We booked this cruise to celebate my retirement and to visit ports we had missed on a previous driving holiday of NZ.
We booked an inside cabin on an upper deck as we have found it difficult to sleep in lower deck, outside and veranda cabins on past HAL cruises.
As trivia tragics we had connected with like-minded cruisers on the Cruise Critic Roll Call to form a team and they were a perfect match, contributing to our many victories and making the cruise fun. We collected many prizes including 4 bottles of champagne which we shared at dinner.
The cabin and bathroom were in good condition. It was disappointing that no toiletries were provided apart from the usual in-shower dispensers.
The bed was comfortable but the pillows were flat and in need of replacement, there was no pillow menu. The cabin was extremely quiet.
Although the cabin is described as a Large Interior cabin it was quite cramped and with only one chair, no sofa and a tiny side table, we were unable to take advantage of complimentary in-cabin dining.
We drove to Rotorua and visited Te Puia which included geyser viewing, Maori arts and craft and cultural performance.