Wednesday 18th March Pago Pago, American Samoa After leaving New Zealand we had to alter course and miss out a port to avoid Cyclone Pamela. We caught the tail end of it with some wet and windy weather and some rough seas. We have just crossed back over the International Dateline and have gained a day. Yesterday was Wednesday 18th March and today is also Wednesday 18th March! This morning we are on the small island of Tutila which is part of American Samoa. We...

Wellington, New Zealand Friday 13th March Today is the last of our New Zealand ports and we are in the capital, Wellington. We opted to walk into the city rather than take the shuttle bus. We walked all the way to Civic Square and had a lovely coffee on Queen's Wharf. As we have visited Wellington before we decided to spend the day walking around the harbour area. We returned to Queen's Wharf to have lunch on the upper verandah of a restaurant overlooking the h...

Akaroa, New Zealand Thursday 12th March We are anchored today in Akaroa Harbour in the Canterbury region of the South Island. The village of Akaroa is the oldest colonial town on the South Island and is a former French colony with many of the road names in French. We had a pleasant trip in the tender to the pier in Akaroa and then had a wander around this small but very lovely village. The population of the village is just 700 but with two cruise ships in the h...

Dunedin, New Zealand Wednesday 11th March We have returned to New Zealand to the Otago region of the South Island. Today we are visiting Dunedin which is a place that was settled by the Scots in 1848. They named it Dunedin which is the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh. We berthed at Port Chalmers and took the shuttle bus into Dunedin. We stopped at the Octagon in the middle of town where there is a statue of Robert Burns in front of St. Paul's cathedral. We went d...

Friday 6th March Sydney We sailed into Sydney Harbour early this morning and anchored in the middle of the harbour. We went ashore by tender and landed alongside the Opera House. We had decided to spend today over in Manly so we walked to Circular Quay and got on the Manly ferry. From the main surf beach we took the coastal path up to North Head. We passed by Shelly Beach and then started to climb up to the North Head Sanctuary. There are walkways through the s...