~ South Pacific Voyage ~

~ Grand Voyage ~
from Seattle to South Sea Islands  ~ Fall '09

Our port stops on the cruise are pix below....

Bay of Nuka Hiva, Marquesas Islands

Bora Bora !

Raiatea

Moorea

Roratonga

Pago Pago, American Samoa 

Our welcome to... Suva, Fiji 

Port Vila, Vanuatu

Goulong Mask we saw there.

Our ship stopped at Cairns, we departed the ship + rented a car for a couple days.
We spent time in Cairns, Port Douglas, and drove all around the northern area.

....along the northern coast we enjoyed empty beaches. So many of them !!

Next we flew from Cairns south to Brisbane, where we joined our ship again.
Spent a couple days seeing that lovely city.

Brisbane....old + new, side X side...friendly city folks!

Next... on to Sydney ! Grand City!
Our ship is docked in their harbor... for 3 great sunny days  !

Next port stop was Melbourne and....

...on to Hobart, we rented a car + drove south to see Port Arthur area.

We sailed across to NZ, and spent the day sailing thru Milford Sound.  
Fabulous sights, beautiful sunny day!  We were most fortunate.

Day in Dunedin....this is their historical RR station.

Wellington has a great museum....a Maori meeting house of long ago.

Wellington....  interesting Government bldg.

The friendly folks of Napier came to greet our ship!

Napier !!  This Art Deco city rebuilt in 1930's, was a favorite port ! 
Ahhhhhhh, it seems we "can" go back in time. So many bldgs remain from that period.

Sailing north of Napier, our port stops were impressive... 

 including Rotorua (above) and Tauranga aka "Hobbit Land"

 Again we left our ship so we could see the country on a drive...
 north to Auckland.

      the Bay of Islands ...here we rented a car to drive to see
     N.Z. oldest stone and wood bldg.@ the Kerikeri Mission built 1822 to 1835.

We then continued driving north to Mangonui for a lunch stop and on 
to see the giant Kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest.  Impressive !

    We departed N.Z and the next port was Nuku 'alofa, Tonga         

            ...with their interesting food and craft market.
  

    Then on to charming...Apia

School age students came on board for a delightful afternoon performance.     

We continued sailing north to stop at the Hawaiian Islands.

Kona...for Thanksgiving !

Kona's oldest church

Rented a car in Hilo to drive ...

....to Kiaueu Caldera and see the current volcanic activity.

and to walk thru the Thurston Lava Tube.
....then on to see Akaka Falls, west of Hilo.

...this is our final port stop. 
Again, we rented a car to see some of this island's sites. 

see Jim above? and also below?  up on the rock

Farewell to the Hawaiian Islands as we crossed the Pacific to 
Long Beach, CA ... sadly this cruise had come to an end.

We flew home to WA and were greeted by this site  ...

 What a wonderful Grand Voyage !