23. Christchurch, last sea day, Tauranga, and Bay of Islands

at the Butcher's Pie shop

Christchurch was fun as all 9 of us were on the bus tour together. We wanted extra time in town to go to this merino wool factory store and the bus driver, Scottie, said we could come back with the people who were doing extra activities. This gave us an additional 90 minutes to walk around town. He was quite the gold mine of information, regaling us with stories about the earthquake in 2010 that pretty much destroyed the city and how the citizens gave input to design the rebuild. He also tipped us off to trying the meat pies at The Butcher’s Pie Shop. They were amazing and inexpensive as well. Just over NZ$8 I think for my steak and cheese, which is less than $5.

pie from butcher's pie shop

the back of the silver fern

gorgeous rose in the garden

the whole group on the tour at the gardens

Trying on shirts at the
Weft Factory store

Christchurch was a great place to shop for souvenirs. We got t-shirts, socks, magnets, you name it! From there we caught two Ubers to the Weft Factory store and promptly bought tons of merino wool items. I got 4 shirts and two pairs of socks. The ladies shirts were NZD49 and the mens were 65. The socks 33 and 29NZD. I love merino wool for travel as they are fairly lightweight, breathe, and you can wear them multiple days if you have to without them smelling. They were a lifesaver on my trek to Everest when we had to pack light and basically wear the same clothes for several days.

Christchurch from a lookout point

Fabulous Filippino chicken dish

We had our last sea day and last formal night. I was quite sad to find out they do not do free lobster and escargot on Australian Princess ships, though I didn't actually miss the escargot. In fact, they did a prawn version of it with the same butter drenching in the same dish and I liked it even better since I like shrimp more than snails. Our server also had them make a special Filipino chicken dish, which was delicious!

Our room steward made these cute chicks for us

Mount Maunganui as seen from our ship

The next day was Tauranga where our group split into 3: my family took a tour to the Maori village since they are only staying one night after the cruise and won’t have time to get all the way to Rotorua. Nancy and Chris went on a wine tour that had a cool gondola ride to the top of a mountain where they had some excellent wine at Volcanic ??? Winery (we tried to buy more of their wine when we got to Rotorua, but they are located at the top of the Gondola so you can only buy from them if you take a gondola ride up!...yes, we went there and asked to confirm). Diane, Audrey and I wandered about town. Diane and I hiked up the local mountain, Mount Mauna--- which had beautiful views of ocean, mountains, and white sand beaches.

Diane and I hiking near Tauranga

sheeep on the hike up Mount Maunganui

on the long hike up

top of Mount Maunganui

beautiful beaches in the Tauranga area

Mount hotpools

Then we met Audrey at Mount Hotpools, a nice little spot with several hot pools that look like swimming pools but are fed from the hot springs so they are filled with minerals and are quite warm. The locals frequent the place and it was filled with kids on a school field trip and senior citizens who are regulars. As we sat there we observed an older man approach a woman near us and fix her bathing suit shoulder strap. I assumed they were together. When he put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she wanted a rub and she very formally said no thank you, I began to have my doubts. Then he asked where she was from and I realized he did not know her at all! She did not engage and he amiably wandered off to continue his rounds. She was a local and told us later that he had hit on her once before so apparently he doesn’t keep track of his failed attempts.

Mount Hot pools where we meet Audrey to soak after our hike

boarding the tender

Bay of Islands was the next stop. This was a tender port and Princess is notoriously bad at tender ports so we had no scheduled tours here (all the cool ones were either booked up many months ago or took way longer than our time here). The girls (Nancy, Chris, Audrey, and Diane) went to Russell Island and I stuck with the family (Uncle Michael, Aunt Helen, and cousin Norman and Shirley). We got up on the top of the tender going in which had wonderful views of the bay and our ship.

we scored seats on the top floor of the tender!

paua shell pieces used
to make these magnets
and coaster

makes jewelry from polished abaloneī

honey farmer

Once on land we were herded onto a shuttle bus into town, which drove us around the bay with more beautiful views. It dropped us right across from the farmers market. We made a beeline there and were rewarded with locals selling their locally made wares: Merino wool, Brightly painted steel yard fence hangings, jewelry made from the New Zealand soft greenstone (similar to jade but softer), polished Paua shell made into various items, and manuka honey among other things. We bought some paua shell magnets and a coaster from a local artisan. I also found some cute tie dye think merino anklet socks. Honey was on our radar so we investigated the two honey makers. There quality was much higher than what they had in the grocery store, and prices were pretty decent since they were the manufacturer and there was no middle man.

Cute fish bench in Paihia

eating great fish & chips in Paihia

After a great lunch of fish and chips, we did some shopping in the cute little shops including one called Alley Cat gifts that had cute little cat (and dog) stuff. We got our shopping fix and returned to the farmers market as I had decided which high grade honey to get and my aunt was interested in some as well. The company was called Maccabee’s and Nicky and her husband have been beekeeping for over 20 years.
Earlier she explained to us the difference in the grades (MGO measures the amount of methalglyoxal which is where the health benefits of manuka honey primarily come from). We were also cautioned NOT to put manuka honey in boiling hot water as it will kill the beneficial bacteria. Warm water is okay though a spoonful of it straight is the recommended way to take it. She was packing up and when we offered to buy 4 jars of their highest MGO 650+, she dropped her price down to NZ$50 for a 500 gram jar. We ended up buying all 7 jars she had left (cousin Norm got a few also).

last sunset from the cruise ship

all the luggage waiting to be taken over should