Another lovely day in the South Island of New Zealand, fast becoming our new Must Revisit country. We arrived in Akaroa at about 7am, passing through the Heads and into a long but reasonably narrow inlet. There was another cruise ship ahead of us, Sea Princess. Akaroa is the port of call nearest Christchurch for cruises these days since the terribly earthquake that devastated that city a few years ago. It's a lovely little place, maybe only 400 permanent re...

What a great day we've had in Dunedin, New Zealand South Island. Firstly, the weather was kind, sunny periods, dry and no mist. A nice temperature, perhaps 19C. We were booked to travel on the historic Taieri Gorge railway and the train came right to the dockside to meet the ship. We managed to get on in the first compartment which was great because it meant we had an outside viewing area between us and the engine allowing for taking photos in the air. ...

We were outside Milford Sound by breakfast time. A very overcast day, no wind, dry, about 18C. At least it wasn't raining and the cloud was not too low. It is not unusual for cruise ships to be unable to enter the Sound as it is very narrow and in low visibility it would be dangerous. In fact, it is what we would call a glacial fjord. The water is very deep, around 300m and the sides are very steep. It is 14km long and surrounded by the wilderness of the Gl...

Pretty much a repeat of yesterday. No wind, about 25C, some swell, haze. I caught up on another painting this morning which was a landscape from New Zealand. It was pretty awful. Didn't like the suggested colours at all so maybe I misunderstood. It looks like a Rorsach nightmare…. Bob went to a cookery demonstration from three of the executive chefs from the speciality restaurants. He said it was interesting. We also did a mega load of laundry which had...

A quiet and rather restful day. It was very hazy so not a particularly brilliant day for sunbathing although plenty of people did. The sea was pretty flat calm in terms of wind although there was a slight swell. Lots of new faces aboard and many people wandering around looking lost and baffled as they tried to find their way. We plonked down in the Crows Nest lounge this morning and Bob read while I painted a picture that we had missed while we were in New Ze...