We went to see an old mission and house, followed by a visit to see the Kiwi fruit, which I never knew was the Chinese Gooseberry. Had a tea and then back to the ship, a good tour of the countryside and bought some Kiwi Fruit cough sweets!
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| Kiwi fruit |
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| Volcano from our ship |
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| Tea! |
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| Maori building |
Early morning arrival, as we were too big, we went into the commercial port with a shuttle to the normal cruise terminal. In the morning, we had a coach trip around the town, and visited the ANZAC museum and saw a Maori cultural explanation. In the afternoon, we took the shuttle to have a look around town and to have lunch.
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| Lunch |
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| Museum |
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| Where Bill Clinton had a coffee |
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| Black Swans |
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| QM2 |
Off in the morning with a tender ride to Waitangi, then a boat trip to Russell and around the islands. Bought some wine and T-shirts (and fridge magnet!). Had an excellent meal on the boat.
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| Russell main street |
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| Coffee shop!!! |
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| Wine |
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| Quay |
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| Dawn on arrival |
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| QM2 from tender upper deck |
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| Lunch (Lamb) |
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| Our boat for tour |
We'd been before, so we got a tender to the main port, had a coffee, saw the Ukuleles and other music being played, and bought a T-shirt! Quite hot and sunny, and got back to the ship just in time for a light lunch and do the laundry!
After some discussion, we remembered we'd been here before. Firstly, a coffee and the market, then a wander around town, followed by some local beer and frites, before getting some bottled water and coffee for the machine in the cabin.
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| Dragon in town for Chinese New Year |
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Chinese New Year on board (and the crew pancake race!!)
Between Hawaii and Tahiti, the captain said we should have noticed the bump ...
This was a tender port - we saw some green turtles, ventured up to the rainforest, and finally stopped for a coffee break, where we tasted the local, expensive coffee.
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| Tenders to the shore |
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| UCC Coffee! |
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| Ship from our Coffee stop |
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| Rain Forest walk |
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| Spot the Green Turtle |
We went on different tours this time!:
Helen went off to see Pearl Harbour and a coach tour around Hawaii.
Charles went to the Kamaka Ukulele factory, where he saw them being made on the 10:30 factory tour. He weakened and got a very nice Concert Ukulele (not really a bargain!). He then got on the shuttle and got several pills and potions at the local Target!!! And a Hawaiian shirt with Ukuleles ....
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| Kamaka Ukulele Tour |
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| Arizona |
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| Pearl Harbour |
To make life more like home, here are some Cabin hacks we have ...
A USB-C rechargeable coffee machine, to get a nice cup, Helen uses it for a cold coffee with milk, lots of magnets for the cabin wall, together with an Apple TV with VPN so we can all watch the home TV and news (BBC, ITV etc), and finally a cunning vent cover (with more magnets) to stop the air from blowing on us when sleeping (and always ask the purser to change the filter when you get on!).
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| Coffee machine |
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| Magnets and TV |
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| Air Con night vent cover ... |
Today went to see the co-pilot of the aircraft that went into the Hudson ....
