Cruise to NZ Part Five Napier

 

Pania siren of the sea. Maori legend says Pania used to lure men out to sea by calling them

 

Napier is an Art Deco town, all the buildings have been restored back to original style after the earthquake that destroyed the town in 1930's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cruise to New Zealand Part Four Wellington

This morning we woke in Windy Wellington & it lived up to it's name. Cold & drizzling with rain. Couldn't see the top of mountain behind city due to heavy fog. We opted to take a train ride up the west coast which took about 1 hr each way.

Bob catching the train at Wellington central station

Milenium ball

Tree fern

By the time we got back to city, the weather had improved & decided to take the cable car ride to top of the mountain

View of Wellington city

Cable car


Jan on cable car

Bob hanging off side of cable car

Cruise to New Zealand Part Three Christchurch

Christchurch is another very English town with lovely square in middle of town. The weather wasn't kind to us & we were bused into city from the port at Lyttleton as it was about 1/2 hr away

Water wheel on Avon river which runs right thru city

Avon river

Double take on VW !!!! They had joined to VW together, each side had steering wheel, brakes etc can be driven each way

Tram car

Bob videoing our ride on the gondola

View from top of gondola ride



Jan & Bob punting on the river. Definitely very British tradition. Can't get the picture the right way round. Sorry folks

Cruise to New Zealand Part Two Dunedin

After leaving the fjordland overnight to the next port of Dunedin. Very Scottish town & rumoured to be more "Scottish" than Scotland. Obviously had many scots who came out & settled in years gone by.

View Dunedin

Chinese gardens
Cadbury truck at Cadbury's factory. Did the factory tour & bought heaps of chocolates to bring home for all the sweet tooth folk that we know

Jan at the steepest street in the world

Steepest street

Dunedin railway very grand. Sure built things to last!!!

Dunedin harbour

Chinese gardens

Lots of gold @ Cadbury chocolate factory

Old purple Cadbury truck

Bob, Carol & Graham. This is a couple we met when we did the cycling tour of Vietnam in 2004. They live in Dunedin & now we know why they were always first to the top of any hill during the trip. They walk out their back door & there is a mountain. Mad keen cyclists.

Bob looking very glamourous waiting to do tour of chocolate factory

Cruise to New Zealand - Part One - Sydney to Milford Sound

The night before we sailed I caught up with a really old friend Jean (1960's)& we had a few glasses of wine & a good laugh about old times.

In February we decided to have a little 'holiday' from our travels, so we headed from Perth to Sydney to meet the Sun Princess and cruise around New Zealand from 5th to the 18th.

Our adventure began when we set sail from the Number 8 wharf at Darling Harbour, Sydney at 4.30pm on Friday 5th February 2010.




After sailing under the harbour bridge, past the Opera House and Fort Denison we headed out towards the heads. Despite being almost natives to Sydney, the sights where breathtaking - especially when viewing them from the decks of a cruise liner!

Once we got through the heads, we turned right and set a SE course out across the Tasman sea.

Two days were spent at sea, and with the weather not being so flash, there was not a soul in the pool (now that's an almost rare event for a cruise ship)!

On the third morning we entered Milford Sound for a little scenic cruising and we spent the day sailing through Doubtful Sound and few other ones as well.




Then the sun broke through clouds and made the water glisten and it felt like you could reach out and touch the mountains as they seemed so close.






For the next 7 days we were on the go everyday as we visited a new port each day.