On wifi…. Sometimes we went silent for days during sea days…… We choose not to purchase wifi daily in order to get some internet fasting time… very relaxing… This is hard to do when we are on land and at home,we just don’t have the discipline ….
On drink package…. We did not purchase drink package as we only drink one or two glasses per day if we drink at all… drink package includes bottle water which is great but we don’t want to be environmentally responsible for those plastic bottles…. So there it is, we transport water from the buffet dining hall using our own drinking bottles daily.
On elevators… we only took the elevator a total of 2 times so far in 25 days (one time was when we moved in with lots of luggage) …. And choose to torture ourselves with stairs all the time in order to get some exercise… That average out to at least 15 floors of step climbing every day…. So more guilt free eating I guess 😉
The sea between New Zealand and Australia is called the Tasman sea.. It is notoriously rocky….
They flew three immigration officers from Australia to Dunedin, our last stop at NZ and sail them back to Australia with us just so that they can check us in for immigration at a pace that is comfortable for us and them!! … How considerate of Princess and win win for all…
A gentleman came and asked if we remember them from last years Antarctica trip…. And of course we don’t… We are bad at faces and names and it’s embarrassing….but it warms our heart greatly that someone remembers us
Formal night today, (3rd formal night in 25 days) we dress up today for Lobsters, Escargots and disco fun 🙌🙌. Usually during formal nights some ladies dress up in their most glamorous gowns and some guys even put on white James bond like jacket….almost half of passengers do not really participate and dress casual as usual… We just do the minimum with gown like attire and suit jacket…
The ship did a Chinese buffet today!! Yay…there’s suckling pig, 元寶，wonton Noodle.. Etc.. Appreciate the effort!! The captain walk around with a note of pronunciation reading out loud to people he met “新年快樂” in mandarin!!!
Original schedule is to do scenic crossing of New Zealands’s Fiordland but due to bad weather it has been canceled… A little disappointed on this one since it is one of unesco’s world heritage site… Oh well…. I love scenic crossings… You don’t need to get off the ship just stay at your own balcony and takes in the view….
Port Chalmers is 20 mins from the next big city, Dunedin, beautiful scenic drive from Port to Dunedin via shuttle bus alongside otago Harbour bay
Charming town of Dunedin, full of Scottish heritage with many Edwardian architectures, cozy cafes and pubs. It’s a vibrant university town
We appreciate the bag pipers!!
The train station is famous and the second most photographed building after Australia’s opera house in this part of the world
Beautiful Mosaic floorand stained glass windows
So lucky to run into their vibrant Saturday farmers market where the locals shop
But the luckiest of all is to stumble into this Clearwater Wildlife tour to Cape Saunders Farm at the Otago peninsula where the owner Rachel of this thousand acre big farm led us to her sumptuous farm, from breathtaking cliff side views of the sea to totally private beaches and experience unrivalled opportunities to view rare yellow-eyed penguins, New Zealand sea lions, fur seals and a variety of sea and wading birds. After the previous three ports where we did not really explore much of the NZ nature, this one did it for us….. We wish we memorized all the names of the birds and wild lifes that we saw… Etc, we were just in awe… Feels like it’s a national geographic private tour as we were the only two guests on this Minivan….. They provided us each with a heavy raincoat and binoculars and we felt like clumsy explorers…
Noticed the baby seal suckling on the mother seal while she takes a napRare Yellow eyed penguin, royal albatross, black swan and others….. Sorry i don’t know all your names.. Weaving up and down, left and right of this secluded private property where nature thrive and carefully protected
After the the tour we were in such a state of euphoria that the only thing we can do is to celebrate with a feast and drink of course…
Haha, green lipped muscle again.. The fresh fish of fish and chips was made with local blue cod…
We had a wonderful time here at our last stop of NZ…. Was supposed to do scenic cruising of NZ’s Fiordland tomorrow but was canceled because of bad weather….. So 3 sea days before we arrive Sydney Australia…
Happy Chinese New Year and have a prosperous dragon year everyone 💞
Again I apologize for as usual, everything was written in haste ( not enough time with internet) with a lot of grammatical mistakes…
Bought a seat cushion in Auckland and turn a balcony space into a comfy lounge spaceThe central air con air flow is way too strong and cold…. We are trying to leave a note for the technician to fix…Laundry room on ship… But we usually just hand-wash at sink and hang dry at balcony 😆, we pray for the day we become elite member of Princess (complete 150 days) which is going to be 4/17..then we enjoy free laundry… HahaInside our little refrigerator, there’s wine, coffee, chocolate and face mask 😉Bathroom space is very “cozy”… A comedian jokes during his performance on ship that the shower is a strange place where you fall but can’t really fell because there’s no room to fell… 😂… Jokes aside, we are ok with it! Just can’t imagine how people much bigger maneuver in itAll the buds had bloomed into flowers now with one starting to wilt…
We were told the sail in and sail out scene at Picton is going to be marvelous and they are right!!…this is sailing in at dawn
We were surrounded by mountains… The little tugboat helped us park
The little town of Picton only has about 4200 people, our ship has 3000, so our arrival almost double the town population.. As soon as we stepped off the ship, we were each given a little fresh flower corsage pin as welcome gift… P immediately pin it on his hat and we do feel welcomed.
We joined a hop on and hop off wine tour which took us to around 17 wineries in Marlborough regent, world-famous for Sauvignon Blanc…. There’s also beer breweries…. The whole place feels like Napa but greener
To pick one restaurant out of all these stops and enjoy the vineyard dining setting is hard, but then we lucked out again by picking Saint Clair family estate… It has a great ambiance and delicious food… The platter we picked looks amazing and taste even better…. that plus two glasses of wine only cost us$60…
The platter called celebration of Marlborough was beautiful plated and bountiful with chicken liver pate, green lipped mussels, home smoked salmon, salami, local cheese, fresh fruits, olives,.. EtcAs we were sailing off, we can hear choirs of cicadas in the forests Pictures taken during sailing out turns from color to black and white, except the red pilot boat… In 30 mins, weather changed from sunny to foggy rainBye Picton!! I think almost everyone we knew onboard had a glass of your very fruity souvigon blanc… Cheers 🥂
Arriving Taranaki At dawn, kind of chilly but later turns into full fledge sunny day
According to our very lively and funny destination expert Jessica, All these lumber at the Port are heading for China, turned into chopsticks and then maybe some comes back to New Plymouth
Most of NZ’s plantation forestry is found in the North Island. Forestry is 1.6% of NZ’s Gdp
A charming seaside town apparently that has some landscape quite similar to Japan…. Including their ancestral Taranaki maunga (mountain) that looks like Mount Fuji… That is why Tom Cruise shot his last samurai here..
The design of Te Rewa Rewa Bridge looks like a whale’s ribcage…
We walked 7 to 8 miles round trip on their award winning coastal walkway… Full of beautiful sceneries in order to reach Te Rewa Rewa bridge
The beaches are volcanic black sands that are very fine and amazing to walk on
Coastal blooms are colorful and kind of huge!! Reminds us of Ushuaia’s (end of the world Argentina) vegetation..
Seaside flea market…
That T shirt cracks us up
Street views
We hit the jackpot on the random restaurant we picked off the street …. The ambiance is perfect and the food is amazing!! We normally don’t really eat fried food but everything on this seafood platter is delicious 😋…. The green lipped mussels are local fresh specialty, their coconut shrimp is the best we had ever tasted with long strand flavorful coconut shreds, soft shell crabs and calamaries tasted fresh as well… And the beer brewed locally tasted refreshing… So good we left a glowing Google review for them right on the spot 👍
Cheers Frederic!! Good bye Taranaki… We will miss you
…. Where they widened their eyes and stick out their tongues and chant to display a tribes pride, strength and unity.. The chants they make are powerful!! It was made world famous by the NZ All Blacks rugby team who performed this during their matches
Maori wood carvings and performance on ship featuring Haka
When we started cruising 25 years ago, we dreaded sea days… At that time we were too introvert to participate in activities so we kept to ourselves and stayed inside the cabin…. Now we love sea days, especially without Wifi…between the activities the ship have (enrichment classes, zumba, ukelele and nightly performance) and our own (reading, painting, meditating computer stuffs and walk lapses around the ship ) we are actually quite occupied and busy…. There’s a lady who is 80 and told me besides all the activities that I am already participating in, she is also doing taichi and craft and misc games.. Etc… I don’t think she even have time to take afternoon naps like I do…
We were in the captain’s circle party today and they announced that the number one most seasoned traveler on this ship has traveled more than 2300 days in total with Princess… Unbelievable! The couple sitting next to us said this is their 5th world cruise, and they are going to keep doing it since it is very addictive…… Honestly we only showed up at the party for the free drink 🍷
With Captain Cataldi and entertainment director Susan who taught us Zumba also
Heres today’s Sunrise and sunset…. Strange we can see both on our side of the ship today… Turns out in the morning we are going north and in the afternoon we are going south… Trying to loop around the north island of New Zealand going from Auckland to New Plymouth…
