Our cruise round New Zealand ended on Aukland. We had a day there before a late evening flight back to the UK. The visit was somewhat twinged with sadness as it was the end of our holiday. We had a coach trip round the city, to see the sights, the waterfront and a park were especially interesting. There was then time to look round a shopping centre and quay .The main emotion was a feeling of killing time though, but also looking back on a memorable cruise.
It is always difficult to strike a balance with shore excursions. There is a temptation to book everything so as to miss nothing. We avoided that, going for one day excursion only, to Hobbiton. The rest were short excursions of approximately 2 hours long– enough time to concentrate on a place or activity without getting too tired, and leaving time for a bit of independent exploration. This worked well for our age and health!
Looking at the ships log, we travelled 3,284 miles, over 15 days, visiting 9 ports.
The flight back to the UK crossed so many time zones that all idea of day and time were lost. It was 3 hours to Melbourne where we changed plane, with associated security and waiting. 13 hours took us to Dubai, where there was a break for refuelling, while we did security and waiting around again. The last leg was 7 hour to Heathrow. Add into that some delays, and it was a long journey. Thank goodness for business class, and for booking with a company (Titan) that did a chauffeur service from airport to home!
