Cruising New Zealand

After a week in Sydney, we boarded the Norwegian Jewel heading for New Zealand. As we left the port, the views of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge were unbeatable.

We chatted with people from NZ, AUS & Canada as the view of all land disappeared. We selected the itinerary and a balcony cabin so we could watch as we sailed through the various fjords, which are supposed to be glorious. Well, that was the idea. On the morning of Day 2, due to expected high winds and high seas, the captain decided to forgo the trip through the fjords and skip Dunedin entirely. Needless to say, while we understood, we were very disappointed.

The At Sea days were fun enough with the usual cruise food, entertainment and well, lots of drinks. We socialized and even met a few Wisconsinites, including the ship’s General Manager who is from Okauchee of all places. He graciously sent a plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine to our room.

On Day 3 about 1,000 miles out of Sydney, we woke up to most bizarre yellow/orange cloudy sky and that was all we could see in any direction. Very Twilight Zone. This was smoke from the devastating Australia fires. None of the crew had ever seen skies like this. If this is what the air is like 1,000 miles away, imagine how it must be in the impacted communities? The picture below was taken around noon. Notice the deck lights are still on.

On Day 4, the ship altered its course to Wellington, which was an unplanned stop. We did use the time to stop into a travel office and booked train tickets from Picton to Christchurch and a round trip flight from Christchurch to Queenstown in late January in order to see the sights we missed. We really want to see much more of the South Island and the sounds. We knew that we’d be making plan changes on the fly, but didn’t expect it to happen quite so soon on our trip.

Our second port was Akaora, near Christchurch. Akaora is a quaint port town that reminded us of Door County, except with mountains. We did not have a scheduled excursion, but found a deal for a ride around town and up into the hills and countryside on a 5-seat V8 Trike. We powered up one mountain, back to the town and up another mountain. It was blast. Cold, but fun.

Next up was Picton, which is yet another quaint port town. This place reminded us of Williams Bay, except with mountains. We took an hour hike up the nearest hillside and took in the views. New Zealand is exceptionally scenic. Day 8 was a stop in Napier, which is yet another quaint port town. No mountains this time. Napier was devastated in the 1920s by an earthquake and was extensively rebuilt in Art Deco style soon afterward. Reportedly, it’s the largest concentration of Art Deco architecture outside of Miami. The locals dress in period costume and have dozens of Model A and similar cars and offer rides around town.

The highlight of our stops was Turanga. We took a tour bus excursion to the actual Hobbiton/Shire movie set where the outdoor scenes for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies were filmed. There were 44 Hobbit holes and unbelievable details throughout. The property is in the middle of nowhere, still owned by the original family, and is a working farm. The family and the movies’ producer collaborated to maintain the set and turn it into a tourist attraction. Busses with 40 people leave every 10 minutes for 2-hour guided tours. Evidently this happens every day but Christmas. At $56 a piece, can you say cha-ching? Regardless, it was super cool.

We took a lot more pictures. Here are a few we liked the best. Click on an image to see a larger view.

We had one final stop at the northern tip of the north island, known as the Bay of Islands before arriving in Auckland on January 13.

The highlight of our 3-day stay in Auckland was Steve’s birthday dinner in the revolving restaurant of the Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. The dinner was good and the views were spectacular. While Auckland’s architecture is mostly unremarkable, the skyline is impressive, especially after dark.

For about $200, you can jump off the 600+ foot high tower platform, or walk around the outside ledge while tethered. Why would anyone do that, much less pay to do it? Needless to say….we didn’t.