February 16th, 17th Auckland.

Nautical Fact; The International Date Line is a line running North to South along the 180th meridian of longitude, but with some adjustments to avoid dividing certain island groups that are bisected by it, namely the Aleutian islands off Alaska, and the Fiji, Tonga and Kermadoc groups as well as New Zealand in the South Pacific. The International Date Line is the geographical point at which the zone times GMT +12 and -12 meet bringing about a 24 hour time change. If you were to set out from Greenwich, which lies at 0 degrees longitude and travel eastward, the time zone you are in moves forward by 1 hour for every 15 degrees of longitude you traverse, meaning that if you were to continue around the world ending up at Greenwich again, you would have moved ahead by 24 hours and therefore be ahead by one full day of the calendar. To allow for this anomaly, if we were to cross the International Date Line eastwards we would add on one day of time, but going westwards we subtract a full 24 hours.
Therefore the consequences of losing a day means that we are now 13 hours ahead of the UK instead of eleven hours behind, which we were before we crossed the International Date Line. Therefore we will continue to retard our watches as the voyage continues toward the UK starting with February 18th.
Friday 16th February. We continued on our south westerly heading passing the Kermadoc Island Group in the afternoon. These islands are uninhabited except for the permanently manned Raoul Island Station, a government meteorological and radio station and hostel for Dept. of Conservation officers and volunteers that has been manned since 1937. The temperature today was around 26 degrees and the sea temperature has increased to 30 degrees, although due to the moderate winds it has become choppy again. Nothing to hurry for today so we both did our usual things in the morning. After lunch we went to the art auction where we were pleased to see that the artist who painted the underwater sea life pictures we brought back for the children in 2002 had become very popular and his art work was in demand. Alan decided to adjust his Friday medication with losing a day and also to suit being in Auckland tomorrow, so it wasn’t a good day for him and we took things easy. The evening show was the last performance from those who will be leaving the ship in Auckland.
Saturday 17th February. On our approach to the North Island of New Zealand we past the Great Barrier Island at 4.00am and the pilot boarded at 6.15am to guide us into the Rangitoto Channel at sunrise. We were out on the balcony watching our arrival into Auckland from 7.00am. It is known as the ‘City of Sails’ because the harbour is often dotted with hundreds of yachts, which was a beautiful sight to see. Our welcome was amazing because light aircraft flew overhead and helicopters were giving sightseeing flights around us. We had a flotilla of small boats and sailing yachts escorting us en route to Jellicoe Harbour where we berthed at 8.00am. We were facing the Harbour Bridge that spans across to the central part of the urban area that occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manakau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitemata Harbour on the Pacific Ocean and Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have harbours on two separate bodies of water. New Zealand is very strict on Biosecurity Regulations so as passengers left the ship today the MAF Quarantine Officers were stationed at the gangways to conduct searches of all hand luggage to ensure that we did not take any food or plants ashore with us. We changed our money to New Zealand dollars because shops will either not accept, or give fair exchange for US dollars or sterling. Then it was mandatory that we all left Jellicoe Wharf by shuttle bus, to be taken to Britomart (travel station) on Queen Street. From there we were free to do our own sightseeing as we did not have anything booked until 4.30 in the afternoon. Queen Street was as busy as Oxford Street and we enjoyed our shopping spree. We photographed Sky Tower before having lunch in one of the big stores. Then we had to return to the ship for our ‘Grill Special Event’, which was a visit to the Auckland Memorial Museum, which was built on the highest point above the city with marvellous views across to the ocean. We were greeted by Maori Singers that entertained us whilst we had wine and canapés in the atrium before going up to the glass restaurant on the top floor. It was very elegantly set out with ten tables of eight. We were served with a delightful three course meal and wine flowed freely, during which we were once again entertained by the Maori Groups. A group of children also sang traditional songs to us and ‘danced’ with their hands. This was followed by the adult group showing their ball swinging expertise and Alan kept a low profile as this was known to be one of his fortés whilst in the Florida Keys! Some of the men performed their traditional Maori dances that were both, loud and boisterous, as expected, but fun! Then two of the waiters and the head waiter held a very amusing exchange of challenges with each other, culminating in them all singing. They were in fact three professional opera singers and their rendition of a selection of the ‘Three Tenors’ songs was tremendous and brought tears to my eyes. It was a truly great evening, and one that we think has been the best so far. The dancing continued outside as we prepared to join our coaches to return to the ship for our 10.00pm sail away. Once on board the QM2, Auckland gave yet another memorable treat as we prepared to sail, a half hour firework display that lit up the sky. Then as we moved slowly out into the Rangitoto Channel we were once again escorted by hundreds of small boats with their crew and passengers shouting and whistling to us as they reluctantly waved us on our way. We stayed on our balcony waving back to them for an hour before the ship gathered speed and headed into the darkness of the night. Another wonderful people to have had the pleasure of meeting.