We had two more stops in New Zealand, Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Instead of going around another city, we chose to go and see a glow worm cave from Auckland. It was a really long drive, and we probably wouldn't have picked that excursion again, but we had fun as we always do.
We started out pretty early from the ship.
We arrived at the Waitomo Caves which is on a Maori reserve. We were put in a group and assigned a guide.
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures in the caves. We walked through the large cave systems which had some beautiful formations, and our guide told us all about the history of the place. Then we got all the way down to the river that runs underneath it, which is where the glow worms live. We got in a boat which was "operated" by a man standing on the end who had a stick to push off of things and ropes above to pull us along. He took us in loops around the cave covered with glow worms, which was really cool to look up at.
Eventually we came out of the cave mouth on the river and got out of our boat. Then, we could take some pictures.
We climbed back up through the forest.
Then, it was back on the bus for our lunch stop. Jeff spotted a kiwi sign on the way there. We learned a lot about birds in New Zealand. Since there are no large predators, many of the birds are flightless, including the national bird, the kiwi.
The lunch food was good, but the best part was the beautiful setting. It's a house that the family has set up like an Italian villa. The inside was lovely, but the gardens were even better.
There were flowers everywhere, even on the dessert table.
Jeff and Elena went for a photo walk in the gardens.
Our final stop in New Zealand was the Bay of Islands. We had to take the water shuttle to get there. After our long excursion from Auckland, we decided to take it easy. We took our time in the morning, and eventually hopped on a water shuttle. It's always fun to get a picture of the ship from the smaller boats.
At the dock, there was a shuttle bus that could take you into town, but we opted to walk along the coast, since it wasn't far, and it was an absolutely beautiful day.
We spotted a sting ray in the water as we were crossing a bridge. We tried to get a picture, but it mostly came out looking muddy. Still, we had lots of fun spotting birds and animals. As we got closer to town, we started to notice flags on the path, including a Malaysian one.
Turns out, it's part of a community flag trail, although we're still not entirely sure how each flag was chosen.
We walked around the town and looked in some shops. I hadn't brought the girls' bathing suits, because I thought it would be too cold for swimming, but it warmed up as we went farther north, and Elena was really upset that she didn't have a bathing suit, so our main shopping goal was to find one for her. We got lucky and found a one piece suit with long sleeves that she liked. Then, the girls voted to go back to the ship for pizza lunch.
And Elena finally got to go for a swim in the pool in her new suit.
We did eventually have to fish her out and clean her up though for New Year's dinner.
We had a nice meal together, and then Viv went off to party with her friends. Elena stayed up as late as she could, but it had been a full day in the sun, so she didn't make it to midnight.
We had two days at sea to recover from all our New Zealand adventures. With her new bathing suit, Elena spend a lot of that time in the pool, and Vivian spent as much time as she could with her friends. We did manage to get Elena out of the pool with the promise of afternoon tea, which she loved. Although, when I asked what flavors of tea they had, the waiter replied Lipton, so, not the most sophisticated of afternoon teas, but we had fun with it.
Vivian and I went to a Thomas Kinkade "seminar", which was really a sales pitch, but we enjoyed it anyway. Mostly though, we relaxed, read our books, and enjoyed the water, until it was time to sail into Sydney again. We arrived quite early in the morning, just as the sun was coming up.
Since our flight back to KL was another overnight one, I booked us a full day excursion through the ship. The best part about that, is that they put all your suitcases under the bus and then drop you off at the airport when the tour is done, so you don't have to worry about taxis that are big enough to fit everyone and everything.
I picked the trip to the Blue Mountains with a stop at the Featherdale Wildlife Park, because I knew the girls would love all the Aussie animals. It's a small, privately owned park, and we got there relatively early, so it wasn't too crowded. Our admission came with a cup full of food, and the girls were allowed to hand feed the wallabies, which they thought was fantastic.
There was also the most adorable baby owl wandering around.
Of course our big hams can never resist a photo op.
Vivian continues her ridiculous climb to the sky, so we wanted to compare her to the Australian wildlife. We decided she's about kangaroo height.
And Jeff is off the charts.
There were quite a few koalas, most in their sleepy state.
I loved the little blue penguins, and yes, that is their official name.
The girls loved them too.
But the cuteness winner was the wombat. Elena was enraptured, and insisted on getting a stuffed one at the gift shop, which had the place of honor at her side for the rest of the day's travels.
Our next stop was Echo Point in the blue mountains. It overlooks a valley, and so we took a tram down and a cable car back up. The descent was super steep, so of course the girls loved it.
We got a family picture with the Three Sisters rock formation in the background.
Then, we wandered the paths. It used to be a mining area, so there were informational signs and what we assumed were recreations.
Then, we took the cable car back up.
I guess they've found dinosaur bones in the valley, because they had a dinosaur animatronic outside.
They also had what looked like a fun play area, but they wanted a ridiculous additional amount of money for the girls to play there, so we passed. Still, had to get a photo.
We had a lovely lunch and chatted with the other people on our tour. There were four older couples, all from various parts of the U.S. who were also waiting on a late night flight home, but they were jealous that ours was a direct one.
Jeff and Elena went for a walk out to the point of Echo Point with Walter the Wombat in tow.
Then we got back on the bus and headed to the airport. We had quite a long wait at the airport. The first part was waiting for the AirAsia counter to open, so that we could check our bags. Then, we had enough time for dinner in a restaurant before getting on the plane. We had fun doing some airport "window" shopping. This was one of the more peculiar things we found.
We also found some fun books for Elena by an Australian author, The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths. We got her the first two, and it was the perfect kind of silliness to keep her engaged while waiting for a flight, and then she read a little bit more until finally going to sleep in her mostly flat seat.
Jeff and Viv sat in front of us and allowed me to take one picture before they too went to sleep.
As always, we were happy to be heading home, but it was a wonderful adventure, and we would definitely like to go back to New Zealand sometime if we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment