Tauranga is a typical small New Zealand town. We could walk downtown from our ship. It was basically a four block shopping and restaurant street.

written by  rcodel on February 10, 2011 from Tauranga, New Zealand
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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The ship was docked in downtown Auckland for two days. We had arranged in advance to meet our friends, Judy and Barry, whom we had met on our Yangtze River cruise many years ago. They picked us up at the ship and drove us to their "batch", or Summer cottage in Whangamata, about a two hour drive southeast of Auckalnd. The drive took us through the mountains and we saw beautiful scenery. We spent the night in Whangamata and basically had a delightful time together. This is an experience we will not forget.

When we returned to the ship we learned that we have a new grandson. Congratulations to Liz and Adrian.

written by  rcodel on February 9, 2011 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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The Bay of Islands is a beautiful spot in northern New Zeland. It is a large bay with over 100 islands, some inhabited and others uninhabited. We came here by car many years ago and stayed in a delightful motel for several days.

Tonga is a small, flat, poor and very hot island. However, the color of the water is amazing.

This is us on a formal night during cocktail hour prior to dinner. Does anyone recognize the dress I am wearing? Where have you seen it before? This is a test.

Neptune

On January 25 we crossed the equator. To celebrate the crossing we had a special party by the pool where Neptune made the polywogs become shellbacks. Terry Waite was Neptune again. He gave lectures about his negotiations with freeing hostages from the kidnap takers with a more modern emphasis than his last lectures which concentrated on when he was held captive for five years. We have had a lot of fun and laughs with him onboard and one day he invited us to have lunch with him.

Moorea is a very mountainous island with beautiful jagged peaks. It is mostly uninhabited. We think it is the most beautiful island we have seen in the world, and, as you know, have have seen many.

On the windward side of the island where Honolulu is they get 25" of rain annually, whereas the leeward side gets 140" per year. This phenomenon is typical of all the Hawaiian islands.

Royal Palace event

After five days at sea during which time we attended lectures, walked, had fun, we realized that there were many "old" frineds and a lot of crew and officers whom we already knew from the previous world cruise. They made us feel very much at home.

We made our first landfall in Hilo, Hawaii, It is a beautiful, lush island on the island of Hawaii, otherwise known as the "big island".

In Hilo we visited a macademia nut farm, toured a lovely botanical gardfen in a little train and