Tuesday 19th February We are in our last port in New Zealand. We have come to its capital, Wellington. It is a lovely sunny morning and after taking the shuttle into the city we walked to see their parliament building. We were surprised to find that you could take a free guided tour inside parliament and we were just a perfect time for the first tour of the day. We had an excellent guide and started the tour in the Beehive building - the modern round one in the ...

Monday 18th February We had a lovely sail out from Auckland yesterday passed lots of islands. A Maori group performed on board last night which was really good. Overnight and this morning we have sailed down the east coast of New Zealand's north island. This afternoon we have arrived at Napier. Napier is in Hawke's Bay and it has a long seafront. From a distance the beach looks like is is made of ash but it is in fact made of grey pebbles. The town is famous for...

Sunday 17th February We have arrived in New Zealand at Auckland. We are not now spending two days here as the ship isn't being mended until we get to Dubai. So we are back now to the original ports of call in New Zealand. This morning we took a ferry across the harbour to Devonport. It is the oldest suburb of Auckland and has some lovely old weatherboard houses built in the late 1800's. It was a beautiful area and would be a wonderful place to live but undoubted...