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  :-)