WW 11 CRUISE AUCKLAND-JAPAN

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After being allocated our stateroom,we were called to attend a lifeboat drill.

As it was my first cruise I found it quite daunting, but soon found my way around.

Our first port of call was Tauranga. Interesting comment from a lovely Canadian lady was ( Nearly all the shops closed and would not accept American dollars.) Over 1200 tourists on the Statendam. Although it was a Sunday, one would think we would be able to give a better service.

Bay of Islands was our next stop. Pity it was overcast and rather a dull day.

Honiara, Guadal Canal,Solomon Islands. Grubby, not impressed. Rabaul was similar, but saw the volcano erupting, spewing black ash all over the ship. Captain was not impressed,as this was his first visit there.
Yap Island was a lot cleaner and people were quite shy.
I thought Guam was lovely. It reminded me of Hawaii. Saipan which is also American was nice as well but on a smaller scale to Guam.

As we passed Iwo Jima there was a memorial service held and wreaths thrown overboard.
Naha was the port at Okinawa, Japan, we visited our first castle there.
Nagasaki was a city of melancholy memories, where we visited the Atomic Bomb Museum and the peace memorial park.
We spent two days in Osaka after docking at Kobe. What a shame the cherry blossoms were only about 50% out in bloom. It must be a beautiful site when in full bloom.
We flew home via Christchurch, so were very tired after a 13 hour flight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first cruise, especially the swimming and sun bathing.

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