Hello Mordialloc - back to reality

It's home sweet home once again, I can feel the post holiday blues setting in! While it's nice to be home with Family and friends, the cruise was great and perhaps could have been a little longer!

Doesn't feel like Christmas, but it is I can see the shops are busy as are the roads, many people love to blast their horns if your don't take off immediately the traffic signal changes or the railway boom gates go up, are sure sign that people are busy and frantic to get from A to B as quickly as possible.

The cruise to New Zealand was a great experience, a taste of New Zealand and the ideal (for me) way to travel. What were the highlights? probably for me the cruising through the Fiordland - what an amazing experience! and enjoying the beautiful architecture of Napier the Art Deco capital of the world. I loved Napier and want to return preferably the third weekend in February when the whole town dresses up in the clothes of the era, with art deco fun and all the old music of the time.
Everyday was an experience on the ship with superb dining in the dining room each evening, fun filled evenings with shows music, nightclub, karaoke or just a nightcap and an early night. The martini's were amazing as were the delicious cocktails. Posing for photographs on the magnificent staircase was fun (and the photos don't look too bad) or shopping in the boutiques was fun.
The credit card is maxed out, but it's worth it - already I am trying to decide where to go next?
Back to reality and it's Christmas tomorrow
Til next trip.....

Homeward Bound, two sad little vegemites here in stateroom B719. We are packing…. Hard work we seem to have accumulated ‘stuff’ over the 12 days. The weather is not so great today and the ship was rolling quite a bit.
Last night was our formal evening - we had a lovely dinner, staff were all dressed up in their formal attire we had Christmas carols before dinner and New year type celebration after dinner, with dancing and lots of fun.
We changed the clocks last night by one hour and another hour tonight and we will be back on Australian time.
We pick up the pilot at about 3.15 as we head into port Phillip Bay and will dock about 7 am. Will probably be a tedious time as we gather for disembarkation, customs immigration, find luggage etc, there are about 1800 of us !!
We have had a great time, the credit card is almost maxed out.. The suitcase is bulging, but happy memories and new friends.
It seems a little weird knowing that Christmas is so close and my son Darrin heads off tomorrow on his trip to Capetown. Would love to be there when Kopby sees his Dad again! I wont see Darrin - just not enough time as he will heading off to the airport about mid-day as we will be waiting for a taxi.
I will finish my blog for this trip when I get home
Til next time…

We have completed our Fiordland National Park Cruising about an hour ago. What an amazing experience, Milford Sound was stunning, we were so close to the land it was truly a wonderful experience. The weather could have been a little better but the sun did come out at one point. So did the rain, it poured but was short lived and didn’t detract from the experience. The rain may have been water blowing from the waterfall. I couldn’t believe how close this huge liner got to the water fall. I watched the small boats go in close but didn’t expect that we would do the same. Probably the highlight of the trip. I am still in awe. It was so spectacular I had tears in my eyes - so lucky to have experienced what I saw today.
So it’s goodbye New Zealand - we have our disembarking instructions, although we still have two more full days of sailing and relaxing.
Today we tried the Pizzeria, pizza was excellent, we lunched with our dinner friends Ann and Ian.
The ship is once again out into the Tasman Sea (I think) and we are again Rocking! Hopefully the weather will get a little warmer as we head back to Melbourne.
Til next time…….

Photograph - Dunedin Railway Station

Dunedin and Port Chalmers - Weather not so great - scenery picturesque - Cadbury World yummy !
Good day with lots of chocolate - weather not that great but Dunedin (the New Edinburgh) looks very picturesque and a place to revisit. The railway station is beautiful and houses the Otago Art Society. Many beautiful pieces of art on display, but just not enough time to browse and enjoy. Lots to buy in Cadbury World, like chocolate flavored lip balm and choc scented pens as well as all the lovely chocolate some exclusive to NZ.
Tomorrow we cruise through Fiord land starting at approx 7.45 with Breaksea sound. We could have a champagne brekky served on our balcony,,, if we had one.. J but as we don’t we will have breakfast in bed and get up on deck asap. 10.30 gets us to Thompson Sound and 2.30 we reach Milford Sound.
W e had cocktails this evening, followed by a lovely dinner.
It will be nice to just cruise tomorrow.
Til next time….

If it's Thursday it must be Christchurch

We arrived in Lyttelton harbour this morning, very overcast and quite cool about 7 am. We headed off our tour to Christchurch about 8.45 . It was a most enjoyable tour. Out first stop was the historic Ilam homestead a lovely old home established in 1850 however destroyed by fire in 1911 and rebuilt by Edgar Stead. The homestead now belongs to the University with the homestead being used by the academic staff and the beautiful gardens can be enjoyed by all. The uni residences are close by. We wandered round the gardens after our huge morning tea!! Like we needed more food. After that stop we headed off to the Botanic Gardens and Arts Precinct. Didn’t quite get to the gardens as we did the galleries and craft shops first. Beautiful art and crafts, coffee shops, etc. Following that we traveled up the hills to admire the stunning views of the harbor, the Banks Peninsula the Canterbury Plain and the Southern Alps. Christchurch is a lovely city, we did see some of the rebuilding taking place in the city where the earthquake hit
New Zealand (the little I have seen) is all hills! It’s quite lovely. Tomorrow takes us to Dunedin NZ’s most Scottish City our last stop. Looking forward to that as we are going to visit the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. No camera’s allowed inside, but samples of chocolates are plentiful!!!
For anyone who has received 6+ texts from me - all identical - I apologise. The messages showed as having failed to send and continued to try sending which resulted in 7 messages being sent to someone !!
The wireless signal hasn’t been too strong and I haven’t managed to include photographs.
Til next time…..
PS Forgot to say. If you saw the NZ film Heavenly Creatures (which was a true story) some years ago, one of the girls lived in Ilam Homestead. Must have ben the one from the wealthy family… The homestead has been used for many movies,,,,

It was Wellington today!

We arrived in Wellington This morning about 7.30 am. We had an early breakfast and headed off on our tour about 9 am. We did the Storm Coast Drive. It was a picturesque tour as we visited (along the way) Pencarrow Lodge - a 1900 sheep and cattle station. The lodge is perched on top of a hill. When the bus driver told us he was driving up this ‘track’ I really hoped that he had full control of the brakes etc. We made it to the top and it was quite spectacular, so was the morning tea provided - I could have skipped breakfast!
We watched the sheep dogs working and then set off back down the VERY narrow track. A short drive around Lower Hutt and it was back to the ship. Decided not to head back into Wellington.. Got all the washing done, Jill has gone for a coffee and use the Internet. I thought I would get my blog written up and then read my book, but I have noticed than the film Invictus is showing this afternoon, so I think I will watch that…. There is too much to do!! Not enough to do everything….
Till next time… Sorry no pics tonight connection slow!

Hello and goodbye to Napier

About noon today we arrived in Napier - Art Deco capital of the world. What a terrific town. I loved it….The buildings are superb the shops were great and so were the people. At the Art deco trust shop the staff were dressed up in the fashion of the time. In February there is a Charleston week and everyone gets dressed up in the clothes of the time. There was a huge earthquake as I said previously in 1931 and the town was rebuilt.
It was very warm and humid when we got off the ship and later in the afternoon we had rain!! We enjoyed browsing the shops and looking at the buildings. The port is quite small and it took a fair bit of maneuvering to get the ship in and out. Quiet night tonight as we have an early start tomorrow morning in Wellington. Jill has gone to a show this evening with our evening dinner friends, a lovely couple from Rye. We spent our time in Napier with them and we have had great fun with them.
Not much more news for now.. So till next time…

Hello and goodbye to Tauranga and Rotarua

This was our big trip today… a tour to Te Puia and the Polynesian Spa.
- Last night was Italian night and we had a beautiful dinner. I think I mentioned that we retired early in preparation for today’s big trip. It was a great day and the first surprise was that we had a limousine waiting for us as we stepped off the ‘gang plank’ Something to cross off my bucket list !!!!! We joked about having a limo as there were so few of us on the tour. It was a great day with a visit to Te Puia , where we experienced Maori culture, singing and dancing, we saw geysers erupting and hot mud bubbling; Rotorua with the pungent smell of sulphur and the hot springs experience. Ask me for more details when I get back suffice to say I had a great time.
Next door to us was another ship, a friend Lynn was on the ship but we didn’t manage to see each other or chat on the phone. Both ships docked so close to each other - was a great sight. We left first lots of waving and whistling as we sailed out of Tauranga
As you can tell I didn’t get the blog finished last night. We had a NZ deck party. We partied till the early hours…Lots of fun and dancing. Not sure what the photographs will look like!!
Today is another day and we will arrive in Napier at 12 noon.
No organized tour we cancelled our tour here, couldn’t manage to do another wine tour. We will go ashore and explore. The Art Deco buildings will be worth seeing as the city was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1931.
Enough for now… til next time

Hello and Goodbye to Auckland

Arriving in Auckland.
Another great night on board last night with a beautiful dinner and the third part of the Rock’n’roll show by Roland Storm. We had an early night as planned in preparation for our time in Auckland.
The wine tasting seminar on board was excellent we tasted many of the lovely wines on board.
Arriving in Auckland this morning about 7.30. The sky was grey and it was raining. However it brightened up throughout the day and we set off on our wine trail in Kumeu Wine Country at about 12.30 pm. We visited 3 wineries and tasted many beautiful wines. The Pinot noirs (or is it nois?) are my favourite. The Sav Blancs are delightful as were the desert wines. Too Many wines to mention.
The company was great - we had a good laugh and got back to the ship on time at 4.30.
We set sail from Auckland at 6.30, the weather was magnificent and it was a beautiful sight sailing out of the harbour.
Dinner tonight was Thai, Jill and I were starving as we missed our usual 3 course lunch! As always the company at dinner was fun, however we have a big day tomorrow and are now back in our stateroom fro an early night!
Looking forward to our experience tomorrow
Til next time….
PS connection too slow for pics.

Day Three and all's well onboard the Dawn Princess

We stopped on our walk around thedeck.. taken at back (aft) of ship

I am hoping I can save some internet time by writing my blog first and cutting and pasting. It takes time to upload the pics . So if I can cut and paste and then use the time for the pics that would be great.
The ship is lovely, love the cabin - stateroom as it is called - so different from even my last cruise, but thinking back to the days when I traveled between Capetown and Southampton. It’s a little disappointing about the weather. Yesterday the decks were quite wet not much point in venturing out. I am not doing my walking but we use the stairs instead of the lift and with 14 levels we think we are getting some exercise…
Weather much improved today and we did the mile walk before lunch. I will have to do a lot more fast walking to keep the weight off!! Eating too much and sitting around. Last night we did do some ‘dancing’ at the night Club, was great fun. We did the show first - and then the Karaoke at the night club and stayed on for a while. Trouble is we lost an hour again last night so less sleep..
So far today we have had lazy day except for the walk -and this afternoon we are going to wine tasting. We may see some land later this evening then tomorrow morning about 8 am we dock in Auckland. At this stage planning to have early night tonight so that we can get up early to see the first glimpse of Auckland. Out tour starts at 12.30 - we are doing a wine tour and will all see some of Auckland. Not sure if we will do anything before the tour.
More of that tomorrow