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.