Year: 2013

Wellington, New Zealand

This morning when we woke we were already in Wellington. A cooler day had been forecast but in fact it turned out to be quite a warm day.

After breakfast we headed into town and were surprised that many shops had not yet opened even though it was 10 o’clock. Te Papa is always a good visit. There was a waka competition on so the waterfront was quite busy.
We were back on board for lunch. I took more photos after mysteriously losing some I took the other day. We also explored more of the ship.
At dinner we discovered that our original table people had moved to another table, so now Bonnie and Vincent from Sydney (originally from Hong Kong) are with us. We gather that our previous partners have moved quite often! We enjoyed the company of Bonnie and Vincent who say that they will stay! If they go we may develop a complex or take more showers.
The concert tonight was Jazz, Blues and Rock’n Roll withe resident dancers and singers. It was very energetic!!

Tomorrow night we are off to have cocktails with the captain along with the other 373 people who got on in Auckland. It will be the first formal dress code night – dinner suits and long dresses!!!

Napier, New ZealandThanks to Gray’s superb supervision, the berthing in Napier was quite spectacular! It is cooler today and there is talk of rain. The hills are really brown so no doubt rain will be very welcome.
We were thrilled to meet up with Brenda (my niece) for lunch. It did seem rather strange to have to travel down by boat to see her!

This evening’s entertainment was absolutely great – The Ladykillers – Annie Crummer, Tina Cross, Suzanne Lynch and Jackie Clarke. We loved their singing.
So tomorrow is our last port in New Zealand – Wellington.

Tauranga, New Zealand

Well here we are in Tauranga – the Mount to be more accurate.
Last night as we sailed out of Auckland, we had dinner in the Britannia Restaurant. We’d booked a table of 6 but instead we are at a table of 4. The other couple is from England and are very nice. Dinner was quite yummy; the wine however is really very expensive!! After dinner we went off to the welcome concert which was pretty good with the resident singers and dancers.

This morning we woke up in Tauranga. We spent the morning exploring the ship – first stop to purchase a coffee card at the cafe. Very good coffee after the rather insipid brew in the dining room at breakfast. Also checked out internet access – blogs will not go up every day because the charges are huge.
There are 1933 passengers on board, over half of them from USA. There are about 500 Brits, and Kiwis, Aussies, Europeans and Asians make up the rest of the population. At breakfast this morning we sat with a couple from Snells Beach!

This afternoon we headed into the Mount, had a coffee and looked around the shops. There was a school group having a water safety day in the water and they were having a wonderful time.
Before dinner we set sail heading towards Napier. It was the first time this ship had come into Tauranga so our send off by the locals was quite touching. The wharf was crowded as was the beach. There were small boats with families aboard bobbing about beside us. It was all very cool. Gray was more interested in watching the pilot jumping back into the pilot boat.
The evening concert with Ben Makisi was wonderful!!!

Auckland, New Zealand

So how did we manage to get here, on the Queen Elizabeth?

Initially we were planning another trip to Europe in September, this time hoping to spend more time in Italy. Then Liam announced that he was hoping we would join them in a big family holiday in Ao Nang in Thailand for his 40th birthday in September.
We then thought we could probably squeeze in a little holiday in the late summer. I found a short cruise around Vanuatu that looked rather nice. However, Gray discovered that the Queen Elizabeth was coming to Auckland in February. As you can see it didn’t take much persuasion to get me to agree to this voyage!!! So here we are sitting in our stateroom (not a cabin apparently) drinking a complimentary French champagne!
Methinks this is going to be OK.