cruise; someday...

 

Bonnie

[kakalina]

Cool pix. Thanks for sharing

[Grumpy1]

as you know Auckland is known as the city of sails, and this morning just showed why,

One of our favorite memories from the 2005 world cruise was the sailaway from Auckland. We were "escorted" out by what seemed to be hundreds of sailboats. Of course, since they were escorting us out rather than in, it's possible they just were glad to see us go...:D

[constructiondude]

One of our favorite memories from the 2005 world cruise was the sailaway from Auckland. We were "escorted" out by what seemed to be hundreds of sailboats. Of course, since they were escorting us out rather than in, it's possible they just were glad to see us go...:D

 

LOL, as much as I love looking at the huge cruise ships every summer I'm a little relieved to see them leave in October. I want my favorite places all to myself. I want to order a fresh sandwich at Pike Place Market without having to wait in line. I don't want to have to look at that ridiculous "duck tour mobile" any more. Of course, I'm always delighted to see the ships again in May and always go down to the docks to watch the first one come in, its usually the Zaandam for the Hawaii Circle cruise.

[O2B@C]

Hi Karin and others

Yes this is her first time down-under, and yes she sailed from Frisco down to here then on to Sydney....

 

We here in the SF Bay Area all enjoyed having the QM2 as our guest - I didn't get to see her myself, but the photos were amazing - she fit under the Golden Gate Bridge, but just barely! Glad the Kiwis are now enjoying the privilege - wow, that was a quick trip!

 

I hope to have the pleasure of visiting the City of Sails someday - it looks beautiful, and I've always wanted to visit your gorgeous country.

 

PS: One favor - no way you could have known this, any more than you could have been aware of the slang meaning of "hooters" in the US - but it's better not to refer to our beautiful city as "Frisco" - lots of people make that mistake, even in the US, but it's frowned upon by those of us who live here.

[Chivalrygirl]

One of our favorite memories from the 2005 world cruise was the sailaway from Auckland. We were "escorted" out by what seemed to be hundreds of sailboats. Of course, since they were escorting us out rather than in, it's possible they just were glad to see us go...:D

 

Oh lol Grumpy, we are always very happy to have people like you in our midst. You are more than welcome, if you come back again, please give me a call.

Our city of course is known as the "City of Sails" , this morning was particularly exciting, my husband could hear the ships horn from our lounge, that is most unusual, they were having so much fund playing silly buggers on the bridge and beating out the drum, so to speak :D Of course DH is a golfer so that has to come first, he really did miss the act of the week this time however :)

[Chivalrygirl]

We here in the SF Bay Area all enjoyed having the QM2 as our guest - I didn't get to see her myself, but the photos were amazing - she fit under the Golden Gate Bridge, but just barely! Glad the Kiwis are now enjoying the privilege - wow, that was a quick trip!

 

I hope to have the pleasure of visiting the City of Sails someday - it looks beautiful, and I've always wanted to visit your gorgeous country.

 

PS: One favor - no way you could have known this, any more than you could have been aware of the slang meaning of "hooters" in the US - but it's better not to refer to our beautiful city as "Frisco" - lots of people make that mistake, even in the US, but it's frowned upon by those of us who live here.

OK the alternative is so long and I don't always get my fingers around the correct spelling, I will refer to her in the future as SF :)

and the Poms refer to noses as hooters, specially big ones :D and if you don't know what Pom is, ask and Aussie ;)

[Chivalrygirl]

LOL, as much as I love looking at the huge cruise ships every summer I'm a little relieved to see them leave in October. I want my favorite places all to myself. I want to order a fresh sandwich at Pike Place Market without having to wait in line. I don't want to have to look at that ridiculous "duck tour mobile" any more. Of course, I'm always delighted to see the ships again in May and always go down to the docks to watch the first one come in, its usually the Zaandam for the Hawaii Circle cruise.

 

Hey CD we will have them anytime, they pump millions into our economy and we are very happy to take your $$$$$$$ anyday. :D

[hammybee]

The second pix is a stunner. It's a good day for NZ and the QM2.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Val, those are great pictures:) I how I would love to live close to an area like that to see the ships come in. Auckland looks beautiful, I would love to travel down under some day.

[Tinknock50]

LOL, as much as I love looking at the huge cruise ships every summer I'm a little relieved to see them leave in October. I want my favorite places all to myself. I want to order a fresh sandwich at Pike Place Market without having to wait in line. I don't want to have to look at that ridiculous "duck tour mobile" any more. Of course, I'm always delighted to see the ships again in May and always go down to the docks to watch the first one come in, its usually the Zaandam for the Hawaii Circle cruise.

 

Dude,

The Zaandam was doing roundtrip Seattle to Alaska last summer. I took it in September.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Dude,

The Zaandam was doing roundtrip Seattle to Alaska last summer. I took it in September.

 

 

Yes, but right at the beginning of the Alaska season, for the last few years (I think), the Zaandam has been doing a Vancouver-Seattle-Hawaii-Vancouver run to Hawaii. It leaves towards the end of April, and comes back in early May. It's a one-time itinerary. It's very popular with west coast/Canadian cruisers. I think next year (2008) it may be the Volendam doing this run.

 

Karin

[Chivalrygirl]

Val, those are great pictures:) I how I would love to live close to an area like that to see the ships come in. Auckland looks beautiful, I would love to travel down under some day.

 

Lisa,I can't wait for you to come down under, I got a big red bra to welcomeyou; Just watched her sail from Takapuna beach, as she sailed up the Rangitoto Channel, what an amazing site. We are a true nautical city, I still can't get my head around how many people welcomed her to town this morning, it was a people traffic jam, and here we were on the beach tonight at `10.30 pm and another huge traffic jam of people. What an amazing site this 151,000 sight was :D

[tomtal]

Yes, Chivalrygirl - it does seem a great day to be alive. Wonderful pictures - thankyou. We seem to have the best of both worlds, doing a Transatlantic crossing in April on QM2 and the Statendam Auckland/Sydney in November. Two very different ships so should be really interesting. Have a good day - from two very lucky Poms!

[Tinknock50]

Yes, but right at the beginning of the Alaska season, for the last few years (I think), the Zaandam has been doing a Vancouver-Seattle-Hawaii-Vancouver run to Hawaii. It leaves towards the end of April, and comes back in early May. It's a one-time itinerary. It's very popular with west coast/Canadian cruisers. I think next year (2008) it may be the Volendam doing this run.

 

Karin

 

Yes, I know. I was referring to what the Zaandam does most of its time up there.

It will be doing 2 in April this year to Hawaii involving Seattle.

[shonuf]

I just want to share with all my HAL friends that love to know what is going on downunder my awesome morning.

 

The arrival of the Queen Mary II into Auckland this morning, it sure was worth the 5.30 am start, and the excitement of a Kiwi skipper bringing her into port and blasting on the hooter, WOW how awesome is that?

 

Wow, what great photos. That second shot should be a postcard.

 

DH and I were fortunate to be invited to NZ in 2002 and flew in and out of Aukland. Our business took us to Hamilton. On the day of our flight home, our local host drove us back to Aukland and we did a little sight-seeing on the way to the airport. We absolutely fell in love with Aukland and have talked about returning ever since. Our dream is to do the Aukland-Sydney cruise, I want to do the sail-away out of Aukland under that magnificent bridge. You have fueled my fire!!

[localady]

Amazing how much larger she looks there in the harbour, than she did as she departed Ft. Lauderdale with 10 or 11 other large ships !! ;) Thank you for the beautiful pictures Val, glad the early rising time was worth it!!:D

[Chivalrygirl]

OMG, I have just re-read the post I did last night. I sure as hec rather got my "sites & sights" confused. Apologies posters, I do have a good excuse, up at 4.30 am, out to my nephews 40th and one too many Sauv.Blancs, then we shot down to the beach on the way home to farewell Her Majesty. It really was an awesome sight, unfortunately I did not have my camera.

 

DH and I were fortunate to be invited to NZ in 2002 and flew in and out of Aukland. Our business took us to Hamilton. On the day of our flight home, our local host drove us back to Aukland and we did a little sight-seeing on the way to the airport. We absolutely fell in love with Aukland and have talked about returning ever since. Our dream is to do the Aukland-Sydney cruise, I want to do the sail-away out of Aukland under that magnificent bridge. You have fueled my fire!!

 

Sorry the only ships to sail under the bridge are yachts, super yachts and smaller ships bound for the sugar refinery. If the QM2 had tried that yesterday there would be no bridge now. lol Do please return to my lovely city, the city of my birth :D

 

Amazing how much larger she looks there in the harbour, than she did as she departed Ft. Lauderdale with 10 or 11 other large ships !! ;) Thank you for the beautiful pictures Val, glad the early rising time was worth it!!:D

I have another photo of her sort of strung across the harbour as they tried to shove/push her into the berth, I will post it for you later today, It looks like it has literally blocked the harbour! I am awake but still feeling kinda shattered.

Someone else enquired whether it is a normal sight to see yachts on the harbour or were they just there for the QM2. There are always yachts on the harbour all year around, except when the weather is really bad. Hence the name of the city, The City of Sails" :D