Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Sadly, today was our final stop in New Zealand. We have thoroughly enjoyed the past six days in this enchanted land and wish we had more time to spend here. Everywhere we look we see beauty. The landscape includes everything from seaside beaches to fertile farms and orchards, to towering mountains. We hope to get the opportunity to come back some day and explore even deeper into the natural wonders of New Zealand.

Wellington is the capital city and is located at the southwestern tip of North Island providing amazing views of the Cook Strait and the Rimutaka mountain range. Wellington is known as the “coolest little capital in the world” and is the world’s southernmost capital city of an independent nation, and as it turns out this is also the most southern point of our cruise.

Today we took one of the Viking included tours, “Te Papa and Highlights of Wellington”. We met our guide and set off by motor coach, passing the 19th-century Parliament buildings. During the ride, our colorful guide explained the history of the buildings and the city’s culture.

Our first stop was at the waterfront Te Papa Museum, New Zealand’s national museum a celebration of New Zealand’s diverse landscape, cultures, art and nature. Impressive exhibits highlight the natural world and geology of New Zealand’s islands, as well as the Maori culture and traditions. The museum features many interactive displays that showcase the unique aspects of New Zealand and its history.

Following our visit to the museum we continued our tour of the city. We drove along the Oriental Bay beach and took a scenic ride to the lookout on Mount Victoria where we had incredible views of the city and surrounding are. From there the driver drove us through the business district pointing out local points of interest.

The highlight of the trip to date came after the tour when we headed back downtown to meet Matt, one of my daughter Sarah’s best friends growing up. Matt lived across the street from us when Sarah was in elementary school and her and Matt shared a number of adventures that I’m sure neither of them would want me to divulge here. Matt moved to New Zealand eight years ago and since then has married the love his live and they are living happily here in Wellington. Kully and I were thrilled to learn that we were the first people to visit him from the USA. It was a great afternoon of getting caught up and sharing old stories. Thanks, Matt, for taking the time to track us down and spending a couple of hours with us, it was really special.

This evening, we are making our way through the Cook Passage to enter the Tasman Sea enroute to our next port of call in Melbourne, Australia. We were originally scheduled to continue down the east coast of South Island to sail through the Milford and Doubtful sound, both are fiords located in the Fiordland national park. However, due to a major storm in the south Tasman Sea causing 25-foot waves the captain has decided to cancel the fiords and stay a little further north avoiding the bad weather and heavy seas. It is approximately 1600 miles from Wellington to Melbourne, so we will be at sea for the next four days arriving in Melbourne on Monday morning.

“Wherever you go, go with all of your heart.” Confucius