Auckland

We arrived at a very early 6am on February 14 - the sun wasn’t even up yet. After gathering our luggage, we found the Princess Cruise rep and boarded a bus – since we would not be able to board the ship until about noon, they took us to a random lounge at a racetrack and were given coffee, water, and some cookies.

View of the outside:





















And the lovely view of the inside:/ Please note no one in the lounge is under the age of 75 (okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration). One guy sitting with us even asked Steven if we were visiting Vietnam because he was a Vet. Maybe Steven should have shaved his graying beard before we arrived. Heh.
















We decided to hop on a bus and go on a tour around Auckland...this was a million times better than having to sit in that room for another 3+ hours.

Our first stop was Mount Eden, an extinct volcano that is the highest point in Auckland and therefore gives a pretty good view of the city and the surrounding bay. This is the crater formed by the volcano…yes, those tiny black spots are cows grazing on the slope of the crater.























Auckland is a very cute, clean, city - or, at least, what we could see from the bus.


Finally, we were able to board our obnoxiously large boat! This thing is out of control, and with the full 2,670 passengers on board, it will definitely be interesting to see how many times we get lost.