The Fiords and Last Night Dinner

Hi Girlies,

Yesterday our ship went through Fiordland, NZ’s largest National Park.  We sailed through three sounds: Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound, and Milford Sound, they were all sooooo beautiful.  When we entered Dusky Sound at 8am it was cloudy, but it was still pretty.

Later the sun started to come out.  The channel through all the sounds is very narrow.  Our Captain did a good job driving the ship.

I love this picture looking behind the ship.  You can see the smoke from the ship’s smoke stack.

This picture is the end of Milford Sound.  The ship turned around here to go back to the ocean.

I took a picture of this pretty girl in Milford Sound.  Milford Sound has lots and lots of waterfalls.

The ship got really close to this waterfall, we could feel the mist from the falls.  All the people in this picture are from the ship’s crew.  They have an area in front of the ship just for them.  They even have their own small swimming pool, you can see it in this picture.

After our day sailing the fiords, we went to dinner in the ship’s Italian restaurant, Prego.  Nana wore this pretty black dress for the first time.

We had a wonderful dinner.  Nana started with the beef carpaccio, Gpa had the crab salad.

Next we both had the Caprese salad.

And then we both had this awesome veal chop, oh was it good!

It came with saffron risotto.  It was good but Nana said Gpa’s chessy rice is better :).

We both had a cappuccino for desert, we had no room for anything else.  It was one of the best dinners we have had on the cruise.

So now we have two days until we arrive in Sydney, Australia.  We will have a busy day there.  Gpa is climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge (www.bridgeclimb.com).  While Gpa is doing the climb, Nana is going on a harbor cruise with our friend Elaine.  In the evening we are going to the Sydney Opera house to see Madame Butterfly.  It should be a fun day.  BTW, check the other blog for more pictures of the fiords, Nana will be posting there later today.

That’s all for now.  We love you and miss you.

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

Dunedin and Penquin Place

Hi Girlies,

Today we are visiting our last port in New Zealand, Dunedin.  We are sad to leave New Zealand, it is such a beautiful country.  This morning we took a short tour of downtown Dunedin.  We saw this beautiful church.

And the Dunedin train station. 

And this beautiful boys school.

Then in the afternoon we went to Penquin Place which is a conservation reserve to protect the endangered Yellow Eyed Penguin.  The first place we went was the penguin hospital where injured penguins are nursed back to health.  We saw lots of penguins in the hospital.

We then walked to the beach where the penguins live.  Nice beach!!  

Here is Nanoo wearing her new NZ hat.

We planted two trees in the park to provide more habitat for the penguins.

Here is one of our trees.  Maybe someday we can come back and see it.

So that was our day in Dunedin and penguin place.  We are now sailing towards Fiordland where we will go through three vary narrow sounds, they should be beautiful.  Bye for now, we love you.

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

 

 

 

Wellington and The Sheep Farm

Hi Girlies,

Today we are in Wellington, the capital of NZ.  This morning we took a walking tour of the city.  The first thing we did was ride this cable car up to a point high above the city.

We had beautiful views.

Nana liked it up there.

Next we walked back down to the city.  On the way we went through this beautiful garden.

Wellington is such a beautiful city.  It is so clean.  This is one street downtown.

Then in the afternoon we went to a sheep farm.  You would really have liked that.  This is the sheep farmer’s house and a few of his sheep in the front yard.

This is the view from the farmer’s front porch.  WOW!

We learned how the sheep dogs herd the sheep.  One dog chases the sheep away, he barks a lot.  The other dog brings the sheep back, he doesn’t make a sound.  Here is the farmer with his two dogs.  We had a demonstration of how both dogs work, it was fascinating.  

We saw lots of sheep.  They were all so cute.

So that was our fun day.  Tomorrow we will be in Christchurch, NZ and we have a city tour planned.  Bye for now.  We love you.

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

 

 

Formal Night

Hi Girlies,

Tonight was formal night on the ship and Nanoo wore this pretty blue dress.

We had a nice dinner.  Nana started with caviar.

Gpa started with Waygu beef ravioli.

Nana had lobster.

Gpa had a local fish.

Gpa had cappuccino that came like this.

 t

I thought it needed a smile so I added one with brown sugar.

This is Nana’s dessert.  Can you say boring?!

Nana got this bear in Auckland.  It is the mascot of the All Black rugby team.  It does the Haka if you press his tummy.   Check out the Haka on Utube to see what it is.

Bye for now.  

We love you,

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo

 

Our Night In Hobbiton

Hi Girlies,

Yesterday our ship docked with this volcano right in front of us.  It didn’t erupt :)!  There is a trail up to the top of it but Gpa didn’t have time to do it.

Last night was our wonderful time in Hobbiton.  The ship took about 500 people there in 20 big buses.  Hobbiton is on a big beautiful farm about an hour ride from our ship.

We had a guide who took us through the movie set.

We saw lots of Hobbit houses.

Our guide said this house with the green door is Frodo’s.

We then went to where our party was held.  The tents were where the food was being prepared, we didn’t sit in the tents.  Food was brought around by servers dressed in Hobbit attire.  There were lots of Hobbit characters around, even Gandalf. We had lots of good finger food to eat.  We had beer and wine to drink.  And if we didn’t have enough to eat, there was a buffet when we returned to the ship (Gpa and Nana passed on the buffet).

There was lots of yummy food including this lamb being roasted.  Those in the field are probably afraid they might be next!

At the end of the evening there was a laser light show.  The laser lights were projected onto a wall of water in a lake, really neat how it was done.  This is one of the images.

Finally we finished with fireworks.

So, it was a wonderful evening in Hobbiton.  We sure wish you could have been with us!  We got back to the ship at 10:30.  We had a little drink in the lounge and called it a day.  Nanoo must have been tired because she is sleeping in a bit today.  We are now sailing toward our next port of Napier, NZ.  We have a nice tour planned to the wine region.  Will post about that tomorrow.

We love you,

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo