Photos
So, sometime overnight the seas really calmed down. A little. We think it happened either when we left the Tasman Sea and entered the Coral Sea or else we sailed out of the reaches of the depression we'd been experiencing. Either way I could shave my legs in the shower this morning and I had an appetite. We went up to Terrace about 8am when we should have been docked. We weren't. According to the nav map on TV we'd gone well North of the mouth of the Brisbane River and we were looping back down past the inside of the island that blocks the mouth of the river from view from the sea. We were supposed to have picked up our pilot hours ago and we don't know when that happened or if in fact it has happened. Once we entered the river, we saw a pilot boat near us and assumed the pilot was already aboard. The Brisbane River is very winding and full of u-turns. I know because I drove the Mirimar cruiser the last time we were here! I just checked that day's blog entry and I don't make any mention of that ! I don't know if Clay posted any photos of it either. Shame on me! Captain Matt invited anyone who wanted to drive the boat to the wheelhouse on the boat ride back down river from Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. About 5 of us took up the offer and I was one. If was a highlight of the trip and I can't believe I didn't write about it the day of! I think I have to go back and edit that entry now. Anyway, as hard as I found it to keep that little boat between the banks with all the twists and turns I can't imagine bringing Sirena upstream as far as Portside Wharf. As we were eating breakfast Julie came over the intercom to say we'd be docked at least 45 minutes late and for the people on tours not to stay in the lounge but to come back 45 minutes after their tour time. The complimentary shuttle into town was supposed to start at 9:30am. They did not clear the ship until 9:45am so the first shuttle bus left at 10am. That was fine but we were very glad that we had not made our Viator reservations for today and instead had done that excursion last month when we flew in here! Fingers crossed for Cairns where we have booked an excursion to depart 1 hour and 40 minutes after our scheduled arrival. If we are always an hour and a half late, we'll miss that day trip! I recall that shortened port stays were a consistent problem with Oceania from 2015. Oh well.
We were on the first shuttle bus. There were at least 2 waiting when we got out because of course they were waiting for us and we were late. That meant that we didn't have to wait for a bus too. Good news. So, the bus let us off on Ann St. right in front of Central Station and the war memorial eternal flame. This was on the same block where we stayed last month! Good news as we knew our way around. I wanted to focus on Brisbane history in the CBD this time through. I knew there were only 2 original convict built structures and I thought the first was the Old Windmill. There were red-shirted volunteers to give out maps and answer questions. I cornered one and he didn't recommend the windmill base that remains. He suggested instead the Commissariat Store which is still in use as a museum. Since it was the furthest point we wanted to visit we headed instead to Brisbane City Hall Museum. I should point out that the volunteers were offering free guided walking tours but I didn't see anyone take them up on the offer. Clay had Googled this morning for specialties to eat here and had come up with Noosa Chocolate Factory Rocky Road and Doughnut Time filled doughnuts. We found both in the first 2 blocks walking! We bought some candy to go and we stopped and ate the massive doughnut. We got It's Always a Gay Time. It was amazing.
Our next stop was at the Brisbane City Hall and Museum of Brisbane. This turned out to be a treasure trove and it was all free! We went up to the 3rd floor for the Museum and saw signs that you could get a free timed ticket for a guided tour up to the clock tower. We had heard the clock go off when we were eating our doughnut so we got tickets for 11:15am. We went to browse some of the Museum and when I went to the restroom, I saw signs about a signature wall from WWII military people who had passed through the basement men's room. It said to go to the desk and request a free timed ticket. We went back and got tickets for 11:30am. Both tours were very interesting and we were glad we did them. The building was built in 1930 and recently refurbished hence the basement archaeologic discoveries. We learned about Brisbane tuff. Douglas MacArthur commanded the Pacific war from here in Brisbane and armed forces from all over the world came through here. The MacArthur Museum was the last thing on our list since it would bring us back near the shuttle stop. We took a free city circulator bus to as close as possible to the Commissariat Store. It wasn't too close because William St was closed and he had to drive on the Riverside Expressway. We got on by City Hall and got off at the exact opposite side of town on his route with no stops in between! We walked back to the Commissariat Store and had to go down a bunch of stairs through a park full of horrifying lizards to get a full frontal view of the building. It is the only remaining intact convict labor built building in Brisbane. They wanted $7pp to enter and Clay wanted to see the MacArthur Museum and it was about 2pm and past lunch time so we passed. We got a lesson from a local about threatening lizard behavior on our way through the park. He said if one rears up on its back legs, run. OMG! We went back up through the park and by the Treasury Building we found a street market full of food tents. Clay had seen a big bratwurst at the last square where we ate our doughnut but it was too early then. Lunch problem solved. We walked back through the Queen Street Mall to get to the MacArthur Museum. We found the MacArthur Chambers building but signage was scarce for the Museum. We found 2 plaques on the outside of the building and an Apple Store, a Woolworths and a food court in the building but we had to search it twice over to find the Museum entrance with signage indicating it is only open 3 days per week and today was not one of them. We do know better than this and since Clay knew he wanted to visit, I can't say why he hadn't looked it up online prior to finding the place. Lesson learned again, I guess.
We just walked back up through ANZAC Square to the shuttle stop and got on the 3pm ride. It takes about 20-30 in traffic and another 15-20 minutes from the bus drop at Portside to the ship. We got back about 4pm and all aboard is 6:30pm and sailaway is 7pm.
Fingers crossed for some smooth sailing! Tomorrow is another sea day.. I forgot to say that last night when we got back to the cabin we found our invitation to the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet that one of the board members arranged. It is tomorrow at 5:30pm. The same night that we have our first Sirena specialty restaurant reservation at 6:30pm. I really hope for very smooth seas tomorrow. The day after that is Airlie Beach on Whitsunday Islands and Clay is booked all day for a catamaran cruise to the Great Barrier Reef where I have big plans for a hopefully vacant guest laundry room! We'll be anchored that day anyway so even if I have competition for the facilities I should be on more or less solid legs for the exercise.
We plan to eat at Terrace tonight. We went out on the balcony for sunset and some of the drinks we bought in Sydney. We watched the Brisbane River flowing past on its way upstream instead of down. It must be nearing high tide! I will go ahead and post this now. If anything newsworthy happens I'll either add it later or tomorrow.
Photos
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
A rough lazy sea day
We have been due for a little down time and today we have gotten it. It has been so rough and the ship rocking so much it was a fit time for it. Clay is usually not bothered by motion sickness and he wasn't today. On the other hand, I have overmedicated and am still struggling. We went up to Terrace for breakfast and down to the Grand Dining Room for Jacques Bistro at lunch. We missed the Mexican buffet in Terrace for lunch. Clay went to a 10am talk. I missed it and fell asleep in the cabin. I needed it. Clay said there wasn't an empty seat in the room so I guess it was well attended. I planned to watch it on TV but it wasn't on. I managed to get a leftover needlepoint kit at the madness that was needlepoint this morning. I was hoping for one of the sizes that Crystal had last year, the reading glasses case or the tablet case but she only had 3 sizes and I didn't need to do another scissors case or coin purse. I got one of the cosmetic cases and I'm satisfied.
The Jacques Bistro lunch was jammed packed. I don't know if no one went to Terrace because of Mexican food or what. I wanted a Croque Monsieur which was described as having mornay sauce and traditionally has to be eaten with a knife and fork. But I got dry toasted ham and cheese fingers. Clay enjoyed his steak in peppercorn sauce. Neither of us thought the French fries qualified as the advertised shoestring. Clay had a vertical banana split for dessert and I had a burnt sugar flavored cheesecake.
We went to the 1:30pm Sirena Lounge movie where they had popcorn. The movie was Golden Years which we hadn't seen. It was OK. It was about a bunch of British pensioners who turn to bank robbery.
Tonight is the Captain's cocktail reception which we are debating attending. Who needs a drink that badly? We'll see. We are thinking about dinner tonight in the GDR. One because it is on a low deck and two because it looks like I can find something to eat. We did go to Sirena Lounge on deck 5 at 5:45pm. There was a long line waiting for the doors to open as we came down the stairs. Clay had a red wine he liked and I had nothing because that champagne the other night gave me a headache and the white wine was only Chardonnay. We went to dinner at the GDR after 6:30pm. We got a 2 top by the aft windows. There were swells over our heads back there! Dinner was good and again well attended. This is a marked difference from our time on Marina. The service was so bad in the GDR on Marina during our time aboard that at all 3 meals it was a ghost town. Lunch and dinner today in Sirena's GDR were packed with excellent service. Good to know.
For months Sirena showed on the Brisbane port schedule that we'd dock out at a grain terminal on an island outside the mouth of the river. The newsletter tonight says Brisbane Cruise Terminal so I looked at the Brisbane port schedule again and now it shows Portside. This is up the river and much nearer town. The newsletter also says that after docking at 8am that a complimentary shuttle will be available from 9:30am to 5:30pm running every 30 minutes. As Clay said, if you advertise a cruise that takes you to Brisbane then they ought to take you to Brisbane and not a half-hour away from Brisbane. So, this is good news. It wouldn't help people who've made earlier arrangements or plans but for us it should be fine. We just planned to walk around parts of town we missed last trip.
I think Clay said he had no photos today.
The Jacques Bistro lunch was jammed packed. I don't know if no one went to Terrace because of Mexican food or what. I wanted a Croque Monsieur which was described as having mornay sauce and traditionally has to be eaten with a knife and fork. But I got dry toasted ham and cheese fingers. Clay enjoyed his steak in peppercorn sauce. Neither of us thought the French fries qualified as the advertised shoestring. Clay had a vertical banana split for dessert and I had a burnt sugar flavored cheesecake.
We went to the 1:30pm Sirena Lounge movie where they had popcorn. The movie was Golden Years which we hadn't seen. It was OK. It was about a bunch of British pensioners who turn to bank robbery.
Tonight is the Captain's cocktail reception which we are debating attending. Who needs a drink that badly? We'll see. We are thinking about dinner tonight in the GDR. One because it is on a low deck and two because it looks like I can find something to eat. We did go to Sirena Lounge on deck 5 at 5:45pm. There was a long line waiting for the doors to open as we came down the stairs. Clay had a red wine he liked and I had nothing because that champagne the other night gave me a headache and the white wine was only Chardonnay. We went to dinner at the GDR after 6:30pm. We got a 2 top by the aft windows. There were swells over our heads back there! Dinner was good and again well attended. This is a marked difference from our time on Marina. The service was so bad in the GDR on Marina during our time aboard that at all 3 meals it was a ghost town. Lunch and dinner today in Sirena's GDR were packed with excellent service. Good to know.
For months Sirena showed on the Brisbane port schedule that we'd dock out at a grain terminal on an island outside the mouth of the river. The newsletter tonight says Brisbane Cruise Terminal so I looked at the Brisbane port schedule again and now it shows Portside. This is up the river and much nearer town. The newsletter also says that after docking at 8am that a complimentary shuttle will be available from 9:30am to 5:30pm running every 30 minutes. As Clay said, if you advertise a cruise that takes you to Brisbane then they ought to take you to Brisbane and not a half-hour away from Brisbane. So, this is good news. It wouldn't help people who've made earlier arrangements or plans but for us it should be fine. We just planned to walk around parts of town we missed last trip.
I think Clay said he had no photos today.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Boarding Sirena
Photos
We had a good night's sleep at Rydges. It was over $200 AUD prepaid but worth it for the convenience and the quiet. It is solidly built as we looked out over the international terminal and the jets coming and going without hearing a sound.
We had a leisurely morning and walked over to the McDonald's at this end of the terminal to get sausage egg mcmuffins for takeout. I used the complimentary coffee set up in the room. We did not hear back from Sydney City Shuttle after Clay's Sunday cell phone attempt to make a booking and assumed they did not book us. We walked over to the International Terminal about 10:30am after checking out of Rydges and bought single use tickets for $17.90 pp for the train to Wynyard Station. The first train we boarded did not stop there so we got off at the Domestic Terminal and boarded the next train 7 minutes later that did. Clay had bought 2 $9 ferry tickets from Captain Cook ferries online from the room. When we got to Wynyard Station we went out on the adjoining streets first. I had to go to Starbucks to use Stuart Jones annual $10 gift card for a souvenir mug. It was $21.90 and my $10USD gift card was worth about $13AUD here. On the other side of the station was Vintage Cellars and I went in and picked a bottle of wine and Clay got a mixed 6-pack of beer. We went back inside the station and had to ask at information to find Wynyard Walk, a new tunnel/bridge over to Barangaroo to the wharf for the Captain Cook ferry to White's Bay. We found no signage whatsoever and we were glad we had read about it and were sure it was possible. We exchanged our printed ticket for their printed tickets at check in ashore and walked out on the floating dock to wait for the noon ferry.
Our cruise documents said our Concierge Cabin entitled us to embark at noon. This was not true. The ferry arrived at 12:15pm and we turned over our luggage about 12:20pm. We filled out Australian customs/immigration documents and though this room of the big tent was full, we walked to the exit and they took our forms and had us sit in the next room in the tent. It was sunny and really windy so we were glad to be sitting in the big tent. We had seen hundreds of people lined up alongside the ship when we got off the ferry right in front of Sirena. About 40 minutes after we arrived we were lined up out in the sun. About 20 minutes later we were aboard. The holdup seemed to be the locals aboard running the x-ray and metal detectors as if it was a US TSA inspection. Once we boarded we were not allowed to disembark again in Sydney. That had to be a surprise and a hardship to several people. Our welcome letter said Concierge cabins would be ready after 1:30pm. They were not. We had lunch at Waves. Clay had a burger and I can a Q-ban sandwich. We each had a chocolate malt. It was like weak chocolate milk. We won't do that again. The fries were the big fat kind. The sandwiches were good but we still probably don't need to do that again. While we were eating they announced deck 7 cabins were ready, so we went to ours. No luggage. We don't know when the luggage actually arrived because it was just left out in the hall with no notification. So maybe it arrived shortly after we did or maybe it was hours later. We got unpacked. We are in 7047. It is a small cabin with a miniscule bathroom and a tiny closet. I thought again that we dodged a bullet when Insignia burned and 2015's 180-day world cruise was cancelled. We went out for a tour of the ship before the boat drill and missed meeting our stewardess, but she left the missing bathrobe on our bed.
The live boat drill was at 5:15pm. Everybody showed up and it went by fairly quickly. We opened our warm bottle of welcome champagne to have a toast on the balcony for sailaway when Julie James our CD announced that sailing had been delayed at least at hour. She said the pilot that had taken out the P&O ship before ours had encountered rough seas and couldn't get back so we'd have to wait. We went to dinner at Terrace at 6:30pm and put out our service request sign. I found nothing to my taste and didn't eat much. I wanted to go back to our cabin for the sailaway but it had not been serviced. At 8pm after we sailed past the Sydney Opera House, it still hadn't been serviced. Clay insisted we complain. I called housekeeping and they said they would page. Later the phone rang and our stewardess whose name I can neither spell nor say told me that we were skipped because they were busy with a big front cabin and all the other cabins had put in special requests and we had been unavailable when she came to see us. Obviously this was not our fault. She said they would come in a few minutes when they finished the big cabin. Five minutes later they came and she again blamed us. I went off on her that our sign had been up from 6:30pm to 8pm. Nothing else pertained.. There was no excuse only an apology and a promise that this would not happen again. Her assistant agreed and poked her. We got out of the cabin and 5 minutes later they were out of there. Honestly. I was hoping to get this typed up and posted before we left the protected harbor but because of all this foolishness that did not happen. I was about to come apart when everything in the cabin went flying. Clay had left his camera on the table with the champagne bucket that was now half full of ice and water and a very cold half bottle of champagne. It was the first thing I found since it hit me. I didn't find Clay's soaked camera until I got under the balcony drapes. Then I had to get my jewelry out from under the couch. The bathroom shelf contents were in the sink etc. Clay found his tablet under the bed this morning. He was in the gym when we hit open water and said a whole rack of balls went flying. I don't think it could have been anymore dramatic than what happened in our room. He came in to find me on my hands and knees. I had just found and taken Dramamine. I had to take 2 more to stay knocked out and on the bed.
It is still very rough this morning as I type this. We went to Terrace for breakfast at 7:30am because Clay said that was when it opened but he must have been wrong. The stewardesses were just arriving on our hall as we returned 45 minutes later. So we got the tablet and my laptop and came up to deck 10 Horizons so I could finish this. I would say it was a mistake, but the rolling is so profound that no where on the ship could be immune. I am hoping for a needlepoint kit here at 9:30am. So it is easier just to stay put.
It promises to be a long 34 days. Sirena is a small ship and there are some big waters around Australia. Fingers crossed this will be the worst of it or that I will get used to it. I really think our big traveling days might be behind us. In many ways, I won't miss it.
Today is a sea day. Tomorrow is Brisbane.. We're glad we've already enjoyed a day there since the ship's port sheet declines to name our dock but says it is a $50AUD cab ride to the city. It is not clear if we'll make back into town or do laundry aboard. You couldn't get in the laundry room yesterday!
Photos
We had a good night's sleep at Rydges. It was over $200 AUD prepaid but worth it for the convenience and the quiet. It is solidly built as we looked out over the international terminal and the jets coming and going without hearing a sound.
We had a leisurely morning and walked over to the McDonald's at this end of the terminal to get sausage egg mcmuffins for takeout. I used the complimentary coffee set up in the room. We did not hear back from Sydney City Shuttle after Clay's Sunday cell phone attempt to make a booking and assumed they did not book us. We walked over to the International Terminal about 10:30am after checking out of Rydges and bought single use tickets for $17.90 pp for the train to Wynyard Station. The first train we boarded did not stop there so we got off at the Domestic Terminal and boarded the next train 7 minutes later that did. Clay had bought 2 $9 ferry tickets from Captain Cook ferries online from the room. When we got to Wynyard Station we went out on the adjoining streets first. I had to go to Starbucks to use Stuart Jones annual $10 gift card for a souvenir mug. It was $21.90 and my $10USD gift card was worth about $13AUD here. On the other side of the station was Vintage Cellars and I went in and picked a bottle of wine and Clay got a mixed 6-pack of beer. We went back inside the station and had to ask at information to find Wynyard Walk, a new tunnel/bridge over to Barangaroo to the wharf for the Captain Cook ferry to White's Bay. We found no signage whatsoever and we were glad we had read about it and were sure it was possible. We exchanged our printed ticket for their printed tickets at check in ashore and walked out on the floating dock to wait for the noon ferry.
Our cruise documents said our Concierge Cabin entitled us to embark at noon. This was not true. The ferry arrived at 12:15pm and we turned over our luggage about 12:20pm. We filled out Australian customs/immigration documents and though this room of the big tent was full, we walked to the exit and they took our forms and had us sit in the next room in the tent. It was sunny and really windy so we were glad to be sitting in the big tent. We had seen hundreds of people lined up alongside the ship when we got off the ferry right in front of Sirena. About 40 minutes after we arrived we were lined up out in the sun. About 20 minutes later we were aboard. The holdup seemed to be the locals aboard running the x-ray and metal detectors as if it was a US TSA inspection. Once we boarded we were not allowed to disembark again in Sydney. That had to be a surprise and a hardship to several people. Our welcome letter said Concierge cabins would be ready after 1:30pm. They were not. We had lunch at Waves. Clay had a burger and I can a Q-ban sandwich. We each had a chocolate malt. It was like weak chocolate milk. We won't do that again. The fries were the big fat kind. The sandwiches were good but we still probably don't need to do that again. While we were eating they announced deck 7 cabins were ready, so we went to ours. No luggage. We don't know when the luggage actually arrived because it was just left out in the hall with no notification. So maybe it arrived shortly after we did or maybe it was hours later. We got unpacked. We are in 7047. It is a small cabin with a miniscule bathroom and a tiny closet. I thought again that we dodged a bullet when Insignia burned and 2015's 180-day world cruise was cancelled. We went out for a tour of the ship before the boat drill and missed meeting our stewardess, but she left the missing bathrobe on our bed.
The live boat drill was at 5:15pm. Everybody showed up and it went by fairly quickly. We opened our warm bottle of welcome champagne to have a toast on the balcony for sailaway when Julie James our CD announced that sailing had been delayed at least at hour. She said the pilot that had taken out the P&O ship before ours had encountered rough seas and couldn't get back so we'd have to wait. We went to dinner at Terrace at 6:30pm and put out our service request sign. I found nothing to my taste and didn't eat much. I wanted to go back to our cabin for the sailaway but it had not been serviced. At 8pm after we sailed past the Sydney Opera House, it still hadn't been serviced. Clay insisted we complain. I called housekeeping and they said they would page. Later the phone rang and our stewardess whose name I can neither spell nor say told me that we were skipped because they were busy with a big front cabin and all the other cabins had put in special requests and we had been unavailable when she came to see us. Obviously this was not our fault. She said they would come in a few minutes when they finished the big cabin. Five minutes later they came and she again blamed us. I went off on her that our sign had been up from 6:30pm to 8pm. Nothing else pertained.. There was no excuse only an apology and a promise that this would not happen again. Her assistant agreed and poked her. We got out of the cabin and 5 minutes later they were out of there. Honestly. I was hoping to get this typed up and posted before we left the protected harbor but because of all this foolishness that did not happen. I was about to come apart when everything in the cabin went flying. Clay had left his camera on the table with the champagne bucket that was now half full of ice and water and a very cold half bottle of champagne. It was the first thing I found since it hit me. I didn't find Clay's soaked camera until I got under the balcony drapes. Then I had to get my jewelry out from under the couch. The bathroom shelf contents were in the sink etc. Clay found his tablet under the bed this morning. He was in the gym when we hit open water and said a whole rack of balls went flying. I don't think it could have been anymore dramatic than what happened in our room. He came in to find me on my hands and knees. I had just found and taken Dramamine. I had to take 2 more to stay knocked out and on the bed.
It is still very rough this morning as I type this. We went to Terrace for breakfast at 7:30am because Clay said that was when it opened but he must have been wrong. The stewardesses were just arriving on our hall as we returned 45 minutes later. So we got the tablet and my laptop and came up to deck 10 Horizons so I could finish this. I would say it was a mistake, but the rolling is so profound that no where on the ship could be immune. I am hoping for a needlepoint kit here at 9:30am. So it is easier just to stay put.
It promises to be a long 34 days. Sirena is a small ship and there are some big waters around Australia. Fingers crossed this will be the worst of it or that I will get used to it. I really think our big traveling days might be behind us. In many ways, I won't miss it.
Today is a sea day. Tomorrow is Brisbane.. We're glad we've already enjoyed a day there since the ship's port sheet declines to name our dock but says it is a $50AUD cab ride to the city. It is not clear if we'll make back into town or do laundry aboard. You couldn't get in the laundry room yesterday!
Photos
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Leaving Christchurch - Last day in New Zealand
Photos
We woke to a hot clear cloudless sky in Christchurch today. Where there was a chill breeze yesterday there was none here until afternoon today. Where we could not see the distant mountains yesterday even from the surrounding hilltops, they were clear on the horizon today. The sun was brutal.
We had a nearly empty breakfast room this morning, another big change from yesterday. What a difference a day makes.
We had our tram tour tickets to use today after 9am. We checked out after 9am and left our bags at the front desk. Our A2B Luxury airport pickup is scheduled for 3pm. Our first tram stop was to walk down to the CTV building which collapsed killing the majority of those who died in the 2011 quake. The ground floors were filled with children studying ESL and 115 people there died. It is a vacant memorial ground and signage says it will remain that way. Across the corner is another memorial of 185 Empty chairs. The rows of different chairs are all white and yesterday they all had a red flower on them. Today the flowers are gone. Down the block is the Cardboard Cathedral. Peter told us the Japanese donated it to the Anglicans to replace their church and that it has been in use almost 6 years. There was a service going this morning so we only looked around the outside to see how cleverly it was made. You could see through the glass front as well. We checked out a lot of street art. We rode the tram to the Re:Start Mall. We missed this area yesterday as we followed Clay's stupid Google map looking for an ATM. We walked straight through on a path elsewhere that missed by a half block in either direction at least 15 ATMS! So today we saw the container mall, the Bridge of Remembrance and the river terraces. We went down and closely observed how a Scaup duck dives. It looks like he releases air from his butt! We saw a big fish and a big eel. We wandered the container stores and the food trucks/stalls. We decided to have lunch there. Clay had a spicy braut and I had a wood-fired pizza that we shared with a Coke Zero. We had visited Ballantyne's and most everything else we wanted to visit on the tram line yesterday walking. We wanted to return to Rollickin' Gelato for Clay to have ice cream and to get another s'more slice. We finally got on another tram. They were not every 15 minutes today and they were very full when they came. The tram was not really worth the money. We enjoyed the punt much more for the money spent and think we'd have enjoyed the green caterpillar through the Botanic Garden more too. Anyway, finally back down to New Regent Street and Rollickin' did not have s'more slices today. We were very disappointed. Instead we shared an excellent slice of raspberry chocolate flourless cake with a side of whipped cream. Then we wandered back down the street and sat in a breezy spot in the shade where we got caught up giving Christchurch touring advice to a couple from Auckland for the last half hour before we had to go get our luggage and meet our ride.
Peter from our tour yesterday came again. He is excellent at his job. He did not leave us until he had our bags checked and we were ready to go through security. We walked around the unsecured domestic terminal for a while first. We probably should have stayed there longer since there was little on the other side but the necessity were there if not the variety. We walked straight through security and customs/immigration. Pacific Destinations had included NZ departure cards with our travel documents and instructed us to have them filled out and in hand, so we were ready to go. Even with my day pack being pulled out to be manually inspected, it was less than a minute from start to finish! Now we had 3 hours to wait around gate 27! We watched as it turned into 28A and back into 27. We spent most of our remaining NZ money. We spent the rest of our time trying to book a shuttle to the White Bay Cruise Terminal from the International Terminal of the airport. I have no idea why Clay refused to do this until now despite my prodding him for months. I have printed a brochure on the airport train as the last resort. The thing is that we are able to do that but it takes a train at $17.90pp plus walking and a $9pp ferry and more walking. So it is inconvenient and it costs more for 2 people than the online quotes. According to our Cruise Critic roll call it is too late and everything is booked up already and was weeks ago. The other thing is that it is Sunday afternoon/evening and the offices are closed. I expect we'll be going the more expensive and inconvenient method. He says he'll call the Sydney City Shuttle in the morning. It was a different flight. It was 3 by 3 rows and no first, business or premium classes. The entire jet was only economy. Strange particularly for a 5 or so hour international flight. It was almost full. It was fine. We each watched a movie with the inflight entertainment systems and headsets at our seats and they served a meal. Clay got a final couple servings of excellent New Zealand ice cream.
This flight was fine. It left and arrived on schedule. The arrival at Sydney could not have gone quicker or smoother. They had e-passport readers scattered all along the way to baggage claim. We used those without issues. Took our tickets and the immigration forms we had filled out onboard and claimed our bags and had our photos made, turned in our tickets and forms on our way out and we were out. It was maybe 15 minutes! We spent 2 hours from landing trying to get our bags and exit LAX on a domestic flight! Well done Sydney!
We walked out of International Arrivals and about 150 meters to the right to Rydges where we had prepaid our one night hotel. We got in about 10pm. We asked about getting ice and she told us she'd have room service bring it up to us on 6. Forty-five minutes later still no ice and we were waiting up for it. I called down to Reception to cancel the request and the girl who answered asked if we'd been waiting 2 or 3 hours. I told her 45 minutes and we weren't willing to wait any longer. Nevermind. How appalling is that? Do they start freezing the water for ice when it is requested?
Tomorrow we start cruising and hopefully travel will be easier for a month or so!
Photos
We woke to a hot clear cloudless sky in Christchurch today. Where there was a chill breeze yesterday there was none here until afternoon today. Where we could not see the distant mountains yesterday even from the surrounding hilltops, they were clear on the horizon today. The sun was brutal.
We had a nearly empty breakfast room this morning, another big change from yesterday. What a difference a day makes.
We had our tram tour tickets to use today after 9am. We checked out after 9am and left our bags at the front desk. Our A2B Luxury airport pickup is scheduled for 3pm. Our first tram stop was to walk down to the CTV building which collapsed killing the majority of those who died in the 2011 quake. The ground floors were filled with children studying ESL and 115 people there died. It is a vacant memorial ground and signage says it will remain that way. Across the corner is another memorial of 185 Empty chairs. The rows of different chairs are all white and yesterday they all had a red flower on them. Today the flowers are gone. Down the block is the Cardboard Cathedral. Peter told us the Japanese donated it to the Anglicans to replace their church and that it has been in use almost 6 years. There was a service going this morning so we only looked around the outside to see how cleverly it was made. You could see through the glass front as well. We checked out a lot of street art. We rode the tram to the Re:Start Mall. We missed this area yesterday as we followed Clay's stupid Google map looking for an ATM. We walked straight through on a path elsewhere that missed by a half block in either direction at least 15 ATMS! So today we saw the container mall, the Bridge of Remembrance and the river terraces. We went down and closely observed how a Scaup duck dives. It looks like he releases air from his butt! We saw a big fish and a big eel. We wandered the container stores and the food trucks/stalls. We decided to have lunch there. Clay had a spicy braut and I had a wood-fired pizza that we shared with a Coke Zero. We had visited Ballantyne's and most everything else we wanted to visit on the tram line yesterday walking. We wanted to return to Rollickin' Gelato for Clay to have ice cream and to get another s'more slice. We finally got on another tram. They were not every 15 minutes today and they were very full when they came. The tram was not really worth the money. We enjoyed the punt much more for the money spent and think we'd have enjoyed the green caterpillar through the Botanic Garden more too. Anyway, finally back down to New Regent Street and Rollickin' did not have s'more slices today. We were very disappointed. Instead we shared an excellent slice of raspberry chocolate flourless cake with a side of whipped cream. Then we wandered back down the street and sat in a breezy spot in the shade where we got caught up giving Christchurch touring advice to a couple from Auckland for the last half hour before we had to go get our luggage and meet our ride.
Peter from our tour yesterday came again. He is excellent at his job. He did not leave us until he had our bags checked and we were ready to go through security. We walked around the unsecured domestic terminal for a while first. We probably should have stayed there longer since there was little on the other side but the necessity were there if not the variety. We walked straight through security and customs/immigration. Pacific Destinations had included NZ departure cards with our travel documents and instructed us to have them filled out and in hand, so we were ready to go. Even with my day pack being pulled out to be manually inspected, it was less than a minute from start to finish! Now we had 3 hours to wait around gate 27! We watched as it turned into 28A and back into 27. We spent most of our remaining NZ money. We spent the rest of our time trying to book a shuttle to the White Bay Cruise Terminal from the International Terminal of the airport. I have no idea why Clay refused to do this until now despite my prodding him for months. I have printed a brochure on the airport train as the last resort. The thing is that we are able to do that but it takes a train at $17.90pp plus walking and a $9pp ferry and more walking. So it is inconvenient and it costs more for 2 people than the online quotes. According to our Cruise Critic roll call it is too late and everything is booked up already and was weeks ago. The other thing is that it is Sunday afternoon/evening and the offices are closed. I expect we'll be going the more expensive and inconvenient method. He says he'll call the Sydney City Shuttle in the morning. It was a different flight. It was 3 by 3 rows and no first, business or premium classes. The entire jet was only economy. Strange particularly for a 5 or so hour international flight. It was almost full. It was fine. We each watched a movie with the inflight entertainment systems and headsets at our seats and they served a meal. Clay got a final couple servings of excellent New Zealand ice cream.
This flight was fine. It left and arrived on schedule. The arrival at Sydney could not have gone quicker or smoother. They had e-passport readers scattered all along the way to baggage claim. We used those without issues. Took our tickets and the immigration forms we had filled out onboard and claimed our bags and had our photos made, turned in our tickets and forms on our way out and we were out. It was maybe 15 minutes! We spent 2 hours from landing trying to get our bags and exit LAX on a domestic flight! Well done Sydney!
We walked out of International Arrivals and about 150 meters to the right to Rydges where we had prepaid our one night hotel. We got in about 10pm. We asked about getting ice and she told us she'd have room service bring it up to us on 6. Forty-five minutes later still no ice and we were waiting up for it. I called down to Reception to cancel the request and the girl who answered asked if we'd been waiting 2 or 3 hours. I told her 45 minutes and we weren't willing to wait any longer. Nevermind. How appalling is that? Do they start freezing the water for ice when it is requested?
Tomorrow we start cruising and hopefully travel will be easier for a month or so!
Photos
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Christchurch
Photos
Clay woke us up at 7am somehow. When he turned on the lights I was confused because I thought it was still the middle of the night! I guess I was tired.
We went down to breakfast about 8am. It was a bad sign when we had to wait as 3 elevators stopped at 6 and then filled up before going on down. We were just contemplating walking the stairs when an elevator came that was nearly empty. Two elevators are probably a little less than adequate for a 22 story building. Rendezvous Hotel is one of 3 new high rise hotel buildings that survived the 2011 earthquake. Anyway, from the luggage in the hall and the crowd in the lobby and at breakfast, it seemed that an Asian tour group was departing about 9am. The hotel's breakfast area won't seat 50 people, so you'd think when they have a busload departing that they'd assign them breakfast times instead of all of them arriving en masse. Maybe they did. Anyway, after so effort we did get seats and a little something to eat. They had a pancake dispenser and we both ended up eating pancakes since either no one else had noticed it off to the side at the end of the buffet line or no one else wanted pancakes. They ran out of most everything else while we were there. We enjoyed the pancakes but some bacon would have been nice with them. Anyway. We had to be outside for our 3 hour private car driver/guided tour at 9am. All of our tour vouchers here in Christchurch are with A2B Luxury Lines. All 3 are for car/drivers too. One was yesterday's pickup and hotel drop off. Tomorrow at 3pm we have a hotel pickup airport drop off at 3pm. But today we had a tour with Peter Cox. He was on time and professional. He did an excellent job and gave us lots of information about Christchurch past, present and future. He drove us up a hill for an overlook after walking us around the earthquake ruined cathedral. He drove us around and over that hill/mountain which had recently burned and we could smell it still. We arrived around the other side at Governor's Bay and Lyttleton. We got out and viewed the port operations there and then drove around the bustling little community. We drove through the Lyttleton tunnel to return through the Red Zone to Christchurch and the Rendezvous Hotel. It was the best done tour we've had since we arrived in New Zealand. After Peter dropped us off, we checked our map and headed next door to the tram ticket office that we'd seen yesterday evening.
We decided to buy a combo punt/tram ticket since we could use one today and one tomorrow. Since it was so nice today we went punting on the Avon today. The young lady at the ticket office offered to call and reserve our time. It was a little after noon so she suggested 1:30pm to give us time for a leisurely stroll. That was nice and it worked out well. We saved $5 by booking both. It was about $92NZD. We really enjoyed the punting. The punter talked about what we were seeing the entire time and we saw 2 native NZ duck species. The Avon where they punt runs through park land and the botanical garden so the plants were interesting as well. The Scaup duck we had first spotted diving and swimming in the lake at Queenstown so we were happy to learn about it and see a mom and 3 chicks up close. The chicks can dive within 3 days of hatching even with baby fuzz! The Paradise ducks I had seen from the coach on every day of our long drives, so again it was nice to see up close and learn about what it was.
After punting, we spent an hour or so walking in the Botanic Garden. It was something and if we'd realized we should have bought a 3 combined ticket to include the little green tram tour of the Botanic Gardens. Clay argued no since you could not stop and look at plants and trees and fountains and art more closely. We had a late lunch/early dinner meal at an Asian place called DUO across the street. It was really good and we were a little nervous after our inedible Asian meal last night.
As we started to walk back to the Rendezvous, Clay decided that we should have some NZ cash to get us through the next 24 hours to our departure. He Google mapped a walk on his phone and we walked for what felt like hours! It was a bad idea. After he paid $3 for the privilege of accessing his funds in the middle of a mall, we walked back out to see our hotel lined up across the far side of Christchurch what looked like 2 miles away. We walked and walked. Because of all the earthquake devastation/demolition and reconstruction it seems like every other block the sidewalk is closed so it seemed like an even longer walk. I grumbled A LOT. Clay wanted to go to Rollickin' Gelato on New Regent St. past our hotel. We had seen it last night with a long line. I grumbled some more. Then we got in there and they had a s'mores slice! OMG! I got one while Clay got a dark chocolate gelato cone. She asked me if I wanted whipped cream on it and I just stood there mouth breathing. She laughed and said maybe on the side. I snapped out of my amazed daze and agreed, yeah maybe okay on the side. It was delicious. Especially delicious with the whipping cream. Have we mentioned the amazing NZ dairy products? Yeah, might have. I wonder how they made that massive layer of toasted marshmallow. It was continuous. Slice by the way is a generic term for any kind of what we would call a bar cookie in the US. Anyway, the s'more slice saved Clay. I told him I could not have imagined anything that was going to make that long ATM trek and back worth it until I spied that stack of s'more slices under glass at $5 each. I shared with Clay! A dessert that will live on in memory.
We have to check out by 10am tomorrow. We plan to leave the luggage here while we go out on our tram tour. We have to be picked up for our ride to the airport at 3pm. We fly to Sydney at about 6:25pm for arrival in Sydney around 8pm. We are spending the night at the Rydges Sydney Airport and the next morning we board Oceania's Sirena for a month long Australia circumnavigation. It will be good to be in one bedroom for a month!
While we cannot recommend Kensington Tours or their local provider Pacific Destinations as the tour was just badly designed and overpriced in our opinion, we highly recommend a visit to New Zealand. It is a country of varied and beautiful landscapes. It has a short but fascinating history. It has Hobbiton!
Photos
Clay woke us up at 7am somehow. When he turned on the lights I was confused because I thought it was still the middle of the night! I guess I was tired.
We went down to breakfast about 8am. It was a bad sign when we had to wait as 3 elevators stopped at 6 and then filled up before going on down. We were just contemplating walking the stairs when an elevator came that was nearly empty. Two elevators are probably a little less than adequate for a 22 story building. Rendezvous Hotel is one of 3 new high rise hotel buildings that survived the 2011 earthquake. Anyway, from the luggage in the hall and the crowd in the lobby and at breakfast, it seemed that an Asian tour group was departing about 9am. The hotel's breakfast area won't seat 50 people, so you'd think when they have a busload departing that they'd assign them breakfast times instead of all of them arriving en masse. Maybe they did. Anyway, after so effort we did get seats and a little something to eat. They had a pancake dispenser and we both ended up eating pancakes since either no one else had noticed it off to the side at the end of the buffet line or no one else wanted pancakes. They ran out of most everything else while we were there. We enjoyed the pancakes but some bacon would have been nice with them. Anyway. We had to be outside for our 3 hour private car driver/guided tour at 9am. All of our tour vouchers here in Christchurch are with A2B Luxury Lines. All 3 are for car/drivers too. One was yesterday's pickup and hotel drop off. Tomorrow at 3pm we have a hotel pickup airport drop off at 3pm. But today we had a tour with Peter Cox. He was on time and professional. He did an excellent job and gave us lots of information about Christchurch past, present and future. He drove us up a hill for an overlook after walking us around the earthquake ruined cathedral. He drove us around and over that hill/mountain which had recently burned and we could smell it still. We arrived around the other side at Governor's Bay and Lyttleton. We got out and viewed the port operations there and then drove around the bustling little community. We drove through the Lyttleton tunnel to return through the Red Zone to Christchurch and the Rendezvous Hotel. It was the best done tour we've had since we arrived in New Zealand. After Peter dropped us off, we checked our map and headed next door to the tram ticket office that we'd seen yesterday evening.
We decided to buy a combo punt/tram ticket since we could use one today and one tomorrow. Since it was so nice today we went punting on the Avon today. The young lady at the ticket office offered to call and reserve our time. It was a little after noon so she suggested 1:30pm to give us time for a leisurely stroll. That was nice and it worked out well. We saved $5 by booking both. It was about $92NZD. We really enjoyed the punting. The punter talked about what we were seeing the entire time and we saw 2 native NZ duck species. The Avon where they punt runs through park land and the botanical garden so the plants were interesting as well. The Scaup duck we had first spotted diving and swimming in the lake at Queenstown so we were happy to learn about it and see a mom and 3 chicks up close. The chicks can dive within 3 days of hatching even with baby fuzz! The Paradise ducks I had seen from the coach on every day of our long drives, so again it was nice to see up close and learn about what it was.
After punting, we spent an hour or so walking in the Botanic Garden. It was something and if we'd realized we should have bought a 3 combined ticket to include the little green tram tour of the Botanic Gardens. Clay argued no since you could not stop and look at plants and trees and fountains and art more closely. We had a late lunch/early dinner meal at an Asian place called DUO across the street. It was really good and we were a little nervous after our inedible Asian meal last night.
As we started to walk back to the Rendezvous, Clay decided that we should have some NZ cash to get us through the next 24 hours to our departure. He Google mapped a walk on his phone and we walked for what felt like hours! It was a bad idea. After he paid $3 for the privilege of accessing his funds in the middle of a mall, we walked back out to see our hotel lined up across the far side of Christchurch what looked like 2 miles away. We walked and walked. Because of all the earthquake devastation/demolition and reconstruction it seems like every other block the sidewalk is closed so it seemed like an even longer walk. I grumbled A LOT. Clay wanted to go to Rollickin' Gelato on New Regent St. past our hotel. We had seen it last night with a long line. I grumbled some more. Then we got in there and they had a s'mores slice! OMG! I got one while Clay got a dark chocolate gelato cone. She asked me if I wanted whipped cream on it and I just stood there mouth breathing. She laughed and said maybe on the side. I snapped out of my amazed daze and agreed, yeah maybe okay on the side. It was delicious. Especially delicious with the whipping cream. Have we mentioned the amazing NZ dairy products? Yeah, might have. I wonder how they made that massive layer of toasted marshmallow. It was continuous. Slice by the way is a generic term for any kind of what we would call a bar cookie in the US. Anyway, the s'more slice saved Clay. I told him I could not have imagined anything that was going to make that long ATM trek and back worth it until I spied that stack of s'more slices under glass at $5 each. I shared with Clay! A dessert that will live on in memory.
We have to check out by 10am tomorrow. We plan to leave the luggage here while we go out on our tram tour. We have to be picked up for our ride to the airport at 3pm. We fly to Sydney at about 6:25pm for arrival in Sydney around 8pm. We are spending the night at the Rydges Sydney Airport and the next morning we board Oceania's Sirena for a month long Australia circumnavigation. It will be good to be in one bedroom for a month!
While we cannot recommend Kensington Tours or their local provider Pacific Destinations as the tour was just badly designed and overpriced in our opinion, we highly recommend a visit to New Zealand. It is a country of varied and beautiful landscapes. It has a short but fascinating history. It has Hobbiton!
Photos
Friday, March 3, 2017
to Christchurch
Photos
We had to be outside the Scenic Hotel at 9:10am this morning. So we didn't have to get up too early and we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. There were a lot of people from the Scenic waiting for that bus. All these last few days of buses/coaches have been operated by Inter-City. Evidently they have an app that lets people book bus rides/pickups/drop-offs as well as being booked by outfits like Pacific Destinations who are our local provider. The really surprising thing was the number of people who like us only spent one night in Franz Josef! That is crazy. It is amazing the number of people who are being sold this crazy road trip itinerary. There were probably 20 people on our bus who have been on buses with us all day for the last 3 days. This has been the road trip to end all road trips. We never want to travel again. And here is the thing, we are big fans of public transit but I had argued with our Kensington Tours agent Colin that this was too much coach travel all at one time and he disagreed and said it was well done. It was not. I would never refer anyone to this tour. I heard a 20-something backpacker whining this morning as he boarded the bus. He had been on with us yesterday too. He told his seatmate for the morning that he'd done almost nothing but ride buses for 3 days. He had gone to Milford Sound like us 3 days ago. Clay reckons we have spent over 25 hours on coaches over the past 3 days. The roads are clogged with the same buses we keep seeing over and over, so Colin is right that it is being sold but that doesn't make it right.
We were picked up by John the afternoon driver from yesterday. He is good, friendly, happy in his job, informative. This afternoon we had a woman, I believe her name was Nicole or Nicki. She was in a mood, snappish, angry, not very informative at all, terse to the point of curtness. The long period of unseasonable sunshine we had been enjoying ended as well. We had low clouds and rain most of the day. We drove along the Tasman Sea coast all morning and in the afternoon headed across the Southern Alps for Christchurch.
We arrived at a little after 6pm. We had been booked through to the train station since this last coach ride was the train replacement due to wildfires. So our luggage had been loaded on the other side of the bus. The bad news is that at the first stop at the bus station was a man with our name on a sign. Clay just happened to look out and see it. We ran off and asked him if he was for us to the Rendezvous Hotel and he was. Our luggage was not where Nicki would let us get to it from outside since it was on the other side of the bus. We explained that our driver had come here instead of the train station and she said it wasn't her problem. Clay almost had a stroke crawling through the bowels of the bus undercarriage and lifting the bags over the interior dividers from the other side. It was a fitting ending to the New Zealand road trip from hell. The driver that met us told us that yesterday all their train passengers had been put off the bus at the bus station and all the drivers were at the train station so today his boss sent them all to the bus station. Not really helpful. Then he told me his boss asked him to ask his passengers if they were having a good trip because they had some bad feedback. This was the first contact with this limo provider so I don't know what our trip to date could have to do with them, but I told him no we weren't having a good trip. This misstep didn't make us any happier either. The same company provides us a 3 hour Christchurch sightseeing trip tomorrow morning and drives us to the airport the afternoon of the following day.
Clay says it hasn't all been bad. The koalas were good (but not even in New Zealand) and Hobbiton was incredible and there were the dolphins in Milford Sound. I don't think Kensington Tours or Pacific Destinations gets any credit for any of that. You wouldn't fly half way around the world and spend over $7K for it.
Fingers crossed that Oceania and Australian train trips exceed expectations.
We ate at the Sampan House next door to Rendezvous. We didn't care for it. We walked around the surrounding street to check menus within a block of the hotel and didn't find anything for tomorrow night either.
So, we enjoyed the North Island portion of the itinerary and it was well planned and designed. The South Island portion was a hot mess. We have certainly seen some amazing landscapes and scenery though and more of it than we could stomach. The thing that has been most remarkable to both of us is the almost total lack of wildlife. There are hardly even any birds. So where a lot of parts look familiar, and like places you have been elsewhere in the world, here you miss the animals. It is hard to comprehend a land without any native mammals! (We didn't see the 2 kinds of bats.)
So, oddity note. As we walked around the hotel area, there were lots of lizard silhouettes embedded in walkways, benches, etc. We don't know what that is about since we hadn't heard anything about any lizards existing in New Zealand! Ah, I guess it just never came up.
Photos
We had to be outside the Scenic Hotel at 9:10am this morning. So we didn't have to get up too early and we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. There were a lot of people from the Scenic waiting for that bus. All these last few days of buses/coaches have been operated by Inter-City. Evidently they have an app that lets people book bus rides/pickups/drop-offs as well as being booked by outfits like Pacific Destinations who are our local provider. The really surprising thing was the number of people who like us only spent one night in Franz Josef! That is crazy. It is amazing the number of people who are being sold this crazy road trip itinerary. There were probably 20 people on our bus who have been on buses with us all day for the last 3 days. This has been the road trip to end all road trips. We never want to travel again. And here is the thing, we are big fans of public transit but I had argued with our Kensington Tours agent Colin that this was too much coach travel all at one time and he disagreed and said it was well done. It was not. I would never refer anyone to this tour. I heard a 20-something backpacker whining this morning as he boarded the bus. He had been on with us yesterday too. He told his seatmate for the morning that he'd done almost nothing but ride buses for 3 days. He had gone to Milford Sound like us 3 days ago. Clay reckons we have spent over 25 hours on coaches over the past 3 days. The roads are clogged with the same buses we keep seeing over and over, so Colin is right that it is being sold but that doesn't make it right.
We were picked up by John the afternoon driver from yesterday. He is good, friendly, happy in his job, informative. This afternoon we had a woman, I believe her name was Nicole or Nicki. She was in a mood, snappish, angry, not very informative at all, terse to the point of curtness. The long period of unseasonable sunshine we had been enjoying ended as well. We had low clouds and rain most of the day. We drove along the Tasman Sea coast all morning and in the afternoon headed across the Southern Alps for Christchurch.
We arrived at a little after 6pm. We had been booked through to the train station since this last coach ride was the train replacement due to wildfires. So our luggage had been loaded on the other side of the bus. The bad news is that at the first stop at the bus station was a man with our name on a sign. Clay just happened to look out and see it. We ran off and asked him if he was for us to the Rendezvous Hotel and he was. Our luggage was not where Nicki would let us get to it from outside since it was on the other side of the bus. We explained that our driver had come here instead of the train station and she said it wasn't her problem. Clay almost had a stroke crawling through the bowels of the bus undercarriage and lifting the bags over the interior dividers from the other side. It was a fitting ending to the New Zealand road trip from hell. The driver that met us told us that yesterday all their train passengers had been put off the bus at the bus station and all the drivers were at the train station so today his boss sent them all to the bus station. Not really helpful. Then he told me his boss asked him to ask his passengers if they were having a good trip because they had some bad feedback. This was the first contact with this limo provider so I don't know what our trip to date could have to do with them, but I told him no we weren't having a good trip. This misstep didn't make us any happier either. The same company provides us a 3 hour Christchurch sightseeing trip tomorrow morning and drives us to the airport the afternoon of the following day.
Clay says it hasn't all been bad. The koalas were good (but not even in New Zealand) and Hobbiton was incredible and there were the dolphins in Milford Sound. I don't think Kensington Tours or Pacific Destinations gets any credit for any of that. You wouldn't fly half way around the world and spend over $7K for it.
Fingers crossed that Oceania and Australian train trips exceed expectations.
We ate at the Sampan House next door to Rendezvous. We didn't care for it. We walked around the surrounding street to check menus within a block of the hotel and didn't find anything for tomorrow night either.
So, we enjoyed the North Island portion of the itinerary and it was well planned and designed. The South Island portion was a hot mess. We have certainly seen some amazing landscapes and scenery though and more of it than we could stomach. The thing that has been most remarkable to both of us is the almost total lack of wildlife. There are hardly even any birds. So where a lot of parts look familiar, and like places you have been elsewhere in the world, here you miss the animals. It is hard to comprehend a land without any native mammals! (We didn't see the 2 kinds of bats.)
So, oddity note. As we walked around the hotel area, there were lots of lizard silhouettes embedded in walkways, benches, etc. We don't know what that is about since we hadn't heard anything about any lizards existing in New Zealand! Ah, I guess it just never came up.
Photos
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Queenstown to Franz Josef
Photos
We all know that today was just a long coach ride and it was. It did not started out well and quickly went bad. New Zealand has some remarkable landscapes and we appreciated them as well as we could from the back row of a 50-person coach being driven at breakneck speeds around narrow hairpin turns. I feel as if I have shaken baby syndrome, or my brain stem has almost been rattled loose from my brain. It has just not been a well-designed trip. I questioned our Kensington agent about this portion of the trip repeatedly but I think he had less knowledge about it than I did, so it is what it is. I cannot recommend this to anyone! And yet we sat outside the Novotel Lakeside this morning and watched 100s of people load huge coaches all bound for Milford Sound. I guess not only is it deemed an acceptable use of time but it is popular. So, maybe we are just too jaded and should stay home more. That is our thinking right now.
So, we stopped several times for breaks and we got to take a little scenic walk. We stopped for tea time at a salmon farm. We changed bus drivers at Thunder Falls. We got to Scenic Hotel in Franz Josef in time to take a shuttle for $12.50 return pp to take a 40-minute round trip walk to see the Franz Josef glacier. Again, I guess we are jaded. It was just another glacier. We wouldn't take an 8-hour coach ride to see it. But we did.
We shopped some, ate some ice cream, came back into town from the glacier and ate dinner at Snake Bite Brewery. It was good.
We get to sleep in tomorrow as our coach won't pick us up until around 9am. We drive to Greymouth by hopefully 1:15pm because the coach replacing the canceled TranzAlpine Train leaves for Christchurch is at 1:30pm. We should get to Christchurch by 8pm or so. Christchurch is where we end our New Zealand trip. It hasn't been all bad, but it hasn't been very good either. The trip, not the country. New Zealand is awesome!
Photos
We all know that today was just a long coach ride and it was. It did not started out well and quickly went bad. New Zealand has some remarkable landscapes and we appreciated them as well as we could from the back row of a 50-person coach being driven at breakneck speeds around narrow hairpin turns. I feel as if I have shaken baby syndrome, or my brain stem has almost been rattled loose from my brain. It has just not been a well-designed trip. I questioned our Kensington agent about this portion of the trip repeatedly but I think he had less knowledge about it than I did, so it is what it is. I cannot recommend this to anyone! And yet we sat outside the Novotel Lakeside this morning and watched 100s of people load huge coaches all bound for Milford Sound. I guess not only is it deemed an acceptable use of time but it is popular. So, maybe we are just too jaded and should stay home more. That is our thinking right now.
So, we stopped several times for breaks and we got to take a little scenic walk. We stopped for tea time at a salmon farm. We changed bus drivers at Thunder Falls. We got to Scenic Hotel in Franz Josef in time to take a shuttle for $12.50 return pp to take a 40-minute round trip walk to see the Franz Josef glacier. Again, I guess we are jaded. It was just another glacier. We wouldn't take an 8-hour coach ride to see it. But we did.
We shopped some, ate some ice cream, came back into town from the glacier and ate dinner at Snake Bite Brewery. It was good.
We get to sleep in tomorrow as our coach won't pick us up until around 9am. We drive to Greymouth by hopefully 1:15pm because the coach replacing the canceled TranzAlpine Train leaves for Christchurch is at 1:30pm. We should get to Christchurch by 8pm or so. Christchurch is where we end our New Zealand trip. It hasn't been all bad, but it hasn't been very good either. The trip, not the country. New Zealand is awesome!
Photos
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