first port: stewart island (oban), new zealand

Friday, December 9, 2011

Halfmoon Bay (Oban), Stewart Island, New Zealand

Stewart Island is the southern most inhabited island of the New Zealand archipelago and was our first port in New Zealand. The ship was anchored off shore and we had to tender into the port on smaller boats. This was a fun first-time experience for me and Tim laughed at all the questions I had for him about it! When we got to the dock, we had a few hours to explore the town before we had to be back to catch our Pelagic Bird Cruise excursion, so we headed up and over the hill to the town of Oban. The population of Stewart Island is about 500 permanent residents and we pretty much walked through their neighborhood on the way over the hill to “downtown!” The scenery was beautiful and we took the long way to town, which included a stop at an overlook at the top of the hill that had great views of the water. Once we got into “town,” we checked out the general store and bought some wine to take back with us on the ship for our cabin, then walked around the little fishing port. There is exactly one hotel, one major restaurant/coffee shop, and one general store on the island…yet they have a visitor’s center. We figured the visitors center was just something they temporarily set up since they knew the cruise tourists were coming into town. Anyway, after we were done looking around town, we stopped into the restaurant to split a plate of incredible blue-eyed cod fish and chips and a bowl of potato veggie soup. To top it off, we had a table at the window which provided some entertaining people watching! 

Overlook in Oban, toward the port of Halfmoon Bay, with ship in view

Honeymooners in Oban

Beautiful flower on the trip up and down the hill into Oban

After lunch we made the trek back up and over the hill to the port to catch our excursion, the Pelagic Bird Cruise. The tour guide for the ride was from Stewart Island and was the daughter of the family that own the company and boats for the excursion and her good friend was our captain. They provided us with a bunch of great stories about the region and really were knowledgeable on the animal and sea life in and around Stewart Island. Our first stop was to see a popular species of bird native to New Zealand called the “shag” (yes…I giggled when they said this!). There are many varieties of shags in New Zealand and our guide named off about 6-8 types that she could see just in one the area where we were looking. Our second and third stops were in the same area, where we saw how blue-lipped mussels are harvested and saw the workings of a sustainable salmon fishery. The salmon fishery was particularly interesting in that they only breed and fish what is dictated by demand and they work in a process whereby they divide the salmon based on “age” so that they are always making sure to replace what they fish. They also move their offshore fishing stations every two years so that the area beneath the station is not saturated with salmon droppings.

On our way from the salmon fishery to our next stop was the highlight of the day – we encountered a pod of 8-10 dolphin! They were so lively and swam around and along side the boat, playing and jumping in the wake and putting on quite the show! They stayed around us for close to 15 minutes and we enjoyed every second of it – Tim taking some incredible photos (like the one below!!!) and me trying to catch everything on video….leaving lots of work for Tim in editing that video as I’m sure I couldn’t keep the camera focused for my excitement!! 

I'd say my husband is an EXCELLENT photographer!

Once the dolphins decided they were done entertaining us, our captain took us to our final stop to see if we could coax some Albatross our way with some fresh catch-of-the-day. He put the fish out there and we waited a bit, with only a bunch of seagulls coming around for the catch. Then in swooped a HUGE 6-foot plus wingspan bird – the famed Albatross! I was in awe of how gigantic this bird was and almost couldn’t believe my eyes. My awe increased tenfold when 3 more Albatross made their entrances to sit on the water for their share of the catch. You can see the beautiful shots Tim got below, a close up of an Albatross sitting in the water, and another in flight. 

Again, my husband takes great photos - Albatross in flight

Huge huh?!

On our way back to port, the captain spotted a New England fur seal lazily sitting on a rock sunning himself so we really capped off a great afternoon.When we got into port, the last tender was waiting to take us back to the ship.

We have to thank the Meyer family for the gift of this excursion – it was a great experience and gave us wonderful memories of a perfect day on and around Stewart Island. 

Thank you Lee, Deb, Amber, Geoff and Molly! We love you!

cruising the fjordland national park

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Today was an early morning day for us since we were entering the Fjordland National Park, in the very southern part of the south island of New Zealand, quite early and we wanted to make sure we got a great spot on the bow of the ship to see the entry into the park.  We would be cruising 3 different “sounds” within the park.

Fjords are valleys carved by the pressure and power of glaciers during successive ice ages, which are then flooded as the ice melts, which causes the sea levels to rise.

The first sound we cruised through was Milford Sound, which is 10 miles long and is the most visited of all the Fjords in the area. The large amount of precipitation in this area annually leaves a 10-13 foot layer of permanent fresh water above the warmer sea water. This has allowed for diver sea life in the waters of this fjord, with various species of sponges, corals and fish. It was quite overcast as we entered Milford Sound, which presented a mystical, enchanting atmosphere. As we made our way around the sound and paused in front of one of the largest waterfalls in Milford, the clouds began to open up around us and the tips of the most famous landmark in Milford Sound, Mitre Peak, began to peek through, giving us a true idea of how large the valley was through which we were cruising!

After we existed Milford Sound, we made our way through the other two main sounds in the Fjordland National Park, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Each of these Fjords provided a beautiful, serene setting to start our entry to New Zealand and left us with a sense of wonderment and enchantment. We were excited to explore the ports and cities that lay ahead of us!

2 days at sea

Tuesday, December 6 &  Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The next two days were “sea days,” meaning that we would be out in the open ocean, making our way to New Zealand, without any stops or even seeing any land, in this case. These two days we spent getting to know the ship and participating in some of the events they have planned for the guests. Some of the things we participated in included a ring toss, bean bag toss, putting and chipping competitions for Tim, trivia challenges and, of course, happy hour!

During happy hour one of these days, we met Peter, who is from Australia’s capital, Canberra. He was traveling on the cruise with his sister and brother-in-law and friends of theirs. Peter was a great person to meet and we eventually found ourselves spending more time with him, his relatives and friends through the cruise. We even eventually moved our seating for dinner to their table, as they invited us to eat with them and made arrangements for a bigger table. We have since received invitations to stay with them in their respective cities on our next trip to Australia. Tim has a standing tee-time date with Peter at his golf club for whenever we are able to come back and Peter’s sister and her husband have offered to loan us their “caravan” (RV) to take across the Outback or along the coast when we decide to come back. Needless to say, we’ve made a few friends on this trip! We also crated a solid trivia team with them for the pre-dinner trivia challenge put on by the DJ nightly. We won a few times and consistently come out toward the top in the times we did not win. 

We enjoyed our time on the ship during these two days, but I got a bit antsy at times and just wanted to be on solid ground and start exploring New Zealand. We did take a few trips around the outside deck on our floor to get some fresh air and exercise, but it still wasn’t the same as being on solid ground (though when we did eventually make it to solid ground, it constantly felt like we were still on the ship, with the ground below us moving. This was such a strange feeling to me and had Tim and I constantly laughing at each other in port when one of us would stumble because we felt like the ground was moving. It’s a feeling that is hard to describe, but those of you who have been on a ship or boat for an extended period of time and know the feeling we are talking about are probably laughing right now!).

first day aboard the ms volendam

Monday, December 5, 2011 – Happy Birthday Mommy!!

Today is my (Nikki) mom’s birthday and we send our best wishes to her for a wonderful day and fantastic year. We love you.

This morning we organized our things then grabbed a taxi to take us to Darling Harbour to board our home for the next 2 weeks, the ms Volendam. Once we went through all the required checking-in, customs, security, etc., we boarded the ship and dropped our carry-ons off at our room. They were offering a Mariner’s lunch in the dining room, so we took part in that then headed off to explore the ship. Since we boarded at noon and wouldn’t leave the harbor until 6, we took the time to unpack and get settled in the room so we could put our suitcases and bags away. When we were ready to leave the harbor, we went up to the top deck for some spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was quite an exciting experience to cruise under the Harbour Bridge and see the small amount of clearance between the top of the ship and the bottom of the bridge! When we passed the Opera House, our captain made a special announcement that the prior captain had just retired and was standing outside the Opera House watching our cruise ship pass by. As we passed the Opera House, the horn was sounded seven times in his honor – it was quite the sendoff for him!

We had our first dinner in the formal dining room that night and enjoyed our meal. Our dinner guests at the table were from Chula Vista and we spent the meal getting to know one another.

After dinner, we spent some time in the Crow’s Nest, which is below the navigation bridge where the captain sits, so it has great views of the ocean ahead of us. The Crow’s Nest also is the main area of entertainment during the evenings. The first night we experienced quite a bit of rocking and rolling on the ship due to the rough seas from the rainy and windy weather. It was a bit difficult to get used to and I didn’t sleep too well the first night, unfortunately. We took advantage of the tablets the front desk was handing out and didn’t have any issues with sea-sickness, thankfully. 

a rainy day

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Our beautiful, warm, sunny day was followed by a cold, windy and rainy day. We decided to don our rain gear and make the most of it, since it was our last full day in Sydney before the cruise. We headed over to an indoor market place we had heard about that opens on Sundays and walked around the stalls of vendors selling their wares. Once we had a bit of people overload, we headed out to Darling Harbour, on suggestion of the Australian couple we met the night before. On the way there, we got caught up in quite the wind and rain storm, so we stopped in a Starbucks on the harbor to warm ourselves up with a coffee and some lunch. The view was great and we were warm and dry, so we stayed for a bit and took some time to catch up on emails and the blog. Actually, this was the last day we had time, and a reliable enough internet connection, to update.  The weather cleared up a bit after we hung out so we decided to bundle up again and head out to the outside of the maritime museum. They had several military vessels on display, as well as some other boats, so we took some time looking at those. We then made our way across the Darling Harbour bridge, with quite a bit of wind attempting to push us in the opposite direction, and then walked along the harbor. Once we had enough of the windy and cold weather, we made our way back to the timeshare to pack up our suitcases before dinner. Around dinner time, we consulted Yelp yet again and found a highly rated sushi restaurant in the neighborhood next to Surry Hills and made our way to it, stopping again at a bottle shop on the way. The sushi restaurant, like the Thai place, was small and family-owned. We both ordered miso soup and I enjoyed a wonderful teriyaki salmon while Tim indulged in a plate of sushi. Everything was very tasty and fresh! After dinner we walked around the neighborhood again before heading back to the timeshare to relax.

a beautiful day in sydney

Saturday, December 3, 2011

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny, warm day, and headed out after making breakfast and coffee in our suite. The only thing we had on our agenda for the day was our 5:00 tour booking at the Opera House, so we made our way up from our timeshare to the Harbor on a leisurely hour-long stroll through Hyde Park and up George Street, stopping along the way wherever we found something interesting. One of the stops we made was at the shopping mall, thinking we would find some great Australian stores, but actually found that they were all the same stores we have at home, but most of the clothes, shoes, etc. were priced much higher than they are at home. That said, we didn’t do much shopping, since we could get better prices at home and wouldn’t have to schlep anything back in already-full suitcases! The major streets and shopping areas were decorated for the holidays and we saw some beautiful Christmas trees in some of the plazas, reminding us that Christmas would be soon upon us when we got home. The feeling of Christmas here in much the same as it is at home in that the stores and shopping centers are all decorated for the season, but the sun is shinning and the weather is warm, making it hard to believe that it is the holiday season.

After walking around the stores, we made our way up George Street to eventually arrive at an area of town called “The Rocks,” which is right between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, with incredible views of both landmarks on each side! We sat here to have lunch and enjoy the sun and great people watching…until the seagulls started eyeing our snacks! We watched them swoop down on several other groups enjoying their lunch, which made our decision to continue with our day an easy one! We walked over to the ferry terminal and purchased our tickets to go over to Manly Beach. The ferry ride over was very pleasant and we had incredible views of the Bridge and Opera House from our seats outside, at the front, top section of the ferry. We docked in Manly 45 minutes later and made our way through the cute city to the beach. The water was so clear, with incredible shades of blues and greens – Tim was in photo-taking heaven! We were able to spend just a short time in Manly, however, because we had to get back to the Opera House to make our 5:00 tour, so we got on the ferry and headed back.

The tour of the Opera House was wonderful and we would highly recommend it to anyone going to Sydney – it is a “must do” in our book, but does take some planning as you have to make the booking in advance. The tour was about an hour long and the tour guide took us through the history of the Opera House, including the controversy with its architect, design, and construction. The Opera House is a true architectural wonder and took quite a bit of  “outside the box” thinking to complete the complicated design. The tour also took us through the various theaters that make up the Opera House, with the size and acoustics of each theater dictating the types of performances taking place in specific theaters. We learned that ballets, rock concerts, classical concerts, operas, plays and dance performances all have their specific requirements taken care of between the various theaters. The grandeur and sophistication of both the inside and outside of the Opera House is truly impressive and cannot be fully appreciated without physically experiencing them – photos and videos cannot do it justice. After our tour was complete, we spent some additional time walking around outside to take some photos, then decided to get a drink at the Opera Bar, which is located along the walkway to the Opera House. The bar is outdoors next to the harbor, with panoramic views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. The bar was extremely crowded, as it is a popular spot for after-work drinks for those living and working in Sydney, but we were fortunate enough to score a high-top table. We were there for about 30 minutes, when we were asked by a guy if he and his girlfriend could join us at our table since they weren’t able get a table. Of course we said they were more than welcome to join us. We got to talking to them and found out that they both live and work in Sydney and are about the same ages as we are. We had a great time talking to them for about 3 hours and covered many topics about Australia, New Zealand and the US. He traveled quite extensively through New Zealand and had been to the States a few times, but never to San Diego. We were able to answer some questions they had about the States and they answered some of our questions about Australia, plus gave us some great tips on things to see and do in Sydney. By the time we left the Opera Bar and took the subway back to Surry Hills, it was nearly 10 and we went out in search of a dinner spot. We found a Spanish tapas restaurant and shared some nibbles and a great pizza, and each enjoyed a glass of sangria. We had a great first day in Sydney and both really enjoyed the city. We looked forward to continuing to explore the city the following day.

Photos to come in a later post as the current internet connection is too slow to upload photos - sorry!

good-bye cairns, hello sydney

Friday, December 2

Today we woke up in Cairns to finish packing and head over to the airport for our 3 hour flight to Sydney. The trip to the airport and flight were quite uneventful and we found our shuttle bus easily and headed to the timeshare in the Surry Hills section of Sydney, located in the Central Business District. The timeshare was close to a few parks and very close to a variety of shopping centers and restaurants with diverse cuisine. We unpacked and consulted Yelp for dinner options. We came across great recommendations for a Thai restaurant called Spice I Am close to the timeshare and took the suggestion of someone on Yelp to stop by a bottle shop to pick up a bottle of wine as the restaurant, like most here, are "BYO," meaning you can bring in your own drinks, more often than not with no corkage fee. The restaurant was a tiny place, but was crowded with locals, which we took to be a great sign! I ordered veggie Pad Thai ( my go-to) and Tim tried a curry dish. Both were fantastic and we enjoyed the atmosphere.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and find a grocery store for breakfast and lunch stuff.

Below are some photos from adventures mentioned in earlier posts, including the esplanade in Cairns, the dive boat we took to the Reef, the living room of the timeshare in Cairns, us at the esplanade pool in Cairns, and the Pad Thai dinner. Enjoy!