Day 60, Parasailing in Paradise Bay of Islands Flying Kiwi Parasail Our previous visit to Waitangi, Bay of Islands, was in 2016. We watched people having a great time on the parasails. We tried to find another operator for the rest of that cruise and even since then,...
Day 59, Mini Yarn Crawl and Boat Ride MARITIME MUSEUM A visit to the Auckland Maritime museum, quite close to the cruise terminal, has been on my Auckland “to do” list and I would finally get my chance on our second day here. I also discovered that they have several...
Day 58, Wine on Waiheke PILOT ARRIVES Before dawn I heard the sound of a powerboat close off our starboard side. It turned out to be the harbor pilot’s boat running along side the ms Amsterdam. A rope ladder was lowered for the harbor pilot to scramble up to board...
Day 57, Super Tuesday at Sea COFFEE CHAT The Maori Cultural Ambassadors, Lucky, Pali, Destiny Rose, and Brady, were the guests at Coffee Chat this morning. While all are from New Zealand, they have different backgrounds and bring a variety of different experiences to...
Day 56, Bowlers and Bumbershoots INTERNET SPEED As we transit areas not frequently visited by cruise ships, the internet service is not as good because there are fewer satellites with less bandwidth than in areas with more cruise...
As a result of concerns over Corona Virus and how it may affect our ability to visit ports in the future, Holland America has cancelled our visit to Singapore and all of our Indonesian Ports. After we leave Darwin, we will proceed west directly to Sri Lanka, adding...
Day 55, Nukuʻalofa, Tonga Welcome to Tonga After our tender port in Rarotonga, it was nice to arrive in a port where we could walk off the ship. We arrived early, around 7 AM, and the first thing that struck me was how modern the city looked in the port area. There...
Day 54 – Advance all Clocks 23 hours! Early this morning we advanced all clocks 23 hours as we crossed the International Date Line. Actually, we advanced all clocks 24 hours and then set them back 1 hour as we continue our westward journey toward Tonga. TONGA HEALTH...
Day 53, Mardi Gras at sea! Making Poi! The Maori Cultural Ambassadors were leading a class on “How to make Poi” at 9 AM by the Lido Pool. Having been on cruises with the Maori Cultural Ambassadors before I knew that when they said “Poi” they meant the balls, attached...
Day 52, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands We arrived at Rarotonga Island around 6:30 this morning. Until recently I didn’t realize that Cook Islands is the name for the 15 islands that collectively are the “Cook Islands” We will be visiting Rarotonga which is the...