Tauranga, according to our bus driver/tour guide, is like Auckland with the volume turned down several notches.  The area around the port is resort-like with good surfing, lovely beaches, shops, restaurants, and a relaxed atmosphere. The port itself is the largest and most efficient in the Southern Hemisphere.  The claim to fame of greatest interest…

We have four ports to visit in New Zealand.  The first of these is Auckland.  On this tour, the tour guide was also the bus driver, so as we traveled down the left side of the road, we had commentary about the driving skills of the other drivers as well as the points of interest…

After we left Bora Bora we sailed Southwest towards Tonga.   According to the calendar we sailed for four days but it really was only three as we crossed the International Dateline before we reached Tonga.  We went to bed on February 19th and awoke on February 21st. The Kingdom of Tonga is comprised of…

We left Papeete at 4:30 in the morning for a short couple of hours trip to Mo’orea.  Unfortunately the storms were still in the area causing large ocean swells and the Captain decided to bypass Mo’orea and go on to Bora Bora.  Since Mo’orea has no natural or man made breakwater, it would have been…

Two days after leaving Pitcairn Island we reached a very cloudy and subsequently rainy Papeete on Saturday morning. Papeete is a somewhat modern city.  We’d planned on doing a bit of shopping after our excursion today but found out that all the stores close at 1:00 pm on Saturday and don’t reopen until Monday!  So…

The issue with the web site has been dealt with. Whew. My web hosts have been very helpful. Ron and I are landing in Auckland, New Zealand, in a few hours. We will get busy and catch up on our blog as we have time. In the meantime, here is a picture I did of…

Today, day 23, we reached Pitcairn Island.  It is the last British overseas territory in the Pacific.  It is just one of four volcanic islands that comprises the Pitcairn Islands group. There are no usable landing sites for us on the island so there were no excursions. You probably would never have heard of Pitcairn…

We finally arrived at Easter Island after 5 relaxing days at sea.  As the island has no docking facilities we have to take a Tender to the port if we are to visit the island.  Our Captain told us that loading the transfer boats would be a hit or miss operation due to the ocean…

It takes five days to travel from the Chilean coast to our next stop, Easter Island.  Luckily, the waters were calm so seasickness was not an issue at all.  The days went by quickly with all of the activities on ship.  Paul painted everyday, started ukulele lessons, and even joined a passenger group called the…

Today we made our last South American stop before we turn west into the South Pacific.   Arica is one of Chile’s largest ports and was the major port for shipping silver and gold mined in Bolivia to Spain when it was part of the Spanish empire.   We started our tour by visiting the…