|
|
|
| Day Pre-trip 1-2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 |
|
Page Main
Previous
1
2
Next
|
 Our next stop, about 12 minutes down the road, was at the Paengaroa Community Hall. What's here? It's a tour bus stop where they sell all things kiwi. ("Today New Zealand is the third largest kiwifruit producing country, next to China and Italy, and holds approximately 30% of the market share." - Wikipedia). We were in "kiwiland". Upon entering the hall, we were able to pick up a kiwi snack and a cup of coffee (which, not being a coffee drinker, I loaded with sugar and cream. It was still horrible.) So we sat down and rested for a while, enjoying at least our kiwi snack. |
 Everything in the hall (and there was a lot of stuff being promoted there) touted the goodness (mostly health benefits, but not always!) of all sorts of kiwi products. There were even free samples of kiwi liqueur and kiwi jelly and, of course, fresh kiwi. I bought a bottle of kiwi "drink" (not pure kiwi juice) which was actually pretty good. And, because there's also a bird called the kiwi, they had some of those too. |
 By 3:30, we were back on the bus headed for our next stop, passing fields of kiwis (0:21) and these wind barriers which keep the plants safe. |
 We got off the bus at this kiwi farm, and our tour guide began telling us about kiwi growing and kiwi farming, especially harvesting, where migrant workers, including students from both nearby and distant countries come and stay for a few months to carefully pick and sort thousands (millions?) of kiwis. We were able to walk down the rows of kiwis which hung right at head level and went on forever and ever, being careful not to touch them, and taking advantage of this rare photo op. |
 We spent about 35 minutes among the kiwi, then got back on the bus to rush back to the port and our ship, passing fields of kiwi (and cows) and driving through residential neighborhoods on our way. (Our guide said we were running a little late, but this being a Princess organized shore excursion, we didn't have to worry about the ship leaving without us.) |
 The timestamp on this picture is 5:20 PM, five minutes after our 5:15 all aboard time. So we quickly (as quickly as I can go) made our way to the gangway and onto the ship, ending this great shore excursion! Now it's time to relax a while before heading out to our last formal dinner in the Symphony Dining Room. |
 What's Mei-O doing here? I saw this on today's Event Listings, so before dinner, we headed over to the Princess Live! lounge so Mei-O could redeem her five tickets. There was quite a crowd there, but Mei-O managed to make her way in to score a rather junky Prnicess tote bag (there wasn't much you could get for just five tickets. Here's what it looks like in a better light). |
 We had one more thing we had to get, this being the final day of the cruise. For some reason, we had a a $65 ship's credit on our bill, and we wanted to not lose that. (Ship's credit must be spent on the ship. You can't get it back in cash or returned to your credit card. If you don't use it, you lose it.) So we hit the stores where Mei-O found this nice sweatshirt - for right around $65! Here's what it looks like, wearing it back home. |
 Tonight's show was a "Farewell Variety and Talent Show" featuring the ship's awesome band and singers and dancers. There was also a singer who was a crew member with a desire to sing, this guy, either a magician or comedian (I can't remember which, maybe both), and this duet, before Ali Harper came out to sing again (the singer I didn't enjoy a few nights ago), whereupon we all left. Anyhow, we were getting hungry; time to head off to the Symphony Dining Room for our final formal dinner. |
 So here we all are at our final formal dinner. Checkout the food; I had my two favorites, French onion soup and a Caesar salad (with anchovies!), along with a beautiful piece of prime rib, which we all had. It was another good formal dinner, saving the best for last, I suppose, so we'd leave tomorrow with with a lasting impression of "oh, the formal dinners were so good!". The dinner pictures were the last pictures I took tonight. We went back to our rooms to pack and make sure everything was ready for disembarkation tomorrow morning (we had to have our suitcases outside our door by 9:00 PM). Then it was off to sleep to wake up to the end of our cruise in Auckland tomorrow morning. Next Top |
