Australia and Melanesia 2026

     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...

    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...

   Today is the final Sea Day of the cruise travelling in the South Pacific Ocean to New Zealand’s North Island. The temperature was a bit cooler this morning at 23°C, wind east south east at 34 km/hr, 77% humidity and partly cloudy. The course of the ship was southwest 212° at 16 knots. The ship had returned to the Eastern Hemisphere at 9:04 p.m. yesterday evening.    We had breakfast in the dining room shortly after its 8 a.m. opening. Coffee with Robbie was in the World Stage theatre this morning at 9 a.m. Three dancers and two singers were interviewed this morning. The larger venue was required for this popular event. They have seven 45 minute shows that they perform, but only four or five are usually presented on any given cruise.     We started to walk on Deck 3, but the spray from the whitecaps was causing about one third of the starboard (right) side deck near the bow to be quite wet. [There are at least three decks below Deck 1, so we were about 19...