We had another sluggish day at sea yesterday and managed only a bit over 6,000 steps. Yesterday was Mothering Sunday, Britain's version of Mothers' Day, and the restaurant offered a special chocolate dessert for all the mothers with dinner. Actually anyone could order it, but it was nice. The day in Wellington started slowly. I have been fighting off a cold the last couple of days and wanted to take it easy again. We spent most of yesterday at sea just reading ...

Up in time today to see the ship pull into the bay as the day dawned, we were charmed to see a pod of dolphins swimming along keeping pace with the ship. There were at least six of them, but I imagine there were more. At one point we saw four jumping at the same time followed by two more a few yards behind them. They entertained us and some folks on the Promenade Deck below us for quite a while. As we slowed more and the dolphins neared a rocky area in their path...

We were up very early for our private tour to Waitomo Caves and Hobbiton. We were on the first shuttle from the ship going through the industrial section of the port to where private guides were allowed to meet their passengers. The ship is too large to dock on the usual cruise ship wharf and has to dock in the cargo ship area. Last night, I set the alarm on my phone to wake us at 5:45 so we would have time to get ready and have breakfast in the Kings Court buffe...