No tour booked and an early departure trying to figure out what to do – and we found a great tour guide on shore. We just had to do it – just because we could. Rather magical to be honest – and we had to watch Lord of the Rings to see all the hobbit homes and which was which. Just an FYI the first 40 minutes is in the shire – and you can see all the places we have seen and have pictures of – very cool!!
We ended the day with a coffee on the beach and then back to the ship.
I know it is hard to believe but… it happened. It is tough to take but we have to admit it happened. Who would have thought! Ok, Ok, I guess we will have to go on to details after having said that…
To set the stage; we thought some fish and chips would be great to have for a dinner and after a hot day; a good beer would be the perfect addition. We found a nice bay that had a Fish and Chip place with a bar that had beer next door.
Now it might be important to mention that the five of us ordered Fish and Chips and each order was freshly made and wrapped in paper. They actually put all the orders in a box so we could move them a bit better. You can see in the picture a tin can. That is what they call Red Sauce. It was cheaper to buy a “tin” rather than the individual packages. As there were no great tables; we proceeded to the beach to enjoy the beer and the Fish and Chips.
That manager of the bar walked over to us and explained things. What we learned is, the license is for a square foot space and as such doesn’t expand to the beach. Now we could have gone to a store and bought a few beer and then drank them while we had fish and chips, but, buying a beer and taking it out of the bar and drinking it with our fish and chips was not legal. She would lose her license and have a heavy fine if we stayed there. We, of course, had no idea. So we drank the beer at the bar and walked back to the beach and ate the fish and chips.
What a wonderful time of enjoying Auckland. We have seen this city from every angle and what a great place it is. Kudos to Cousin Shelley for being the best tour guide ever!!!
My, these islands are such beautiful places. I am glad we saw them in the order listed above too. Each one is unique and has its own charm in different ways.
The first stop Papeete Tahiti, is a beautiful place and more of a city than we saw during our other stops. We were there on a Sunday so basically everything was closed. But it still was a great day, especially after being at sea for so long. It was nice to walk on land for a few hours and see what things are like there.
Next we went to the Island of Moorea. It is more of a rural island with lots of agriculture there. With some friends we rented a car and drove all the way around the island. These pictures give you an idea of what the island looks like:
The final French Polynesia stop was Bora Bora. We got up about 5:15 am for the approach to Bora Bora. There is only one opening in the reef to get into the island and … well see what you think;
Of course Ace was with us too…
We did a 4×4 tour of the island and what a photogenic place it is;
We only visited for a day but we are sure glad we got to spend the time we had there.
We stopped at this island, well went around it really as there is no real place to even tender in. The locals, most all of whom are descendants of the mutiny, came out in a boat to pick up supplies the ship had brought for them. There are about 60 people that live on the island. There are only 4 family names Christian, Warren, Young & Brown. Pitcairn is the least populous and most remote jurisdiction in the world.
We sailed from south of Lima Peru for 4 days sailing to get to Easter Island; then another 2 and half days to get to Pitcairn Island. It is yet another 2 days sail to get to Tahiti. Remember we are on a cruise ship. Back in the day it was sailing ships. In fact they read to us about the first sighting of the island that is named for the guy that first saw it. They told us that it was something like 15 weeks of sailing after sighting the island before they actually reached it. Ok, now you have an idea of just how remote this island is. After the Mutiny it was 18 years before someone next came to the island. When they did there was one man, 9 women and 23 children living there. Here is a picture of the island;
Botany Bay is just to the right of center and that is where the wreck of the HMS Bounty is.
This is a picture of almost all the locals coming out to our ship to pick up supplies. The second picture is one of them leaving the ship and you can see the pile of supplies we brought them, we paid for the supplies too I might add, well the ship did.
As we cruised around the island enjoying the scenery we almost thought we had gone back in time when we rounded the last corner of the island at Fletcher Christian point. Look at the picture to see why;
It was an amazing day and one of wonder to visit such an historic place.