2025 World Cruise – Leg 4 – Mar. 6 – Mar. 26 – Tahiti to Sydney
This is a long leg – 20 days! One of the aspects of this world voyage that I like is the different climates that we experience. We have a few more days in the South Pacific Islands, and then head to New Zealand, where it will be a bit cooler. That will be a welcome relief! Have a look at the itinerary, listed below:
Day 59 – Mar. 6 – Tahiti
We’re in Tahiti – the “large city” of the Polynesian Islands. We visit the market this morning, and each buy a nice locally crafted necklace. This afternoon, we take a snorkeling tour before we say “NaNa” or goodbye to the island. More pictures can be seen by clicking on the pictures below.
Day 60/61 – Mar. 7/8 – Bora Bora
It is so interesting visiting the same place that we visited previously, but having a completely different experience! That happened to us in Bora Bora this year. We had two days here on this cruise, and had incredible experiences on both days.
Day one in Bora Bora was a very busy day with two tours booked! In the morning, we took a bus tour around the island. In the afternoon, we had a catamaran tour, and enjoyed the lovely water! Clicking on the pictures will tell the story below:
On Day two in Bora Bora, we continue to enjoy the water with a snorkeling excursion to swim with the sharks and stingrays. We didn’t see many stingrays, but we were in the water with many sharks! If you look at all of the pictures, you can see the sharks swimming with us! Later in the evening, we all wear our finest gowns as it is formal night! Click on any picture to see more for the day!
Day 62/63 – Mar. 9/10 – Sea Days
On our sea day on Mar. 9, we had dinner with Elaine and Marg in Chartreuse, followed by the show. After the show, we went to Karaoke, where some of our friends sang. We were happy being the back-up dancers!
On the second sea day, we spent the afternoon having a beer tasting at the pool with some friends. We all had been buying cans of local beer during our port stops, and decided that today was the day that we had our tasting. This evening, we had dinner with our cruise director Andrew, as well as our Assistant Cruise Director, Matthew. Andrew is leaving the ship in Sydney, and we’ll miss him!
Day 64 – Mar. 11 – Pago Pago, American Samoa
Funny thing happened today. While we have been able to get free data on our phone in every other country, when we arrived in American Samoa, we found that T-Mobile does not include data for the American Protectorate. Not that we needed the data as we had a good internet connection on the ship, we just found it funny that we received a text message informing us that data was not included in the United States of America.
That humorous tidbit aside, we had a lovely day. We were greeted with local cultural dancing on the dock before we disembarked, and our tour took us to the “sleeping camel rock” (look from left to right, with his head being on the left), a cultural wecome ceremony, and past Charlie’s house (Starkist Tuna)! A link to more pictures can be found by clicking on any of the pics below!
Day 66 – Mar. 13 – Apai, Samoa
You may be wondering why there is no March 12 for us this year – that is because we crossed the international date line, and technically “lost” a day. However, as we sail around the world, we will gain it back, one hour at a time.
We are in the independent country of Samoa today. (Of course, we did have access to T-Mobile data again, as we are no longer in the United States Protectorate Area.) Bizarre!
We had a lovely tour today, with more cultural demonstrations and a visit to Robert Louis Stevenson’s house. Lot’s of lovely pictures to see by clicking on the below pics!
Day 67 – Mar. 14 – At Sea
I just had to share some amazing sunset pics from today!
Day 68 – Mar. 15 – Lautoka, Fiji
We’re visiting Fiji for the first time. The water isn’t nearly as nice as the water surrounding the French Polynesian Islands so we select a land tour today. The culture is very similar to the Polynesian Islands, which makes sense, as the same Indonesian/Asian people inhabited these islands hundreds of years ago.
We begin our tour today with a visit to a local village, which is really a community of one extended family, still ruled by a chief. After browsing the tables filled with local handicrafts, we made our way into the pavilion. The local chief welcomed us with a (very long) welcome ceremony, followed by local dancing and food tasting. As we couldn’t understand the language of the welcome ceremony, we enjoyed watching the children sitting quietly at the back of the pavilion.
Days 69/70 – Mar. 16/17 – Sea Days
Just a few pictures to reflect what our sea days are like. We write our schedule on our board daily, and try to fit everything in!
Day 71 – Mar. 18 – Bay of Islands, NZ
First – a bit of history:
In the early 1800s, Kororāreka (as Russell was then known) became New Zealand’s first permanent European settlement, earning its notorious reputation as the “Hell Hole of the Pacific” where whalers, sealers, and traders sought entertainment in dozens of grog shops. In 1840, it was briefly declared New Zealand’s first capital before the honour moved to Auckland.
The most dramatic chapter came in 1845 during the Flagstaff War when Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke repeatedly cut down the British flagpole on Maiki Hill, challenging British authority. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Kororāreka in March 1845, when the town was sacked and burned. You can still see musket ball holes in the walls of Christ Church from this battle. After the conflict, the town was rebuilt and renamed Russell in honour of the British Colonial Secretary Lord John Russell
We started with a ferry ride to the town of Russell, where we took the “Town Walk”. We saw the famous totum poles, as well as the bullet hole in the Christ Church. And of course, we had to hike up to the famous Flagstaff Hike up Maiki Hill, where the views were spectacular. We ended our Russell visit (suprise, suprise) in a local pub. Click on the pub picture below to see the great pics of Russell in Bay of Islands.
Day 72 – Mar. 19 – Auckland, NZ (Day 1)
We arrive in the present day capital of New Zealand, Auckland, and will stay overnight at this port. We have a full day and evening planned today.
We begin the day with a walk around the “kiwi” capital, before heading out to our World Cruise Special Event at the Auckland Yacht Club. It featured the winner of one of the “America Cups”, but more importantly had beautiful scenery, great food, and an open bar. You need to click on one of the pictures to see what Mary Lou’s secret is!
After the Yacht Club event, we had tickets to see “Six – the Musical”. A fab ending to a fab day!
Day 73 – Mar 20 – Auckland, NZ (Day 2)
Today we explore Waiheke Island Wineries with our friends, Marg and Elaine. Click on any pic to see all of the wineries we experienced in the full gallery.
This evening is the last performance of “Blazing Boots” by our favorite cast. They disembark in Sydney, and we will miss them – especially Stillman’s “Table Dance”!
Day 74 – Mar 21 – Tauranga, NZ
We arrive in the beautiful port of Taurang, NZ. If you haven’t been to New Zealand, it should defiinitely be on your bucket list!
Tauranga is where they built the set and filmed “The Hobbit”. The set still exists here, and you can tour it. We had planned to do this, but the ship wasn’t in port quite long enough for us to get there, tour and get back. We now have that on our schedule to do in 2028.
On this trip, we decided to climb Mount Maunganui, or Mauao, in the Tauranga suburb of Mount Maunganui, beside the eastern entrance to the city’s harbour. Not exactly Mount Kilamanjaro, but a very pleasant walk.
Mauao, formerly a Maori sacred land, contains the Matariki Nature Reserve. The word Matariki is the Maori word for the Pleiades star cluster, which leads me to think of the “Seven Sisters” Book Series by Lucinda Riley. If you haven’t read the series, I highly recommed it.
Click on any of the pics if you would like to see more!
