Sailing on the Sea Princess

Main Activity Deck - Sea Princess

The Sea Princess was the first ship on which we did a tour - 40 days! We went from Sydney, Australia to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Japan, Guam and back to Sydney.

You can read about that tour here.

This tour began at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and took us south to our neighbour country, New Zealand.

It's the third time we've been to the "Island of the Great White Cloud" and I always wonder why anyone who lives in NZ would leave. It's a beautiful country.

We traversed the west coast of the islands and then came up the eest coast calling into several ports, the following map shows our travel route.

Unfortunately, it was too rough for us to visit Akaroa and Napier which was a disappointment, however, as the ship's captain said, it's better not to push the margin of safety with so many people on board.

This trip was during the Australian school holidays and included New Year's Eve. There were numerous children on board and a much young group of adults - their parents and other adults apparently taking advantage of the Christmas-New Year slow down and holiday break.

As we had been on a number of previous cruises, we didn't get involved in many of the on-board activities - been there, done them. Christina did attend regular Knitters and Knatters Group meetings and we attended several excellent evening shows we had not seen before. One of the comedians was spectacular.

I caught up on a stack of reading I had stored for the occasion and of course, on those places we visited, we got off the ship and had a good wander around, even though we had seen them before. At Auckland we visited the Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life attraction where we met some interesting creatures like this pufferfish which eyed me off as I took its photo.

I can see you Robin !

Initially I thought it was ugly (who am I to talk?), but ultimately I realised what a beautiful piece of work it was. Only evolution could produce such an odd creature with antennae to perform whatever function they perform. (Anyone help here?)

Probably the highlight of the trip was doing a cruise along Milford Sound. We'd visited previously by bus, but the tour in and out covered all of the Sound and we had a good look at the dozens of waterfalls running down steep rock walls into the lake below.

Milford Sound from Sea Princess

I have a large number of photos of Milford Sound all of which are pretty similar - steep Sound walls, plenty of greenery and billions of Litres of running water that would probably be among the purest on our planet.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip around New Zealand and meeting the inhabitants was also enjoyable as they are inevitably friendly and appreciate those of us from "over the ditch" visiting.

Robin

Turangi Tongarira

Most time share resorts run a similar program; you arrive as you do at any motel and are given keys and told where to find your accommodation. Some time during the week, the hosts run a get-together where you meet the other occupants and get the low-down on local sights, events and discounts they can provide for various activities. The hosts hand out brochures and maps and no doubt get a benefit from sending you to various venues. That's business.

Some offer a discounted "resort meal" for guests during the week and "happy hours" once or more during the week. Usually the resort has a stack of different games, books, videos, bikes, rafts and other things you can use while you are there. What you can do of course reflects what is available in house and locally. Kaimanawa Resort at Turangi was no different, but the buildings were all pine, with lovely polished pine walls and ceilings throughout. It reminded us of the timber cabins in which we had stayed in Canada. Hosts Rae and Jim were lovely people too, which made staying there all the better.

Turangi is another lovely NZ town with nice wide roads, well defined shops, roundabouts, clean streets and plenty of trees and greenery. There are many more Moari visible there than say at Queenstown and one New Zealander told me that the Moari had moved to the far northern parts of NZ to avoid the cold. It made sense why we saw few Moari in Queenstown, although there are no doubt more living there.

Turangi is near Taupo and the region is, among other things, famous for having a large number of prisons and hydro-electric power stations. Apparently at Turangi large numbers of the people work for the prisons department. The others are family members of those imprisoned. It must make for an interesting social mix within the town.

We nearly wore ourselves out walking around the lake at Turangi. We set out intending to do three or four kilometres and finished up doing eight, a fair portion of which was uphill. There is a maze of walking trails, a suspension bridge that wobbles when you cross it, and some great views of the township from the top of a nearby hill which descends onto a traffic bridge at the edge of Turangi. Walking through the lines of ferns, trees and other shrubbery is invigorating.

Both Christina and I have Fitbits, little electronic gadgets that track our daily walking, stairs climbed, calories burned, and more, so we record our activities and intend to incrementally improve our fitness.

The day after our Great Walk, we rocked up at the Turangi Tongarira Rafting Company for a white water rafting experience. I'll tell you about that in my next post and show you some action photos of we two tackling the waves.

Robin