Yes beautiful, scenic New Zealand.
I was looking back at the cruise ship thread, I said I had a booking to go on the Ovation of the Seas to New Zealand, well that’s been done, and I have to say, that ship is too big with too many people for my liking (5000 passengers)
I won’t be going on a mega ship like that again.
Getting a table at lunch time or dinner time in the buffet was an absolute battle and we decided to just go to the formal lounge each time with A la carte menu. So much more peaceful. Thank goodness.
Trying to get a seat at the theatre, we had to line up 45 mins before we got seats. I never had that happen on any of the other cruise ships. So that’s the huge ship and passengers for you.
Oh, and if you don’t rush to get in early for shore excursions, it’s tough luck. I was considering that White Island walk on the rim of a live volcano excursion, of the helicopter ride over the mouth of the volcano. But was expensive. So didn’t do it, then a couple months later that horrible tragedy happened to those poor cruisers when the island erupted.
I loved Napier. So Art Deco. They had all these old fashioned cars and folks dressed up roaring 20s with photo opportunities with them near where the ship was.
We did a historical drive in a bus through the town and how they rebuilt the after that devastating earthquake.
I will put up some photos I took a little later.
I was astounded how many people were from the USA on board!
The tourism advert must be really effective for the Americans to fly into Sydney, and then go by ship to New Zealand.
I would say about 80% of the passengers were from the USA.
Kept finding myself asking which part of the USA they were from, literally from many different areas.
The ship had this North Star arm and it raises you high above the ship, giving you a real birds eye view.
I think you will like these photos I took, I’m on my iPhone typing now, when I’m in the desk top computer where the photos are, I will share a few
Night for now.