My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Finally we started our New Zealand run! From Melbourne, it was two days at Sea, Fiordland (which could be a scenic cruising day, or more likely, another Sea Day, then Port Chalmers (the Gateway to Dunedin), Akaroa, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland. Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland were cities, whereas Akaroa, Tauranga and Napier were more touristy (basically they weren’t known for having a grocery store or places to buy a Secret Santa gift). I always seemed to be off in all the cities or all the countries.
The night before we were to arrive in Port Chalmers (which had a shuttle bus to Dunedin) I was in the ward room. I asked Raffaella, the Shore Excursions Manager (from Italy), if there was anything I couldn’t miss. She said she was going on a hike and I could come along if I wanted to. That was exactly what I wanted to do! We met up with the Destination Expert, Wendy (from Australia and New Zealand), and I felt that I couldn’t have been in better hands. Wendy’s husband was working on another Princess ship as a Destination Expert. He had recommended this hike, but she hadn’t done it before.
We took a taxi to our drop off point, about 5 minutes away, to a road that looked like the description Wendy had. We started up a hill and within minutes I had shed the layers I had brought just in case. I love going on adventures with people who know what they’re doing when I don’t know what the plan is.
There were a few forks in the road and we made our best guess. We didn’t run into any people but we passed a junk yard and a couple of bathtubs which had been abandoned in some fields. After about 15 or 20 minutes of steep uphill roads, the path dwindled to nothing. There were some sheep wandering around and a fence. Raffe was all for climbing the fence and continuing but it was starting to become clear that we had made a wrong turn.
We went back down and found the sign that led to the trail we were looking for. We had been so busy chatting that we had followed the roads without reading the signs. Finally we found the sign for the trail we were looking for.
We found ourselves on a beautiful shaded path. It was grassy and gorgeous, warm in the sun and perfect in the shade. This was the first moment that I really felt like I was on the other side of the world.
As we hiked, Wendy and Raffe shared their life stories of how they got to be where they were. Wendy had been a physical education teacher and then joined her husband working on cruises. When she started trying to give him advise about how to do his job, he said that she would probably be good at doing it herself. She was. They have different styles, but Princess likes them both and sometimes they get to travel together. Raffe, from Italy, had worked in hospitality in Australia, and then would continuously trade in jobs she didn’t like that much for ones she liked more. She liked this one especially because she got to be the boss.
Raffe and I, both in our 30’s were having a hard time keeping up with Wendy. I never learned how old she was, but she was old enough that she could have been our mom. We huffed and puffed and took breaks, while Wendy floated up the mountain.
All of it was so pretty, and the temperature was reasonable– warm in the sun and perfect in the shade. I don’t think I’ll ever miss the humidity of the Caribbean.
Finally we reached the rocks we were looking for
The view was incredible.
But the hike wasn’t over! Just a little bit further (which turned out to be another hour and a half uphill) was the top of the mountain where our Maori Ambassador, Kane, picked us up in his van with his dog. Kane joined the ship in Melbourne and spent the three sea days between Melbourne and Port Chalmers teaching our guests about Maori traditions. He had disembarked that day to go home in Dunedin. We stood at the top of the mountain as he pointed out where he lived, where the city lived and some stories that were about 1000 years old. He had been hanging out with Andre, one of our Guest Entertainers, but Andre had gotten tired and had left before he came to pick us up.
I felt refreshed. I had gotten off the ship and walked around in the woods. I climbed a mountain (boy, my legs could feel it for the next couple of days) and I made some new friends. I forget how the unusualness of a few strangers getting together to go on an adventure is a normal thing on ships. I love it. By the time we got back, there wasn’t enough time to go to town, so I went back to the ship for lunch. I wouldn’t make it into Dunedin for a couple more months.