Cruising from Napier to Fiordland National Park

Cruising from Napier to Fiordland National Park

Napier is a coastal city on New Zealand North Island. It is famous for Art Deco architecture. Most of the buildings were built after the devastating earthquake in 1931.  We only had few hours in Napier and  spend a lot of the time in the museum where most of the art was related to the Earthquake. We got back on board for 6; pm departure for Wellington.

Wellington, the capital of New Zealand was our next port of call. Its reputation as a Windy Wellington didn’t seem justified the day we were there. Though it was cold, but not windy when we were out. Tried to go on cable car but for various reasons couldn’t do it. Walking around we saw the parliament building, and Beehive building which is a very impressive Federal government building. 

When we  got back on board, we saw the timber ready to be exported from the Wellington port, since forestry is a significant industry in New Zealand.  we  relaxed and had dinner etc. until it was time to depart at 11:pm arriving in Picton at 8: am. We had less time in Picton. After breakfast we disembarked arriving downtown Picton. Strolled around did some window shopping and outside one of the stores saw a black sweatshirt with New Zealand’s silver fern stamped on it. Went in to find out the price and also found all kinds of artifacts with New Zealand symbols. There were lots of koru pendants from which I ended up buying one along with the sweat shirt with silver fern. Kiwi bird, of course, was another symbol I had to look for and found some snack plates with Kiwi birds. Now have all three New Zealand symbols in my possession.

 Our next stop was Akaroa which was a tender port. When we disembarked, we had to go on  tenders to get to this small town. It  had beautiful victorian villas and plenty of cafes and restaurants to savor. Because the original port Lyttleton was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake, Akaroa became the port and is the base point of excursions to Christchurch. Our stay there was very pleasant. We walked around the town until it was time to go back to the ship. First available tender brought us back to the ship. The next day was scheduled for cruising the Fiordland National Park. We were informed that the best way to see and enjoy the Fiordland National Park from the cruise ship was find a comfortable spot in the observation area. On Noordam the observation area is a chic and elegant lounge in the front of the ship. It has a cocktail bar which meant the drinks and snacks were flowing through out the day when you luxuriate on  designer furniture with huge windows all around  to view the spectacular scenery of Fiord National Park. Only problem with the place was that when a special time like cruising the Fiords, it was not only mobbed but also full of fair number of bullies who grabbed the best seats in the house and made sure they, and their friends had those seats for the day. Anyway, We just did the best we could under the circumstances. From there we were to have two sea days as we were headed to Australia. Of course, Hobart, Tasmania would be our first stop in Australia. We were warned that the Tasmanian sea is notorious for very rough water. And boy! Was it ever rough. It was so rough that we had 5-meter-high swells most of the two days. It was scary and noisy and made most people nauseous, and  we were grateful, relieved and happy at the prospect of getting some sleep when we arrived at the port of Hobart very early morning bringing us to the first port in Australia.

Click here for Hobart, Tasmania