Port Rating:

and we walked around with a tour guide to learn of the maouri history and to see the kiwi in it's natural habitat.

it was great the air smelt like rotten egg's and it only took a hour to walk around with our tour guide around the site and then we learnt how to do the hawka by the tourist guide and to take pictures of the geysers and the geysers let off spraying water at us and it was quite cold water even though the rocks where we had previously stood where quite hot.

the most rememorable moment of this trip was the other two in the front seat who had come from down the back of the bus they slept and snored all the way to the site and then they slept and snored all the way back to the blue thermal baths for afternoon tea. so they did not really get to see much of routeroa.

we had a great driver "ron" who drove us past mt monuagneua on the way back to the ship. it was like pitt street reminded us of the foreshore around newcastle in summer.

Cable car Rating:

there is also a cab you can pay to take you around the sites of wellington for $60.00 it was a pity we did not know about this before we walked around wellington.

Sky Tower Rating:

so we went and had a look at the sky tower and went up to the main observatory deck and took some great pictures of us standing over the top of the voyager of the seas. we had some nice lunch at the cafe in sky tower and then wandered back to the ship by our own means.

next time we are going to check out the tram that we found from looking down from sky tower apparently it is still in action and we want a ride.

Port Rating:

There is a full commentary done by the driver whilst driving around on this hop on hop off bus.

we stopped near the steepest street in dunedin and had photos taken and then went to the tourist shop and you can get a certificate for saying you walked up it whilst you only took photos at the bottom of it.

the taxi's in dunedin suck as we went on the hop on hop off bus to the museum and then we could not get back to the ship as easy as we wished to so we tried calling a taxi but they where too busy taking other passengers around, we ended up walking back half way to the i site tourist centre and then flagged down a taxi for the ones who where struggling to get back. and waited paitently to go back on the hop on hop off bus back to the ship.

great cheap souveniors from the chemist next to the i site tourist shop.

we also went to picton and went on a tour with the maori experience and went out to marlbourgh to blenhiem it was a great tour and the maori warrior and dancers where excellent.

we got photos taken with them and had morning tea provided to us and found this was a great tour to take with children and family and they are very adaptable to new comers and the chief that was picked from our bus tour was good. and we even done the "hungi" the way that the maori greet people.

i would love to go back and do this tour again down the track as they are only starting to get this a operational tour and it is family based maori experience. they sung and danced and the performers where only children and they were excellent.

we then went to "the vines" for afternoon tea and had ice cream and got to have a look through and taste the fudge and wine if we so decided too.