NZ Cruise of North Island

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Auckland: boarding

Off to Auckland to board the ship. Once again avoiding toll roads took us on a twisty windy road to get there. As before unbelievable that speed limits are 100km when 80km is all I could manage. A little clay after returning the rental car before a taxi arrived for the short 1.2km journey to the cruise ship terminal - afternoon congestion meant a $12 fare! From that point we had a few short lines but easily went through luggage check in, security scanning, immigration exit, and Celebrity tag issuance and boarding. Finally a chance to get a drink! Later we met up with the other people in the tour group I booked with for complementary open best and meet the cruise ship officers. Dinner, drinks, and late night to bed as the ship sailed on to The Bay of Islands.

Bay of Islands

I could not sleep in and went to breakfast early, while Mom slept in (after being disturbed by my phone - which I did not hear during the night). The stop was a tender location and Mom and I both stayed on board. I did a 15km run before moving in to afternoon cocktails, and Mom did a half hour session withe gym weights and treadmill. All workouts needed to counter the imbibing on board. A highlight of the stop was watching the hundreds of sailboats out individually and racing against other sailboats. There were even tri-masted schooners, sloops and Cinese Junks. In the evening the comedian, Jeff Nease, performed in the main theatre, very funny and entertaining.
NZ Cruise North Island

Tauranga

No real sightseeing on the sail to Tauranga as we moved after sunset. Mostly we spent this port of call on board. We listened to a few of the onboard talks and enjoyed the hour and a half long Maori Cultural show performed by a local troupe.

day at sea

That evening we set off for Wellington - over 400 nautical miles away so the next day will be all at sea. Mom attended a lecture on J.R.R Tolkien and Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. I took time to attend the art auction and ended up with a few lithographs. This sail day was our first formal dining day - a surprisingly large number of the passengers did indeed dress up.

Wellington

The weather was heavily overcast when we arrived in Wellington. It remained that way for our stay, with the wind picking up to near gale strength and the temperature dipping into cool zones. Mom stayed on board, did 45 minutes in the gym and watched a demonstration of fruit and vegetable carving. I got my exercise by exploring parts of Wellington on foot - I saw a lot but there remained much left unseen. Still a good day. It seemed that the city was cantered over a small footprint of land, but as we sailed away you saw the city spreading along the shore and over loads of hills all along the coast - quite spread out.

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