Day 17 - Sun Mar 4, 2018 Bay of Islands, New Zealand - Crystal Symphony - Sydney to Tahiti

Day 17 – Bay of Islands, NZ – Sun, Mar 4, 2018

This morning while we were walking on the Promenade Deck, it started to mist. At first it was quite nice, a light mist. Then it got harder to see out of our glasses and eventually it progressed to heavy rain.  

We had breakfast in the Marketplace, hoping for the rain to stop.  We’ve been lucky in every port so far on this trip.  In Stewart Island it was drizzling a bit, then stopped in time for our wildlife boat tour.  In Wellington it rained in the morning, and our tour had been moved to the afternoon and the rain had stopped.  The first day in Auckland it was raining and stopped just as we left on our City Highlights tour.  It looks like our luck has run out in the Bay Of Islands.  It continues to rain hard and the online weather report says 100% chance of rain all day.  Not very encouraging.

There are 150 islands scattered about in the Bay of Islands, ranging from uninhabited boulders rising just above the water, to populated islands.  It makes an interesting landscape.  In 1769 the English explorer Captain James Cook dropped anchor in the Bay of Islands and set the wheels in motion for its settlement by the English. 

At 11:00 am there was a break in the weather!  We hopped on a tender.  

Inside of a tender.

We noticed this sign in the tender. Clearly if you haven't eaten enough on the ship, you can get tender food.

First we walked to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, a short distance from the tender pier.  This is where the treaty between the Maori and the British was formed in 1840, making NZ part of the British Empire. 

We took the city sponsored shuttle into the town of Paihia (population less than 2000), the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands.  We wandered around a bit, then walked the 1.25 miles back to the tender pier.  It was a pleasant walk along a beautiful beach, and across a one lane wooden bridge. 

Area right by the tender landing.

Paihia main street.

Some kind of moss or lichen growing on the trees.

She really is a beauty.

The single lane bridge we walked over, tender port is on the right.

We weren't sure what this was.

Dinner was in the Waterside Dining Room.  We decided not to post any more food pictures – I’m sure you’ve all gotten enough of the “flavor” of Crystal dining. All we want to say, it was another fabulous meal.

The evening’s Production Show was “Crystal in Motion.”  Even though we saw that one at the beginning of our last segment we decided to go again.  It is a variety show giving a sampling of the entertainment to come on the segment.  They actually had changed it up a bit and it was very enjoyable.  Afterwards we went to the movie:  “Money Monster” with George Clooney and Julia Roberts.  We had seen it before, but decided we had enjoyed it enough to see it again.  It’s about a financial TV host and his producer being put in an extreme situation when an irate investor takes them and their crew hostage.

Today we walked 6.5 miles, 15,589 steps, and climbed 29 flights of stairs.