Tonga, the Pacific’s only remaining kingdom, is perched just east of the International Dateline and is made up of more than 170 tropical Pacific islands, most uninhabited. The entire population is about 105,000 with almost 70 percent living in the capital city of Nuku’alofa on the main island of Tongatapu. We arrived at the capital…
Continue reading →Cruise ships suffer no lack of activities to keep their passengers busy whether it is with enrichment lectures, cooking demonstrations, wine and spirit tastings, art and dance classes, games, tea time, spa treatments, fitness exercises, bridge lessons, and on and on. The staff will do almost anything to keep us entertained. So to occupy us…
Continue reading →Rough seas and stormy weather forced us to skip our next port of Tauranga, New Zealand, so we spent the extra day at sea and headed on to Auckland, where we were greeted by scattered clouds and intermittent autumn showers, but looking forward to some old and some new sights. We were thankful for the…
Continue reading →On the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, the port of Napier, with its vast timber export industry, is in the heart of sunny Hawke’s Bay, the second largest wine region in the country, though when we arrived the weather was cloudy and drizzling. Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand with a…
Continue reading →Some places you can’t get enough of. So, we were really excited to return to New Zealand where Dean and I had spent a couple of weeks in 2009, working our way from the bottom of the south island to the top of the north, weaving in and out of towns, cities, countryside, wineries. We…
Continue reading →At about halfway through the trip, after all the long pre-departure angst of guessing, shopping, packing, and planning for everything it takes to live on a ship and sightsee in a variety of distant foreign lands for 109 days, I find that all the preparation has actually paid off pretty well. I’ve worn almost all…
Continue reading →I’ve always had a distant fascination with Tasmania. It is a seemingly remote outpost island that is not much in the news, known for its native “devils”, and a stepping stone to Antarctica. We arrived in Hobart, Australia’s second oldest city located at the base of majestic Mount Wellington, at the height of their crisp…
Continue reading →In real time, we recently visited the vacation and spa destination of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on June 25, where it is said there are so many street vendors you can even buy a timeshare right off the pier, though the beauty of its beaches and abundant aquatic and marine activities just might tempt you….
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