Room with a view

Everyone knows we are now back on terra firma and that all the cruise updates are running two weeks behind but I will do my best to cover most things that happened on the trip.

Day three

Still making our way across the "ditch" and the captain announces that there is a serious viral outbreak onboard and that the whole ship is going onto "Red Alert" to try and combat this outbreak. Of course when you have almost 2000 people with various ailments then you can only expect that hi-gene is easily compromised. Bingo, I came down with the lergy. Quarantine for 48 hours in my cabin. The advantages were that I had the cleanest cabin onboard which was cleaned 3 times a day by people in masks, goggles and large spray bottles. It did also mean that room serviced knew their way to C345 and that drinks and food (all except my dinner on night two which they totally forgot) were bought to me. They also very kindly did all my laundry FOC.

This of course included our stay in Auckland. Pictured above is all I got to see of Auckland and the people that lived in the apartments on the dock were very very happy to see us sail as I spent all day sitting on the balcony watching them LOL.

Day four 
Off to Rotarua to see some old geysers. The boat moored approximately 100klms away at a placed called Tarasomething which is on the east coast and very pretty holiday destination for most north islanders. We bussed it down to the geyser national park and had lunch on top of a scenic hill overlooking the town.  This was our first real experience of a lot of very overweight people stampeding to the buffet, not a pretty picture. The lunch also included the compulsory Maori song and dance show.

Champagne pool, very pretty with lots of colour. Most of the colour is the result of the very high levels of arsenic. The water temp here is 200 degrees. Great for doing the dishes.

One ol' geyser with another.