March 3rd, 2020 Day 59 of 128

Auckland, New Zealand day number 2. Yesterday we drove around the north side of Auckland and today we drove around the south side. Auckland means the city of sails. There are so many marinas and yacht clubs around Auckland. They said that one in three families here owns a boat. Last year Auckland won the America’s cup race. Next year, they get to be the host country. They are putting so much work into the infrastructure in Auckland that there is road closures and construction going on everywhere in preparation. They actually dug a deep tunnel through the entire downtown area so that an underground train could be constructed. They went so far as to pick and move a three story historical landmark hotel, constructed the tunnel, filled it back in accordingly, and then put the hotel back where it was originally. It will be amazing when it is done, but the growing pains are being felt by locals and tourists alike. We got to cross the Harbor bridge again today and then turn around and drive right back. The highlight of the day was the Auckland Museum. It has the largest collection of Maori and Polynesian artifacts in the world. There were docents there dressed in full Maori attire who gave us a tour of the museum in small groups and then we were led to the theater for a Maori performance. After the performance we had about an hour to look around the world War I and World War II exhibits around the museum. Megan is a big history buff and wanted to spend the whole day there but sadly, time did not allow. We did take some free time this afternoon to get off the tour bus early and walk through some shops before we walked back to the ship. Mom found some great new shoes, we all enjoyed some Dunkin Donuts (so good), and we purchased some locally made chocolates. All aboard was 3:30pm today. Then we had our third muster drill of the trip. Yesterday marked the end of one of the “legs” of the world cruise. There are about 200 passengers that get on and off every month or so, so we have to go through all the mandatory drills when they get on. Tonight it is going to be early to bed for me tonight. We have dinner at 5:15 and then I intend to come back and get a bunch of photos uploaded for all you wonderful people. Fingers crossed. I will post a special post to let you know what dates to go back to and look at the photos. Also, we got an invitation from Cruise Specialist today for a second safari that wasn’t previously offered out of Tanzania. We sadly “lost” a safari that we had scheduled for Kenya since we had a change in our itinerary. So we are going to book this one and keep our fingers crossed that we can do two safaris yet again. Good things come to those who wait. Hugs and love from me to you all. Debra