Sydney, Australia – February 29

Partly cloudy, 25 degrees

Morning at sea as we sail into Sydney’s harbour in the late morning/early afternoon. We actually went to one of the restaurants for breakfast and ate outside…it was glorious.

our fist sights of the bridge and opera house

We spent some time this morning organizing a change in room. We’ve decided to use some of the refund we are getting as a result of the change in itinerary to upgrade rooms. It took a lot of deliberation and we took the plunge. The room we are currently in suits us just fine, but we could use a bigger balcony. The room we decided to move to has a much, much larger balcony. Our current

opera house

balcony is 48 square feet and the one we are moving to is 270 square feet! A balcony is almost if not THE most important thing about room for us. We spend A LOT of time on our

close up of the Opera house roof

balcony. On sea days we typically

Bondi Beach

spend much of the day out there and considering that we have a lot of sea days in our future, we decided to go for it. The location of this balcony is key too…off the back of the ship. We’ve had rooms off of the back of the ship before and I have LOVED them. So…I hope to love this one too!

Tomorrow morning, we will go on our tour, and return to a new room. The ship will arrange to have our things

surfers

moved for us. If this really happens (I’m sure it will, but I really can’t believe it) I will be amazed. I’ve heard the ship will do this, but wow!

Experiencing Sydney started before we stepped foot on shore. The sail into Sydney Harbour was pretty spectacular. The main thing to see of course was the Harbour bridge and the opera house.

one of Sydney's rough sides

Today’s tour started at the Sydney’s opera house. The tour there was very slick with a very knowledgeable guide. We didn’t really get into anywhere not available to the public,

more of the rugged side

but we did get into one of the theatres and get lots of info from the guide.

just a cool shot

The next stop we made was at the famous Bondi beach. The waves here were big, there were tons of surfers and even more people just hanging on the beach. There were also a bunch of restaurants, café
s and bars. We could have used more time here…we walked down the beach, got our feet wet, but

sailing into Sydney

didn’t have time for a beer sadly.

Opera house

We realized today that although this is a leap year, because of crossing the international date line, we still only lived through 28 days in February!

stalking the room!

AT SEA, Cruising The Tasman Sea – February 28

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Clear, 22 degrees

A sea day today was a lot less eventful than yesterday. Today is the second last night of this segment which means…Krew Kapers! We saw the crew show at the end of the first segment, but skipped the crew

show last segment. This is the end

decorated room

of our third (of 5) segment. We decided to go to the show tonight and it didn’t disappoint. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how impressive it is for the ship’s kitchen, housekeeping, maintenance staff to perform.

Today also happened to be Chris’ birthday…this was his second

the whole crew

birthday aboard a Regent ship. His big day was noted on the TV and by

Philippine fan dance 

our room stewards decorating the room for him. When we returned

Shake That Cruise Thing!

from lunch our door was ajar, we thought it had been left that way inadvertently…nope, we interrupted

Gorgio, makes a mean drink!

the decorating…very nice.
We ate dinner tonight with 2 of the ship’s security officers – one guy from India and the other from Ukraine. It’s always interesting to chat with staff, hearing about their lives, their job etc. We didn’t actually talk much about their jobs, but traded stories about our lives. After dinner Chris and I kept saying to each other why didn’t we ask this, or why didn’t we ask that…oh, well…we enjoyed ourselves just the same, but like to get some behind the scenes info about the ship.

BTW…as of yesterday we have been abord for 52 day and have travelled 14000 nautical miles!

Last night was another sailing the Tasman sea…some rocking and rolling, but didn’t feel too much.

AT SEA, Cruising The Tasman Sea – February 27

a bit too cool at the pool

Clear, 20 degrees, very windy

The Tasman sea (between New Zealand and Australia) is notoriously rough – or so I’ve heard. I’ve read about this, and have also heard it onboard, but so far things are OK. With one more day tomorrow before we reach Australia, we’ll see. In all of the days we’ve sailed, we’ve never experienced what I’d call terrible conditions. We’ve had rough seas over the years – swells of up to 3 metres, but we totally coped with that. With swells like that the ship certainly pitches and rolls, the pool is closed, and you need ‘one hand for the ship’, but nothing that even seems unusual. I know I should be careful what I wish for, but…

It was very windy today, so windy that balcony time was out of the question and the Japanese mojitos we had while we ‘cooled by the pool’ came without straws (paper of course) because they would have ‘just blown away’ – fine with me…I hardly need a straw!

The event of the day was selecting tours for our new Australian ports. We have 11 new ports to choose excursions for. We were told that the gong show that was choosing new tours for Fiji was ‘not the Regent way’ and that that wouldn’t happen again – guess what…it happened again. In the end, we got almost every tour we wanted, but that to me isn’t the point. Those of us who paid the least for their cruises, regardless of perk status, were given the last possible choice. This wasn’t explained to us, but it isn’t hard to figure out. When we hear from people who had the opportunity to choose their tours hours before us and they are in higher status rooms…that makes things seem a bit shady.

Anyway…I would agree that this isn’t the Regent way, but it seems like it is starting to be. Honestly, I don’t think I even care what I see in Australia…it will all be good, but I hate lines at the best of times and when there seem like there could have been a thousand better ways to deal it’s annoying.

Wellington, New Zealand – February 26

harbour lighthouses

Mostly clear, 22 degrees, delightful

Today’s tour was titled: “Wellington Harbour and the Storm Coast” – I’d say it should have included a mention of the sheep farm we visited, that was a highlight! The description mentioned the visit, but it was so interesting, that it deserved title billing.

Wellington’s harbour is natural and is very beautiful. Today was clear enough that we could just make out New Zealand’s south island – according to our guide, this isn’t common. We of course were docked in the harbour, but our side of the boat faced a busy road, the rugby stadium and a holding pen for many brand new cars waiting for shipping…oh, and don’t forget the many, many LOGS still waiting for

dog at work

China. I wanted to have breakfast out there – the weather was perfect, but as I wouldn’t want to have breakfast overlooking Deerfoot Trail at home, I passed on a similar situation here.

The tour had us hugging

everywhere along the beach

Wellington’s harbour, which was fine with me – it was beautiful and very interesting. The coastal road we drove along was paved…just. The area was controlled to the extent

wind groomed shrubs

that our bus driver had to punch in a code to open a gate to get us through. I’m not sure what would happen if a car wanted to go through – maybe you apply for a permit?? There were some walkers and cyclists, but very few other vehicles.

On one side of the narrow road was a steep hill covered with trees, brush and dotted with the occasional wild goat. On the other side was the harbour – the beach was rocky with lots of shells and driftwood.

Our destination was Pencarrow Lodge and sheep farm. Here we had ‘morning tea’ and a sheep herding (what is called mustering) demonstration. It is crazy how the sheep whether being herded or not, flock together. The sheep dog demonstration was impressive.

breakfast view...no thanks :)

On the was back we stopped for some photos on the beach – didn’t do too much walking here, the beach was too rocky for my shoes to cope with.

spoiled for choice

Gas in New Zealand is more expensive than at home…a litre for about 1.70 Canadian.

same lighthouses from the ship

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Napier, New Zealand – February 25

NZ loves tugs more than any other country it seems!

Overcast, 21 degrees

Today, we are back to the PM tours, so what to say about the morning…oh, I know…our toilets aren’t working…AGAIN! When some people had to wait in a very long line for tours in Fiji, we heard from management that that is not the ‘Regent standard’, ah…I don’t think this is the Regent standard…or

first of 2 vineyard visits

maybe it is?? Of course, if you think about it (I don’t recommend thinking about it for long) the only way you know the toilet isn’t working is to USE the toilet! I don’t know about your family, but MY family has a particular bathroom morning routine, different from other parts of the day…this coupled with the failing of the toilet system and it wasn’t pretty!

Well…what to do when you want to be out of the room without a toilet…go to the gym… while I was out, I was able to find a working toilet. An hour later, back at the room for breakfast blogging - still no toilet. Sooner or later I was going to have to take a shower. I had bolted to the

wine sampling

gym without washing my face or brushing my teeth…I know…gross, but you know what’s more ewww? I won’t even say. Finally, I had to

grapes

hold my breath and take a shower.

About a half an hour later (at least 2 hours after we realized the toilet was on the fritz) and just as I was about to venture out to use the facilities elsewhere, WOOSH! Never a

bird proofing the grapes

more delightful sound was heard! We danced a little jig! We tried the flush again…woosh!

I’d been looking forward to today’s tour since we booked it months ago.

welcome to Napier 

We were visiting a couple of New Zealand’s vineyards. I’ve been known to consume my fair share of New Zealand wine, so I was happy to be visiting the land from where these wines came.

I was a bit underwhelmed. The visits were OK, the

Mission winery

wines were good, but all in all, meh. Over our travels, we’ve visited many a winery and these unfortunately were a couple of the least impressive visits.

Along the way to and from the wineries we saw much of the landscape and heard more information about New Zealand – this was interesting. Our bus broke down along the way and had to wait for another smaller bus…not ideal,

logs waiting to head to China

but no big deal…not our first bus

art deco McDonald's

SNAFU, probably won’t be the last.
BTW, a major export of this area of New Zealand is raw logs, much of them to China. Because of the Corona virus situation, no logs are going…they are piling up.
A significant number of Napier’s downtown buildings was in the art deco style as are a few other

"the wheels on the bus..."

buildings in the outer areas. There is a McDonald’s in an art deco

huge, old dead tree made in to a carving

building!

Tauranga, New Zealand – February 24

Taruanga Harbour

A few clouds, 22 degrees, warm in

Maori carving, like the rugby haka

the sun

Although today’s tour was an AM one, it didn’t leave until 9:30, so I was able to get a walk in on the top deck. The temperature while I was walking was brisk…

mission house bedroom surrounded by weapons

maybe 14

degrees. I was for the most part alone up there - peaceful!

another mission bedroom

Our tour was initially including a visit to a winery and a tasting – we new this had been pulled from the tour (not sure why) but we decided to go anyway. We saw a good deal of the city and surrounding towns, went to a lookout of Taruanga Harbour, and ended up at Elms Mission House. The mission house is one of the oldest buildings in New Zealand,

mission building

dating back to the mid 1800s. This is where the fist Europeans from England arrived as missionaries. We were broken into groups of about 8 and taken around the grounds and gardens by a guide. This place was very much like a small-scale Heritage Park from 30 years ago. Probably the most

New Zealand beer

interesting part of the visit was the gardens where the guide pointed out and described the many (some super huge) trees on the property.

We were back in time for lunch on the boat, a local beer at the pool, blogging on the deck (the weather was just about perfect with just the right amount of shade), Chris listening to the Flames’ game, and a nap.

One thing we’ve noticed about New Zealand is the lack of security. We

welcome to Tauranga!

went into a museum yesterday with no bag check, no metal detector…nothing. Back onto the boat and our ship cards and id were checked, but no bag check or metal detector.

Auckland, New Zealand – February 23

rose garden

Partly cloudy, rained once, 22 degrees, windy

Overnighting in Auckland made it easy to walk off the ship this morning whenever we pleased. We had a tour booked for 8:45, so it wasn’t exactly whenever we pleased. This tour was arranged with our travel agent from home who is part of a travel group.

rose garden

The Virtuoso travel group excursion today only had 20 people in a large coach bus, so we had plenty of room to spread out. Our morning was spent driving through the city, seeing different parts of Auckland from what we saw yesterday. We got off the bus at one point to wander around a rose garden, and at another to see a war memorial. All the while we were with a great guide who gave us lots of info.

Other Auckland sights we saw was the ‘most expensive residential street in Auckland.’ Different from yesterday, we didn’t hear how much these properties are worth – they are larger than yesterday’s expensive homes, but who knows as far as value goes. Yesterday’s averaged 2 million (NZ money is worth a bit less than Canadian), so these must be more than that.

memorial

Our final stop of the morning was to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. This was an impressive place. It originally was a mar memorial, which is still is today, but there are now additional exhibits of New Zealand’s history – particularly Maori history. We learned that the first people to arrive on this last were from Polynesia in about the year 1250 – that surprised me a but, I would have thought people were

stained glass ceiling at museum

here a lot longer ago, somewhat like the first people in North America. I can’t imagine how long it too these people to get here that long ago…it took us a while.

Maori artifact

Our group of 20 broke into 3 smaller groups to tour the museum with a guide for about 90 minutes. Our guide described some of New Zealand’s endemic animals, things about New Zealand’s first people and some things about New Zealand’s participation in wars. Our guide told us some tours are full days just to the museum – I could see that. It would have been nice to have some time for a snack and a coffee here…the

watching cricket

museum café looked like one of the nicest we’ve ever seen.

As we waited for everyone to return to the bus after the museum, we watched some cricket in the field next to the museum – certainly nothing we see at home.

Lunch was at a historical building right downtown at the pier – easy to get back to the ship. There were 3 courses accompanied by New Zealand bubbly and wine. I started with a ‘hot and cold’ seafood plater. The main and dessert were both

lunch menu

delicious, but not worth mentioning after I describe the sushi. I eat sushi but wouldn’t say I was a sushi lover or aficionado. Before today, I’d say I could take or leave it…wow, I think I’ve never actually had good sushi. I could have just kept eating this stuff and never minded with the read of the meal. The most interesting part was the way the soy sauce came…in a dropper!

eye dropper soy sauce!

We also learned that there are no snakes, venomous spiders or much else for wildlife that would be of any concern. Besides that,

Maori boat

and although I’ve only been in New Zealand for 2 days, I really like it here – it is a place I could certainly come back to.

This bus also had Wi-Fi! One other bus in central America had Wi-Fi, but it is not common. When it is, it is very convenient. We’ve chosen not to rent a portable Wi-Fi device this trip and although Chris has a cell plan…I don’t, I find I don’t need it at all, can get it in bars or restaurants and if I encounter an actual emergency I can turn my cell on. For the extra money it would cost me, I don’t think it is worth it.

outside museum

After lunch we did some shopping…good thing Lululemon has multiple sizes! Prices were about the same as Canada.