Day 34 - Saturday February 17, 2024, Christchurch, New Zealand Arrival 08:00 All Aboard 17:30 Departure 18:00 Leaving the North Island with its rolling hills we make our way to the South Island where the landscape has changed to more granite features. Here we will visit our last two ports in New Zealand. The North Island has an estimated population of 3,997,300 while the South Island has 1,225,000 inhabitants. As a comparison the population of British Columbi...

Day 33 Friday February 16, 2024, Wellington, New Zealand Arrival 10:00 All Abroad 18:30 Departure 19:00 Today we are in Wellington the capital of New Zealand situated at the southwestern tip of the North Island. Like most ports we decide to leave the ship and take the shuttle into the city. We are docked directly across from Wellington's Sky Stadium which was opened in January 2000. It is home to the following sports teams Wellington Phoenix Football Club (so...

Day 32 Thursday February 15, 2024, Napier, New Zealand Arrival 12:00 All Aboard 18:30 Departure 19:00 As we make our way to Hawkes Bay and Napier, two large tugboats on either end of Insignia are tethered to mooring lines to act as stabilizers just like Rotorua the previous day. Napier's Annual Art Deco Festival begins today and runs to February 18. The last fully run festival was February 2020. Covid caused cancellation in years 2021 & 2022 while Cyclone...

Day 31- Wednesday February 14, 2024, Rotorua (Tauranga) New Zealand Arrival 08:30 All Aboard 16:15 Departure 16:45 The pilot boat is quickly approaching Insignia at 07:15. What I found interesting was the two pilots (officials) who boarded the ship were clipped by a harness to a metal railing as they moved from the back of the pilot boat to the front. They would unclip themselves only when boarding the vessel. I had not seen this before in the many pilot boat p...

Day 30 Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Waiheke Island Overnight in Port All Aboard 07:30 Departure 20:00 We decided on a visit to Waiheke Island with Bev and Glenn to go wine tasting at three vineyards. They are renowned for their wineries and a short 45-minute ferry ride from Auckland. Glenn and I walked to the Ferry Building to purchase an all-inclusive ticket for the ferry to the island and the hop on hop off bus with stops at the wineries. The ticket agent sugg...