Friday, Oct 18: One
more sea day until Auckland. At least 1/3 of the ship is disembarking at this
port and new passengers will be boarding to take their place. Tonight we had a
Captain's Farewell Party for those disembarking.
The Captain
Saturday, Oct 19: New
Zealand Ship Excursion. Waiheke Island & Wineries is our 5-hour tour for
today. This tour was a nice introduction to this charming island. We woke to
sprinkles, then sun, then wind, then sprinkles and sun again - So one can see the
weather changes quickly around here. It was a quick walk from the ship to the
ferry pier, the ride to Waiheki Island was about 40 minutes. Waiheki is a blend
of farmland, low and sort of tropical forests, sandy beaches, vineyards, olive
groves, and quaint little villages. About 8K people live on Waiheki. Our first
stop was at Onetangi Beach and a little café called Charlie Farley's, where we
consumed a scrumptious, warm-from-the-oven scones and tasty tea. By now the sun
was out and we had such lovely views of the beach. From this stop we head on to
one of two wineries for wine tasting. The first was Stoneyridge. We had two
tastes and neither were impressive. They also sell olive oil and we had a taste
of that as well. A brief walk through the olive orchard and small vineyard
completed the tour. Next was Batch or Bach (both pronounced the same) and these
wines were very appealing. I will add these wineries are quite small, 17 and 11
acres respectively. We made it back with a few minutes to get on the ferry and
the harbor in Auckland. We briefly explored the Historic Ferry Building, which
now houses restaurants. The number of stairs and the bus steps did me in today
for some reason. We relaxed the rest of the day but very much enjoyed departing
port with interesting views and antics from one particular tug boat.
The Captain announced
today that the Napier stop Oct 21, and cruising of the Marlborough Sound on Oct
22, due to inclement weather in the Tasman Sea. We were to go south of New
Zealand and then to Sydney but now we will go north of New Zealand to Sydney,
those plans have been thwarted. We will
have an alternative tendered port stop at Bay of Islands. They are working up
possible tours for the ship and we will be alerted to these soon. We are told
we will still have some rough, but not perilous, seas when we cross the Tasman
Sea to Sydney, north we will avoid the worst of it. It is disappointing we will
miss cruising between the two main islands that
from New Zealand.
Onetangi Beach,
Waiheki Island
Leaving Auckland
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