Our amazing cruise in New Zealand!

A picture from formal night, one of my favorites!

One of those crazy jumpers!

We were lucky enough after Christmas to be able to go on a trip that could only be described as the trip of a life time; we took a 14 night cruise around New Zealand.  The cruise departed from Auckland, New Zealand where we spent the day doing a little site seeing before our afternoon departure.  We thought a visit to the Sky Tower was a must see, so that is where we headed first.  It is the highest building in the southern hemisphere, so naturally they offer people the chance to jump off of it – there was actually a line for this service!

The atrium.

Indoor pool

Outdoor pool where they showed movies.

In the afternoon we headed for our cruise ship, the Diamond Princess.  It was a beauty!  The atrium was three stories and looked incredible; there was an indoor pool and four options for outdoor pools.  We spent our time while at sea watching Movies under the Stars, playing putt-putt, shuffleboard, hanging at the pool and of course eating.  We thought the food was incredible; I made a comment that I was not sure if that was because we had been living in Alice for the last year or was it really that good.  The fact that it was an American ship meant American bacon and sausage, two things we have really missed.  Dillon’s breakfast plate looked like a truck driver’s special every morning.  We had made the decision to get a balcony on this cruise and I am so glad we did, we got to see so much more of the New Zealand coastline that way; we were even treated to whales and dolphins.

Maori performers

Carol and Bob getting into the dance.

Traditional greeting.

          Our first port in New Zealand was Tauranga.  We decided to do an excursion here and take in some of the Maori culture.  We visited a cultural center and watched a traditional haka dance and learned their traditional greetings (pressing your forehead and nose against another person).  Our bus driver taught us a Maori song so that we could participate with the performers, everyone got into it, even Carol and Bob.  Then we went for a bit of a drive to some of the scenic spots, it was an amazing landscape.

Picton from near the top of the mountain.

A Maori totem pole.

Our second stop was Picton.  Here we scheduled a private bus tour that took us to visit two wineries for wine tastings in the Marlborough region of New Zealand; their wine country.  It was a shame that a few days after this stop, I discovered we could of brought a bottle of wine each back on the ship form each port, I would of enjoyed a little more than a tasting of a few of these wines.  We then visited the Makana chocolate factory – we stopped ourselves from buying more than two boxes of chocolate but in hind sight we should have bought more – the boys cried when they realized we did not buy the peanut brittle we sampled.  We then traveled to the top of one of the highest mountains in the area for a photo op on our way to a private farm in Oyster Bay for lunch.  The scenery was breathtaking!  Our lunch was mussels, lobster and salad –all local.  We spent a little time on the farm feeding Sally the pig and walking on the coastline but our day was cut short when Dillon fell into an eel pond, yes EELS – gross!  He was filthy and thankfully the owner of the farm let him shower off and gave him a change of clothes (from her 18 year old son), he looked a little like a character from the Beverly Hillbillies with his pants tied up.  He was not in the mood to do much after so we proceeded to head back to the ship.

The boys feeding Sally

Wine Country

Oyster Bay

Dillon in his new outfit.

Our third stop was Wellington, or Windy Welly and it lived up to its name.  We visited the Te Papa museum, which is the national museum for New Zealand.  Of course there was an area devoted to The Hobbit, we even got to see the giant Troll models that were used for the film.  The museum was very interactive and very fun.  We then took the historic cable car ride up to the top of the mountain where the Botanical Garden begins and then did the walk back into the city through the gardens.  This has to be the most beautiful Botanic Garden I have ever been to – JD even enjoyed it.  On the walk down you go through an old cemetery with headstones dating back to the 1830’s, it was really neat to see the size and scale of these memorials – one caught my eye – a full size statue of a man with two adoring females at his feet from the 1870’s, he must have been quite a guy!

Dillon playing around at the museum

Learning to use a rotary phone at Te Papa.

Hobbit Troll

Wellington Cable Car

The infamous statue/headstone.

The botanical garden/

 Our fourth stop was Akaroa, a French colonial coastal resort town.  The streets all had French names and the streets were lined with cottages with some of the most amazing gardens.  There were cute cafes and shops so we finally took a little time to get a little shopping in; I found a Christmas ornament with a glass Kiwi bird inside, my big purchase for the trip!  We visited a light house and JD taught the boys how to skip rocks on the coastline, it was a relaxing day.

Akaroa Lighthouse

Our ship in the distance, this was a tendered port.

Rock skipping lessons.

Our fifth stop was Dunedin.  At this point the boys wanted no more sight- seeing so they opted to stay on board the boat in kid’s care, so naturally JD and I chose a brewery tour and pub crawl for our excursion.  I loved Dunedin, and no, that is not the beer talking!  The architecture in this town was incredible, some of the most beautiful churches and buildings I have ever seen.  We went on a tour of Speights Brewery, the oldest brewery in New Zealand.  It was really fun to see how the beer is made but then we got to go in the tasting room, where they had a “free pour” policy for about 45 minutes; so after willingly trying all the brands, JD and I decided that Speights Distinction Ale was our favorite!  We then headed to an old English pub, The Duke of Wellington, for lunch and another beer, followed by Cableways pub.  Our last stop was a pub right on the water, Carey’s Bay; that not only had wonderful beers but had beautiful views.

The train station

JD pouring a few brews.

One of the many beautiful churches.

The Duke of Wellington pub

Our view from the last pub.

Another beautiful church.

Our next day was spent sailing though the Fiordland National Park, we went through Doubtful Sound, Thompson Sound and Milford Sound.  This is where having the balcony was perfect; we were able to sit on our deck chairs, covered in wool blankets (the high that day was 56F) and enjoy the beautiful view.  It was a cloudy day so unfortunately we were not able to see the snow capped mountains, but with the haze and clouds it had a mystical feeling.  There were so many waterfalls due to the extensive rains a few days earlier, that I actually lost count. 

One of the many beautiful waterfalls.

Doubtful sound waterfall.

Three waterfalls together.

Grandparents/Grandkids

We spent the next few days at sea and one of the nights was a formal night.  After a day of relaxation it was fun to get dressed up.  We had the boys in dress shirts and ties and I thought they could not have been cuter.  We stopped to have our photo taken and ended up loving the result, a friend of mine commented that we looked like a family on the old show “Dynasty” – I am certain this will be one of the few formal portraits we will take.  After a wonderful dinner in the dining room we went to one of the clubs where they were having Elvis hour.  This became my favorite night on the ship as I got to watch the boys dance the night away; it was like a bad wedding as the ties came off, the shirts were un-tucked and the dancing was plentiful.  Dillon then came up and asked me to slow dance with him which afterwards we received applause from the crowd.

One of the many beautiful sunsets while cruising.

Our sixth stop was Hobart, Tasmania.  Our morning was spent at a wildlife reserve, the boys had a mission in mind, which was seeing a Tasmanian Devil!  The reserve had about 50 kangaroos roaming freely, this of course was a big draw for everyone but us. Now that we have been in Alice for over a year, seeing a kangaroo is so common that I wanted to move directly on to the other animals.  We got to see the elusive Tasmanian Devil as well as koalas and wombats.  I think the wombat was the highlight for me since “Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball”, a children’s book about a wombat was a family favorite when the boys were small. We then did a few walks around the city stopping at a James Squire restaurant for lunch. Hobart was a great coastal town with much to offer.

The sleeping Koala

Tasmanian Devil

The boys at the Wildlife Sanctuary.

.The little wombat,

Well the night we got back to the ship from Hobart, I caught the dreaded gastro illness – I was sick all night, so much so that JD called medical in the morning.  Later that day I was told I had to go the medical office due to my high fever and heart rate – but soon I was feeling better, after a shot of Phenergan in the hip, 6 prescription Immodium, 5 Panadol, 24 hours sleep and an IV drip.  I am not sure if it helped or hurt that my doctor looked like George Clooney with a South African accent!  It was hilarious to watch the ship’s crew come into our room twice daily with their hazmat suits on to disinfect the room.

This bridge was built in the 1800's.

One of the many art pieces.

The bar under the bridge.

Another art piece on the walk to the Aquarium.

An enormous stingray.

As I am not one to be kept on lock down, I was released from my room at 10:30AM on the day we reached Melbourne, so while we did not get a full day in port at least I got to see some of it.  What an amazing town, we took the walk from the Art Center to the Aquarium (boy’s choice) and got to see an amazing mix of historic architecture, contemporary buildings and incredible art installations, I loved it.  We spotted a bar under the bridge, surrounded by water that the boys wanted to go to but I was not quite up to bar hopping!  The Aquarium was quite nice and the walk- through tunnels were the best we have ever been in.  We saw the largest Stingrays I have ever seen in my life.  The little bit of time we had left was spent walking around the city and to our surprise we saw a 7-11 store, can you say Slurpee!  It is funny the things you miss living in the Outback!  Then it was off to Sydney, where we disembarked and spend another 5 days there.

Our ship docked at Circular Quay in Sydney.