Australia & New Zealand

After two weeks on the ship we were both excited and sad to leave. Here are a few observations from our ship. Traveling with such a large contingency of like-minded friends guarantees you'll always have something to do with somebody at any give time of day. This ship is large, but there's not a lot to do. I guess after living in Trilogy, we're used to more activities and less sitting around. The weather has been colder than expected so there's not as much pool time as we had hoped. Food is everywhere. I try and steer clear of the junk food, but still, I have a lot of work to do when I get home to get back in shape. There are no more midnight buffets, but they have been replaced by sushi and pizza restaurants, with sunday bars and specialty coffee shops. The two great restaurants cost extra, but they're totally worth it every five days or so. There's a gym, but I only managed a handful of classes. I played a few games of pickleball but the wind made it pretty difficult. With the passing of time we all became so much closer. We had so many laughs, we helped each other when someone needed a hand, and when we were off the ship we had a pack to hang with. Jamie always knew where the museums were, Lori and Paul could always find a local pub, Valerie could always get someone to play her song (Valerie) so she could dance, you could count on Marci being at the spa or drinking great wines with Colleen and Frank. Sandi, Ilyce and Jonica played majong most afternoons, Rich and Sunny were always up for an adventure, Terry always new the best places to eat, and the highly rated sights to see in each city, and everyone got along so well! Life on board a ship for two weeks can be a little tough at times, but honestly, with this crew, it's truly been a pleasure.

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, and it has many people and really spread out. We decided to drop off our many bags and we quickly jumped on the hop on, hop off bus. Funny, but even in this large city we managed to find a group of our friends--eating of course! Thank you What's App!

This city was pretty much like any other large port city. Auckland has the largest port in New Zealand and it was quite busy. After one trip around this lovely city we jumped off the bus and headed to the hotel to check in. We decided to leave all our big luggage in storage at the hotel because we heard Air New Zealand is quite strict about weight.

We walked around the port and met most of our group at a unique and devine Italian restaurant for dinner called Baduzzi. It was a Saturday night, things were hopping and we were exhausted. A lot of our group planned to leave for Queenstown in the morning so that left James and I, and Howard and Marci to hang out Sunday. We met for Sunday brunch and then we set out shopping to find some warmer clothes. We were on a mission and when the rain came, we were ready!Read more