Today was a sea day so there was no hurry to get up. We grabbed some breakfast around 1030 then headed to the coffee shop for some tea (the tea in the buffet is rank) and to write up our blog. The next part of the day was spent playing putting on the lawn up the top deck. The green had pretty long grass so it was more like pitch and putt with a putter! We managed not to hit any balls overboard but did see lots of dolphins playing around the boat.After lunch, the ...

We woke up this morning just as the announcement that the gangway to depart the boat was available and we were free to explore Wellington. We had decided again that we would just use our own feet to explore rather than booking any sort of tour. After getting ready and having our usual buffet breakfast, we headed off the boat and jumped in a shuttle bus into the centre of Wellington.The bus stopped first at the information centre and then at the cable car, most pe...

The port that used to serve Christchurch has never been repaired since the earthquake a couple years back so now the majority of the boats dock at a place called Akaroa, when I say dock I mean anchor down and you tender in to the port. Although we knew we would be tendering into Akaroa, neither of us knew that we did this in the ships own lifeboats, so it was a surprise when we boarded one this morning.The weather was awful this morning, rainy and foggy and cold ...

When the curtains were opened this morning it became apparent as to why the ship was blasting it's horn every half hour during the night, it was pea soup outside. We had been due to reach Dunedin at around 0900 in the morning but at around 0815 we had stopped and were told we’d have to wait until the fog had gone. We got ready and headed up to the buffet, sat down out the back just as it cleared and we got a perfect view of our entry to the harbour. The...

Today was all about the sounds of the south island of New Zealand, we'd been told that we would be entering the first of these, the Milford sound, at around 0730. When we opened the curtains this morning we saw the first land of New Zealand just as we were approaching the entrance to Milford sound. The weather had been kind to us as there was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was just rising, in fact we were told it’s only like this twice a season, who...