(25th – 25th Feb) The Columbus took on her pilot outside Sydney harbour at 5.30am, many of the passengers were up on deck in the dark to watch the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge pass by as we made our way to a berth in White Harbour, but to their disappointment the Opera House… Continue Reading

(21st – 24th Feb) Quite a few of the passengers disembarked in Auckland and were replaced by new faces, not Kiwi’s as you would expect, but Aussies taking advantage of a shortish cruise back home. We are told that there will be a further 200 disembarking in Sydney and we will be among their company.… Continue Reading

(21st Feb) Our departure from Akaroa was severely delayed due to the late return of the tour buses to Christchurch. The traffic had been very heavy and one or two other problems ensured that the Columbus did not sail until much later in the evening, putting into jeopardy our arrival time in Picton. Though we… Continue Reading

(19th Feb) Akaroa is a picturesque seaside settlement, southwest of Christchurch. It is situated on a spectacular peninsular made from two extinct volcanoes whose craters were flooded by the sea over time. The small settlement has a French flavour as it was settled originally by French whalers during the time of the Waitangi Treaty but… Continue Reading

(18th Feb.) Steaming south overnight brought us to Tauranga, the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region. We docked as usual at breakfast time in the tourist suburb of Mount Maunganui, it was another cloudless day with a gentle refreshing breeze to keep us cool (at first!). I had been here with Jamie… Continue Reading

(16th Feb) Overnight the Columbus made her way down the coast of New Zealand to pick up her pilot at 7.30am, then dock at Berth 7 on the Queen’s Wharf, Auckland by 9am. The routine of disembarking is well known to all the passengers now and pretty soon Columbus was disgorging her human cargo into… Continue Reading

(15th Feb) We were out on the deck by 6.45am to catch our entry into the Bay of Island and were lucky enough to have timed our emergence from the bowels of the Columbus just in time to catch a glorious sunrise over the islands. It looked like it was going to be a glorious… Continue Reading

On the 11th Feb, we passed the International Date Line and magically the 12th disappeared in a flash to be instantly replaced by the 13th, tough luck on those that had a birthday or other celebration I thought, but we did celebrate Valentine’s Day as recompense the following day. All the activities and meals had… Continue Reading

On our second sea day we had passed over another time zone so enjoyed another hour in bed, making 11 changes so far, we could see from the comfort of our bed that the bow camera was displaying running water across its lens indicating heavy rain. We have enjoyed excellent sea and weather conditions up… Continue Reading

Over the years I have heard wonderful things about this island from other travellers and it has been firmly on my sceptic tick list to check out if any of the superlatives used, apply. We arrived just a little before breakfast time, but there was no chance of sleeping through this arrival as though the… Continue Reading