We bid a fond farewell to Sally & Jim & Queenstown, and have flown back to Auckland. We’ll poke around a little tomorrow, perhaps take the ferry to Waiheke Island or just wander up and down Queen Street, the main drag. Then we board our wonderful ship on Monday, and set sail!

One thing I forgot to mention on arrival - considering how distant we are from home, it was nice that the time difference from Hawaii is only one hour, thus no jet lag. Of course, it’s actually 23 hours difference, but that just means that 2:00pm in Hawaii is 1:00pm here, but a different day. Obviously the body-clock doesn’t know the difference between one day or another.

These amazing boats can turn on a dime and can (and do!) accelerate to top speed (about 55 mph) in just a few seconds. We all particularly enjoy when the driver makes a circular motion with his hand, and then we do an at-speed 360 degree skid & stop.....and get wonderfully splashed in the process!

wheeeee!

Jim and Sally took us on a “Dart River Adventure”, which was a 3-part exploration of the beautiful area near Glenorchy. We took a bus trip into the area (with explanations of all the filming sites for the Lord of the Rings movies), then a nature walk with explanations of local trees & plants, and then the really good part - a trip up the river & back, on a jet boat. These boats have a draft of all of about 10 centimeters, just a few inches, so they can go where the river water is less than a foot deep. Loud, fast and FUN!

...and a gondola ride to an even more spectacular view.

Beautiful view from Coronet Peak.

I thought about doing it, but..................nah. For those who needed a little help with the decision, there’s some nearby help.

We all went sightseeing today - one of the biggest attractions of the area is a bungee-jumping site.

Our hosts in Queenstown, Jim and Sally Meakin, have a beautiful place right beside a pond, with willow trees.....and ducks. The ducks, it turns out, are quite fond of peas.

Cool lookin’ birds, I think

Made it to Auckland, quick layover, then the 2 hour flight to Queenstown. We’ll spend the next 2 days with our good buddies, then it’s back to Auckland to board the ship.

Air New Zealand has figured out how to do WiFi over the ocean (as we now are). Attn: United Airlines. Anyway, this means I can listen to spring training baseball all the way to NZ. Life is good.

Engines revving, wheeee, here we go!

Next up!

Stay tuned, next trip to commence in 2 weeks!