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February 1, 2026 Auckland, New Zealand

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   Today was a long day. Our flight to Vancouver departed Auckland airport at 8:30 p.m. (= Vancouver time on Jan. 31 11:30 p.m.; a 21 hour time difference) on time. We crossed four time zones as we flew over the Pacific Ocean.     In all, for the 42 days cruise, we had one excursion cancelled and notified in October; the Conflict Islands stop was cancelled in December, but we had the excursion refunded on the ship; both Phillip Island and Kangaroo Island in the first 14 days were cancelled excursions which were refunded. The next 14 days no excursions affected but the Townsville port was cancelled and an extra day in Cairns due to a future cancelled port. The final 14 days had two ports cancelled but we had excursions planned for them which were refunded. Our final bill was a refundable credit of over $1,100 USD. We received a complimentary dinner for two at the Canaletto specialty restaurant for our 90 minutes bobbing in a tender boat in the storm. Plus there was a ...
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January 31, 2026 Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

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     This morning the sky was full of fluffy greyish clouds at 7 a.m. as the ship maneuvered to the dock. The temperature was 18°C, wind north north east 9 km and humidity 93%.     We went to the dining room for breakfast as there was no rush to get tour stickers. We planned to walk to the Classic Flying Aviation Museum. We stopped at the Library Café to give a Thank You card to Jane and left Thank You cards for Slam and Nova, our room stewards, in the stateroom.     Our planned excursion in Tauranga looked interesting, but was cancelled on January 25th. The excursion was to the hiking trails that were damaged on January 22nd when a landslide at the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park   campsite engulfed and killed six people. The whole park is still closed and the flags in Tauranga are flying at half-mast.       Tauranga is located on the Bay of Plenty, known in Maori as Te Moana-a-Toi, is home to New Zealand's only activ...
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January 30, 2026 Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

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    Waitangi, New Zealand is on the Bay of Islands on the North Island. In the Māori language New Zealand is called Aotearoa (pronounced ow-tear-roh-ah) in the te reo Māori commonly translated to “long white cloud” or “long bright world”.      The ship was anchored in Bay of Islands just after 7 a.m. and prepared to lower the tender boats for transporting passengers 20 minutes to shore. We ate breakfast in the dining room then proceeded to the World Stage theatre to await our tour. Even though the tender boats for people without tours were filling there was a delay of more than half an hour for the 15 tours waiting to leave the theatre. Finally our tour number was called and we followed the group down to Deck B where the tender was waiting at the platform. The tender ride to Waitangi was less than 20 minutes on calm waters. We were directed to two minivans and were on our way just after 10 a.m.        It was a 20 minute drive to the car ferry...
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