We've been married 6 years and never been on more than a weekend getaway. Our vacation plan started as a trip to Yellowstone National Park, but it caught fire so we postponed that for some other time. Then we thought of going to Universal Studios for a weekend trip, but that was too short. Next we grew interested in an Alaskan cruise, so we went to a travel agent recommended by a friend. We found a brochure for a New Zealand cruise on a small sailing ship by Windstar Cruises. Australia and New Zealand had been on our "dream vacation" list, and we fell in love with the idea and planned a 22 day vacation Down Under.
Two islands with a population of 3 million. Most of our experience in New Zealand was at ports of call, but two days each in Auckland and Rotorua were before the cruise, and included some of our favorite memories. We fantasize about renting an apartment in Auckland for a month someday. We also fantasize about perhaps moving to New Zealand or Australia, but since this was our first real travel experience, we can't tell if we really love Down Under, or if we really love traveling. I suppose there's only one way to find out...
We visited several locations on the north island, but barely saw any of the south island. Everywhere we went, locals asked if we were going to Queenstown on the south island. After the first few times, we knew it should have been in our plans. By the end of our NZ visit the reminders about Queenstown had become nearly torturous. If/when we return, we must visit the south island.
| Wharf - memories from the wharf in downtown Auckland. The city of Auckland gained a great economic boost when they became the home of the Americas Cup race. It's a beautiful city; there's so much more of it we wanted to see. | ||||
 Lovely weather. |
 Entrance to the Volvo Ocean Race area of the wharf. |
 Americas Cup teams preparing for the upcoming race. |
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 Typical European street entertainment. |
 A native Aucklander couple took our picture at the pier. |
 Luxury apartments at the wharf (~$1.5 million US). |
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| Rotorua - Rotorua is geothermally very active. We even enjoyed an evening relaxing in natural hot spring pools! The city is exceptionally clean, and wins awards for it. Cleaning crews begin at 4am every day. | ||||
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Maori "Hangi" - we enjoyed a greeting ritual and song and dance performances in a Maori village, followed by an authentic Maori dinner cooked in a Hangi pit. |
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 Maori greeting. |
 Hangi pit. |
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Paradise Springs - small wildlife park where we had our first face to face encounter with wallabies! |
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Agrodome - sheep farm with sheering demonstrations and more. |
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 The dogs actually move "through" the sheep herd by walking on their backs! |
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| 10 days on the Wind Song. We don't have many pictures from the cruise, but we sure have plenty of memories! It's hard to decide whether to take another Windstar cruise for our next vacation, or take a land vacation - we loved both parts of our vacation. | ||||
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Tauranga, Jan 13 - Our first port, a resort town. We were supposed to board the ship in Auckland on the 12th but the ship broke down for a day in Tauranga and we were bussed to the ship. The food on the ship was incredible - every meal was fabulous. Here are a couple pictures of the ship itself. |
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Sea Kayaking, Jan 18 and 19 - Sea kayaking in a two person kayak. The 18th was on choppy water at Abel Tasman National Park. The 19th was on calm water near Picton. We think this may be a hobby to pursue... |
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 Abel Tasman National Park. |
 Our energetic guides. |
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Kaikoura - Gale force 8 winds caused us to miss our second to last port. We missed our opportunity to swim with the dolphins. Maybe next time... |
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After 16 days in New Zealand, we reluctantly boarded a plane to Australia. If we felt like kids in a candy store in NZ, we felt like it all over again in Australia. Australia has the land area of the United States with a population of only 18 million, compared to 250 million in the US. The population is concentrated in a few spots, and most of the continent is harsh terrain.
| Sydney began as a British penal colony. It's a busy metropolis, with plenty of scenery and parks and beaches and ... can you tell I'm in love? The city parts of the Matrix were filmed here. The fountain scene with the woman in the red dress was filmed just a couple blocks from our hotel. | ||||
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Sydney Harbor Cruise - the Sydney harbor has 66 bays, and we took a 2:30 hour cruise through part of the harbor. It's fascinating how the waterfront alternates between beaches, luxury homes, and national parks. |
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 Sydney Opera House. We managed to catch a play one evening, too. |
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 The coasts are filled with homes like this! |
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 The cruise operator said this is their equivalent of the White House. (But, the capital is in Canberra?) |
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Wildlife Park - koalas, wallabies, kangaroos and other loveable creatures. |
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 Posing with a koala. |
 Bren feeds a wallaby. |
 Stalked by a Tasmanian devil! |
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Light Festival - at night the State Library building near the Opera House gets a colorful face lift. |
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| Dive The Reef - We took a cruise to Michaelmas Cay, where I dove the Great Barrier Reef, and Bren snorkeled and rode in a partial submersible. I rented the underwater camera. | ||||
 Corals and little fishes. |
 I dove with an introductory dive instructor, a photographer, and another tourist. |
 Up close and personal with Clown Anemone fish getting a massage. (The camera makes it look further away than it was - 3 feet away). |
 One of Bren's favorite pictures - me in diving gear. |
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Kuranda - the morning of our last day Down Under, we rode an old fashioned train up to the town of Kuranda, had some awesome homemade ice cream, then rode the Sky Rail gondola back over the rainforest. |
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 Embarking from the train station. |
 Long ride back over the rainforest. |
 Gecko posing for us. |
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Cuddle a Koala Park - the afternoon of our last day Down Under, we made some spontaneous plan changes and visited another wildlife park. This one had the unusual distinction that guests could hold a koala! The one we got to hold was sleepy and kept snuggling us. Bren tried to think of a way smuggle back a koala and wallaby, but was thwarted by local authorities. |
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 It's very hot out, and Bren is surrounded by kangaroos! |
 This is one of Bren's favorite memories of the trip. |
 This kangaroo was annoying the others, and eventually gave up and left. I captured a picture in mid-leap. |
 Bren, a wombat, and a bored park ranger. |
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