The plan for this day was to check out of the hotel, transition to the ship and start to make ourselves at home. We could get in our cabin after 1pm and had the rest of the day free. I figured I would let Barb get herself settled while I would use the afternoon hours to take a ferry to Waiheke Island, a popular destination for Aucklanders and tourists.
We packed our bags and got them out in the hall by 8am where they were swept up and transported magically to the ship. We had our buffet breakfast, already starting to worry we were eating too much. Barb had hers early so I ate on my own, sharing a table with another couple. We discussed their many cruises which seemed to be the only safe topic of conversation.
I was starting to get sniffles and a slight tingle in my throat. Uh oh.
We lingered in our hotel room until 10:30am then checked out and walked over to the ship. The embarkation process involved a few slow moving lines but we made it aboard within an hour and were shuffled to a lunch buffet in World Cafe. I wasn’t very hungry but had a bowl of Asian noodle soup.
We stayed at lunch for a while then roamed the ship for an initial orientation. We were allowed to enter our stateroom at 1pm, even if our luggage wasn’t there yet. Our very friendly and solicitous steward, Kemal (from Indonesia), gave us a tour of our room. Our luggage arrived within an hour and we unpacked. There was plenty of drawer space for everything which was nice. It was easy to make the cabin our home for the next couple of weeks.
Around 2:30pm I headed ashore to catch the ferry to Waiheke. I wanted a chance to cruise the Auckland harbor on a lovely day, even if there wasn’t much on the island needed to see. Waiheke is a large island with wineries, beaches and other sights but they are spread apart. People often rent cars or take tour buses to get to various destinations. I wouldn’t be doing that. I figured I would take roughly an hour to ride the ferry to the island, wander for about an hour, then catch the ferry back for my 3-hour personal excursion.
The actual 45-minute ferry ride through the eastern harbor was nice. I sat next to a New Zealand woman commuting back home from downtown. She was chatty and gave me some information about living in Auckland (she was a relatively recent transplant from down south). She kindly offered that she and her husband could give me a lift into town from the ferry dock but I politely declined. That turned out to be a mistake.
My thought on arriving at Waiheke was to walk around the ferry harbor and see what I could see. Unfortunately there really was nothing near the ferry dock other than parking lots. I checked with a taxi but he had a flat rate of $25 to go anywhere so I started to walk up the road to the nearest town, Oneroa, about a mile away. It was not a bad walk, though it was uphilll most of the way, but by the time I got to the town I was starting to work up a sweat and my allotted time on the island was halfway gone. I needed to head back to the ferry so I wouldn’t be too late getting back to the ship. I snapped a few pictures of Oneroa Beach from the top of town and called it a day. I can really only say I got some exercise on Waiheke Island, I didn’t really see it…but I was mostly interested in the ferry ride back and forth anyway. I was glad to have taken the three hour excursion on my own rather than just sitting on the boat or traipsing around downtown Auckland a bit more.
The ride back on the ferry was also pleasant. We had to maneuver around a cargo ship that was leaving the harbor.
I made it back to our ship to find Barb napping in the room. I got a shower and then it was dinner time. We went to The Restaurant where Barb had steak frites while I had linguini vongole. Both were decent, with admirably small portions that we actually appreciated since we were still mostly full from the day’s breakfast and lunch. We met an interesting couple at the next table who had just arrived from New Hampshire. They regaled us with stories of the damaged luggage and, of course, their previous cruises.
After dinner we popped into the Maori Cultural show to see a troupe perform some ritual dances and songs. I was surprised Barb wanted to go. The show was short and wholesome, vaguely like a Hawaiian luau performance with a haka, the Maori ceremonial welcome often misinterpreted as a war dance, thrown in. Afterward, we retired to our room for a relatively early night and a good night’s sleep. We were getting better acclimated to the time zone.
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