New Zealand at last - delayed posting!

Nothing like a summer cruise across the Tasman, when the weather thinks that it any other season but summer.  Pleasant enough though but a little lumpy.  By Wednesday evening it was decidedly bumpy but we were fortunate in having a following wind.  Still warm enough for Richard and I to sit on the balcony when we had drinks before the Captain's Cocktail party.  Yes, Formal Night again -  the last one for this cruise.

Overnight there was some relatively strong winds but surprisingly when we got up, the weather was much improved.  It was quite strange reading on line about all the devastation going on, particularly in Wellington,  when we were sailing through Cook Strait in beautiful sunshine and very calm seas.  We had excellent views of the top of the South Island from starboard side.  Actually got in our walk before the final of Vivian's line dancing.  As we head down the South Island,  we are keeping relatively close to avoid the squally conditions.  Very changeable indeed.

At the Captain's Cocktail party last night, he mentioned that the top 4 nations on board (in ascending order) UK, US, NZ & AU.  Not surprising, but from observation I would have thought that there were more Chinese, but as they can only do their demographics from the passport type, many presumably come from one of the above countries.   The thing is that the Asians (& this also applies to a number of other European nationalities) tend to keep together as family or bigger groups, rather than integrating.   So between the larger groups hogging facilities, there is clearly a lack of understanding the normal "rules" for queuing etc.  Say no more.

Friday:

I certainly spoke too soon, as the sea conditions changed drastically mid-afternoon.  The swell has risen to almost 6 metres and the wind has certainly got up.  We are of course heading southwards and therefore are plowing into it.  We were not so gently rocked to sleep overnight, with plenty of banging, plunging and shuddering!   However we woke just after 7.00 just as we were entering the heads of the Otago Harbour.  Sun was out and obviously little in the way of waves, but boy,  is it cold!  The high is expected to be 11, so I think it must have been 8 or 9 at that time.  Yesterday the on board shop was Selling  puffer jackets flat out as most passengers thought they were on a summer cruise, not a winter one.

The family have taken the Taieri Gorge train excursion,  so they had to be up early.  We had nothing planned,  so took our time over breakfast and then took the shuttle into Dunedin ($15 each return).  A lot of other passengers decided to do the same thing at the same time, so a bit of a wait for buses to come out to Port Chalmers.  Once in the city, where it was just as cold & breezy, we walked out to the botanical gardens.  It was roughly 45 minutes each way.  Worth the walk and it was interesting to see how much of the city is occupied by the University.  We had morning coffee in the botanical gardens but still can't work out why it was called Croc O Dile,  with crocodile theme.  Anyway very pleased not to see any, plus coffee and muffins were lovely.

We braved the upper deck for sail-away and it was just as cold if not more so.  Great views on the way out of the harbour,  including passing the Taiaroa Heads and seeing all the Albatross  nesting there.  As soon as we passed that, we headed inside to warm up.  Fortunately the sea conditions had improved and this time we were going with the wind and the seas.

As part of our booking we have a "free" dinner at the Steak House.  This is of course just a part of the Horizon Court screened off from the rest, although I must agree that the atmosphere was quite pleasant.  It was quite incredible watching us sail up the east coast (we were on Port side) in absolutely calm conditions, barely a ripple and the sun setting (OK couldn't see the actual sun, but was that time of the evening) over the hills.

The food was good, possibly very good, but honestly we are no longer into large steaks and although I ordered a small cut, it was still too much for me.  Certainly they were perfectly cooked and the whole meal was great.  Would I actually pay for such a meal again - probably no, mainly as we can not do justice to it.  Perhaps however another specialty restaurant, just not steak.  That is my call anyway.

Saturday:

Next morning sees us anchored in Akaroa, so the joys of tendering.  Dare I say it, but black does have it's privileges.  We rocked up to the dining room to get tender tickets - #1010 and they called for tickets up to #730 plus Elite to board.  Well,  that saved us a good half an hour or so.  We walked to the far end of town.  Despite passing a couple of cafes on the way (with specials  $8.50 for coffee & croissant) etc., we made our way back to the middle of Akaroa, to the cafe we'd visited 2 cruises ago.  Yuck - food looked revolting and no ambiance etc.  So back to the far end of town a drink a delightful coffee and cake for $9.50.  Anyway the walk was good to work off the calories.

Just as we were finishing about 12.00, Fiona txted and we arranged to meet them sort of half way back towards the pier to go to the Giants House.  OK, up the hill we all went, but it was certainly worth the effort.  Magnificent garden and artistry, a little like Parc Guell in  Barcelona, but all in mosaics.   We had a great time and at least the walk back was downhill.  As luck would have it, we arrived at the end of the pier and a tender was just about to leave - but not us!  However was only 10 minutes until the next one.

I checked with the Captain's Circle guy and established that we were actually 4th (typically NZ) on the first sector, so missed out by 7 days!  I think that we are a bit further down the list this time  as there are lots of Americans on board flashing their black cards.  I am far more discrete keeping it under my shirt.   Good news however, we are on the guest list for the 40th most travelled passengers after Napier - more later.

Tasman Sea and Sydney

Saturday
Of course as soon as we left the Bay of Islands the Captain put his foot to the floor and we hummed along at 21kts.  The weather remains mainly overcast and a bit chilly.  There is a little swell and movement felt, but I think know he is trying to make time/distance, so has not had the stabilisers out.  Neither Benjamin nor Madeline are feeling very bright and Benjamin has spent most of the day in his cabin.   Fiona & Vivian however have had a very active day with Napkin folding, Tai Chi and then line dancing  (all before lunch).  Vivian also found people to play bridge with in the afternoon.  All too much for me.  Oops, sorry forgot Happy Hour!

Formal night tonight and this was preceeded by the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party.   How strange to have all Gold to Elite and barely fill a quarter of the Vista Lounge.  For a change the are only 49 Elites and the most travelled  (a Ray Chapman from Auckland) had just 350 days.  Farewell dinner was really good and I had 2 servings of the Lobster (everyone else had Beef Wellington, except Madeline, who is enjoying the Kid's menu).  Once again, I must comment that the lobster was really good and 100% on the Sun quality.   The adults did the Song & Dance show after dinner, but really the children are not coping very well and spent the whole day in their cabin.

Sunday
A lot more movement in the sea, but not enough to put us off our walk around the deck before coffee.  Fiona joined us and Richard came down too.  The children are still not good and Fiona was going to get them up to have something for brunch.  Vivian has line dancing at 12.30 and although Fiona was going to join her this did not happen ☹  They went for a pizza and when it arrived, Madeline went pale and then Benjamin vomited.  Oh dear.  To explain, between about 11.00 to 3.00 we went through a frontal system with a reasonable swell coming side on, so the ship certainly had lots of movement - even Vivian's line dancing was cut short.

I am writing this at 6.30 pm and there is barely a swell and the sun is shining but that is what happens at sea,  I do feel sorry for those who are unwell, particularly the ones disembarking who have to have their bags out for collection in an hour or so.  And they have had such a good cruise all the way until this little outburst.  No, the children did not come down for dinner but then we did not do the show tonight,  as potentially we have an early start tomorrow.

Monday
Woke up around 5.30, probably because I heard noise from the pilot boat.  Sure enough we were quietly sailing up Sydney Harbour in perfect dawn conditions (for the Dawn Princess! ).  Really great to see.   We were being followed by the Celebrity Spirit and as we went under the bridge, she went to the OPT.  Darn, it would have been a lot more convenient- not to mention cheaper if we had been there, rather than way out in White Bay.

Usual breakfast routine followed by coffee - no walk as I am sure we will have enough plenty of that later.  Left the ship around 9.15 and made our way through Immigration.  One of the annoyances as a transit passenger is that we must just line up with all the disembarking passengers - and that took some time.  Still, we were not in any hurry.  The taxi rank was highly organised and we were in a maxi taxi in less than a minute.  About 20 minutes later & $42 lighter, we arrived at Circular Quay.  A bit breezy but nice temperature.

Our tour of the Opera House was not until 11.00, so took our time.  The tour was great,  but a little disappointing that 2 of the 3 theatres were in set construction mode, which meant that photography was prohibited.   That said, very interesting to see around and up close.  The tour finished promptly at 12.00 and, no, we declined the $50 photo package and booklet!

While we had been waiting for our tour, we saw "Choo choo train", which run some through the Royal Botanic Gardens adjoining.  This was an excellent way to get around (part of) the 75 acres and in the heat, we certainly would not have walked very far.  Very good value and we enjoyed this too.  Looking for food however proved to be a little more difficult.  In the end we elected to go back to the ship.

The HZ was absolutely crowded with all the new arrivals,  but we were fortunate to find tables outside.   Despite my known aversion to the HZ, I must admit that the food was very good.   Vivian sussed out the NZ Ice Cream- 1 clip on the coffee card, but I elected to skip this as I am trying to be good........

Just as we were about to leave, the Captain made an announcement that because of the extreme weather system in the Tasman this week, we will NOT be going to Fiordland,  but rather setting a more northerly course to go through Cook Strait  (which will be interesting!)  and down the east coast of the South Island to still reach Dunedin on Friday.  Very disappointing, as this is the second time we have missed the sounds due to weather,  but at least we are better off than those who have travelled from far & wide.  On that, while we expected to board mainly Australians, there are many travellers from all over the world - particularly Asians & Americans.  There are also plenty of kids on board.  We have been told that there are over 400 registered with the various Kids Clubs.  I think that our grandchildren are going to participate on this sector.  Yes, a day on shore and some food seems to have brought them back to life 😀

Tuesday
A day at sea and yes, grandchildren are all go, Vivian has had line dancing and bridge and I have had a day of updating this blog.  The sea is pretty calm and we are steaming along at 20 kts.  Sun is shining and everything is good.

Photos
*  Ladies on balconies en route to Sydney
*  Early morning arrival in Sydney  (2)
*  Madeline & Vivian and a wave by Opera House
*  Opera  House  (2)
*  Train (3)

Days 1 & 2

Well after roughly a year of planning, departure day has arrived.  Thursday dawned fine and relatively calm after a very windy summer so far.  All looks good, at least for departure day.  Had a leisurely breakfast on the deck and as the car was already packed, took our time before driving down to Fiona's.   As we approached the Harbour Bridge, there she was, Dawn Princess, our home for the next fortnight.

Our official boarding time was 1.00, but with the early arrival of the shuttle and lack of traffic, we were ship side just after 12.30.  Fortunately check-in had opened and we were aboard in no time.  Fiona & Richard have a balcony cabin adjoining ours and Benjamin & Madeline are just down a bit in an internal. Because Princess (& other lines) do not allow children to be in a cabin by themselves, officially Richard & Madeline are next to us and Fiona & Benjamin in the internal.  So there is a fair amount of swapping of access cards going on.

We of course had lunch at the Horizon Court and the quality was very good.  In fact there many things on this ship which are far superior to the Sun Princess, even though (or probably because) she is going to P&O in May, as the Pacific Explorer.  Our balcony area has all been freshly painted and overall the ship looks good.  Our cabin steward arranged to unlock the balcony partition between our staterooms, so we can sit outside together.

Auckland put on a brilliant day and after our mandatory safety drill, it was time to cast off and head north.  We went up to Deck 11 aft and then 14 but were underwhelmed by the sailaway-  there was none.  The wind was cold but fortunately we also found the burger bar up there which we had never used before and Madeline was satisfied with at least 2 plates of chips.  OK, Richard & I had some too.  It was good to acquaint Madeline with a food source she can go to any time she wants.  Subsequently she did, at Benjamin's biding I understand.

As it is only 150 miles up to Paihia, we travelled really slowly at around 11kts.  That said, while I had anticipated passing by Algies Bay around 8.00, it was nearer 9.15 until we estimate that we did that.  We were of course at dinner and the sun had set by then so nothing to see for us.  Our Filipino waiters, Jeff & Fidel are great and really looked after Benjamin & Madeline.   Fiona has been named Princess Fiona  (from Shrek).  The quality of the food is thankfully back to Princess standard.  There was a deck party after dinner, where Vivian & Fiona danced away.  Madeline was washing her hair and the "boys" just watched on.  A lovely evening.

Apparently just over 400 passengers embarked in Auckland and we were surprised that there were a large number from both UK & USA who joined us Kiwis.  Being a school holidays cruise, there are different dynamics to what we have previously experienced,  with (obviously) children of all ages and generally a younger age group, with quite a few grandparents!   Sadly though  there are still a very large number of walkers - not just the elderly.

Friday dawned bright and clear, which was a blessing, as we are in the Bay of Islands and this is a tender port.  We are tendering to Waitangi wharf and a shuttle runs to Paihia.  Vivian was most disappointed that her planned Waka excursion had been cancelled through lack of bookings.  So as we were just going to wander around,  we opted to take a late tender at about 10.00.  The downside was that the wind had got up a bit by then, so was a bit bumpy going over.  We were very impressed with the shuttle service and we were in Paihia in no time.  Just went through the local market set up to sell goods made entirely in Northland.  They were very good quality and "reasonably" priced - no, did not buy anything though.  Vivian was impressed with the stall selling Murano glass necklaces and yes, she did import from Venice!

Fiona and family wanted to go through Waitangi Treaty grounds, but we'd done that 4 or 5 years ago, so while they took the shuttle back, we walked the 3 or 4 kilometres back to the tender.  Worked out well, as we pretty well immediately got a tender to the ship, whereas when they turned up half an hour later, there was a queue of about 500.  Enjoyed a pizza for lunch (something we really missed on Sunday Princess).  We sailed away on time at 4.00 and although almost immediately down came the clouds and a light drizzle.  A bit of a pity as we didn't get to see the land up around the top.  Looking at the land in BOI though, it seems that they could do with every drop.

We have a couple of sea days coming up and most of the passengers are looking forward to the rest as it has been full-on with port calls for them for the last week - something that we too can look forward to next week.

Photos - still haven't got this part sorted.
* about to sail out of Auckland
* arrival in Bay of Islands
* market time with Madeline & Fiona
* ship at anchor off Russell
* the elusive Waka?