Cruise/Bay of Islands/Auckland, New Zealand 27th April 2023

On Saturday afternoon we boarded the cruise ship which went surprisingly smoothly.  At no point did it involve queuing and we were in our cabin within twenty minutes of arriving at the terminal.  Our cabin is spacious and comfortable with plenty of storage and a veranda and we have completely unpacked.  We're located on deck 9 with the top deck being 15 (where there's a large lawned area).  We've included a few photos around the ship taken on a port day when most of the passengers were ashore.

Life on board seems to revolve around eating and drinking; food is available from 6 am through to 1 am with many bars open till 1 am.  This is reflected in the size of regular cruisers, of which there are many.

There's a full programme of entertainment each day, most of which doesn't appeal to us but the exception to this was a concert pianist, Van-Anh Nguyen, who performed in the theatre for two consecutive evenings before leaving the ship in Auckland.

We sailed out of Sydney on Saturday evening with great harbour views and we had two full days at sea before arriving on the third morning into Bay of Islands, New Zealand.  Cruise ships are unable to dock at this small harbour so we were tendered in small boats from ship to shore (photo included).  We had all day to explore and took the opportunity to do a walking trail up through the forest to a lookout point where we met an elderly ex-pat couple who had been living in Australia and New Zealand for the last six years.  They were very informative and we spent a pleasant half hour in their company.

Yesterday we docked in Auckland although we took one look at the weather and decided not to go ashore and took full advantage of a quiet ship where we had the fitness centre to ourselves and Sue had the pool to herself.  We did venture outside on the ship to photograph the Sky Tower which was about the only attraction we were interested in, although views from the top wouldn't have been great given the weather.

We set sail again last night and expected to arrive in Tahiti on the 30th April.  We're looking forward to warmer weather as it's been quite chilly since Sydney.