{"id":6244,"date":"2025-02-03T17:07:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=6244"},"modified":"2025-02-03T17:07:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T22:07:47","slug":"world-cruise-days-42-43-44-tauranga-napier-and-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=6244","title":{"rendered":"World Cruise – Days 42, 43 & 44 Tauranga, Napier and Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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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!<\/p>

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. \u00a0We thoroughly enjoyed the walk around the mount on a gorgeous sunny day with cool temperatures. \u00a0We 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.<\/p>

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. \u00a0The recreation of the downtown was in art deco style creating a vibe that you have to witness to enjoy. \u00a0Arriving at 1PM, we only had 5 hours to tour around Napier which was something we had planned all along. \u00a0We went shopping and touring the art deco buildings and then walked through the Napier museum followed by the parks and gardens along the beach. \u00a0We were welcomed back on board with antique cars parked at the gangway with people dressed in ’30’s costumes. \u00a0Again a glorious day with soft temperatures and sunny skies.<\/p>

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. \u00a0Wellington 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.<\/p>

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.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\"Mt
Mt Maunganui in Tauranga<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Walking
Walking path around Mount Maunganui has unique features <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Seal
Seal resting along the pathway at mount Maunganui<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"The
The stairs that lead to the top of Mt Maunganui in Tauranga<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"a
a beach with a backdrop!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Napier
Napier architecture<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Funky
Funky Kiwi<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"art
art deco of Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"strolling
strolling the streets of Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"art
art deco store front<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Napier
Napier church<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Napier
Napier statue of Pania from Maori mythology<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Walking
Walking along the beachfront<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"water
water wheel in the beachfront garden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"artwork
artwork of Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"flowers
flowers in Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"street
street art of Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"architecture
architecture of Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"old
old fashion cars welcome us back to the ship in Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"old
old fashion cars welcome us back to the ship in Napier<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Historic
Historic cable car over Wellington<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Top
Top of Wellington<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Cable
Cable car museum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"observatory
observatory in Wellington's Botanical gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"a
a proper sundial<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"wellington
wellington botanical garden arbor<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Downhill
Downhill walk to the City in the gardens - a must do<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"staue
staue in Wellington gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"rose
rose garden of Wellington<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"fountain
fountain in rose garden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"Duck
Duck Pond in Wellington<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>
\"view
view of Rose garden in botanical gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230351823,"featured_media":6199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[200,50518550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-world-cruise-24-25"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peuwlC-1CI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1340,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=1340","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":0},"title":"Napier and Rotorua (Tauranga), NZ","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"May 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Our next two stops were up the eastern shore of New Zealand to two very quaint small cities that offer something for everyone to simply enjoy. Napier is within the Hawke's Bay region which is known for Art Deco (think Miami Beach) and Wines. Rotorua\/Tauranga on the other hand is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Australia-New Zealand"","block_context":{"text":"Australia-New Zealand","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=50518551"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/img_0074.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/img_0074.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/img_0074.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/img_0074.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6214,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=6214","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":1},"title":"World Cruise – Day 41 Auckland, Waiheke Island – Our favorite place on earth!","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"February 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Arriving in Auckland we were so excited! We returned to Auckland 1 year later and looked forward to seeing Weiheke Island which we visited on our Australian\/New Zealand cruise last year.We promptly were in group 1 disembarking the ship and headed onto the reserved 45 minute ferry ride to Weiheke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=200"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/boats-auckland.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/boats-auckland.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/boats-auckland.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/boats-auckland.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/boats-auckland.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7240,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=7240","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":2},"title":"World Cruise – Madagascar, it\u2019s not like the movie","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"March 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Day 95 of 138 of our cruise from Fort Lauderdale to London. Today we stopped in Madagascar off the coast of Africa! The big question: would it resemble the animated Disney movie or not? This was the first time a Viking ocean cruises has docked at the port of Nosy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=200"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_5061-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_5061-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_5061-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_5061-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_5061-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8167,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=8167","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":3},"title":"World Cruise – Vigo, Spain!","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"May 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Not far from Porto Portugal, you can get to Vigo, Spain a beautiful city with lots of history. \u00a0Known for being Spain's gateway to the Atlantic, it's history goes back to the romans. \u00a0The port was used as a trading post between the Vikings and Romans. \u00a0Being so important however\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=200"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/img_7242.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/img_7242.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/img_7242.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/img_7242.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2659,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=2659","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":4},"title":"Kirkwall – Orkney Island, Scotland","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"September 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Arrived in Orkney Island at the port of Kirkwall early on a foggy\/misty rainy day in Scotland.\u00a0 It was a brief tender from ship to shore arriving in the heart of Kirkwall a quaint city that is the parliamentary seat of the Orkney Islands and the largest town of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Norway-Scotland"","block_context":{"text":"Norway-Scotland","link":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?cat=50518552"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_8950.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_8950.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_8950.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_8950.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7610,"url":"https:\/\/chasing-sunsets.blog\/?p=7610","url_meta":{"origin":6244,"position":5},"title":"World Cruise – Three days in Namibia…","author":"Jim and Gina Sumislaski","date":"April 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Sailed up the western coast of Africa from Cape Town to the next country north of South Africa Namibia.We arrived in Luderitz early morning on a Sunday and as we expected, the town was quiet with local residents at church and enjoying their day of rest - 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