Looong Review of Mercury Australia/New Zealand - January 2008

There are five of us traveling together ranging in age from 43 - 57. Three of us are from NJ – 2 from Las Vegas. My brother has been to Australia before for an extended vacation and my S-I-L has been there briefly. None of us had been to NZ. I also LOVE animals - flora and fauna, so I tend to focus a lot on that. I will write this in installments by ports and am more than happy to answer questions if I can. We all agreed, we had one of the best trips ever. We fell in love with both countries! This review will be very long and I am nowhere near as clever as Texed, but I know I personally had a hard time finding in-depth reviews on this site. I would also like to thank Aussie Gal and Mochuck for their invaluable help on the boards.

Keep in mind, this is our opinions. ;)

We sailed on the Celebrity Mercury leaving January 20- actually January 21.

We left NJ on Thursday the 17th and arrived in Sydney Saturday morning the 19th. Flights were thankfully uneventful. I popped an ambien sleeping tablet a couple of hours into the flight and was pleased (I usually can’t sleep on planes) to wake up some 7 hours later with only a few hours left before landing. Glad to report, luggage arrived with us. :cool: Long queue outside for a taxi – would probably recommend hiring one in advance as, even though the line moved quickly, we had about a 45 minute wait.

I did Priceline for one night and got the Marriott on Hyde Park for $125. When we arrived, they had our rooms ready! Very nice room with a large square bathtub. We took about an hour to re-organize luggage and take showers and then were ready to head out and see the city.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Saturday 1/19 There are two hop on hop off buses that run in Sydney – one is newer and more expensive. We opted for the less expensive double decker bus. $30 for one day, $40 for 3 days – we opted for the $40 in the pouring rain. The bus leaked. A tour of the Sydney Opera House would be a great rainy day activity – unfortunately we just missed the 11:30 tour and the next tour was 2:30 so we decided to get some lunch. Surprisingly, the Mercury was in port, a short walk away. As we ambled over in that direction, we were definitely in sticker shock at seeing the menu prices along the harbor. We finally settled on a little café and had a light lunch for about $55 which included a salad, a chicken wrap and two coffees! It was pleasant people watching on the harbor.

The Essentials tour of the Opera House was very enjoyable and after that, we grabbed our umbrellas and strolled through the nearby botanical gardens looking for the flying foxes, which we did eventually locate – continually re-wrapping themselves to keep warm from the rain. The gardens themselves, I felt, were less than impressive, but nothing was really in bloom, even the roses were well past peak. The birds were definitely unique. We did eventually make our way out of the park and jumped on the drippy HOHO bus again for the full city circuit back to our hotel.

Hint – if you ask where you might find a coupon, they may sell you an Essentials Tour for $27.50 instead of the $32. I believe if you purchase tickets ahead of time on the internet, you can also get that discount.

Sunday 1/20 We headed over to the pier about 10:30ish and were told we couldn’t board until noon. We checked our luggage and walked across the street and up the steps to the Rocks Market – a must do for souvenir shopping. Bought a number of unique things and some pretty flowers for the cabin. Time to board the ship!

Hint – it is probably not worth the hassle to purchase anything that is alive or was alive or can be eaten and isn’t factory wrapped. Australia and New Zealand have the strictest rules we have ever seen. I was informed that my flowers were not allowed on the ship. There were dogs at most ports checking every bag upon disembarkation.

Check in was quick and easy. We were informed that we could drop off our carry-ons in our room, but could not stay in the room until after 2pm. We ran up to grab a quick lunch before our afternoon trip to Bondi Beach. The sun was shining and the hoho bus was much more crowded today. We headed to the top and were so pleased to see the tops of the buildings – a much nicer view of the city and architecture – were very glad that we had the older bus today. Bondi was nice – not very crowded. We spent about ½ hour there and then had the choice of jumping back on the bus or waiting another 1-1/2 for the next bus.

Back in Sydney, we got off the hoho at Darling Harbour. We decided ahead of time to do two zoos in Sydney – Featherdale and the Koala Park Sanctuary – both on the schedule for Monday. I couldn’t wait – we were there so bought the combo ticket to the aquarium and the new Wildlife World. It was around 5pm and we didn’t realize that we had missed the last chance to have our pictures taken with a koala. It was a small compact zoo. When we got up to the koalas, we were actually pleased that several were awake and eating and by leaning in a bit, we did get some decent pictures. In our opinion, this was one of our least favorite zoos and we could easily have done without. We had the same opinion of the aquarium, although there was a nice finale of sharks and rays swimming overhead right before you exited.

Back to the ship, we had about ½ an hour until we were to join the Rocks Ghost Tour – which met right across the street from the ship.

Hint – If you would like to do the Rocks Ghost Tour – highly recommend you make a reservation – we were the last three allowed on the tour for the evening. I had printed out their webpage and saved $2 a person by doing so!

The Ghost Tour ran about 2 hours and we had a pleasant evening climbing the sidewalks and back alleys of the Rocks. It only drizzled on us a couple of times. It was a nice evening stroll and we were able to witness the flying foxes (actually bats) leaving the Botanic Gardens in search of food. There was an awesome bar that we passed where young adults were jammed in singing all kinds of American songs – we ventured back that way at the end of the tour but decided it was too hot to cram our way in and we were too tired to stand outside in the rain. We were a bit lost but a nice couple from the ghost tour walked us back to the ship. We had missed dinner, and sadly all that was open for food was a pasta and salad bar on deck 11 in the rear.

Monday 1/21 Koala Park Sanctuary and Featherdale Wildlife Park were the destinations of the day. I couldn’t decide between them! Both are about 40 minutes from Sydney in different directions. We walked down to the train station and with a bit of help, figured out which train tickets were needed for the day. Koala Park Sanctuary was first. We got off the train and headed across the tracks to catch a short bus ride to the park. Awesome – cockatoos are flying all around. The bus driver noted they were like pigeons but more destructive. We LOVED Koala Park Sanctuary. Small and compact – there were not too many people around so we felt like we almost had a private tour. They have 21 koalas (including one baby born last year). They are free to roam around from tree to tree and there are signs around telling you to look up – a koala is sleeping above. We start out with the wombat and everyone can pet her and get their picture taken with her. The group then heads over for the koala presentation. They put the koala on the ledge and she walks all around with people getting in nice and close for cuddling, petting and pictures. From there we head over to the sheep shearing and then on to the fairy penguin feeding and finally end at the kangaroo petting area where we feed honey nut cheerios to a bunch of kangaroos (two with babies peeping out of mama’s pouch!) All the animals (many I didn’t even mention) seemed well cared for and healthy. In retrospect, we were sorry we left when we did – should have stayed longer there and skipped Featherdale. In all fairness, we arrived at Featherdale at the same time three cruise buses arrived, so it was rather a madhouse. It was bigger than Koala Park but similar. We made it back to the pier by about 5pm. The ship sailed at 6pm.

THE SHIPThe Mercury is now 9 years old and I believe due for refurbishing next year. We had a quad cabin on deck four. Lots of storage space but kept bumping our heads on the upper beds – ughh. Though the bathroom was the typical small, the shower was a nice size. Overall, we found the food was very good to excellent. We love trivia and games and have to say this was probably the best ship we have ever been on for these activities.

There were a lot of “funky” smells throughout the ship – not pleasant. Many of the windows in the Navigator bar had lost their seal and were cloudy and difficult if not impossible to see through – disappointing when sailing through the Sounds and the Volcano. One of our rooms ended up with a leaky ceiling that forced us to move – initially a downgrade. We found the internet connections very good and computers were usually available. We were rather disappointed in the entertainment with a few exceptions. We had very full days planned in ports, and so, in general, went to bed earlier than on most other cruises. Overall, the ship is definitely showing her age, but we had a wonderful vacation and would do it again.

" to be continued -

Wendy:

We're leaving 3/6/08 for Auckland to Sydney on Sapphire Princess, whole trip will be a month. I'm looking forward to the rest of your post. Eager to hear what you did in the ports. Interested to hear you thought the Koala Park was great but weren't too keen on Featherdale. Was it only because it suddenly got soooo crowded? I had planned to do Featherdale and not Koala, (cause we're going to do it enroute to the Blue Mtns.) How long did you stay at the Koala Sanctuary? Thanks,

Please keep your review coming, Wendy. We leave in a week! I have collected lots of information from these boards but there is never enough.:confused:

I'm glad you had a good time!

Loved your review. We leave next Friday 15th for our long flights to Sydney to arrive on the 17th and board ship the same day.

Great review. Interesting about the animals parks, sanctuaries, whatever they call them.

We are looking forward to it and hope we do not have the big snow dump we got today. Flights to Chicago cancelled. Bad news if it happened on the 15th. I guess with the ship not leaving until the next day we may not miss the boat but who knows?

As there are 2 of us in the cabin, we do not need to worry about the bunk beds and bumping our heads. There are none in our cabin.

Yes, the ship is probably not in pristine condition but we did the trip on the Sapphire Princess (only 12 days) in Jan. 2005 and that ship had lots of problems too and it was brand new. Mercury is 14 days and more ports that matter. We are looking forward to Tauranga for Roturua.

Thanks again for the great review and hope to read the rest of it when you have time - preferable before we leave.

Wendy:

 

Eager to hear what you did in the ports. Interested to hear you thought the Koala Park was great but weren't too keen on Featherdale. Was it only because it suddenly got soooo crowded? I had planned to do Featherdale and not Koala, (cause we're going to do it enroute to the Blue Mtns.) How long did you stay at the Koala Sanctuary? Thanks,

I'm sorry - didn't mean to give the wrong impression. Featherdale was nice too - on a larger scale than Koala Park. We did not need to do both - and given a choice (because we were on our own) would recommend doing Koala Park. Now, maybe because we were in there in the morning, animals seemed friendlier and were more interested in eating the tidbits we were offering. At Featherdale, there were so many people there that I think the animals may have been overwhelmed and were not particularly interested in eating. If we had just done Featherdale, we would have been fine. There was a lot to see and do there, but most was duplications of Koala Park. You will enjoy Featherdale.

Monday night was quite rough. Lots of people didn’t quite make it to dinner and the show was noticeably empty. Think the crew spent a lot of time cleaning up after accidents. Even the comedian ended up off stage for a few minutes :eek: Had heard the section between Hobart and New Zealand was bad – but this was definitely the worst seas of the cruise. :mad:

Tuesday was a sea day – we actually got to sleep in and catch up on some of the jetlag, which actually, was considerably less than we had expected.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Wednesday 1/23 ( 7am - 6pm )

We have a private tour scheduled with johnhowe@froggy.com.au Brian, our driver for the day, picked us up at 7am. A nice retired fireman, he did a nice tour. He was a bit overly cautious on time, but better safe than sorry! :p

Note – there are no taxis around anywhere! If you count on finding a ride on the pier, you will be out of luck.

We did a brief tour around the city stopping to get a picture by the tennis tournament signs. Then we headed out to Healesville Sanctuary where we had a 10 am Behind the Scenes Tour for $70 a person (including entrance fees into the Park). We stopped at a winery for a beautiful view of the Yarra Valley. Unfortunately, the winery was not open yet. We arrived at Healesville around 9:30. What an awesome tour this was. We met our guide in front of the reptile house and he took us behind all the glass enclosures and brought out several different reptiles for us to hold including the blue tongued skink and several lizards and a huge python. From there we headed over to the small mammal house where we were able to hold a ring tail possum and feed several of the nocturnal guests. He led us through the “kitchen” where they prepare the food for all the different animals, showing us the freezers where food is stored. We went into the hospital where they had just received a joey that had been hit by a car and were working trying to save her. We ended with a walk down to the koala area where we got to pet the koala and get a nice close-up picture. This was just an awesome tour – I highly recommend it for any animal lover.

Since we had spent almost 3 hours at the Sanctuary, we didn’t have time for the train. Brian then took us to the Dairy Farm/Winery. We sampled several wines and several different cheeses – lunch. The countryside is beautiful.

Back in Melbourne, we had time to do the Old Melbourne Gaol where the infamous Ned Kelly was imprisoned and they have death masks of numerous inmates.

- to be continued -

As there are 2 of us in the cabin, we do not need to worry about the bunk beds and bumping our heads. There are none in our cabin.

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Johanna - I highly recommend the ambien - but try it BEFORE you leave - made the dreaded flights much more tolerable IMO.

There were only two of us in the cabin. Somehow we ended up in a quad anyway. My brother and his wife were also only two in the cabin and they started out in a triple - at least only one side to bang your head on.

Will keep fingers crossed for the weather - I know we were very happy we had an extra day in there for comfort!

I know you will love this trip! Bon Voyage

I'm also enjoying your review! We're on Mercury 2/17, and are realistic in what to expect onboard. Can't wait to see Sydney!

Karyn

Wblevin, if you could post your review on the Celebrity board, it might bring a little balance to a poster that had a "less than perfect" onboard experience.

Thanks!

Karyn

We are really enjoying your saga on Mercury.Thanks. We are leaving 2/11 and will be on BTB from Sydney to Hawaii. I am concerned about the long wait that you had for a cab when leaving the airport. Is that typical or just because it was a Saturday? A 45 minute wait after that long trip is not something I'd be looking forward to! Nevertheless, I am thrilled to hear that your luggage made it and hope that we share that same experience.

Also, did you have a lot of rough sea days? We have heard about the Tasmanian Sea crossing but were not prepared for rough waters before then. makes me wonder if we should get something prescribed here and bring it with us. We have been on many cruises and have not had problems but there is always a first time!

Gail

We are really enjoying your saga on Mercury.Thanks. We are leaving 2/11 and will be on BTB from Sydney to Hawaii. I am concerned about the long wait that you had for a cab when leaving the airport. Is that typical or just because it was a Saturday? A 45 minute wait after that long trip is not something I'd be looking forward to! Nevertheless, I am thrilled to hear that your luggage made it and hope that we share that same experience.

 

Also, did you have a lot of rough sea days? We have heard about the Tasmanian Sea crossing but were not prepared for rough waters before then. makes me wonder if we should get something prescribed here and bring it with us. We have been on many cruises and have not had problems but there is always a first time!

Gail

It was actually interesting - one of my husband's bags was missing, and we were standing around with quite a number of people from our flight. An airline attendant informed us that we should no longer be standing there, that all the bags had arrived. When we went to file a missing bag report, they informed us that indeed the bag had arrived with us and directed us to where we would find it :) Odd - it had not gone around on the conveyor. It is possible that this delayed us in the terminal long enough that the taxi line grew and grew. Never having been in Sydney before, I don't know if this is normal. It was really daunting when we first looked at it, but it did move pretty quickly - and was more comfortable once we were out of the drizzle :cool:

I get very seasick and thus wear a patch which works wonders. I believe that the ship started rocking almost immediately after leaving Sydney and think a lot of people were not too pleased about it. I believe that this was by far the worst seas that we encountered on this trip. There was one other day that was a bit rough toward the end of the trip, but I don't remember which day it was. However, I do know that I was quite suprised and pleased to note that the two days we sailed from Hobart to Fiorland that I was kinda dreading - the waters were literally like glass. I swear, in all my cruising, I don't think I have ever seen such calm waters! :D

Super review plus the extra answers and comments. As for quads, all the ships we have been on had them hidden in the wall and did not lower them unless there were multiple people in the cabin. We have been on quads when we booked last minute and they were just part of the wall then.

We have been in triples where the 3rd bed was the sofa.

Oh, rough seas. When we went in 2005, Jan. 12 to 30th, it was the calmest ever. We heard the previous cruise was horrid with missing ports and read that the one afterwards was really bad too. We were lucky. We have been on rough seas and I have not been ill but many others have. Some people actually do have a shade of grey/green in their faces.

Personally, I am more frightened about turbulence on a plane, that really scares me but waves on a ship not at all. Of course you have to watch where and how you walk. Or crawl.

Bad snowdump again and driving is treacherous. I just hope the weather improves in 8 days.

Johanna

HOBART, TASMANIA – Friday 1/25 ( 7 am – 6 pm )

We have opted to rent a car here. Tasmania was fairly easy to get around in and not terribly congested. I did get a tour guide suggestion here, but I did not contact him - rjonn@ozemail.com.au - website http://www.tasmaniandaytours.com.au He will apparently customize your tour in a 4WD vehicle for a max of 6 people for AUD $140 per person.

So we are renting a mini van for about $100 -but office doesn’t open until 8 – it is supposed to be a 10 minute walk to their office. I think that the walk was actually closer to ½ hour and uphill a good deal of the way. Not quite the direct route we were led to believe. We arrived about 8:30ish and to our dismay, they inform us that the car is at the airport and will take about an hour. We got them to speed it up slightly and had them agree to drive us back to the pier at the end of the day. We are now way behind schedule! Very easy driving around, particularly once you are outside the city. My husband loves driving in new places. The opposite side of the road wasn’t too bad – as we came to roundabouts we all reminded – keep to the left – lol. The biggest problem was that the signals and the wiper controls were also reversed. Guess no one knew when we were going to turn, but we had a really clean windshield!

Took about ½ hour to get to Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Center (north of Hobart). They had four Tasmanian Devil babies that were cute as could be – and wow, even at that age, they sound nasty, but they were just playing! We watched the “keepers” playing with them for quite a while. They try to release most of their animals back into the wild if they can. We could hear several kookaburras nearby laughing. There were containers of food around to feed the kangaroos, but they weren’t really hunger (although the wild ones on the outside of the fence seemed much more interested in food than the ones on the inside – lol) We had missed our morning tour and did not stay around for the later scheduled tour, but we did stay for the koala pics J

Note – They say reservations a must – they are very accommodating around cruise ship hoards – otherwise the normal is open at 9 and tours are 11:30 and 2:00.

From there we headed down to Port Arthur Historic Site (1-1/2 hours south). We stopped in Richmond, a cute picturesque town. Should have done the maze, but were on a tight schedule. We did visit the Old Hobart Town model village – a replica of Hobart from 1820 with over 50 buildings and 400 figurines - and located the various figurines – kinda like a Where’s Waldo. It was a bit hokey – lol - but we couldn't leave before we had found all four (the local school kids helped).

Port Arthur Historic Site was settled in 1830. There is a lot of information on the convicts and life at that time. We took the 40 minute guided walking tour which was fascinating but opted out of the boat ride unfortunately. It was a beautiful site and we would have loved more time here.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary, but this was definitely a waste of time and money. All the devils were sleeping. We were very glad we had seen the baby devils at Bonorong that morning.

The ride back to Hobart was uneventful – more cleaning of the windshield. We did not pass a gas station anywhere – wonder where they get their gas? The car company made good and took us back to the pier. It was a great day in Tasmania!

To be continued –

I thought I would add a few things to Wendy's Post, as I am her friend and was her travel companion for this trip. May I say, Thank you Wendy and Dennis, and Jim and Michelle, for making me part of your family! What a wonderful trip - I couldn't ask for better travel companions.

Since she is doing a terrific job, I thought I would just add a few comments as she winds her way through the trip. I am not as frequent a traveler as they are, so my perspective may be slightly different.

First, I did not take anything for the time change, and did not find the change to be problematic going. I will say that United Airlines has the most cramped coach location...if you could not move up to Business Class when booking, they do offer it if still available 24 hours before when you confirm your reservation for approximately $149.00...TAKE IT. This was not a problem taking New Zealand Air back, and the American Flight from LA to Newark was half empty, so anywhere was fine.

Also, a note about Rocks Market..On the second day, Sunday, I went to Bondi Beach, where they also have a crafts market there. I found that although Rocks Market is larger, many of the items were overpriced...I saw something I liked there for $20, and it was only $8...same thing...at Bondi. It also was a weather change there. Although raining in Sydney proper, it was sunny and warm bathing weather there. Definitely worth the trip out.

As to Featherdale, I prefered Koala Park, which is intimate and has sheep shearing, which is not listed in the brochure as far as I know. Very un-touristy. The tour from Celebrity arrived at Featherdale AFTER all the exhibitions were over, and they only had a brief time there...the train was easy to take and we were able to meet some of the locals.

Just a note...the Flat White Coffee is great at all the Cafes (somewhere between a Cap and a Latte), and you can ask for a Skinny Flat White so you can save calories for the ship.

Great day by day report...since we leave for Sydney next Tuesday, we're thrilled to read a positive and up-to-date report. Thanks for taking the time to write it so soon after returning.

I am sure all you seasoned travelers are aware of this, but it is not a good idea to plan on leaving the ship at the time they indicate that they are in port. In each location, they did a stringent immigration/food and plant inspection prior to allowing us off the ship, which meant that our release time was at least half an hour after the posted time. For those of you with jet lag, or who could use a half an hour extra sleep, it is something to be aware of.

In addition, you need to bring WARM clothes in layers. It is chilly even in the summer, and when you leave in the morning you will need something. However, it did reach 76 degrees most days by the afternoon. I found that if you have a group, renting tour guide allowed you to bring all that "stuff" that you can then leave in the car. Also, the buses are prohibited into certain areas that cars are allowed into, and it allowed us to go into areas not available to the tour groups...but I will leave it up to Wendy for the details...

Did I say thank you again, Wendy?

Just a few notes ---

First, you get the Flat White Coffee in New Zealand, not Australia.

Second, I stayed behind at Bondi Beach for several hours while Wendy and Dennis went back to the zoo at the pier. Bondi reminds me of a downscale Malibu or Hollywood Florida beach. I really enjoyed it, including the shoe shopping I did, and also enjoyed the bus trip out. The bus is well worn but honestly, the people were fun, and the top level of the double decker was a great meeting place. I switched Ipods with a young girl from Brisbane and we exchanged Australian groups for US...didn't think I would ever know so much about who won "Australian Idol". FYI, I believe the crafts show is only on Sunday as far as I know.

As to the ship, the Main dining room blocks the 5th floor, and I was so confused, it may be that it also blocks the 6th floor, but I was so turned around that I didn't need to go to the gym for exercise after my walks. It would have been helpful if they had different pictures on the levels of stairs, and if they had some kind of fish or arrow pointing aft now and again on the walls, because some of the staircases let out heading you in a different direction. It required continual checking, and I finally went to the 11th floor because I could always figure out where I was from the layout of the pool.

I will get to more about it later, but at this point, in case he happens to read this post, I just wanted to give Patrick Porter, one of the Celebrity Dancers, my fondest regards. He is truly an asset to this cruise line, and went out of his way to make our entire group feel special. Along with being dedicated to his profession, he is a kind soul. If any of you do see him, please let him know he is well thought of by many of us that got to know him, and it was our honor to meet him.

As a thought, the Dancers can only eat in the main dining if they are invited to join you, and you must make the request from the head activities director in advance. We were lucky enough to have room to do so at our table, and did invite Patrick more than once. Each time he came, it was entertaining and informative, and added to the enjoyment of our cruise. He also was gracious enough (even though we tried to stop him) to tip the waiter on his own. I believe he also was pleased to be able to eat above the water line...consider an invitation if you have the room and meet a member of the cruise that you would like to know better. Along the way Wendy and I will add information about the individuals who work for the line that made our trip so special.

Thanks so much to both of you for providing such an entertaining review. We will also be onboard next week for a B2B of 29 days. Hopefully my husband won't jump overboard after the first two weeks!

Do you remember if Mario was the Restaurant Manager on board? He is very tall and distinguished looking.

Thanks:)

Wendy & friend (don't know your name):

Really enjoying the reviews of your trip. Please keep them coming and hopefully, the whole trip before we leave on Friday the 15th (we hope) as today we had an enormous dump of snow again. So much shoveling. They often cancel flights when that happens.

Obviously, you didn't notice the 'perfume factory' in Bondi Beach or the wind was not blowing the wrong way. When we were there, it stunk (in Jan/05) as that is the vent from the sewage system. The locals call it the perfume bottle.

Would love to learn what you did in Tauranga as we are going on a trip to Roturua as we have never been there.

Johanna

FIORDLAND NATIONAL PARK - Monday 1/28

Hint – If you don’t want to get up at 6am, sleep in for an hour or so, you will see the same scenery on the way out! ;)

We arrive at 6am into Milford Sound. I thought we would go straight through – nope. We drop off passengers taking one of the ship’s overnight tours and then turn around and head out. This is, in my opinion, the prettiest of the three sounds. We spend the day sailing in, around and to the next sound. It wasn’t as cold as I expected it would be. They do have coffee and Danish up in the Navigator for those early risers.

Note – if you do not have a Celebrity excursion, you cannot get off the ship – so do not try to book your own excursion! :confused:

Hint – Navigator Bar has great inside viewing of the sounds, but many of the windows are so cloudy, it is hard to see through them. :(

As I am a newbie to this board, please forgive me for not introducing myself...Marcy. On the otherhand, the important part is that Wendy is, my friend, and perhaps, the best tour arranger I have experioenced. She took charge, while taking into account the requests of the group, which was a tall order. Each of her arrangements for the day were better than the days sights before. If you have any opportunity to follow what we did, I say go for it. We were able to do twice the amount for about the same price, travel in comfort, see out of the usual places, and get back in time to not worry about whether we would make the sail.

The cruise is divided into two parts..sail, more sail, and more days at sea, and then hurry, hurry, hurry through ports. Fiordland is definitely beautiful...and the same in both directions. As a matter of fact, it was cold and seriously overcast going in, and easier to see going out. I would suggest that you save your strength for the way out. The second two Sounds are similar. On the other hand, I would not want to have you feel deprived, so if in doubt, get up early and go to the Navigator Lounge.

I am not going to get ahead of Wendy's post, since she is the Mastermind of the trip. (There are some REALLY GOOD THINGS coming up.) I enjoy being the sidekick. Any time you see something "hokey" happening it was probably me...I made them stop in front of the Australian Open sign, and go through the model city finding hidden stuff. On the other hand, it will make for conversation for a long time for all of us.

As my preference, I would definitely get the behind the scenes Ranger tour of the Bonorong, for many reasons. First, by the time you get there, you probably have seen and named a bunch of koalas, kangaroos, and other animals at many different parks, and seeing it from a different perspective is a good thing, not to mention entertaining and educational. In addition, you get to really understand what is going on with the ecology and living situation for the various species. We spent a lot of time there, and every minute was enjoyable. I would have, however, left enough time to do a bit more at Port Arthur, which I found quite intriguing. And yes, I have a hint! If you only have a short time there, when you pay for your ticket, as them to give you a time on the ticket that if you come back they will refund half the fee. For us it was about an hour and a half. Couldn't hurt.

Marcy

Johanna7 -

I am pretty easy going, but I also like to cover a lot of ground. You will have a great, great time. Do consider the behind the scenes at Bonorong.

I also want to recommend the walking tour in Wellington. (And the coffee at Immigrant's Son). It is much more interesting to get the history of the first rose, the Maori burial grounds, and the sculptures and their meaning this way. I am the only one in our group that had the opportunity to listen to one, and it definitely was a plus. The balance of my party left Wellington early, and honestly, we were lucky enough to be there for an international rugby parade, or I would have been out of there a bit earlier too.

When you take your cruise, please give our regards to Begay (spelled wrong I know), Joy, and Tony of the Activities staff. And tell Patrick you were recommended to Cha Cha with him by me.

Marcy

DUNEDIN, NZ - Tuesday 1/29 ( 8 am – 6 pm )

Tuesday we arrive in Dunedin (pronounced Done Eden) at 8 am. We are booked with http://www.arthurstours.co.nz/ email ArthursTours@xtra.com.nz Arthur picks us up in his snappy blue and yellow plaid vest – love it! We start out our tour at the train station for a view of the longest cat walk (his words!) and to see the beautiful gardens.and mosaic foyer. From there, we head out to the Otago Peninsula. It is a beautiful drive along the water with a lot of neat birds.

We arrive at Penguin Place first – before the cruise buses. They give us some of the history of the yellow-eyed penguins and then take us on a bus ride down to the cliffs of the ocean. From there we walk down and up and around to see the few young penguins hiding in their hillside homes that have been left for the day as mommy and daddy have gone looking for food. We actually did get to see one really nice and close – but were not allowed to stop and look at it or take pictures. They have been tracking these penguins and keeping charts of their marriages, divorces and children for several years now – I found the charts very interesting.

A short distance away is a protected beach area where we stopped to see the seals that blended into the rocks – some were close enough we could almost touch them. There were also two baby yellow-eyed penguins in a nest right on the beach.

Hint – wear decent walking shoes, you are stepping around a lot of sheep manure. :eek:

A short drive further and we have arrived at the Royal Albatross Colony. They have two of these huge majestic birds on display that you can see the size of and have your picture taken with. They have a nice restaurant as well that you can grab something to eat or drink prior to your tour up to the lookout. Once at the top, they lock you (I swear they do) into the little house. We could see three nesting Albatross in the distance and there was one on a live video cam on the TVs above us. None of them moved while we were there. They told us that if we were there at sunset, the Albatross that have been searching for food all day will come back to the cliffs for the night. We looked for them as we passed the colony at sail away but didn’t see any.

Hint - This is a steep walkway up. We saw several people that couldn’t make it and turned around – not sure that they missed that much :rolleyes:

From here, we headed back to the city with a stop and the beautiful Glenfalloch Woodland Gardens. There was also a small café here and tables in the gardens. Arthur walked us around the gardens – they were very nice.

Hint – The hydrangeas and Lily of the Niles are abundant and were in full bloom throughout New Zealand. I don’t think I have ever seen so many beautiful and different colored hydrangeas on the same plants. I would recommend going this time of year just to see them!

Back in the city, Arthur drives us to the bottom of Baldwin Street. I was in the front and three of the four in the back, even without the best view, demanded to be let out of the car. Arthur would have none of that and continued a nice easy speech as the car climbed this incredibly steep street. The noise in the back got louder and louder (almost hysterical you might say!) And then we reached the top. And then we descended this hill – have to admit, it was a bit scary. At the bottom, everyone got out of the car to take pictures and visit the little souvenir shop and receive our official certificate of achievement for surviving the world’s steepest street.

Hint - If you are planning on sending postcards to anyone, there are a number of places that you can buy the stamps and send the cards out – it is less expensive than the ship. :)

Now this was a bit interesting. I had contacted Cadbury World Chocolate factory before we left, and admittedly, they did not have room left in their 1-1/2 hour tour. I had discussed this with Arthur and he said he had added an ice cream/chocolate place onto his tours that several groups had enjoyed, so I expected this would be our next stop. That is when Arthur informed me that they weren’t making ice cream or chocolate that day, so this was the end of the tour. As we drove back to the ship, we thought we saw the signs for the Cadbury factory, but Arthur was really adamant about not stopping. It was really rather odd. We all wondered about it. Maybe some future cruiser can shed more light on this? :confused:

Last stop on the way back to the ship was at a small grocery store and Arthur ran in and emerged with 5 hokey pokey ice cream cones. Ummm Ummmm Good.

What a great day in Dunedin!

- to be continued -

Thanks, Marcy & Wendy, please keep them coming. I am learning from your tours. In Dunedin, my husband is taking the ARGO tour at 8:30 a.m. I did not want to do it. In the afternoon we are going into the city/town.

Last time we did take the boat trip and saw the penguins. They and the seals would climb on the rocks and keep falling and you could tell by their expressions how frustrated they were.

I would like to find out more about the chocolate tour you two obviously missed. It sounds interesting.

One thing I did notice 3 years ago was that the local group was selling the same tours as the ship but at 1/3 the cost. I wonder if it included transportation though.

That argo thing is 3-1/2 hours and bouncing up and down on that did not appeal to me. Carl will not doubt enjoy it very much.

Again, please finish them all before we leave. We leave here at noon on Friday the 15th.

Johanna

Glad to hear that Arthur's Tours was as good as everyone reports. We've been on the boat tour and to see the penguins (different time of the year) but not to the Castle or the Albatross colony nor the steepest street. In just a couple of weeks.....