Travel ....Repeat...

Wow.....what an amazing holiday.

Ian, Briony and I spent 13 nights cruising New Zealand aboard the Sun Princess

with our dear Qld mates 

Ron, Donna, Shaun, Emma and Kate.

so lets begin....

With much excitement we boarded the ship at 1pm on January 12th.

We sailed out under the Harbor Bridge with cocktails in our hand ...our long awaited cruise was underway.

There was a real party feel on deck....

It was sunny...

and a band was playing...

We just knew we were in for a fabulous holiday.

The next few days were spent at sea..

We read, dined, took in some stage shows, played trivia, went to the movies and caught up on sleep.

January 15th
We awoke and were in the Bay of Islands.
We needed to catch ship tenders into the port and the ship remained out in the harbour.


The Bay of Islands is dotted with 150 islands....
What I remember is the gorgeous handmade markets on the lawns...
The beaches and all the boats in the water..
and the yummiest icecream of the entire trip.

We took a trip out to the Kawiti Glow worm caves...

and to Haruru Falls

January 16th
We docked in Auckland.
I thought it was amazing that we were docked right in the city...only metres from the Hilton hotel.
Auckland is a beautiful city... and we had a jam packed day.
We hired a car....and with Ian and the wheel and Rons Navman...we blasted off..

First stop...Auckland Sky tower and its viewing platform 220 metres above the ground.
The view was amazing.... and the glass panels in the floor added an entire new dimension.....some of us could stand on them.....and others coudlnt.....lol

Then it was off to the Auckland Museum and the most wonderful collection of Maori cultural exhibits...as well as a well as cultural performance ending in the haka.


From the museum we headed up to the Mount Eden lookout.... a large extinct volcano crater
 then the boys rugged up for a drink at the Minus5 ice bar... everything was ice...includig the glasses they drank from.

Then it was back onto the ship and off to Tauranga

January 17th
Today we were docked in Tauranga...

Once we had our hire car we set off to Rotaroua and the Te Puia thermal reserve
What an incredible place....it was hot... it had 'that' smell....
and it was unlike anything Id ever seen before in my life.
Mud bubbling.....steam coming from the ground everywhere....and the most amazing Pohutu geyser.





Then we made a stop at the Skyline Gondola and Luge
What a hoot!
The Gondola gave us a fantastic view....and the luge adventure was the source of a great many laughs.


Part 2 to follow...
(Many thanks to Donna for many of the photos included in this post)

January 18th

Today we had a little sleep in.

The ship docked in Napier at lunch time.

We spent a few hours wandering and admiring the magnificent art deco style buildings.

Napier was hit by an earthquake in the 1930's and much of it was destroyed....it was rebuilt in art deco 'earthquake friendly' style.

The locals really made us feel welcome....some turning out in their vintage cars.....and  period costume.

We also visited the Napier Prison ..and had a great little guided tour throughout.

The guide shared lots of stories about prison life and some of the colorful characters who had resided there....like Mr Big..

We were intrigued by their beach covered in what I assume were volcanic pebbles... they were smooth little rocks and covered the entire beach as far as we could see.

January 19th

Up nice and early today....and off to explore windy Wellington.

First stop was Mt Victoria lookout for a panoramic view of the city.

It really was a beautiful place...with rows and rows of white houses built along the hills.

Next stop was the Weta cave.

Weta is a production company at Mirimar that produces all the special effects for movies such as Avatar, Lord of the rings and many others.

We watched a short film that walked us through some of the departments and all that they do there....it was really interesting.

Next stop was the Wellington cable car....

Then we took a drive....Shaun was keen to see a filming location for Lord of the Rings....

So we set off... to to the Kaitoke Regional park......it was an absolutely beautiful spot....but not one stick of evidence that anything had ever been filmed there....

we had a lot of laughs about our journey all the way out there.

January20th

Another early morning start...this time in Christchurch.

We were amazed when we heard that Christchurch had experienced another earthquake at 6am on the morning we were there....magnitude 5.1..and their largest one since the damaging one in Dec.

There were another two aftershocks while we were there....but we didn't actually feel either of them... much to our disappointment.

Our first stop in Christchurch was Antarctic World

What a wonderful place..... lots of exhibits... a 4D theatre....penguin feeding....and the coolest

Hagglund ride... that was an absolute hoot.

Next stop.... the Christchurch Art Gallery.....and one of the highlights of our trip...

The Ron Mueck exhibition.

How lucky that we were able to see this exhibition on our stopover.

I think we were all in awe at the sculptures.....they were so incredibly life like.

Our final stop for the day was the cable car......with the most amazing views.

21st January

Gosh its freezing this morning in Dunedin.

The old buildings are absolutely beautiful.... just a pity it wasn't a few degrees warmer to enjoy them.

Our long awaited highlight in Dunedin was the cadbury chocolate factory tour.....and we weren't disappointed. It was probably the last thing my body needed.... but it was delicious.

We also took a drive up the 'Worlds Steepest street'

22nd January

No Port of call today...... instead we are cruising the Fiordland National Park on the ship.

We cruised through three Fiord's.....with Milford Sound  the absolute highlight.

These Fiords were amazing....carved by glaciers and towering up 1000's of metres each side of the ship

 23 -24 th January

At sea....homeward bound.

25th January we said goodbye to the Sun Princess and an absolutely wonderful holiday.

New Zealand .... Well worth the trip..... absolutely beautiful in every way.

(Thanks once again to Donna for a large number of the photos in this post)