New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 10 Friday 15 February - Fiordland

We had a bumpy ride overnight, and also travelling into a strong headwind, so we were very late arriving in the fiords. 
It was also dismal weather most of the day - overcast and some rain, and quite cold out. You don't see the fiords at their best in that sort of weather, and although it is still quite spectacular, photos don't come out all that well.
Anyway, here's a couple of pictures:

Sister ship the Golden Princess going through the fiords in the other direction.

A local tour boat - we saw three or four of various different sizes during the day.

 Lots of waterfalls

Leaving

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 9 Thursday 14 February - Dunedin

Today we had a shore excursion booked through Princess - a train trip to the Taieri Gorge.  This tour is available from Dunedin Railway Station, but for cruise ship tours they bring the train down to the port so you basically just walk off the ship and onto the train. Also as part of the cruise ship price they include beverages - basically unlimited beer, wine and soft drink - and also morning tea and lunch and an afternoon snack.  Each carriage on the train has a volunteer who serves the food and drinks and also answers questions, and there's also a person running a properly informative commentary from a central spot on the train.
The scenery is spectacular; photos really don't do it justice.  And, it was comfortable - plenty of room around the seats, lots of places from which to take photos and importantly - toilets on the train!  Basically, we had a really good day.
Some photos:

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 8 Wednesday 13 February - Akaroa

This port is always a tender port; cruise ships can't get anywhere near a dock - in fact, even where we were stopped there was apparently only about 4 metres of water under the ship.  This port is the "temporary" replacement for cruise ship calls at Christchurch - actually at the port at Lyttleton - which was destroyed in the earthquake back in 2011.  They are building a whole new cruise ship terminal at Lyttleton but it has taken a long time (not surprising; there were a lot of far more important things that needed to be rebuilt in Christchurch) but it has been delayed further - it was originally going to be ready for the 2019-20 summer season but now they're saying 2020-21.  And poor old Akaroa is buckling a little under the strain.
Disappointingly, the shore excursion I was going to do in Akaroa was cancelled, so we had no plans.  In the end Paul and I decided to just go ashore and look around Akaroa itself.  We have been there once before, and found a bistro where we got an excellent lunch on our earlier trip, so we went back there again.  And, happy to report that it was just as good second time around.  Our dinner companions tell us that we really should go and see the Giant's House next time - it sounds a bit uninspiring but is apparently well worth a look.
This is the first time we've left the Majestic Princess via a tender, and it was definitely a more comfortable trip than we've had with some other ships.  It was no more comfortable, but it seemed a little smoother and most importantly, it's the first time I've travelled on a tender and not been made to feel a little sick from the diesel fumes.

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 7 Tuesday 12 February - Wellington

Confusingly, we had to leave the ship via shuttles today.  This isn't uncommon when a cruise ship docks in a working port, but we've been here a couple of times on cruises before this, and were allowed to walk off through the port.  Anyway, the shuttles were really well organised, so that's all good.
First we went to our favourite coffee shop in Wellington (Verve Cafe) which unlike our favourite in Auckland was still open!  The Verve Cafe makes a good coffee, but the real attraction is their "Ginger Fig and Walnut Bread" which is absolutely delicious.
After we finished our coffee etc, we wandered off down towards Te Papa Museum which was our main target for the day.  We had tickets to see the Terracotta Warriors display - they've bought 10 of the actual warrior figures to the museum along with a lot of other items.  And, I learned a lesson in asking forgiveness and not permission. The tickets are set for a specific time, and ours was 2pm.  We were at the museum before midday, so I thought I'd try to get in earlier.  However, I asked at the ticket desk if we'd be able to go in sooner than our time and it was no, absolutely not, we're really busy today.  However, that was the Ticketek people.  When we eventually went back at about 1:30 the museum lady checking the tickets let us in without an issue, and she probably would have done so when we showed up earlier too.
Since we thought we had to wait after the Ticketek refusal, we went to a cafe in the museum and had a drink, and while we were there, a couple asked if they could sit with us.  Turns out they're from the Majestic Princess as well, and while we were chatting we discovered that they had also been on the Ovation of the Seas cruise that we took from Singapore to Sydney last year!  Not that surprising once you think about it though; if you're an Australian who likes cruising but you don't like travelling really long distances to get to your cruise, then there aren't that many different cruises you can do.  That cruise was something interesting and different for most of us!
When we got in to see it, the Terracotta Warriors display was really worth the wait.  Although I'd still like to go to Xian and see the whole thing for myself, this was a really interesting and informative little display.  Just a couple of Paul's photos:

And when we got back to the ship - they're already asking us to fill out disembarkation questionnaires!  6 days before the end of the cruise!  And what's fascinating is that you have to pick an option explaining how and when you want to leave the ship, but one really common one for people who live in Sydney and surrounds - leave the ship on foot and walk to Circular Quay station - isn't an option.  I wrote it in though  :-)

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 6 Monday 11 February - at sea

Not much to say about today - another quiet day consisting of not much more than eating, reading, lazing around with the only real point of interest being the sea which is still a little rough and bumpy.....
Although I did get some bad news late in the day - my shore excursion at Akaroa has been cancelled.  I was really looking forward to this - it was all about choosing and cooking fish and seafood, but not enough people had booked it so they cancelled.
The only other excursion which interests me is a trip to go on the Southern Alps Express which is apparently spectacular - but it apparently involves 5 hours on a bus in order to spend less time than that on the train.  And, for Paul and I to both go, it would cost the best part of $1000 which is an outrageous amount of money compared to the actual train fare.  So, we might wait until we come to New Zealand to travel around on land, and try it out then.

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 5 Sunday 10 February - Tauranga

Beautiful day in Tauranga - well, Mount Manganui is actually where the port is. We had no plans apart from walking around the town again, which we did. Then we returned to the ship for some more peace and quiet on top of all the previous peace and quiet.
At dinner, the Captain announced that the sea will be fairly rough this evening, and he was correct.  Not scary or anything, but the sort of rock and roll that makes it feel like you're better off lying down so you don't fall :-)

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 4 Saturday 9 February - Auckland

Arrived here at around midday, as planned.  The Norwegian Jewel was already docked; turns out they're staying here overnight and don't leave until tomorrow afternoon. 
We were hoping to go to our regular coffee shop, but it wasn't there any more - a different coffee chain had taken over and it was closed for the day!
As it happens we didn't really need a coffee anyway.  We wanted to pick up SIM cards for our phones and tablets to last us for the rest of the cruise.  The Spark store we'd normally go to seemed to be closed - HEAPS of building work going on around Auckland (including a new underground train system) and the shopping centre we'd normally go to seems to be completely closed while being renovated.  Anyway, the Spark store we found had a coffee shop inside.  We weren't going to have a coffee there, but they were having computer trouble and the young lady who was serving us shouted us a coffee while we waited. It was a really good coffee, and I didn't think we had to wait all that long anyway.  Overall a very efficient and happy experience.
We also found a food hall which had more Asian style food stores than I've ever seen in one place - it smelled absolutely delicious!  Paul has some Thai food which was apparently quite good; I ended up just having a pie - also good if not particularly Asian.
Here's the obligatory picture of (part of) the ship with our cabin circled:

I might try to get a picture of the whole ship when we're in port somewhere else; it really is quite large!

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 3 Friday 8 February - at sea

Very quiet day today - got up late and did very little.  We did confirm that there isn't really a good walking path around the ship, which is somewhat disappointing. 
Caught up with a movie that was showing on our previous cruise as part of the Sydney Film Festival, but that we missed at the time.  The film is called "Juliet, Naked" and it was really quite good.

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 2 Thursday 7 February - at sea

Last night we had to set the clocks forward an hour, but we still managed to wake up in time for breakfast.  We had both breakfast and lunch at the "World Fresh Marketplace" - aka "the buffet upstairs".  Both meals were quite good; nice range of different sorts of food.
Quiet day today as usual on sea days - the biggest decision we made was to sit out on the balcony and read for a while. We did happen to be walking near the Piazza (the big atrium area mid-ships) when the ship was being blessed as part of a Chinese New Year celebration so we stayed to watch.  The dancers were all from the Canberra Dragon Dance group!
The clocks go forward another hour tonight; I never have any idea what time it is once this starts to happen on a cruise because my Kindle, iPad, iPhone and Surface all seem to react differently to attempts to lie to them about the time! Perhaps I should have bought a non-digital watch with me :-)

New Zealand Cruise - Majestic Princess - Day 1 Wednesday 6 February - embarking

As usual, our taxi arrived on time so my built-in 'contingency for delays' wasn't needed and we arrived at the station quite early.  There was another group of passengers already there waiting for the train and they told us they were also heading off for the cruise.
Train trip was the usual 'slow and boring but far more comfortable than the bus' trip.
Arrived in Sydney and went down to Circular Quay to drop off our luggage - it was too early for our allocated boarding time - before heading off for food and then to try to find a back-rest for Paul to use on the ship.  Turns out we really needed to think of this earlier, as none of the obvious places in Sydney actually stock them in their city stores.
We got back to the ship for check-in at our allocated time - 2pm - and it was the quickest boarding ever.  Looks like most people completely ignored the boarding schedule sent out by Princess and were already onboard, so there were basically no queues anywhere.
Got up to our cabin and the suitcases were already there so we had time to unpack and have a quick shower - it was hot and sticky in Sydney - before being called to the muster drill.
We actually got to see the sail-away today - we always seem to be leaving at dinner time but this time we left not long after 4pm. 

We said farewell to the Opera House

and Kirribilli:

but then we both fell asleep; next thing I knew we had already sailed out through the heads and I just saw the cliffs behind us as we sailed away:

We were awake in time for dinner which is at the outrageously early 5:15pm.  At least this cruise we appear to have two table-mates, a couple of similar ages to us who come from Adelaide. 

Dinner was nice although the menu is a bit predictable since it's not that long ago that we cruised with Princess.  After dinner, we just went and lost some money on the pokies and then crashed - it's a long day when you start at 4:30am (and you're old like us!!)

Off on our next cruise and never did finish writing up the last one

Well, that was slack of me - I'm pretty sure I wrote up notes for the last few days of our December cruise but obviously didn't get around to posting them.
And, with all the excitement of my new job, I haven't done any updates since either!
Today we're off to Sydney and joining the Majestic Princess for a cruise to New Zealand - let's see if I can do better with this one :-)