Auckland to Sydney
While a National Disaster in Auckland was declared following the torrential rain causing the closure of the airport and many roads, we remained safe and dry at the Ponsonby Hotel just a couple of kilometers from the Port. Badly advised that we didn’t need to book a taxi the day before needed, when it came to it, the only taxi available was an hour early. Previously Princess had stipulated that early boarding would not be possible so we wondered what on earth we would do in the pouring rain for an hour with heavy suitcases …
Fortunately when we arrived a whole hour early at the Port, we were speedily ushered though all the boarding queues without a hitch onto the Majestic Princess! (We’d had our official Covid Test in the afternoon the day before.)
Our cabin was aft of Deck 11 – Baja – 712. There was plenty of room for everything – although the balcony was a little small for a wild party …
Very pleased indeed.
Colleen Hobbit off on an Unexpected Journey. Highly important to explore the ship before it got crowded. Indeed, you normally avoid the buffet on embarkation day, but as there was plenty of room and lots of nice food to tempt us, we did eat in the buffet. Thinking everything would be late with the rain problems, Alan had bought us a couple of huge muffins for breakfast at the bakery opposite the hotel, so we weren’t too hungry.
We didn’t leave Auckland till 9pm-ish … we didn’t realise it at the time, but we were leaving with only a half-full ship as many passengers had trouble with the airport being closed and unable to get to Auckland. There were a of horrific stories as to the problems of flights – not only from abroad, but also using the local airports.
Our first stop was meant to be the gorgeous Bay of Islands (north), instead spent two nights at Tauranga (south) while the rest of the passengers tried to catch up with their cruise by getting to this port by and means possible.
Colleen was informed several times during this stay (!) how, on 1st Jan 1979, when his ship (Cape Leeuwin) called in to the port, a young and fit Alan climbed to the summit of Mount Maunganui with a polystyrene container carried on his shoulder, filled with beer … Colleen sensibly declined to reenact this expedition by herself.
With still a few stragglers boarding at the various ports, the ship proceeded Wellington. We had arranged another Tolkien based excursion here. First of all we were taken to Mount Victoria Lookout where scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other movies were filmed. We walked through the “Outer Shire” and saw where the “Race to the Ferry” took place.
We enjoyed the superb views down over Wellington and the beautiful coast line.
The “Get Off the Road” sequence was also filmed here. Frightened by a Nazgul Wraith, the four hobbits hide under the roots of a huge tree. Peter Jackson had made and installed tree roots above where our heads are and, in the film, a rider is looking down over us.
The White Orc from Lord of the Rings has grabbed the Colleen Hobbit … will she be saved?
(Takes place in the Weta Workshop in Wellington)
While we were here we were able to pick up all sorts of props from films they had made. Colleen particularly enjoyed swiping the various swords through the air …
We went to the Hobberton Movie Set before the cruise and the above pictures. A separate page will be made up to show this excursion … rather a lot of photos were taken!
Watch this space for the link …
And … as a sort of PS to the Wellington excursion … we feel a mention of the coach door is necessary: (Known as Number 8 wire mentality in New Zealand.- we can fix anything)
When our coach returned to pick us up from the Weta workshop, the door closure had broken and would not stay shut. We had a lot of entertainment value as we were sitting right there to watch the poor guide hanging on to a series of rubber drive belts to keep it closed. How he didn’t fall out, we don’t know! The dialogue between the guide and driver was particularly illuminating …
Next stop was Picton. This was a very pretty place – if the weather had been even halfway decent it would have been fabulous. None the less, we braved a walk in the rain and enjoyed the views.
We were moored on a thin strip of land and could see the sea on both sides. Looked very popular for sailing.
When walking around the Marina to get back to our ship, we were impressed to see several rays swimming in the shallow waters between the boats and the pontoons – very exciting! It was the first real wildlife we’d seen at sea.
Picton is situated on the North Coast of the South Island and is known as the gateway to the islands and inlets of the Marlborough sounds. We thoroughly enjoyed steaming through such gorgeous scenery – even changed our dinner time to later so we didn’t have to go inside and miss it.
Picton was a real treat.
And of course, if dinner is going to be late, a cocktail (or two!) out on deck will go down rather well. Pictured here are two Dirty Bananas (Rum, coffee, chocolate, banana and cream – yummy!). This was taken at the Wake Bar – one of our favourites as you could have sun or shade, the buffet was a few metres away and the bar even closer ..
Also you’d be surprised at the sort of things you see walking round the ship: for example, take this picture of an exotic Queen Butterfly we saw …
We also were able to enjoy beautiful sunsets from our balcony – simply breathtaking.
Unfortunately we were unable to visit Milford Sound due to the cyclone that had ravaged both Islands of New Zealand. We had so been looking forward to it as a highlight of the trip. The amazing area is know as Fjordland: with a multitude of fjords backed by snow capped mountains, glittering waterfalls and magical reflections – it would have been a fantastic day’s cruising. Ah well, such is life …
Needless to say, these two are not our photos!
Heading back to Sydney via Cook’s Strait we called in at Australia’s southernmost island: Tasmania. We were lucky enough to be shown round by an old colleague of Alan’s – Graham Perkins – who has been living in Hobart for some 30 odd years.
At first he took us up to the lookout on Mount Wellington – not as clear as some days, but nonetheless we had a superb panoramic view of Hobart and the coast – we could even see the Majestic Princess awaiting our return.
After that, Graham took us to a sailing club near where he had lived for an excellent coffee and relaxed atmosphere. It was great to hear Alan and Graham catching up on all the years that had gone by.
At last we had to head back to the ship, but we had lovely memories of Hobart.
To crown the day, some dolphins swum alongside as we made our way back along the River Derwent to the Tasman Sea.
On the 11th February we arrived in Sydney. This was the end of the first leg of our cruise. We were to stay on board for another 13 nights cruising the South Seas. We changed our cabin to an aft facing one – and Princess crew made the change very smoothly!
We had to get off for immigration, so we decided to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour to make the most of our time.
We normally find the Hop On Hop Off tours a great way to see a city in a hurry. Yes, we know you can’t do a place justice in a 2-3 hour bus ride, but normally you get a feeling for a place. This was probably our least favourite Hop On Hop Off … it was a very hot day – too much for Colleen to stay on the top, so we spent much of the tour in the air-conditioned downstairs!
Have to confess a little bit of disappointment with Bondi Beach – they need to come and see our beaches in Pembrokshire!!
