DAY 43-BAY OF ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

 Alright!!!  We made it to New Zealand!!  To be more specific, today we are in the Bay of Islands on the north island of NZ.  It was overcast to start out this morning but turned into a beautifully sunny day.  Temperature a very pleasant 78 degrees with low humidity.

WHAT WE DID LAST NIGHT:

 Formal night dinner in Compass Rose.  Table for two.  Could not take photo from other side as sun was coming through window.

                 Our perfectly cooked beef Wellington.  It was EXCELLENT!

BACKGROUND INFO:
After two more days at sea we arrived at what Captain James Cook coined in 1769 as “the Bay of Islands”.  It was a beautiful sail in this morning on the northeast coast of the north island of New Zealand.  The Bay of Islands is a huge natural bay/harbor with 144 islands and was the first area in New Zealand to be settled by Europeans.  Today, it is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country.  It has become famous internationally for its big game fishing ever since the American author, Zane Grey, wrote about it in the 1930’s.  In a 2006 study, the Bay of Islands was found to have the second “bluest” sky in the world behind Rio.  Personally, I’m not sure how Rio is #1.

 First 6 photos I took from top deck of ship right after we dropped anchor in the bay.

 Here we are boarding the tender boat for ride to the small dock on the island of Waitangi.  This is the first tour Rebecca has taken since we started the cruise January 5th.  Our tour was called, "Relaxing Lunch Cruise to Historic Russell".  It was 3 1/2 hours in duration.

                                        This is our tour boat.

         At the back of the boat was a galley where they prepared our nice lunch.

            These 3 girls along with the boat captain took good care of us.

There are 3 people up in this parasail.

                              Arriving at the dock in Russell.

        This is one of the little ferries that brought people from Paihia to Russell.

                 The Bay of Islands is known for its excellent sport fishing.

 We spent an hour walking around Russell.  We mainly walked along the water front.

                         Proof that Rebecca did go on the tour.

                       Houses are VERY expensive here.

                        Our ship photo taken from Russell.

                    Another plant of some kind growing on the tree.

This hotel had to be very expensive to stay in as was right on water front by wharf.

                       Rebecca with our friends Bonnie & Paul.

 While we were spending the hour at Russell, the crew was preparing lunch.  They took our meat preferences prior to arriving at Russell.  The choices were:  venison, lamb, or fish.  Also served for our lunch was this nice tomato salad, boiled potatoes & sweet potatoes.  Everything was amazingly good.  We both had the fish.  Sodas were a rip off as cost $3 each.  Garth, the captain, told me it was costing Regent $50 per person for the cruise & lunch.

 This is Garth, our captain, cooking the meats.  On the right side of the photo is a cook top.  There was also an oven and several cooktop burners.

 Hard to tell so you will need to click on this photo to enlarge it, but there is a hole you can pass through.

Up on the hill top is a vineyard.  It is covered with netting to keep the birds from eating the grapes.

We had a great day here and really enjoyed this excursion.  We were back onboard the Navigator by 1:30pm.  Most folks are still off the ship on other tours so it was easy for me to upload these photos on the blog today.

       My lower neck is killing me now so I am going to lie down.  Rebecca did MUCH better last night so hopefully she is on the mends.  Tonight we are dining up in Prime 7 (steakhouse).  No shows tonight as we will be in Auckland tomorrow and several people are disembarking and new passengers will be boarding.  This will be the end of the second segment of our world cruise.