This is the first Silversea cruise we have been able to do for two years thanks to the pandemic. However now we have flown to Venice and after a long tedious embarkation procedure have finally boarded Silver Dawn. So good to be back in a suite on the ship and to meet our butler. Sadly the crew are all wearing masks and we have to wear them on the tour buses and tenders but a lot of people have had enough and are not bothering. After all we couldn't get on the ship unless we had been vaccinated and had a negative test. Great to get to the pool bar for that first drink and then a lovely dinner as we sailed away over to Croatia. The first day we were moored in Split which is ... read more

Auckland is a large busy city. They have finally decided to put an underground metro in so there are road works all over the place which are going to take several years to complete. It has a large Asian community as well as Maori so there are lots of take away cafes catering for these people. For the first time we also saw several homeless on the streets. However down on the Marina , once you have negotiated the road works there are some great restaurants. We had tried Oyster & Chop so the next night went to Soul and had great oysters and crab linguini. On our last day we decided to go up the Sky Tower. It costs about 20$ each just to go to the viewing platform. A far better deal is to ... read more

It was very sad to leave the ship in Auckland and know that no passengers were going to be boarding and the majority of the crew would be sent home because of this coronavirus. We were the last cruise ship allowed into New Zealand before the total ban. We checked into the Hotel Grand Windsor on Queens St, which is a lovely hotel on one of the busiest streets in the city close to all amenities. Our first trip out was to the Art Gallery, which has a nice small section of International Art but is mostly New Zealand Art. We both love aboriginal art but I am afraid that Maori Art doesn't do anything for us. We fancied a Chinese meal for lunch as Auckland has a very large Asian population. We made the mistake ... read more

This was probably a pretty city prior to the quake, but there is now sadly lots of areas which time and money have not allowed to be rebuilt. It is happening slowly but there are lots of car parking places which are essentially where buildings were and still have not been redeveloped since the devastating earthquake of 2011. Both the Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals were severely damaged and still have not been rebuilt. The Anglican Cathedral has suffered from too much political interference which has cost money and delayed whatever the plans are. The Catholic rebuild has been thwarted by the Church buying a plot of land which has now been colonised by rare birds so they are not allowed to build on it! Regent street, which is a pretty street of shops with balconied buildings ... read more

For the first time since we left Sydney we had a sunny day though still rather cold and windy. We sailed into Milford Sound on a calm water with no fog , which is a bonus from stories we heard from others. The ship slowly glided through the Sound, stopped a while and majestically turned around and glided out again to sea, while we all took millions of photos. Only a few are on this blog you will be grateful to hear!. Further along the coast we sailed into Doubtful Sound, not quite as pretty but still majestic with all its trees. Finally after another sail along the coast we did the same thing into Dusky Sound. At this point the only sound that Stefan knew about was sound asleep! It was a very pleasant day ... read more