March 29. Choosing a starboard stateroom hasn’t achieved anything yet because again we travelled overnight so we haven’t seen much coastline. We awoke in the port of Mount Maunganui, a suburb of Tauranga. And soon after breakfast departed on a 4-hour coach excursion. When booking an excursion you can’t be sure what you going to get. This one was one of the best we have done.

The tour was all about Māori culture. The guide was a young Māori woman who started as soon as we drove away, teaching us a few Māori words and phrases and a song that was to be part of the official welcome to a cultural house. We were greeted and had to respond during a welcome ceremony, which was a tradition rather than just part of the tour. Photography was not allowed during the ceremony (but several people did take photos) but was allowed away from the meeting place and during a traditional dance display.

Two adults and an 11 year old boy led us through the formalities, with the boy doing a really good job. The dance display by a group of senior students was very well done and very enjoyable.

We had a late lunch back on board, then suddenly we were having drinks in Eden bar, which in turn became 8.00 pm dinner.

March 30. It’s amazing how much and how quickly the ocean can change. During the night the wind and waves rose immensely. We could see it but by 2.00 am the ship was really rocking. We still managed to sleep but it was very uncomfortable. Our cabin is on deck 11 and our windows were covered with sea spray, I estimate that we are 25 m above water level so it must have been very rough. Luckily the city of Napier is in a sheltered harbour so it was quite calm when we moored at 10.00 am.

This was only a brief stop, just long enough for a 4-hour coach excursion involving a drive around Napier and the hinterland. Napier is famous as a World Heritage listed city because of its predominant art deco architecture. An earthquake in 1931 destroyed much of the city and, with labour being readily available during the Great Depression, it was largely rebuilt within 2 years, using materials and architecture of that time. The building are all heritage protected, even to the extent of colour and out buildings. Touring the city and suburbs is very interesting.

The tour took us through vineyards, orchards and pine plantations from which a large volume of produce is exported then back to the port in time for a 3.00 pm lunch.

As we sailed out of Napier for our 18-hour leg to Christchurch we heard that early this morning the wind speed had climbed to 70 kph – no wonder we felt it. We had cocktail hour in Eden, dinner in Cypress and after dinner drinks in Cafe Il Bacci (?) then back to our room. Another good day!

March 31. After a calm night we woke up a couple of hours north of Christchurch so we felt quite refreshed. We went separate ways for the day’s activities, Jo on a double decker bus trip with a woman she has met from Glenelg while I took a combined coach, 4WD, jet boat trip.

Christchurch is an amazing city where 70% of the buildings in the CBD and hundreds more in the suburbs were destroyed by an earthquake in Feb 2011, after the city had been badly shaken and weakened by early another quake 3 months earlier. It is thought that the second quake was an after shock of the first one, which was stronger but further away so it did little damage. The second quake killed 185 people, 167 in one building. The government, city council and especially the citizens have shown tremendous resilience to redesign, rebuild and rehabilitate the city to its now vibrant state. It is now a beautiful, modern city and its inhabitants are very proud.

Jo’s tour was in a double deck bus through the city and suburbs, showing a mixture of new and restored buildings, interspersed with buildings still derelict, beautiful gardens and vacant land, much of which will remain as green space.

My excursion was more adventurous. It started with a 1.5 hour drive through Christchurch suburbs then into the foothills of the alps to a sheep station in the Waimakariri valley. The guide was good and the drive interesting. The working sheep station has a busy tourist business offering both 4WD tours, jet boat rides and a nice lunch. The jet boat ride was exciting and well worth the trip. The river was fast flowing between steep cliffs and with a very rocky bottom. Often it is very shallow through constantly moving rock beds. The boat drivers are crazy and the boats are fast, powerful machines that can travel in very shallow water so it was great fun.

The 4WD tour was actually in a 20-passenger Toyota Coaster with off-road tyres and higher suspension, taking us along dirt and gravel station tracks. The mountain scenery was interesting, through native forests and pine plantations, with good views over river valleys.

Overall, we had a good day.

April 1. This morning we had an early start to catch a train that picked us up at the wharf for our excursion into the mountains, through the Taieri Gorge. Although the scenery was interesting it was a fairly slow, un-eventful day. The excursion lasted 6 hours and might not have been the best choice. A better option might have been to take the overnight trip to Queenstown in the mountains and get back on board tomorrow.

It doesn’t matter though, because we still enjoyed the afternoon and evening on board.

March 28. It’s amazing how quiet a huge vessel can be. We awoke this morning to find that we had moored next to another ship in Auckland – then realised that the other ship was actually a hotel on the wharf, built to resemble a ship. Our ship had moored an hour earlier without us hearing or feeling anything at all.

We took a morning coach tour around this lovely city. The weather was cool but sunny and calm. After wind and rain yesterday the coach driver was very pleased at being able to show us his city at its best. Life for the locals obviously involves the ocean, with the beautiful Auckland Harbour cutting the city in half.

The three hour coach tour was intended just to give us a quick look at Auckland without going into too much detail and it was good value. We heard a little about history and culture provided with the usual attempts at comedy by a guide.

Back on board we had lunch and spent the afternoon watching yachts, ferries and cargo vessels from the buffet dining room and our cabin, with a bit of swimming in between. It’s a hard life.

OK, we broke our rule. We had heard that one of the specialty restaurants provided dinner with a difference so we decided try it. An animated video of a chef and his family preparing and plating our meal, using produce from their farm, was projected from tiny projectors set in the ceiling above each place on the table. The whole table, including plates, was covered with animated preparation of the meal. Called Le Petit Chef, it was very clever. Google it.

Following the nice meal we spent an interesting session listening to music and watching fellow passengers dancing at one of the bars, while chatting to a couple we had met at breakfast. That’s it for today.

Arriving in the Bay of Islands early this morning, it was a little disappointing. We only saw one island! The Bay is 30 km wide so where are the islands? Later we realised that they are on the other side of the ship. After having chosen a starboard cabin, who would have thought that for our first stop in NZ we would be on the wrong side?

Anyway it was a beautiful morning. Bright sunshine and calm water.

We caught separate tender boats into the port so that Jo could do a coach tour to “the Treaty House”, the sight of a treaty between the Moari people and the British early in the 1800’s (which was heavily in favour of the British) and I could take a kayaking tour. Jo found her tour to be a bit underwhelming but I enjoyed my trip. I paddled 5 km in an interesting estuary to a waterfall and quite enjoyed it.

Back on board mid-afternoon we were able to relax before cocktails in Eden bar for more relaxing, this time chatting to others while waiting for sunset. We were so busy chatting that we forgot to look at the sunset. Sailing time was after dark so we still haven’t seen the other islands in Bay of Islands.

Dinner in Tuscan restaurant was good, as usual, then suddenly it was almost bed time – time goes so quickly.

I know!! We said no more blogs but a few people have asked to do a blog when we are doing major trips. So here goes. Just ignore it if you are not interested, or un-follow if that is more appropriate.

It’s 23 March and we are headed for Sydney where we will spend the night before embarking tomorrow. After an easy morning at home we commenced taxiing at Adelaide airport, got half way down the runway then noticed that we slowed down again. The pilot announced that he and the first officer saw a red light indicating that a fuel pump was faulty. “We’ve had a chat about it and decided it’s not a problem so we’re going around and will start again.” OK, who needs a working fuel pump when the plane is up in the air? That’s a good start to a holiday.

Well we did arrive safely in Sydney and settled in at the Fullerton Hotel on Martin Place. We have stayed here before so they offered us an upgrade and a late checkout so now it’s a good start.

24 March. It’s exciting to be cruising again, this time on Celebrity Edge. This is one of Celebrity’s newest ship sand the first time we have been on this class of ship. The checkin process has been streamlined since COVID19 forced changes to reduce crowds and queues, so we were comfortably in our room and unpacking very quickly. Up on deck we took a photo of the Opera House, then got talking to new best friends while looking at the amazing Sydney Habour and forgot to take more photos.

The ship is certainly spectacular, with many familiar features and lots of new facilities. There must be about 20 bars, cafes, restaurants and lounges and lots of staff waiting to attend to every need – and take your money. Meals are included but drinks are extra. The prices are more expensive than Australian prices, and then you remember that quoted prices are in US dollars so it’s twice as expensive in Aussie $’s. Our room package includes a drinks package, which of course we paid for, but at least we can forget the price of drinks.

With so much happening I forgot that we had a drinks package and bought a bottle of wine on the first night. That’s an expensive mistake !!

Instead of one big dining room the Edge has 4 smaller dining rooms, Tuscan, Normandie, Cyprus, and Cosmopolitan (Italian, French, Greek and US cuisine) and we can dine at any of them at no additional cost. The food is great. If we want to upgrade to a better restaurant and are happy to pay huge prices for that privilege, there are lots of options. Not us, we are not that silly.

25 March. At sea all day, with blue skies, even more blue in the ocean very light breeze and calm water. It’s pretty good. There is lots to do at sea – breakfast, morning tea, lunch, welcome cocktails in the Captain’s Club, dinner and lots of walking around trying to find our way around the ship. I even found time for an hour in the gym.

Jo, feeling a little queezy, needed salt biscuits but all I could find was salt and vinegar chips for $14. A bit expensive I thought but she’s worth it. Then I remembered it’s in US $’s. Hope she doesn’t need any more.

26 March, With 2,900 passengers you’d expect everywhere to be crowded but that’s not the case. Sure there are many people in all the popular places at popular times but its quite easy to find quiet places.

The pool deck is another example of quiet in the morning but packed in the afternoon. Too crowded for us. Much better to set up in the Magic Carpet, which is a 40m x 8m structure hanging from the side of the top deck. It slides up and down the side of the ship but we haven’t seen that yet.

Travelling Concierge class is supposed to begin with an early checkin and Welcome Lunch but Celebrity made a mistake and we had been unable to check in until 2 pm so we were promised a substitute lunch during the cruise. After some debate we were able to have our substitute lunch today, a very nice meal in Le Grande restaurant, one of the specialty restaurants. This would normally have cost us an extra $140 so we enjoyed the complimentary lunch even more.

Tomorrow morning we will be in NZ, ready to start the first of our shore excursions.