Thursday, March 06, 2008 Today we were in Noumea, New Caledonia. We docked about 7:00am and it did take awhile for the ship to be cleared by immigration. We had not chosen a shore excursion as we had at one time thought about doing a scuba dive trip. When I got burned on my leg I knew I did not want to put it in salt water and it is a good thing we decided not to go because the weather was overcast, with just a few sprinkles. The weather had been overcast here for about 3 weeks - they said they had horrible weather - and so the water was probably pretty cloudy, so visibility would be low. We got off the ship and wandered around the town but we had wanted to go ... read more

Tuesday, 4 March 2008 Today was our first sea day and what a busy day! People wonder what to do while the ship is at sea and the question really is what do you not put on your schedule. First on our schedule was to listen to one of the cruise consultant folks talk about the shore excursions for the rest of our trip. Some of the stops should be pretty interesting since Holland America has never been there before or if they have they have not offered any tours because the tour operators could not provide all the requirements like the right amount of insurance. They said to expect rough conditions like dirt roads (I didn’t know that was considered “rough” conditions, I thought that was just normal) and buses that are just school buses, ... read more

Sunday, March 02, 2008 Today was a pretty quiet day. We were in Tauranga, NZ and all of the tours were to go to the same places or do the same thing we had done while in Auckland so we did not book and tours for here. The weather was rainy and windy so it was not a day for doing a lot of walking around. Some folks were having trouble even going down the gangway because of the wind and the flags were standing straight out. We thought it would be a good day to just catch up on some sleep and do some reading. So that is what we did - not much of anything. But the ship was actually pretty crowded so apparently a lot of people had the same idea that we ... read more

Friday, 29 February “Countryside and Gannet Colony Tour.” The bus driver today was Jim, he was very friendly and had just the right amount of information for us - didn’t overload us with insignificant facts or opinions. We started by going to the west coast of Auckland to Kumeu and Huapai - these are farming and wine growing areas. It was a beautiful ride to the coast. Jim told us about people that work in downtown Auckland as typically investment folks, etc, that bought land known as “lifestyle blocks” out in the rural areas surrounding Auckland. This meant that they would buy about 10 acres of land and maybe have some head of sheep or dairy cows so they could feel like they were really roughing it. These people move out to the rural areas and ... read more

Wednesday, February 27th. We arrived in Auckland, NZ this morning at 6:00am (New Zealand time) after a 12-hour flight from Los Angeles. The flight was on Qantas Airlines and was generally a smooth flight the entire way. Each seat had the individual TV screens so it allowed a great deal of selection of entertainment. We were fortunate and had a row of three seats for the two of us and that was great for sleeping (okay, at least for Erin, not Dennis). Upon arrival at the airport we were met by a wonderful man, Dea, who guided us through immigration, to get my wheelchair and find our luggage (okay 3 of the 4 pieces have arrived so far), to baggage services, customs and to the tour guide area. It is a small airport but when several ... read more