kutta
Footballguy
Well, the trip is over, and what a great time! We ended up doing a cruise, and we are super happy with how it turned out. Here are some details.
We flew to Sydney and stayed there for three days before the trip. We absolutely loved Sydney. It was super clean and the people were the nicest we've ever met anywhere. It was really insane how nice everyone was, and that was true for the whole trip. Also, they have these public bathrooms everywhere, and they are all super clean. It's strange, but it's pretty cool. We loved the entire city, and Bondi Beach was one of the highlights - really cool beach and town.
We got on the ship and cruised down to Melbourne. We actually weren't huge fans of Melbourne, especially after Sydney. We did hit the Melbourne zoo, and that was pretty cool. Overall though, not super impressed. We were only there for about 10 hours though, so I'm sure we didn't get the "essence" of the city.
We then headed to Hobart, Tasmania. What an awesome town! We had the best fish and chips I've ever had, by a big margin. They have this Blue Cod that is simply amazing fried. And the city was very cool - tons of shops and restaurants, and when we were there, they had a HUGE market set up in the town square, which they do every Saturday. We went up to the top of Mount Wellington and got an amazing view of the city. Just a really fantastic place.
We then had three full days on the cruise ship over to New Zealand. One of those days we cruised through some fiords, which were amazing to see. The ship time was fun too. We sat on our balcony, drank, read, and ordered room service. I played poker in the casino, and we hung out at a couple of the bars on the ship. There's a lot of worse ways to spend a few days,
Our next stops were Dunedin, Akaroa, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, and Auckland. I won't go into detail on all the stops, but I'll give some highlights:
1. Akaroa was our favorite spot on the trip. It's a real small town near Christchurch (where the earthquake just hit - we got home 2 days before the quake). We are already talking about perhaps getting a place there when we get old(er). It may be my favorite place I've ever seen. Since it's easier to find pictures online than post mine, here are some cool shots of Akaroa (https://photography.deveshsahai.com/travel-photo-gallery/akaroa-new-zealand/).
2. Napier was another really cool place. All these places have public beaches everywhere. We didn't see one beach that had a house or condo on it. All the houses and condos were across a street from the beach, and the beaches all had parks right by them. It was really cool. This town had an amazingingly huge beach that stretched for miles, and the town was full of shops and restaurants. Great spot.
3. We enjoyed Auckland a lot. We stayed here for three days. It was the "dirtiest" city we visited, as it seemed more like a US city. It reminded us of a small NY city. Lots of people walking on the streets, and lots of hustle and bustle. We had an incredible hotel room with floor to ceiling windows that opened to a balcony that overlooked the bay with tons of sailboats. Really great city.
This was our second cruise - the first we did with the kids about five years ago. We thought it was a great way to travel. We got to see lots of places without packing and unpacking at every stop. And, we spent the day in the city, and at night, we got to eat and drink while we went to the next spot. It's like having a floating hotel room. We would like a little more freedom to do what we wanted, but the tradeoffs were worth it to us. We will be doing many more cruises in the future.
Thanks for all your suggestions and advice. It's a trip I'd really recommend if anyone is considering it.
We flew to Sydney and stayed there for three days before the trip. We absolutely loved Sydney. It was super clean and the people were the nicest we've ever met anywhere. It was really insane how nice everyone was, and that was true for the whole trip. Also, they have these public bathrooms everywhere, and they are all super clean. It's strange, but it's pretty cool. We loved the entire city, and Bondi Beach was one of the highlights - really cool beach and town.
We got on the ship and cruised down to Melbourne. We actually weren't huge fans of Melbourne, especially after Sydney. We did hit the Melbourne zoo, and that was pretty cool. Overall though, not super impressed. We were only there for about 10 hours though, so I'm sure we didn't get the "essence" of the city.
We then headed to Hobart, Tasmania. What an awesome town! We had the best fish and chips I've ever had, by a big margin. They have this Blue Cod that is simply amazing fried. And the city was very cool - tons of shops and restaurants, and when we were there, they had a HUGE market set up in the town square, which they do every Saturday. We went up to the top of Mount Wellington and got an amazing view of the city. Just a really fantastic place.
We then had three full days on the cruise ship over to New Zealand. One of those days we cruised through some fiords, which were amazing to see. The ship time was fun too. We sat on our balcony, drank, read, and ordered room service. I played poker in the casino, and we hung out at a couple of the bars on the ship. There's a lot of worse ways to spend a few days,
Our next stops were Dunedin, Akaroa, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, and Auckland. I won't go into detail on all the stops, but I'll give some highlights:
1. Akaroa was our favorite spot on the trip. It's a real small town near Christchurch (where the earthquake just hit - we got home 2 days before the quake). We are already talking about perhaps getting a place there when we get old(er). It may be my favorite place I've ever seen. Since it's easier to find pictures online than post mine, here are some cool shots of Akaroa (https://photography.deveshsahai.com/travel-photo-gallery/akaroa-new-zealand/).
2. Napier was another really cool place. All these places have public beaches everywhere. We didn't see one beach that had a house or condo on it. All the houses and condos were across a street from the beach, and the beaches all had parks right by them. It was really cool. This town had an amazingingly huge beach that stretched for miles, and the town was full of shops and restaurants. Great spot.
3. We enjoyed Auckland a lot. We stayed here for three days. It was the "dirtiest" city we visited, as it seemed more like a US city. It reminded us of a small NY city. Lots of people walking on the streets, and lots of hustle and bustle. We had an incredible hotel room with floor to ceiling windows that opened to a balcony that overlooked the bay with tons of sailboats. Really great city.
This was our second cruise - the first we did with the kids about five years ago. We thought it was a great way to travel. We got to see lots of places without packing and unpacking at every stop. And, we spent the day in the city, and at night, we got to eat and drink while we went to the next spot. It's like having a floating hotel room. We would like a little more freedom to do what we wanted, but the tradeoffs were worth it to us. We will be doing many more cruises in the future.
Thanks for all your suggestions and advice. It's a trip I'd really recommend if anyone is considering it.
