GOLDEN PRINCESS : NEW ZEALAND / TASMANIA
31st January, 2017 to 19th February, 2017
Once more, sailing to New Zealand on the beautiful Golden Princess from Melbourne. This time we went anti-clockwise around New Zealand and visited the ports we'd visited on our two previous occasions.
Sailing in FIORDLAND is always stunning. High mountains and huge waterfalls - best seen while it's raining or after it's rained. It's usually quite cold too.
We docked in Port Chalmers then took the shuttle bus into DUNEDIN where there's a statue of Robert Burns right in the centre of the city. Dunedin has a Scottish influence which we loved, being that we're originally from Scotland.
Our visit to GISBORNE was quite an adventure as we'd booked to go on an excursion to feed stingrays. We were picked up from the ship and proceeded out to a reef area where we were supplied with waders and given instructions on what to do and what not to do.
We were guided out on to the reef where stingrays came up to us and we were able to touch them, being warned not to touch anywhere near their tails where they have barbs. It was an amazing experience. We had to watch for the huge King Fish that came around to share the food but one of our guides helped keep the King Fish as far away as possible for most of the time. King fish are about a metre long and they can bite. Our guide, Michael, showed us marks on his hands from bites when he wasn't quick enough.
AKAROA is a very special place. It's a French inspired little town of around 700 residents. The population rose by around 2500 when our ship arrived, anchored in an extinct volcano! You can just see our ship in the far distance.
Postcard perfect AKAROA
When we docked in AUCKLAND,we took the ferry over to DEVONPORT which is only about a 10 or 15 minute trip across the water from Auckland. We found Devonport to be a lovely little place and we spent a couple of hours there before catching the ferry back.
I took a tour of the galleys on the ship where they had carved fruit and vegetables on display. Such amazing skill. The kitchens are huge and stainless steel from one end to the other.
We visited other ports including TAURANGA and MT MAUNGANUI (both places, one port)....
We took the hop on, hop off bus and visited The Elms Missionary House while there. All very interesting and only $5 entrance.
On arriving back in MELBOURNE on 13th February, we then set sail for Tasmania where we visited PORT ARTHUR and HOBART. Port Arthur, being a penal colony built in the 1800s, is very peaceful and beautiful though I expect convicts transported there from the UK wouldn't have thought of it as beautiful as their treatment wasn't always humane. The buildings are being preserved and it's so worth a visit.
The gardens were built originally so that the officers and military families would have somewhere nice to walk and enjoy as opposed to being in a prison community.
Our next visit was to HOBART where we took an excursion out to Richmond where the bridge was built by convicts in 1823. It's one of the most photographed places in Tasmania. The town of Richmond itself is full of original buildings
On the way back from RICHMOND, we visited a cheese factory. So many different cheeses to choose from.
On the ship, the selection of desserts was out of this world so I'll end with a photo of the display we had to choose from, but who could choose just one?
31st January, 2017 to 19th February, 2017
Once more, sailing to New Zealand on the beautiful Golden Princess from Melbourne. This time we went anti-clockwise around New Zealand and visited the ports we'd visited on our two previous occasions.
Sailing in FIORDLAND is always stunning. High mountains and huge waterfalls - best seen while it's raining or after it's rained. It's usually quite cold too.
We docked in Port Chalmers then took the shuttle bus into DUNEDIN where there's a statue of Robert Burns right in the centre of the city. Dunedin has a Scottish influence which we loved, being that we're originally from Scotland.
Our visit to GISBORNE was quite an adventure as we'd booked to go on an excursion to feed stingrays. We were picked up from the ship and proceeded out to a reef area where we were supplied with waders and given instructions on what to do and what not to do.
We were guided out on to the reef where stingrays came up to us and we were able to touch them, being warned not to touch anywhere near their tails where they have barbs. It was an amazing experience. We had to watch for the huge King Fish that came around to share the food but one of our guides helped keep the King Fish as far away as possible for most of the time. King fish are about a metre long and they can bite. Our guide, Michael, showed us marks on his hands from bites when he wasn't quick enough.
AKAROA is a very special place. It's a French inspired little town of around 700 residents. The population rose by around 2500 when our ship arrived, anchored in an extinct volcano! You can just see our ship in the far distance.
Postcard perfect AKAROA
When we docked in AUCKLAND,we took the ferry over to DEVONPORT which is only about a 10 or 15 minute trip across the water from Auckland. We found Devonport to be a lovely little place and we spent a couple of hours there before catching the ferry back.
I took a tour of the galleys on the ship where they had carved fruit and vegetables on display. Such amazing skill. The kitchens are huge and stainless steel from one end to the other.
We visited other ports including TAURANGA and MT MAUNGANUI (both places, one port)....
We took the hop on, hop off bus and visited The Elms Missionary House while there. All very interesting and only $5 entrance.
On arriving back in MELBOURNE on 13th February, we then set sail for Tasmania where we visited PORT ARTHUR and HOBART. Port Arthur, being a penal colony built in the 1800s, is very peaceful and beautiful though I expect convicts transported there from the UK wouldn't have thought of it as beautiful as their treatment wasn't always humane. The buildings are being preserved and it's so worth a visit.
The gardens were built originally so that the officers and military families would have somewhere nice to walk and enjoy as opposed to being in a prison community.
Our next visit was to HOBART where we took an excursion out to Richmond where the bridge was built by convicts in 1823. It's one of the most photographed places in Tasmania. The town of Richmond itself is full of original buildings
On the way back from RICHMOND, we visited a cheese factory. So many different cheeses to choose from.
On the ship, the selection of desserts was out of this world so I'll end with a photo of the display we had to choose from, but who could choose just one?
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