New Zealand

Since Tonga our weather has worsened and most days have been rainy, windy or both. We had two ports of call in New Zealand.
The first was Auckland on the North Island. Almost a million and a half people live here and it is by far the largest city in New Zealand. One in four people have New Zealand: boats and the area is known as the “City of Sails”. American Express hosted an excursion for us that started with a tour of the city (yup, another McDonalds) and then up Mount Eden for a spectacular panoramic view of the city and surrounding islands. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed in New Zealand and the views reflect a Spartan hill and valley setting. There is not a great deal of vegetation and on the north island not very many sheep. We had morning tea at a hotel in the countryside and toured a pottery plant and ended up at a winery/vineyard for a terrific lunch. Our guide kept referring to the America’s Cup races and o by the way did he mention that New Zealand won! All in all it is quite a comfortable setting with great night life in the city and peace and lots of quiet in the countryside. It was a wonderful day but slightly dampened by my preparatory visit to the medical centre.
Two days later we docked at Lyttelton the port with access to ChristChurch a city on the eastern part of South Island. We took a tour of ChristChurch in cold, damp weather and the highlight was a Chinese lantern festival in Queen Victoria Park. This is the part of New Zealand where the sheep are raised and the chief industries are meat packing, tanneries and the manufacture of woolen goods.
As I write this we are on our way to the island of Tasmania and have crossed under the South Island of New Zealand. This is the furthest south we will be on the cruise. We are reasonably close to Antartica and the weather reflects it.