Btimmer

Our disembarkation was delayed 50 minutes because of clearance issues.

Yup, we've been there before. We also saw it on our way in today.

After 5 days at sea, we are arriving at Papeete, French Polynesia. The ship has rotated and is backing into the berth as we are overnighting and will be departing in the dark tomorrow. It's over 80°f at 7:40am. We're doing a snorkeling trip this morning.

We're a couple of days from Papeete and the outside temperatures are getting much warmer. Sunbathing was in full force today. Here's a 170° stern view. Tonight is formal night, but we continued our dining in the Lido Marketplace where there is a wonderful grill station. We've finally cleared the wait lists for snorkeling excursions in Papeete, Moorea, and Honolulu.

Here's a peek at some of our room decor. Angela brought these along for the Polynesian / Hawaiian portion of the cruise. Princess continues to have problems with an inaccurate schedule on the APP and it isn't synched with the printed Patter. Crossing the dateline is the likely culprit.

Today we are in lala land after crossing the international dateline yesterday. It's day 13 and we are observing a second April 21 (Sunday). The schedule on the APP does not have the correct schedule and the Princess Patter (printed schedule) doesn't show all events. We did have an interdenominational service this morning and it's the first time I can recall doing Sunday on adjoining days.

Life is short so today we sampled a premium dessert before dinner! Yummy! Also, we cleared the standby list for a snorkeling trip on a catamaran on Day 2 in Papeete. I just missed lasting 3 minutes on the Yes/No game show. But I won a water bottle. And finally we enjoyed 2 sets of Patrick McMahon, a terrific country singer from Western Australia. We have seen him previously a number of times on HAL cruises.

We're on day 2 (April 21) of the segment to Papeete. We're crossing the international date line and we'll enjoy April 21 again tomorrow. Below is a map of our current position.

We're about to depart Auckland after a nice visit here. We visited the Weta Studios unleashed near the Sky Tower and went up the tower. We also imbibed in a real donut at Dunkin' Donuts.

This morning we are in the Bay of Islands, NZ. It blue skies and gorgeous! We have a Princess Excursion.

We're back in the ship after a wonderful trip to Hobbiton. It's totally dark at 6:40pm and we should be departing shortly to catch the tidal flow properly. Here are a few pictures from Middle Earth. Fake tree

We visited Hobbiton two years ago and hadn't read or watched anything Hobbit or Lord of the Rings oriented. Hobbiton was awesome and it's why we are returning. And, yes, we've binge watched the entire Lord of the Rings series.

We just arrived in Tauranga and were among the first off the ship. We got the last 4 tickets for a private excursion to Hobbiton! Score! Here's a few pictures with Mt.Maunganui in full view.

This afternoon passengers formed the Majestic Princess choir and performed in the Piazza. My wife us in the black and white wavey top in front. Angela with Morgan, the choir director

Yesterday we spent most of our time on a Princess excursion to Shenandoah (you can read all about it in my daily blog found at https://timmer2024mp.blogspot.com ) Additionally we took the cable car up to the top of the hill and strolled back down through the botanical garden. While it's the end of the season, I still was able to take a few flower and wildlife photographs. Try to get straight lumber out of this tree!