Going to cover the last 3 days of 5 back-to-back stops here in New Zealand which was a repeat of three stops we did this last year – except this time, we wanted to capture some of the things we did not do last year!
Tauranga which is about a 2 hour drive south of Auckland is a beautiful beach town in the area called the Bay of Plenty with an ancient volcano (Mount Maunganui) at the tip of the beach that you can walk up and around. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk around the mount on a gorgeous sunny day with cool temperatures. We ended the day with a nice stroll around town, some shopping for family gifts and then back on the ship we caught an open washing machines to catch up on laundry.
The 43rd day of our 138 day journey was in Napier – heart of Hawke’s Bay wine country and a town which in 1931 suffered a devastating earthquake. The recreation of the downtown was in art deco style creating a vibe that you have to witness to enjoy. Arriving at 1PM, we only had 5 hours to tour around Napier which was something we had planned all along. We went shopping and touring the art deco buildings and then walked through the Napier museum followed by the parks and gardens along the beach. We were welcomed back on board with antique cars parked at the gangway with people dressed in ’30’s costumes. Again a glorious day with soft temperatures and sunny skies.
Day 44 was our last day in New Zealand, in Wellington NZ, the capital of New Zealand located at the most southern end of New Zealand’s north island. Wellington is “windy” but also the southern most capital city in the world (yes trivia does teach you stuff like that). Last time we went to Weta Workshop to see where the production studios for movies such as Lord of the rings and the Hobbit were made – this year we wanted to see the Botanical Gardens which includes taking a historic cable car ride to the top of the hill. the stroll down the top of the hill through the gardens was wonderful experience with beautiful sites around every corner.
In summary our suggestion for any visitor – in Tauranga, hike the mountain. In Napier, stroll the downtown and in Wellington take the cable car to walk downhill through the botanical gardens.
