Thursday night we put out our room service card asking for coffee at 6AM because we wanted to be up to see the ship sail into Auckland. At last, a big city!! At 5:50 the tiny knock came at the door, waking us both out of a deep sleep. The waiter apologized for being early, saying that orders were slow that morning. But we were fortunate because the ship was at that moment passing the buoys that signified the entrance to the Auckland harbor, so we raced upstairs to the front of the ship to see city lights for the first time in almost a month. As the sun came up we saw the bustling city; cars, buses, people rushing to work. We were psyched.
This was the second of our 7 Virtuoso Voyager Club tour days and we all met in the Ocean Bar for our departure. There were 35 of us going. We got on a luxury bus and traveled around the harbor and we could see why Auckland is called the “City of Sails”. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of sailboats in the harbor. It was a spectacular sight. The bus took us on a tour around the harbor as the driver gave us the highlights of the city and life in New Zealand. Our first stop was the Auckland Museum where we had a private tour of the Maori section of the museum. The Maori are the first people to inhabit New Zealand and still exist in the country today. After the tour a group of young Maori people put on a short performance of their traditional song and dance.
From there we traveled one-hour north to the wine country. What we’ve seen of New Zealand so far is clean, tidy, modern, and as close to American as you can get. The countryside is rugged and yet beautifully manicured, bringing to mind the California coast and the hills of South Dakota all wrapped up in one sensational package. No wonder people say that New Zealand is the most beautiful place on Earth, and we haven’t even seen the best part yet.
We went to Heron’s Flight Winery and restaurant for lunch and the wine flowed for over 2 hours. The vineyard and winery is owned by an American and his Kiwi wife. It sits on a hillside so the view from one side of the winery is up the hill and the view from the other side is down the hill and the combination of the greens of the trees, the sculpted hedges and the rolling hills took our collective breaths away. Those of us who were there for the first time were in awe of the beauty.
Auckland’s traffic jams are legendary, especially on Friday at rush hour, and we were almost late getting back to the ship. Last call for passengers to board was 5:30 and we got on at 5:25. Again we rushed to the front of the ship to watch our departure. A large group of New Zealanders had gathered to bid us farewell and it was an awesome sight to see them waving and cheering us on as we backed out of the harbor.
Today we did the second walk for breast cancer. It was cold and windy outside so we did our walk around the pool with the dome closed. We did two laps for those who have died, two laps for those currently fighting the disease, and two laps in hopes of a cure. After our 6 laps the crew read names that passengers had submitted of those they wanted to be recognized and then they put a large wreath into the pool which had all the names inscribed on it. It was a very moving ceremony and many of us were in tears.
I always think I’m going to make these blog entries short but I guess my enthusiasm gets the best of me and I just keep writing and writing. Tomorrow we’re in Wellington, New Zealand and we don’t have an organized tour planned; we’re just going to explore on our own. I’ll give you a full report on that later!
This was the second of our 7 Virtuoso Voyager Club tour days and we all met in the Ocean Bar for our departure. There were 35 of us going. We got on a luxury bus and traveled around the harbor and we could see why Auckland is called the “City of Sails”. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of sailboats in the harbor. It was a spectacular sight. The bus took us on a tour around the harbor as the driver gave us the highlights of the city and life in New Zealand. Our first stop was the Auckland Museum where we had a private tour of the Maori section of the museum. The Maori are the first people to inhabit New Zealand and still exist in the country today. After the tour a group of young Maori people put on a short performance of their traditional song and dance.
From there we traveled one-hour north to the wine country. What we’ve seen of New Zealand so far is clean, tidy, modern, and as close to American as you can get. The countryside is rugged and yet beautifully manicured, bringing to mind the California coast and the hills of South Dakota all wrapped up in one sensational package. No wonder people say that New Zealand is the most beautiful place on Earth, and we haven’t even seen the best part yet.
We went to Heron’s Flight Winery and restaurant for lunch and the wine flowed for over 2 hours. The vineyard and winery is owned by an American and his Kiwi wife. It sits on a hillside so the view from one side of the winery is up the hill and the view from the other side is down the hill and the combination of the greens of the trees, the sculpted hedges and the rolling hills took our collective breaths away. Those of us who were there for the first time were in awe of the beauty.
Auckland’s traffic jams are legendary, especially on Friday at rush hour, and we were almost late getting back to the ship. Last call for passengers to board was 5:30 and we got on at 5:25. Again we rushed to the front of the ship to watch our departure. A large group of New Zealanders had gathered to bid us farewell and it was an awesome sight to see them waving and cheering us on as we backed out of the harbor.
Today we did the second walk for breast cancer. It was cold and windy outside so we did our walk around the pool with the dome closed. We did two laps for those who have died, two laps for those currently fighting the disease, and two laps in hopes of a cure. After our 6 laps the crew read names that passengers had submitted of those they wanted to be recognized and then they put a large wreath into the pool which had all the names inscribed on it. It was a very moving ceremony and many of us were in tears.
I always think I’m going to make these blog entries short but I guess my enthusiasm gets the best of me and I just keep writing and writing. Tomorrow we’re in Wellington, New Zealand and we don’t have an organized tour planned; we’re just going to explore on our own. I’ll give you a full report on that later!
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