Majestic Princess, Wednesday 6 February, Debark day

Another cruise is over, it went by so fast, like they all seem to. We had a fantastic time and I know both mum and I are ready to start planning our next cruise, I think for dad this was his last cruise. He enjoyed it but said it was a bit too long for him. Mum and I could have gone again!

Sailing into Sydney was watched from the comfort of my bed, I've been lucky enough to sail into Sydney Harbour a few times before so have all the photos I need :-)

Yet another superb day, apart from having to leave the ship of course!

Beautiful Sydney Harbour with the Azamara Quest sailing in

We had our final breakfast in the buffet and then spent some time out in the Wake View bar before collecting our things from our cabin and making our way down to the Crown & Grill before we left the Majestic Princess and collected out suitcases. Debark was smooth and efficient.

View from the Wake View bar

We walked to Circular Quay station and jumped aboard a train headed for Central and the airport. We said our final goodbyes and then went our separate ways. Mum and dad had a train to catch back to Port Mac and I had a plane to catch back to the Gold Coast. Everything was running on time and we were all back to our homes and reality way too quickly, although I don't think mum and dad thought it was that quick give they had a 7 hour train trip! My flight was only an hour :-)

Thanks for another amazing cruise, it was one of our better ones, New Zealand certainly showed off for us. The Majestic Princess is a lovely ship even if the cabin was teeny tiny, the service was A1 even if the wine was expensive (but we found a way around that!) and the food was delicious! 4 more Princess/P&O cruises and we'll be Elite, bring it on!!

Majestic Princess, Monday 4 & Tuesday 5 February, 4th & 5th Sea days

The next couple of days were sea day we didn't have to be anywhere particular, no tenders to catch or busses to hop onto so just ate and wandered and watched and ate and wandered and sat and ate and.....you get the idea!

We watched a lot of the the dance classes that were held in the atrium, they were very popular. The shops seemed extra busy today, I'm guessing they were having sales and people had onboard credit to spend. We played some speed scrabble in the Hollywood Conservatory and took some photos from around the ship. It was another lovely day with calm seas, the wind did pick up every now and then which made it quite a feet when we tried to play ping pong! Mum could have just played by herself the amount of times she hit the ball for it to come straight back to her without me having to lift my bat was hilarious!

Mum's such an angel

Hold tight to those balloons!

Ping pong anyone!?

Lunch was in the buffet and the theme was Pastry, we love a good pastry and they do good pastry!

Pie and breadroll

Mum braved the seawalk. I'm not sure if I'd like to have the cabin below this. Also, I don't recommend walking across it wearing a dress!

Seawalk (sideways)

Drinks up at the Wake View bar, dinner in the buffet and another cruise day is done. Last sea day tomorrow before we're back.

Wake View Bar

Cosy cabin M630

Majestic Princess, Sunday 3 February, Fiordland Cruising

It was a chilly and slightly rough start to the day. Overnight I had felt the ship moving more than it has the whole trip, nothing too dramatic but definitely bigger swell was about. We're heading into Fiord land today, one of the highlights of the trip and one we were all really looking forward to. There's always a big chance that this part of an NZ cruise gets cancelled due to unfavourable weather but we were in luck! Even though it was a little rocking and rolling to start it turned out to be a perfect day.

I got a little motion sick so sat on our balcony for a little while, very rugged up as it was chilly, before heading upstairs and having something to eat. One of the great benefits of a balcony is even if you're feeling a little off you can still enjoy the gorgeous scenery and get some fresh air. I love having a balcony!

Our first fiord we were heading for was Doubtful Sounds and were due there at about 10am. With the first two fiords/sounds we could go in one end and pop out the other a bit further up while Milford we would go in and come back out the same way. We thought all of the sounds were like Milford so it was cool when we realised we could traverse the whole thing.

Doubtful Sound

We sat out the back for most of the morning enjoying a few danishes, cups of tea and the view.

Blankets were on hand and we made good use of them. Once we starting heading into Doubtful Sound we headed back to our cabin and enjoyed the view from our balcony. The clouds we still around so it was still blanket weather but boy was the scenery spectacular and it just got better as they day went on.

Doubtful Sound

We had lunch in the buffet before reaching our next fiord.

Yummy lunch! Yummy bread rolls!

For the next fiord, Dusky Sound, we headed up to the Lido. The clouds were almost gone by then and the weather had warmed up enough to discard our blankets.

Dusky Sound

Our first waterfall!

Sailing through here was just amazing, everywhere you looked was impressive. So incredible that cruise ships, especially such big cruise ships, can sail through here. I highly recommend doing a cruise that includes the NZ fiords!

Our third and final fiord was the one everyone was most looking forward to and the most famous, Milford Sounds. We had been here about 30 years ago as a family doing a driving holiday. We did a cruise on Milford Sounds but in a much much smaller vessel than the Majestic.

There was a few hours between leaving Dusky and getting to Milford so we headed inside and checked out some of the places we hadn't yet visited on the ship. It's so big I don't think we still did go into every area of this ship. We had a bit of a rest, from all that looking, in the Crooners Lounge before heading back up to the Lido to enjoy the views and sun. 

There's snow on some of the higher peaks

A ship was just leaving Milford as we were arriving, we later found out it was the Azamara Quest as we passed it the next day and then it followed us into Sydney (a few hours after us).

Azamara Quest leaving Milford Sounds

We made ourselves comfy back on our balcony and enjoyed sailing through Milford! Spectacular!

Milford Sounds

Cruise cam - this is where we are heading!

We think we saw some seals but aren't a 100% sure, they could have been rocks but we're sure they were seals. We didn't see any dolphins which we thought we may have. There were a few smaller boats on sightseeing trips and a couple of sailing boats but other than that there we just lots and huge mountains, some with snow. Beautiful, beautiful place. Throughout the whole day we had commentary from a fiordland expert which was great having someone tell us what we were looking at and the history of the place.

Snow!

 Once we went as far as we could go we spun around and went out the way we came. This is why we stayed on our balcony for Milford as we knew we'd see both sides!

The pilot boat collecting the pilot - his job is done

Once we were passed all the tricky stuff the pilot left us and we headed for Sydney, our cruise is almost over! We do have two more sea days but that's it for New Zealand - she didn't disappoint and gave us the most perfect weather we could hope for. I think we were very very lucky!

Dinner was again in the buffet even though it is much fancier than a 'buffet'! The food was always delicious and the waiter service top notch! A couple of my cabin mates weren't feeling 100% so we made our way back to the cabin and a good nights sleep.

Majestic Princess, Saturday 2 February, Dunedin NZ

Port Chalmers was where we docked this morning at about 5.15am, we didn't watch us sail in, well wait for sailaway to see the beautiful scenery :-)

I don't think anyone could get off the ship until about 7am due to customs as they got to the port at around 6.30am. I can't imagine too many people would have wanted to leave the ship that early anyway.

As we were getting ready for breakfast who should park next to us but the Orion a snug fit it was too.

The Orion arriving at Port Chalmers

We were catching the HoHo bus from the Port, saved having to catch the shuttle and then pick up the HoHo and worked out cheaper anyway. The HoHo bus was an old style English red double decker. The trip into Dunedin was about 15-20mins with lots of commentary and wonderful views.

Once in the main part of Dunedin we hopped off to change buses for the main HoHo trip around Dunedin. The fill circuit was about 1 hour. We went for a bit of a wander around the square and then headed back to the bus stop to jump aboard. Our first stop was the steepest residential street in the world (as confirmed by the Guiness Book of Records people). It sure was busy! So many tourist, I wouldn't like to live on this street. For this stop the bus stays about 5-10mins to give you time to take photos and read the signs etc but you can stay and walk up to the top and back and then catch the next bus 30 mins later. We opted for the first option.

It doesn't look that steep from here but it was steep!

The next stop was the University and then the Museum. We got off at the University stop and walked up to the museum as the driver said he wasn't going to stop at the Museum as they were doing a bit of road works but they would be picking up from there later. This was the first HoHo bus so there wouldn't be anyone waiting to get on here.

The reason we were going to the Museum was that a lady we had met on the HoHo tram in Christchurch had suggested going to the Butterfly place at 11am where they we all released. She said it was really lovely. We didn't ended up going there as it was dearer than what we had thought, we didn't know if it was free or not, so just had a stroll around the main part of the museum before having morning tea downstairs in the cafe.

We hopped back on the bus and made our way to Dunedin Train Station - a big tourist attraction in itself as it's such a gorgeous building. While here we decided to book a train trip, the only one available was the 4pm, 90 minute trip. We had been umming an arring about whether or not to book this before our trip but had decided to wait and see. Seeing as the ship was leaving until 9.30pm we had plenty of time to do the later trip and it could also drop us back near the ship instead of having to come back into Dunedin and then catch the HoHo bus back.

Dunedin Train Station

After making our booking we got back onto the HoHo bus and then got off near Speight's Brewery. We'd missed the guided tour and the next one wasn't for a few hours. We had a quick look around and then thought we'd just walk around for a bit as it was lovely weather. It was quite busy most likely due to two ships being in port. 

We weren't too far from the main part of town and the centre area where all the buses picked up and dropped off their passegers so we decided to go and get another HoHo bus and do the full circuit before doing a bit more walking around town.

The Cadbury factory closed down about 6 months ago otherwise we would have definitely done a tour here! They are planning on knocking these buildings down and building a new hospital. All the chocolate manufacturing is now done in Australia.

The closed Cadbury factory

Mum was feeling a bit peckish so we pooped into Maccas so she could grab a burger and fries. We found a Countdown supermarket on our wanders so would head back here before our train, seeing as we wouldn't be back in town, and grab some nibblies and wine. This was our last stop where we could get off the ship as tomorrow was a scenic cruising day through the fiords so it was also our last chance to grab some wine to make through the rest of the cruise :-)

Silver Fern

Next stop was Dunedin train station and the Silver Fern train. When we bought our tickets the lady told us she had put us on the right hand side of the train with two window seats (this was the side with the scenery) and then when we got to the end stop everyone would swap sides so all passengers got a chance of sitting on the side with the views. Great idea seeing as everyone pays the same price and the reason why you do this trip is for the scenery as you don't actually get off the train until you're back. It's just a return sightseeing trip. The scenery was gorgeous, as you would expect, but we didn't really think it was value for money. $60pp for a 90 minute return trip, a bit pricey really and we didn't even get a cuppa! Anyway, we all did enjoy it and most likely will never be back here again so was nice to be able to see a bit more of Dunedin and it's outer areas before getting back on our ship and back to Australia. Have I mentioned how lucky we are!! The train dropped us back near the port. Dad went straight back to the ship while mum and I walked around Port Chalmers for a bit. A pretty little town. Not much was open but just walking along the streets and looking at the old buildings was all we really wanted to do anyway.

Port Chalmers

Back on the ship and it was time for a drink and some nibblies on our balcony while we watched the Orion leave and then the port people busy loading a container ship that had been there all day and had looked like it was just about to leave. The tugs where hooked up the lines had been dropped and it had started to move away from the dock when they must have received a call saying you haven't got everything yet, don't leave! I don't what they'd been doing all day then. It gave us something to watch with the tall cranes zipping all over the place picking up containers and dropping them near the ship for it to collect with it's crane. It still hadn't left by the time we left at 9.30pm.

We had a drink up on the Wake View bar and then dinner at Alfredo's pizzeria. So good. 

Delicioso!

Sailaway was on our balcony and it was perfect. Beautiful scenery, calm seas with hardly a breeze. What a lovely way to end a fabulous day in Dunedin.

Majestic Princess, Friday 1 February, Akaroa NZ

We're tendering today, our only tender port. Akaroa is a small town with a French feel to it unfortunately we didn't have any time to explore as we had a bus to catch to Christchurch!

The bus was dropping us in Christchurch and then collecting us again about 4 hours later to bring us back to Akaroa and the Majestic P. I originally had booked the later leaving bus but we were early and were able to catch the hour earlier one which meant more time in Christchurch. Mum had thought this would also get us back an hour earlier meaning we weren't cutting it so fine with the last tender but we still returned the same time. This did worry mum a lot as the last tender was 5pm and we were scheduled back at 4.30pm. Spoiler we made it with about 15 mins to spare but there were quite a few buses who also arrived around the same time so I'm sure the tenders ran a bit after 5pm.

After a hearty breakfast we made our way down to one of the restaurants to get out tender ticket and then waited 5 or so minutes before we were called. The tendering process was pretty good, not as well set out as the Ovation but still seemed to go ok. Mum and I spotted a few people sitting on the top of the tender so decided, if we could, we'd do the same. Normally you're crammed inside and it can get a bit stuffy so sitting on the top, especially when it was a lovely morning, was a great idea. The tender trip took about 15 mins and was relatively calm and was awesome being on the top of the tender. Dad had wondered where we'd got to but knew we must have been on there somewhere!

After getting of the tender we went looking for the tour company I'd book our bus transfer through to see if we could change to the earlier bus. Not a problem at all. They were easy to find amongst all the tour operators and were lovely in changing us over. So with this change, instead of having an hour before our bus we only had about 10 minutes. Not enough time to see any of Akaroa which just means we may just have to come back. It did look like a sweet little town.

Once the bus arrived we all jumped on board, there were a few people that made sure they were first on to grab the front seats, they did the exact same thing on the way back. A bit pushy. The driver was great and chatted most of the way, letting us no about different places we were passing and some history, nothing of which I can remember now! The only problem I had with the bus was that the first 30 minutes was very windy and I'm not great with bus or car travel. Luckily I'd been taking sea sickness pills so that did help a bit but I also took a travelcalm when we had a 'wee' break stop.

The bus dropped us off out the front of the Christchurch museum which was very central to most places. I had also organised tickets for the HoHo tram so we could get a nice overview of Christchurch as I didn't think we'd have time to be able to walk all around it and see everything.

We walked along the Avon River and then to Cathedral Square to see how they were going with the renovations and repair work since the earthquake. Very sad to see the cathedral like it was. They were working on it but it's going to take along time and a lot of money. There is still a lot of evidence of the earthquake and a lot of rebuilding going on but there has also been a lot of work done and Christchurch was looking quite vibrant and bussling.

This was built to honour all of the people who lost their lives in the earthquake

We jumped aboard one of the HoHo trams and did pretty much a full circuit. They're quite a popular mode of transport. The driver also acts as a tour guide and talks the whole circuit, talking about various buildings, how the earthquake has changed things and the history of Christchurch. Again, I've forgotten most of this!

Christchurch Cathedral

The time went so fast, we definitely needed longer but that's what you get when you're on a cruise. A whistle stop tour of each port. It was fabulous seeing Christchurch again, the last time I was there was in 2001 with my beautiful nan. I'm so glad that things are getting done, if a bit slowly but it also shows how much will never be the same. A large area of Christchurch can never be built on again and this was home to thousands of people. New suburbs have been built but I'm sure a lot of people never returned after the devastating earthquake.

Our HoHo tram

Cardboard Cathedral - this is taking the job of the Christchurch Cathedral until it's repaired

After we made a stop in the local Countdown supermarket to grab a few nibbles and wine (of course) we worked out how to get back to where the bus was picking us up from and made it back in time to miss a small shower of rain.

The trip back was uneventful although we did have to wait for a few stragglers, two of which we left without otherwise we would certainly have missed the tender. It's amazing how lardydaa people are about being late, they don't care although I'm sure they would if we got back and the ship had left!

The trip back was just as windy at the end but I survived! Once we got to Akaroa and got out of the bus we realised how cold it had gotten. Brrrrrr, no top of the tender on the way back to the ship that's for sure. We did hear, once we were back on the ship that part way through the afternoon they had to stop the tendering due to strong freezing winds. We missed it all, thankfully and had a wonderful day in Christchurch.

We sat out on our balcony for the sailaway, with our blankies as it was nippy, and then moved inside as it was a bit too cold to be outside.

Can't have dinner without a bread roll!

Dinner was in the buffet again and again it was delicious!