Picton is a smallish town and like a lot of New Zealand town on the shores, seems to exist to ship logs from their big timber industry. But it is also a tourist town.
Deb and I were here a few years ago so we instantly recognized the small, quaint downtown. Deb signed us up for a boat tour of the sounds and fjords (there is a difference but not sure what it is).
Then down the cable car and walk to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tingarewa across town. Nice walkable town with lots of public spaces.
It’s a large multistory museum and we were only able to absorb the Gallipoli exhibition. Gallipoli was a terrible defeat of beautiful young men. War is stupid!! We did see more Polynesian history but our museum circuit breakers went off and we walked back to the shuttle stop. Along the way we saw teenagers diving off a high dive into the harbor. No lawyers down here I guess!
Back to the ship and we had coffee with the wonderful couple from Montreal. He is 92 and entertained us with exciting stories of his life. The have been married 60 years and are very sharp and active.
They seem to have an earthquake somewhere in New Zealand every 20 years or so.The one we had remembered hearing about was in 2011, but there was a bigger one in 2010. Ironically the 2011 quake did more damage and killed 185 people and hospitalized many more. Since then the town has really fixed itself back up. A woman that helped us with directions said that even in the last 5 years, the city has really been rejuvenated. It’s a very walkable, bikeable city with nice parks and public spaces. Being a temperate climate, the year round weather is fairly constant.
Then lunch at a pub where we sat and talked to a mother and son duo on the same cruise who are from Parramatta (near Sydney). The further into this cruise the more familiar faces we turn into acquaintances. At first you don’t know anybody and as the days go by, you get to recognize and get to know more and more people. And they all have their own travel stories. We keep discovering the ins and outs of all the different cruise lines (and other modes of travel) and it is generally agreed that Azamara is a lot more down to earth than many others. A few people like the big 3000+ cruise ships but most enjoy the smaller ones.
After breakfast at Windows Cafe we packed up our backpack and climbed on a shuttle back into Dunedin. We arrived in Dunedin by 9 and had some time before our tour left at 10, so we found Perk, a good coffee shop, for a flat white and chai latter.
At 10 we met our grroup near the Octagon for our Otago peninsula wildlife Tour. I’d booked this experience through Trip Advisor, but it was part of Clearwater Wildlife Tours. The 4-hour tour ended up being fantastic. 10 of us (6 from Azamara) in a van with a local guide and the trip really got us out into the beauty of the surrounding area. When we were here in 2023 we hadn’t driven out on the peninsula and it was absolutely stunning. Cool today, but sun, clouds, blue sky, grey sky and oh, those greens. Paula (our guide) drove for about an hour, stopping at a couple of overlooks for photos, and then we entered the Clearwater land. The land owner has 1,000 head of sheep, so they were everywhere. We traveled on some narrow gravel roads in this private reserve, stopping to look for wildlife along the way. She pointed out all kinds of birds first, then we watched fur seals and their pups, with albatross flying above. We were each given our own pair of binoculars, so we could see everything up close. We walked on a beach and saw really lazy sea lions lounging around (not nearly as entertaining as the fur seals clambering on the rocks) and more birds. My favorite birds were the Pied Stilts, small black and white birds with really long skinny red legs. There was a group of them on the beach who were all huddled together resting, each on one leg.
Back in the van for another spectacular drive back to Dunedin, arriving back at 2:30. We decided to take the shuttle back to the ship then walk into nearby Port Chalmers for a drink. We walked into town and went to The Portsider for a cider, beer and snacks. Our new friends from Idaho, Kim and Terry, came in and we all enjoyed some good conversation. Back to the ship by 4:30 for tea, coffee, blog writing and a bit of downtime.
Dinner tonight with 6 other people. A Nebraska couple, two Aussie couples and us. We covered a lot of topics like crisps vs chips, french fries vs chips, mandatory voting in Australia (they get fined!!) and how to tell and Aussie from a Kiwi (have them saw “six”.
Then to the Cabaret for the last performance of the mentalist.
Then bed…
By the time this was over it was time to grab free shuttle tickets into Dunedin, which was scheduled for 1 p.m. We stopped at Discoveries Restaurant at 11:30 and had some brunch foods so we’d be well fed by the time we arrived in Dunedin.
Since we’d visited Dunedin briefly in 2023 we didn’t feel the need to visit the historic train station or the nearby museum. Both are excellent, but we’d been there. Instead we struck out on a walk to find the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, about a half hour walk away. This turned out to be a great find. Who knew that starting in the 1860’s the city powered streetlights and later homes with coal gas? I’d never heard of such a thing and it was quite an undertaking. Apparently this museum is one of only a few in the world and happens to only be open on Sunday afternoons and run by volunteers. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, having an opportunity to talk with two engaging volunteers. Along with the massive old equipment, John even had a cup of coffee from a 1950’s coal gas powered coffee machine. All pretty cool.
We were thirsty after our walking, so we found a pub right on The Octagon (the hub at the center of the city) and had a beer and cider. Back to the ship by late afternoon, followed by a tasty dinner at Discoveries Cafe seated with a lovely couple from Toronto, Australia (2 hours north of Sydney) and then a fun performance by the entertainment team in Cabaret Lounge at 9.
Back to our cabin for reading and sleep by 10.
Then a nightcap in the Living Room at 10:00 with Fantastic Beats (the 4-person band on board) upstairs and lively crowd. Our last full day at sea!
In the afternoon we had a great tour of the bridge. We’d put in a request for this tour and apparently a bunch of other passengers had as well, since there were 18 of us total. Interesting to get a tour of the command center and meet some of the staff. Captain Jonas from Sweden is a great entertainer as well as captain, so he always has a wry answer to questions and a dry sense of humor.
Later we went in the hot tub, just as it rained. Ah, such a rough life!
We tried Discoveries Restaurant for dinner, and then entertainment once again at 9 in the Cabaret Lounge. Tonight was Miro, who played excellent piano and something like a xylophone, all backed up by the house band. Have to say that all of the entertainment on board has been excellent.
By this time it was 11 and we hadn’t eaten anything, so we headed to Discoveries Restaurant for the sea day brunch. The brunch food was wonderful, with basically any kind of food you could ask for, along with the band playing. It was packed, but we were able to score seats next to Christine and Mike, the Montrealers we’d met while waiting for a shuttle yesterday. Great food and conversation.
I wanted to go to the line dancing workshop, which turned out being really fun. It was taught by the two dancers who are part of the entertainment team and they did a fine job corraling us all in the right directions at the right time.
Wow, this sea day kind of flew by. Following the talk we decided to take some time to walk some laps, have a drink by the pool, and venture into the pool and hot tub. The weather was sunny with blue skies and nothing to see but ocean.
At 6:30 we went to dinner at Windows, this night being an Italian buffet. Good food as always with lots of options. After a bit of time back in our cabin we went to the 9 p.m. entertainment, this time being a Mentalist from South Africa. The Cabaret Lounge was packed and his performance was fantastic. We had no idea how he managed to pull off most of his feats, a lot like Kenny Bang Bang’s show in Bisbee.
Back to the cabin and bed, with another time change scheduled for tonight.
Once dropped off at 8:45 or so we first walked to the old part of town, known as The Rocks. We had a coffee/tea and walked around the peninsula, enjoying the views of the Opera House and the buildings.
By this time we were museum saturated and headed back to our shuttle. A bus was right there waiting and we were back on the ship by 4:30. Rest time before our dinner at Aqualina, one of the 2 specialty restaurants, at 6 p.m. Aqualina was excellent, with a 4-course dinner of Italian specialties. Great salad, soup, beef tenderloin, Eggplant Parmesan.
We finally met Deb’s Cornell folks, Bob and Stacy Holstein, and we spent time with them at a couple events. Milo decided to get a walk in and discovered that the track and sundeck combo gives you a walk and climb. 14 laps equals a mile and he did 2 miles worth. There are usually 6-10 people walking at any time so not crowded at all. The walking track overlooks the pool and hot tubs and those got light use during the day, mostly in the afternoon. The weather has been very comfortable with temperatures in the 70’s.
The ship’s photographer gave a 1 hour tutorial on how to use you phone camera. I learned at least 4 things I never knew how to do.
We had dinner with a lovely couple from America. He was turning 90 tomorrow but he looked only 70 or so. Very jolly guy who lives in San Diego while his partner lives in Minnesota part of the year.
At 9:00pm we went to the Captain’s toast to “meet the crew”. For the 600 something of us there is a crew of 300 something. Wow!
After that there was a Australian violinist, Vov Dylan, who did an hour show with a backup band doing a crazy mix of music from classical to rock and roll. He gets off in Sydney but the rest of the band stays with us the rest of the trip.
Melbourne is a very clean, very modern city and everything is well kept. We all met for coffee at 8:00 and had our last chat before they had to go visit old friends before taking the plane back to Tasmania and we stayed in the room until checkout which was about the right timing to walk down to the dock to get on the ship.
Melbourne has a nice network of bike / walking trails and there was one that took us to the dock. It was about an hour walk with the suitcases bumping along behind us. We found a place for breakfast/lunch on the way at a small busy bakery.
We had a safety meeting to go over all the life jacket / life boat stuff and our bags showed up later in the afternoon. One packed we toured the ship to remember what was where. The ship can take about 700 people and is big enough that we do not feel crowded. There are 10 floors and our room was on level 7 so you can take the stairs instead of the elevator but overall no crowding. We have the basic drink package which means anything except eh more expensive booze. Since we are not much the drinkers there is more than enough choices.
We went to dinner at 7:00 and sat with a group who were celebrating a 51st anniversary and having the time of their lives.
There is a show tonight at 9:00 but we were ready for bed.
The captain changed the schedule a bit due to weather so we will be a little ahead of schedule so he can time our New Zealand stops around the storm. So we will not stop at Eden but will get to Sydney first.
We sat by the water and had date scones and coffee overlooking the ocean in Warrnambool. All morning there was little traffic so we had the shore pretty much to ourselves. At the end of the day the traffic picked up as we got closer to Melbourne, but they were all going the other way so we had no delays.
Lunch stop at the southernmost bar in Australia and split burgers and fries, and an ice cream stop later in the afternoon. It is still a bit confusing being in the southern hemisphere where it's summer in January but it is indeed beach season in this part of Australia.
It was wonderful to catch up with Vicki and Greg, who were our daughter's "extra parents" for six months back in 2007. They are warm wonderful, generous people and we hope to be able to spend more time someday with them again.
It was the first time we'd seen Vicki and Greg since Hannah's high school graduation in 2009! They'd made a plan for an itinerary and we drove in the direction of Ballarat. It was so fun to connect with them after all this time and catch up on each other's lives. We arrived in Ballarat by late morning and stopped at a beautiful botanical garden for coffee/drinks. We wandered around the gardens, then drove into town and had a leisurely late lunch at a local cafe.
Dinner was great, complete with a raffle and giveaways. By 8 it was time to head back to the motel for some rest before another busy day tomorrow.
We both slept normal hours so I'm hoping the jet lag is over. The theory is to go ahead and pull the all-nighter, and then get up at a normal time the next morning, but with this many flights and layovers, we just slept when we could.
Today the plan is to do another walking tour in a different direction. We first walked to Cafe Court, a coffee shop, and had eggs and pancakes.
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Then on to the historic train station, Flinders, which is the oldest train station in Australia. A couple employees outside let us in but it was more a working train station than a museum of any kind. Still, it was a busy working train station with a lot of people out and about on New Years Day.
Next stop was the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) museum. Very modern and large concrete and glass building. We took the 1.5 hour tour with an older gentleman who was really into art and history starting with the aborigines and ending in the late 1800's after the English colonized Australia. There is a large focus on respecting the original peoples and their art and culture. The English came in droves during the 1850 gold rush, much like our California gold rush back in the states.
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Then back to the city center and we found a sweet little place (Tomo's Little Collins) to get a light lunch. We met a couple of young women from Hong Kong and had a nice chat with the owner who was closing the shop at 3 pm because it didn't pay to stay open any later given the higher wages paid (the government holiday thing).
Then back to the hotel for a short nap for John while Deb went across the street to do a small load of laundry. We had some credit with the hotel so visited the bar for a cider and a beer, then walked back up the street to BBQ King, a Korean barbecue where you grab your raw meat and cook it on the table using a small butane stove. Lots and lots of buffet options and all you can eat for 90 minutes. We were careful not to eat too much.
Between movies and shows we burned up the 3.5 hour flight with a break for a light breakfast (yogurt). Another customs check in Australia and then an Uber ride to the hotel (Dorsett) in downtown Melbourne.
It's New Years Eve and there are 9:30 pm fireworks just a couple of blocks from here for the kids (and old folks who can't stay up until midnight), then another fireworks show at midnight. I'll let you know if we made either of those...
We had dinner on the plane and then a few hours sleep, then breakfast on the plane. Customs at Auckland and Deb (aka "Eco-Terrorist") got busted again by the sniffing dog for the apple she had just left on the plane. To be fair, Milo got busted as well since he had just disposed of his apple on the plane as well after they told us about the $400 fine.
We crossed the Arizona line and filled up with gas which is a dollar cheaper in AZ.
Got back to Bisbee around 4:30, emptied the van contents into the driveway so we can sort and clean everything, then got the water running again.The water company had turned off the water because of something racking up a big bill. Turns out a faucet was stuck on in the upstairs bedroom sink, which is the faucet I had had trouble with before. Our friend Dave had turned our water main off a few days ago and I had the water company turn theirs back on. Looks like I need to find a new cartridge..
Nothing in the fridge so we went downtown for a celebratory drink and dinner at the Table Restaurant. Our friends Dave and Deb and their granddaughter Stella were there so we joined them for dinner. Back to the house and to bed. It’s good to be home.
Our entire trip took 8 weeks and we drove 10680.
The kids have changed so much since we saw then a couple months ago. Both walking and running so everybody is in a new phase. They, and their parents, are happy and we are blessed with a house full of laughter and curiosity and exhaustion at the end of the day.
Monday Jake and Nath ran errands while we took the kids to the park, fed them lunch and then down for the mid-day nap
Tuesday Deb and I took the kids to a Library story hour at the Arcade Library, lunch & nap.
We set off on Rt. 50 for Sacramento, which is only about 2.5 hours from Carson City. For some reason we thought we’d traveled this road before but quickly realized it was the first time. The route was spectacular, a mountain road overlooking Lake Tahoe and then dropping down next to the shore until the south end of the lake. We stopped at an overlook at one point for the great views.
In Shingle Springs we made a stop at Wisegal Coffee for chai lattes and a bagel/scone. Fun coffee shop in an old train station, with train rides running on Sundays.
From that point it was only 35 minutes to Jake and Nath’s house and we arrived by 11:30 a.m. It is so wonderful to be with our grandbabies (or should I say grand toddlers?) again and so amazing to see how much they’ve changed in two months. We spent the afternoon visiting and getting reacquainted with Alex and Jessie. Dinner and bedtime routine and we headed out to the van at 8:30, pretty tired ourselves!
This morning we pulled into the little town of Picton. We docked next to a big car ferry which left right after we tied up. Picton is a sm...
