Bay of Islands New Zealand

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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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Excursion to Mount Pilatus

Our First Avalon Excursion

We'd had a wonderful day in Zurich on our own, but now it was time to let Avalon take over with the excursions.  We pre-booked the Excursion to Mount Pilatus and had been looking forward to this tour.

We boarded a bus headed at the Movenpick Hotel  with several of our fellow passengers.  Our checked baggage was in the storage compartments and our hand luggage (mainly cameras & computers) were with us above our seats.  This is the reason why the cruise line had requested carry on bags without wheels.

Gondola Ride

Mount Pilatus (2132m / 7000 ft) presents its visitors with a thrilling ascent by cable car, spectacular summit views of the 10.000 ft. Bernese Alps (Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau) to the south and Lake Lucerne to the north, followed by the steepest cog-wheel descent in the world.
In 1868 Queen Victoria made the excursion riding on the back of a mule.

When we arrived at Mount Pilatus, we were given a card which we'd need to insert in several turnstiles  during the tour.   To make it easy to identify the group, we were also given Globus Mount Pilatus baseball caps.

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The view from the gondola was spectacular.  There had been some cloud cover, but the visibility was improving as time went on during our visit.   Once to the top, we had free time to explore from the observation deck and the caves (which we highly recommend).   There was also a restaurant and shops, all of which we visited.   You are actually inside the hotel lobby when you get off the gondola.

Mount Pilatus Caves

In medieval times, it was believed that dragons with healing powers lived in the rugged clefts and crevices of Mount Pilatus.  Read more

We spent about 30 minutes exploring the caverns taking pictures framed by the openings.  If you get chilled, you might want to bring a light jacket or sweater as it is cooler inside the passages.

Don't miss this part of the excursion.   It is also possible to climb stairways to get even a higher vantage point if you are so inclined.

 Enjoying a Snack

Our guide said that the barley soup and apple strudel were very good.  She also suggested having a cup of Swiss hot chocolate.  We took here advice and tried all three of them.  They were very good indeed.

After our snack, we had just enough time to check out the gift shop before it was time to meet for the descent via cogwheel railway.


Cogwheel Railway

The descent from Mount Pilatus isn't by gondola.  It is via the world's steepest cogwheel railway with the maximum grade of 48% and the average of 38%.  It takes approximately 40 minutes to complete the descent.

Tip:  If traveling with someone else, we'd suggest sitting across from each other so that you can take photographs in various directions, if so inclined.   The best view isn't always ahead of you, as you can see from our photos.

Next Stop - Lucerne

We boarded our bus for a short ride to the city of Lucerne for the second part of the excursion.  We'll discuss that in our next post.

This is day one of the cruise and I'm already smiling in a picture. I posed in front of the famous Lion Monument.  For those that know me, I'm not a big fan of being in pictures, so I rarely smile in them. When I do, that means I'm really enjoying the trip.

^{Additional photos can be found on our Rhine & Moselle Shutterfly page:} 

Pilatus - Gondola
Pilatus - View
Pilatus - Cave Tunnels
Pilatus - Cogwheel Railway

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