NewZealand

We were quite impressed with NewZealand,visiting Auckland,their City of Sails:one sailboat for every eight people!Had a fantastic city tour in the morning and decided to walk around ourselves after lunch.Had an interesting visit to the Museum learning about the Maori people and the integration into the society:They have both Maori and English as their official language,eventhough the maoris only make up 16%of popualtion(4.1million). Very impressed with the lush green city with truly multiethnic city,which apparently is the 5th largest in the world. Saw few daredevil divers off the Sky Tower who paid $40 for the pleasure!Visited Albert Park where Queen Vivtoria's staue was installed in 1899.
The next city was Tarunga:docked at  Mounganui named after the mountain. smaller than Auckland but full of thriving Kiwi and Avocado Plantations. Lot of cattle and sheep farms as well and they are also developing this place as an important seaport.Visited the famous Wai-o-Tapo hot springs and went around the smelly place around 3km of different  chemical springs. Saw the sprouting Lady Knox geyser and visited the impressive Rotoura lake which was originally a large volcanic crater. They have developed this as a fanyastic holiday resort.
The last city on our trip was the capital city of Wellington: Impressed again with the greenery and the cleaniless and the blend of old and new buildings.Te Papa Museum was an interesting place to learn the history of the country and its an easy city to walk around.
The ship is providing us with various activities and entertainment and things are still very enjoyable.
Gossip: Pam was told by a lady at the Laundrette that a shirt she ironed and left in a hanger near the door disappeared when she went away to hwe cabin to pick up some more clothes to wash?unbelievable:people pay so much to get on the cruise and you wouldnt expect such behaviour, but again a young Australian coule who boarded on at Auckland told us that they know of some one stealing an expensive dress from a Laundrette in another ship to wear at the formal dinner:when confronted by the owner of the dress,she apparently cooly said:'Prove it'?? We do see lot of strange behaviour in this world cruise!1