First stop - Tauranga

So the first day of the cruise is always fun. You are excited to get in your cabin and get everything unpacked…the the first stop after the cabin is ALWAYS to find the buffet! Then you pretty much spend the rest of the day trying to find your way back to your cabin. Who needs to go use the gym. I mean I think we’ve walked miles just trying to figure out where things are on this ship!

Our first stop on the cruise was Tauranga that is located on the North island of New Zealand. We were being bussed into the city from the port and were told about a tour that was headed to a place called Rotoura. In Rotoura there was this  Thermal Village where the Maori people live.( I will not attempt to spell Maori out for you phonetically since apparently I don’t even know how to pronounce it. So I will just let you give it a go for yourselves like I do every time). We did a tour of the village and got to see how they live. Boy was it hot in there. The steam comes up from the ground and just to touch the ground was so hot. It would surely melt those $2 Old Navy flip flops. But luckily I was in tennis shoes. Crazy. There were also geysers in the village that would shoot up and we happened to be there when they were. Apparently they are not on a set schedule….just random as to when they want to show up.

The Maori’s also put on a cultural show for us. I thought it was great!

After we left the Thermal Village we headed to Kiwi 360. I guess I never knew how kiwis were grown but I would have never guessed they would grow on vines like they do.
Our tour guides were great. Jackson was the main one and he was Maori. He had us doing all kinds of chants and dances while on the bus. We later found out that all the pictures that they took that day were going be posted on Facebook. Great…seeing as how Heidi and I were in the very front seats where the pictures were being taken….I doubt we escaped being photographed waving our hands in the air.

That was our Tauranga stop. After the kiwi farm it was back to the boat! I can’t comment too much on the boat….okay well yes I can. We are having a good time, but since we have been been on several cruises before and one of them actually being Princess I think we had high expectations. So far it has not impressed me. Not many activities going on and the food is okay. Oh well, we still have another week or so….maybe it will get better.