Paihia Haere Mai

Click the image to read the inscription (prayer) 
that accompanies this statue in the heart of Paihia.  

Haere Mai to Paihia

This carved wood statue greeted us as we returned to the small town of Piahia, Bay of Islands, New Zealand after exploring the islands and caves by boat.

Haere Mai (click for pronunciation) is a Māori greeting: come here!  welcome!

Dolphins

The dolphin has special meaning to the Māori people, who often described dolphins as taniwha, or water spirits, and told stories about certain taniwha that had intervened in human life.

According to Ngāti Wai people, who inhabited islands off Auckland’s eastern coast, dolphins acted as messengers in times of need, carrying news from the islands to the mainland.

Bay of Islands On Your Own

Paihia photo album

For those that don't want to book a ship's excursion, you can visit the iSite (information site) once you arrive in Paihia by ship tender.  You will find these visitor information centers throughout your stay in New Zealand. 

Tour like a local with the information provided by workers at these centers.  They can provide you with ideas about things to do, how to get around, and even book your tours.

When we first arrived at the ship, we had been talking with our cabin steward about our cabin bar setup, and the topic of Orange Fanta® soda came up.  We found out he liked it as well.  In one of the shops, we asked where we might get some snacks and soda, and they directed us to the local grocery store, just down the block.  We found the orange soda on sale there, so we bought a few bottles, including one for our cabin steward.  He was quite surprised when we gave it to him.

We had a very enjoyable time exploring this little town following our shore excursion.

Explore more in our photo album:
Paihia photo album



Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.

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Bay of Islands New Zealand

click to enlarge map

ISLAND & CAVE ADVENTURE

After two days of sailing across the ditch, we arrived in our first port of call, Bay of Islands, New Zealand.  This is an area on the North Coast of New Zealand, home to more than 140 subtropical islands.

It is world renowned for big game fishing. While we wouldn't be fishing, we were transferring to a boat for our excursion.  But first, we boarded one of the ship's tender boats to Paihia.

A specially designed speed boat was waiting for us as we departed the tender boat.  It would take us out on an exciting boat ride into the Bay of Islands, and around to the wilder, seaward side of the outer islands.  Watch this video to get an idea of how we explored deep caves and viewed majestic cliffs.




Following our close up view of the cave we stopped off at one of the bay's best islands,  Roberton Island.  The front of our boat got close to the island and then one of the crew lowered the stairs for a wet landing. There was a path to hike to the summit of the island.   We didn't do so, but wish that we had since the views from there were stunning.

Tip:  Take off your shoes and roll up your pants legs if you don't want to get them wet when landing on the beach.  The island's "sand" is  volcanic rock, so you'll want to have water shoes or good hiking shoes to put on once you land on the beach.

More pics in our Bay of Islands photo album

This tour was one of the highlights of our New Zealand cruise adventure. The crew made sure that everyone had the opportunity to get any photos that they wanted. When the boat was speeding across the bay, the front window was closed, but they would open it up when we approached our destination for up close inspection. The final highlight was getting pictures of our anchored ship as we returned to the tender boats.

Additional photos can be found on our Australia & New Zealand Shutterfly page

Bay of Islands


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Diary of New Zealand Cruise

New Zealand Cruise on Your Bucket List?

If so, this cruise diary is for you.  It includes ideas for things to do pre-cruise, since we always suggest arriving a couple days prior to your cruise embarkation, as well as day by day journal of our voyage.

How it Began

While onboard Sapphire Princess last January, we looked at cruises for 2019.  Princess Cruises was still celebrating their 50th Anniversary with a sale which included onboard credits.   We looked at several possible cruises, but hadn't made up our mind.

Our table mates were from Australia, which got us talking about traveling to that part of the world.  In addition, New Zealand is one of the hot destinations for 2019.  We try to stay current with travel trends so that we can advise our clients based on personal experiences.   Also, Majestic Princess is Princess Cruises newest Royal-class ship, which entered service in 2017.

Majestic Princess - Sydney R/T

We showed out mates the itinerary we were looking at, and they agreed with us that it would be a fabulous cruise, so we took advantage of the onboard booking incentives.   Ironically, the agent that had booked our Southeast Asia cruise was the Next Cruise Specialist onboard.  She was so excited to be planning our next cruise as well.

As usual, we arrived a day early so that we can get acclimated to the time change and avoid departure day anxiety should flights be delayed.  Our pre-cruise stay was at Intercontinental Hotel Sydney which overlooks the harbour.

Bookmark this page - we will be adding day by day reviews as well as links to our photo albums.


Be sure to follow us on our other social media accounts during the cruise for live posts.

13 Day Australia - New Zealand Cruise

	Port	Blog Posts	Photo Albums / Videos
Wed Jan 9	Travel to Sydney ORD-LAX-SYD
Fri Jan 11	Sydney Pre-Cruise Intercontinental Sydney	Greetings From Sydney 87 Years and Counting	Intercontinental Hotel Sydney Sydney Opera House The Royal Botanical Garden
Sat Jan 12	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Check In 12:00pm-3:00pm	Majestic Princess Embarkation Welcome Aboard Majestic Princess Relaxing at Sea on Majestic Princesss	Transfer to Pier Cabin B201 Lotus Spa
Sun Jan 13	At Sea	Hooray for Hollywood	Hollywood Pool Club Hollywood Conservatory
Mon Jan 14	At Sea	Best Peking Duck Salad at Sea	Harmony
Tue Jan 15	Bay of Islands 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Island & Cave Adventure (8:30 AM)	Bay of Islands New Zealand Paihia Haere Mai	Bay of Islands Island & Cave Adventure (Video) Paihia
Wed Jan 16	Auckland 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM LOCAL CONNECTIONS: CITY DRIVE & AUCKLAND MUSEUM (8:00 AM)	Michael Joseph Savage Memorial Maori History Auckland Museum Journey Through Time Remembering the War	Auckland City Drive Auckland Museum
Thu Jan 17	Tauranga 10:30 AM - 10:00 PM Lord of the Rings Hobbiton Movie Set Tour (10:45 AM)	McLaren Falls Park Journey to Shire of Hobbiton New Zealand Manuka Honey	Tauranga McLaren Falls Park Hobbiton New Zealand Honey Journey to Hobbiton Movie Set (Video)
Fri Jan 18	At Sea
Sat Jan 19	Wellington 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM Te Papa Museum & Cable Car (12:30 PM)	Discover Wellington	Wellington Te Papa Museum Wellington Cable Car
Sun Jan 20	Akaroa 7:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wildlife Cruise by Sailing Ketch (8:30 AM)	Akaroa by Sailing Ketch Akaroa Wharf	Sailing Ketch Cruise Akaroa Wharf Wildlife Viewing Akaroa NZ Sailing Ketch (Video)
Mon Jan 21	Dunedin 6:45 AM - 3:30 PM Otago Peninsula Yellow-eyed Penguin Reserve (9:00 AM)	When Mother Nature Has Other Plans Picton Marlborough Country	Marlborough Artisan Hub Picton Wine Country
Tue Jan 22	Fiordland National Park (scenic cruising) 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM	Cruising Marlborough Sounds	Marlborough Sounds Sunset Cruising Sound
Wed Jan 23	At Sea
Thu Jan 24	At Sea
Fri Jan 25	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 6:00 AM Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay	Disembarkation Day Sydney Australia Exploring Sydney in Two Days Stopping at Bondi Beach	Sydney Marriott Big Bus Sydney Bondi Beach Manly Ferry Crepes
Sat Jan 26	Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay	Celebrating Australia Day	Australia Day Ferry Harbor Tour
Sun Jan 27	Travel to Chicago

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