Cruise Trip Journals - Sydney AU - Auckland, NZ

The ship is rocking and this guy is washing the roof	Milford Sound	Milford Sound Waterfall	Milford Sound	Milford Sound
Tour Boat Scoping out the Diamond	Waterfall on Milford Sound	Meanwhile back at the restaurants	On Breaksea Sound	Breaksea Sound

Thursday, April 20. We arrived at the dock in Port Chalmers, New Zealand at 7:00. The town we were visiting is actually Dunedin which has facilities for cruise ships but the Diamond is so big that the channel into Dunedin can not handle her. At Port Chalmers, about 7 miles from Dunedin the facilities we used are normally used by a wood chip, lumber processor who ships to Korea. A big pile of wood chips for chip board was being added to on one side while on the other there were huge piles of logs ready for shipping. We had scheduled a tour of Dunedin including Larnach Castle and were picked up by our tour driver at the appointed hour. The full bus first took us to the Railroad Station in Dunedin where we had a 10 minute photo oppertunity. Then we proceeded to drive the curvy roads with the water right next to the road and no guard rails. Mom loved that. The country side is beautiful around Dunedin with many sheep in evidence. The road up to Larnach Castle was steep and windy and the bus was equipped with a standard transmission. At one point after making a bend, the driver shifted and the gear shifted back into neutral just as we were starting to ascend a rise. The bus went backwards for about 4 feet before he caught it. Fun.

Larnach Castle is not really a castle but a stone residence built by a prominent banker. He spared no expense in building his huge stone house about 8 miles out of town. The work of getting the building materials up the steep slopes must have been some effort. However he had married wealth. Having a large family he decided to move to England temporarily to educate his childern there. When word reached him that his business interests were in trouble he left all the children in England except his wife and baby and returned to New Zealand with them. Shortly after the return his wife died. Needing a mother for the baby Larnach married his wifes half sister and to insure his holdings put his house and other assets into his second wifes name. Shortly after, his second wife died and she had left a will leaving Larnach only a small portion while the rest went to the other children. Larnach married again this time to a much younger woman of 35. By this time his oldest son was around 40. Having take his wife and oldest son to a Australia on a government business trip, rumors started to float around upon their return, that his third wife and his oldest son were having an affair. This obviously was too much for Larnach to bear and he committed suicide shortly after their return. The will was then contested and as usual, the lawyers got the money. The house and its contents had to be sold off and after many years of degregation it has now been turned into a tourist attraction with bed and breakfast facilities as well as banquett facilities on the property. The owner lives in a lower level apartment seperated from the main house.

The house is a beauty. The woodwork is flawless as are the plaster sculpted ceilings. Most of the furniture comes from the Victorian period when the house was built but only a few pieces are original from Larnach. One of the interesting features of the house was it original lighting system. Larnach had installed gas lights and used methane gas from the manure supplied by his 20 plus horses as well as the privy used by the servants. Since the Diamond Princess holds 2670 people, the tour was very crowded and we were kind of rushed to get thru the place with the crush. Mom had hardly any time in the gift shop but she managed. Our tour then took us back to Dunedin where we were pointed to various historic sites. Rather than returning to the ship right away we got off in town and went to see St. Andrews Anglican Church and the First Presbyterian Church. The Roman Catholic Cathedral looked imposing on the hill but the uphill climb scared us off. We had a soup lunch downtown, visited a few stores and then caught the shuttle back to the ship in time for afternoon trivia. We lost by one point. The evenings entertainment was a husband and wife magic, illusion show. It was excellent. We still can not figure out how the woman spun around in front of you and suddenly the costume changed. That was Dunedin. A pretty town. Wouldn't mind being there without the crush of the ships population but that is cruising.

Dunedin Railway Station	View from the bus heading towards Larnach's Castle	Theres Sheep in there somewhere	Piper at Larnach's Castle	Larnach's Castle from the side
Dining room in the house	St. Andrews Anglican, Dunedin	Street scene Dunedin	First Church - Presbyterian, Dunedin	Leaving Dunedin

 Saturday, April 22. Today we arrived at the dock in the city of Auckland, NZ at the appointed time of 10:00 AM. We had spent a relaxing day at sea the day before with our usual activities of ceramics for mom, trivia for all of us and finished it off with w wonderful steak dinner at the premium restaurant "The Steakhouse". It was wondrful.  We finished the evening by catching the show featuring an excellent British singer. Now on to Auckland.

Our tour of Auckland wasn't scheduled until 12:30 PM so we had some time to kill. We had not made the opportunity to buy any soft drinks ashore in Sydney, Hobart or Dunedin so we looked around and found a supermarket about a half a mile from the ship. After arriving there we decided that carrying a case of soda for a half a mile was too much so we bought several packages of "Tim Tams", an Australian cookie and walked back to the little convenience store next to the ship where the soda was only a bit more expensive than the supermarket. We paid $14.00 US for a case of Coke which is high to us at home but cheap compared to the $41 we would pay for the same amount on board.

Our scheduled tour was delayed in starting by about 30 minutes but once we got started it was lovely. The driver took us over the Auckland harbor bridge so we could get a view of all the sail boats at their moorings and also took us through the area where the Americas Cup had been staged. There is nothing there now. We then proceeded to go thru some of the posh areas of Auckland including some high end shopping areas. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the War Memorial Museum. We only had an hour in there so we asked the information desk of what we should see. The guide suggested the Maori Museum which is what we really wanted to see in the first place. The exhibits there were filled with unbelievable carvings all kinds of implements, agricultural as well as military. The highlight was a 75 foot Maori war canoe which had been built in the early 1800's from one tree. It was unbelievable. We didn't write anything down because we wanted to see it all even though we wouldn't be able to recall what it was. We barely had enough time in the gift shop where I did buy a small Maori art book. From the museum we headed up to the top of Mt. Eden which is an extinct volcano and is the highest point in Auckland and a great photo-op. On the way back to the ship the guide pointed out a bridge that was covered with cyclone fencing. The guide explained that the teen-age suicides on that bridge had caused them to cover it. I tongue in cheek asked out loud, "Where do they go now?".

Upon return to the ship there was a scheduled Maori Heritage program scheduled in the theater which we couldn't get in on as we were a bit late. We did catch the simulcast show in one of the lounges. I would have liked to get some pictures but that was only available in the theater. They show consisted of Maori songs, music, games and dances as well as a demonstration of fighting positions. There is quite a bit of difference between the treatment of the native peoples between Australia and New Zealand. The aborigines in Australia were mainly nomadic in nature and the land issues is now only being resolved. In New Zealand, there was a treaty which sold land to the Europeans and also defined the holdings of the Maori. The Maori Council has a lot of control over the affairs. This is a very boiled down version which I will improve upon when I can do some more research at home. Pardon any inaccuracies. 

A bit about our dining during this voyage. Originally we had been at a table for 8. After the first evening with us four, one couple "Ed and Shirley" from California dropped out. Two more days later Art and Carol from Vancouver Island, Canada dropped out. Then we were joined by "Gerry and Sherry" from California who by now were working on their third table looking for compatible companions. Last night we saw them enter the dining room and head off to another table. Table number 4 for them. Ken then requested that our table be retained in its present location and re-made into a 4 person table. The maitre'd agreed. OK with us. We finished the evening off with a comedy show by an Australian who works the cruise ships. He was funny.

Coming into Auckland	They bungi jump off this tower	Why it is called the city of sails	Ferry Building from bus	Only 1M NZ bucks
Maori Storage House in museum	Maori Chief	Inside a Maori Meeting House	Explanation for war canoe that follows	75 foot Maori War Canoe
Another Maori Canoe	Maori Wall Carving	Maori Statue	Auckland from Mt. Eden	Crater on Mt. Eden

 

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