10/24/08 Auckland, New Zealand

After a day of cruising the coast of the North Island, we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city and the end of the first of my three cruises. This leg of the trip was a repositioning cruise from Alaska and, for the next few months, the Volendam would be sailing two-week itineraries between Auckland and Sydney. I was staying on board for the first sailing of the season but most passengers would be disembarking in Auckland. That meant that I would be saying goodbye to a lot of the new friends that I had made during the past month and meeting a bunch of new folks for the first time. Fortunately, some of my “best” new friends were staying on for the trip to Sydney and a group of my “roll call” members were boarding in Auckland. We would meet them the next day at our scheduled “meet and greet”. By the way, on this leg of the trip we had sailed a total of 8,811 nautical miles, which equals 10,133 statute miles. And the seas had been amazingly calm the entire time.

We were required to dock very early in Auckland due to the busy nature of the harbor. Ferries were coming and going constantly so I could easily understand why they wouldn’t want a large cruise ship in the harbor during the busier times of the day. That may also have been the reason for our midnight departure but I don’t know for sure. In any event, since Auckland was a disembarkation port, there weren’t many shore excursions offered by the cruise line. The few that were available didn’t look especially appealing so I had no plans for the day. We were docked just a short distance from the downtown business district and I decided to walk around on my own for a little sightseeing and souvenir shopping. Since other passengers would be disembarking and embarking, I was given an “in transit” pass which allowed me to come and go as I pleased. By the time I decided to wander into town, disembarkation was complete and the shore excursions had departed. The ship was basically mine! It felt really strange to wander around the Lido deck by myself and see almost nobody there. Unfortunately, I knew it wouldn’t last very long. Soon I would have to fight the crowds again.

Once I left the ship, I started to regret not having taken a city highlights tour so that I could have gotten at least an overview of Auckland. It was chilly and windy and, after a month of traveling, I was tired. So I knew that I wasn’t going to walk around too much on my own. And I was right! I found a multi-level, enclosed mall a few blocks into the city so I decided to look around for a while. The first thing I saw was a food court with a good old McDonalds, a perfect place to sit and have a “long black”. After finishing my coffee, I found a shop with every New Zealand-related souvenir you could imagine. I left there with a bag full of “stuff” and was on my way out of the mall when I spotted a coffee and muffin shop. I suppose it’s like a donut shop in the States. I ordered another coffee and sat outside at one of the tables, drinking my coffee and watching the people. It was in the heart of downtown so there were lots of people to watch. It was very enjoyable! Also, being outside gave me the opportunity to meet one of the locals when a pigeon landed on my table. I didn’t have a muffin, and I guess he didn’t like coffee, so he hopped over to the next table. By the way, New Zealand seems to have a lot of little eateries like the muffin shop with an order counter but no inside seating. It’s also dotted with all varieties of “takeaways”, what we would call “to go”. You can get virtually any type of food to “takeaway”, including ethnic food (Chinese, Thai), fish ‘n chips, meat pies, sandwiches, etc. I guess that we have them in the States too. They just seem to be more prominent down there.

By the time I returned to the ship, embarkation had begun although it was still pretty much empty. However, as the afternoon progressed, more and more “newbies” started to appear. I found myself experiencing a strange emotion. I actually resented these people who were invading “my” space. I mentioned this to Bill, Linda and Greg, who said that they had the same reaction. I guess that, after living on board for a month, the ship starts to feel like home. Maybe, in a couple of weeks, some of these people will be new friends. But they’ll have to prove themselves!