Auckland, New Zealand - November 11, 2023

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand with a population of about 1.6 million people. None of the excursions really caught our interest for this stop, so we decided to get off the ship and take a ride on the hop on - hop off bus tour. The ship docks at a port pretty much in the heart of the downtown, so we were able to do the bus tour and wander around on our own.

As we looked out of our balcony door in the morning, we were surprised to be looking onto the patios of apartment/condos right next to the pier. I overheard a woman as we were walking back to the ship telling someone that they had rented a place in those apartments for the week, and were quite surprised to wake up and see a huge ship outside their patio door.

We were also able to see the Auckland Sky Tower and downtown from the ship.

We got a closer look at the Sky Tower on the bus tour. It is the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere rising to a height of 1,076 feet. The second picture shows people on the platform near the top getting ready jump off the tower. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can see the ropes hanging down.

Auckland has more boats per capita than anywhere else in the world. It is referred to as the City of Sails. The city hosted the America's Cup sailing regatta in 2000 and 2003.

The bus took us to Mount Maungawhau or Mount Eden. (Eden is our granddaughter's name, so I had to take a picture of the sign). It's the highest point in the city. There were hiking trails, but it was quite a warm day so we didn't hike up to see the views. The picture of the mountain is from the web.

Another stop on the tour was Bastion Point Lookout. More beautiful views. This is a significant place in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Maori against forced land alienation by European settlers. The 506 day protest led to the New Zealand government returning many lands that had been taken from the Maori people.

Auckland has an iconic war museum as well as a zoo and numerous art museums and galleries. We just weren't in the mood for more museums on our visit. 

The silver fern is an iconic symbol of New Zealand seen on flags and merchandise all over the country. It dates back to the late 1800s when it was accepted as a symbol for the country. Here it is on an All Blacks jersey in one of the shops. The All Blacks are a beloved national rugby team of New Zealand. There is even an All Blacks experience you can visit in Auckland.

Our departure from Auckland was at sunset, and we were treated to some magnificent views from the ship. I was able to get the sun setting with the Sky Tower in front of it.

In most of the ports, there are tug boats that come out to escort the ship out of the harbor. This guy was doing tricks for us as he waited. Some donuts for our enjoyment!

We enjoyed our visit to Auckland. Tomorrow will be our last stop in New Zealand.

 Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Tauranga, New Zealand - November 10, 2023

Our next stop was Tauranga, New Zealand. There are two very popular excursions at this stop. One is a visit to the Maori Whakarawarewa Village, built amongst an active geothermal valley. The other is the Hobbiton movie set.

I had booked these excursions months in advance through Princess, as the one place Kevin really wanted to visit was Hobbiton. About a month before our departure, Princess also cancelled this excursion. We were never notified. I found out through a Facebook page. I also noticed that there was a credit on my credit card from Princess. The excursions had also disappeared from our online Princess account for this trip.

I spent an hour on the phone with the useless, out of country, customer service person employed by Princess. All she said was that since I got a credit, the excursions must have been cancelled. Couldn't tell me why or any other information. 

I spent hours online trying to find a private company to take us to these two popular attractions. Most everything was already booked at this late date. I finally found a small group tour with Shore Trips and Tours and booked it. Since it was for only 10 people, it cost us a total of $160 more than our original tour with Princess. 

To add insult to injury, the credit we received for the two excursions that were cancelled by Princess was less than we actually paid. All payments on these cruises were in Australian dollars. It seems the exchange rate had changed, so we were refunded at a different rate than we paid, which was less money. I'm sure there were hundreds of Americans who had the same thing happen to them. In my mind, that is theft!

However, once we arrived in Tauranga and went on the excursion with Shore Trips and Tours, it was another wonderful experience in New Zealand. It was one of our favorite days on the trip, although there were many!

Our first stop was to the city of Rotorua to have a tour at an authentic Maori village, still inhabited today. It is built on a geothermal shelf, and is nicknamed Sulphur City. The Maori name for the village is Whakarewarewa. That's a mouthful!!

One of the residents took us on the tour and explained much of the history, as well as how they live today. Much of the cooking is actually done over the hot springs and bubbling mud pools. There are also communal bath basins with water from the hot springs.

This is their community center and meeting house. The carvings on the building were incredible.

After the tour, we were treated to a live performance of some of the songs and dances of the Maori people. The women did a dance with balls on a rope. 

The men did the Haka dance, which was a ceremonial dance performed in the past before going into battle. It has become quite popular throughout the world, as some of the rugby teams do this dance before a match to supposedly intimidate their opponents. 

There were some school groups there, and the boys were invited to join in on the Haka dance. It looks like they enjoyed it!

After the show, we were given a Hangi pie for lunch. It's kind of like a Hot Pocket, filled with meat and vegetables. I found it quite tasty and filling. It was similar to the Pasties we've had that the miners in Wisconsin and the Midwest used to eat for their lunch down in the mines.

Our next stop was the much awaited Hobbiton, and it was definitely worth waiting for!!

We arrived at the ticket center and gift shop where we had a little time to look around and buy a few souvenirs. 

Here's Kevin with Gandalf. The hat on the shelf behind his head was for sale for $400. 

Then we boarded a bus that took us to the actual Hobbiton village. On the way, we drove through some of the farm fields where we saw many sheep. We were also shown a video that showed scenes of the village from the movies, and explained some of how this place became a reality.

We arrived and were taken on a guided walking tour of the village, which includes 44 Hobbit holes on 12 acres of lush pasture land. The guides come from all over the world for the opportunity to work at Hobbiton. Our guide was an American woman from Arizona. 

She explained how Peter Jackson had sent out a scouting team in a helicopter to find land that would be perfect for Hobbiton. It needed to be green farmland with lots of hills, a large tree and a pond. They found the perfect location and drove up to the farmhouse and knocked on the door. The owner told them to come back the next day as he was watching rugby.

Terms were agreed upon, and a contract was signed. The original Hobbiton for the Lord of the Rings movies was mostly build with façade fronts and lots of temporary structures. Great attention was paid to the details, including gardens, an orchard, smoke coming out of the chimneys, and laundry hanging on the line. Once the filming was completed, the set was removed.

A few years later, the Hobbit movies were planned to be filmed. The farmer and his family agreed to once again have the Hobbiton set built on his property. However, this time they wanted it to be a permanent location for visitors to come and enjoy. The Hobbit houses are still just fronts with retaining walls just a foot or two behind the door. A few of the doors can be opened, and you can step through for a photo. 

The attention to detail is amazing. The gardens have all kinds of produce growing in them, the fruit trees are real, and smoke is coming out of some of the chimneys. It was a blast walking through the set which we had seen in the movies. Even people on the tour who had not seen the movies or read the books found it fascinating. 

Here's me in front of one of the houses. You can see how small Hobbits are supposed to be by how small the door is compared to me.

This is Bag End, the home of Bilbo and Frodo.

There was construction going on in one area. Three of the Hobbit houses were having an inside added to them. They were digging back into the hill, and outfitting the inside to match what the houses looked like in the movies. All those interior movie scenes were shot in a studio.

Here are the Mill and the Green Dragon Tavern. We were treated to a pint of cider or their home brewed beer.

As we were leaving the tavern, there was a tent set up outside with pottery mugs that said Green Dragon on them. I asked if I could purchase one. She said no, you will each be getting a free one. Since the construction has been going on, all visitors were given a free mug as compensation for being their during the construction time. How nice is that. The finished insides of the houses were due to be finished a few weeks after we were there. Too bad we didn't get to see that. However, the mugs were a very nice surprise.

So, that completes another awesome day in New Zealand. Today's adventures were truly magical!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Wellington, New Zealand - November 8, 2023

Our next port of call was Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, is from Wellington. His fame has brought many jobs and economic growth to the area.

We booked an excursion through Princess to visit the Weta Workshop studios, a tour of the city, and some of the Lord of the Rings film location sites. I had booked this tour well in advance as the popular tours tend to sell out even before boarding the ship. A month before our trip, Princess cancelled the tour. Then they made it available again at a higher price. We still went on it as we wanted to see the sites.

Our first stop was the Weta Workshop where many special effects are created. These include such items as weapons, masks, costumes and sets. Weta in the Maori language is an ugly spider and means god of ugly things. The creators of the business felt this was a very fitting name as they create many monsters.

There was no photography allowed on the tour, but I did take some photos in the lobby and gift shop of characters from The Lord of the Rings movies.

Here are two pictures I found on the web from the tour itself. It was a very fascinating look into how movie special effects are created. 

While we were there, the newest Avatar movie was supposed to be filming. Due to the actor's strike, that was not happening. We did see the outdoor sound stage that was built for filming. Here's a photo of it, as I couldn't get a good picture from the bus. Notice how it is constructed out of large shipping containers piled on top of each other. They paint the background green or blue depending on what they are filming. It was massive!

We passed the large Wellington sign. Soccer is very popular in New Zealand, and Wellington has a large soccer stadium. The soccer ball in the sign reflects that passion. It is very windy in Wellington, so the sign reflects that at the end by being blown upwards.

Here's the port with our ship and the soccer stadium.

As you can see in the photo above and below, houses in Wellington are built into the surrounding hills, and access can be very steep. Many of the homes do not have roads to them, so they have cable cars and tracks to get to their homes with parking at the bottom. 

Our tour took us to Mount Victoria where some of the scenes from The Fellowship of the Ring were filmed. We were shown the location and then photos of scenes from the movie at that location. It didn't always look quite the same. 

Here's where the group of Hobbits tumbled down a hill on their journey. Click on any photo to enlarge it for better viewing.

Here's the path where the Ringwraith was hunting the Hobbits at night. It looked quite different during the day.

The Ringwraiths are supposed to be dead, so there should not be any breath visible from the rider (notice the breath from the horse in the photo). To keep the rider's breath from showing, they put a snorkel tube in his mouth and pointed it down into his shirt. No breath was visible.

Our guide told us that the trees in this forest grow in odd directions and shapes due to the wind. This tree looked like it had the letter E in its branches; must be for Evelyn!

These beautiful peace lilies were growing all along a path.

We decided to get off the tour bus in the downtown area and have a look around. There was a free shuttle bus for the cruise passengers to get back to the ship. This is a Parliament building referred to as The Beehive.

We had a very enjoyable day exploring Wellington and learning about the movie industry.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!