Hello from Auckland! Although the program starts on the 14th, I wanted to take the time to explore the area a bit before getting on board the ship, so I arrived on the evening of the 12th.
I flew in from LAX with a stop in Honolulu, Hawaii, and honestly the photos from then are so breathtaking I just had to share them here.
The Honolulu airport was pretty neat, it took advantage of Hawaii’s beautiful weather with an indoor/outdoor layout so I could enjoy the weather without needing to leave the airport.
Flying out of Hawaii, I caught this gem of a photo overlooking some of the coves with a rainbow coming off the end of the island
When I arrived in Auckland, it was already pretty late, so I took a bus to the hostel me and several of my shipmates stayed at for the first few nights.
The next day, a handful of my shipmates and I drove up to Cathedral Cove for a great day of swimming and hiking. (creds to Matthew for driving, I dunno how he managed driving on the left side of the road for the entire 2 hour drive)
The greenery along the way was pretty neat, so I thought it’d be cool to snap a few photos
Cathedral Cove itself was really nice, and the water was warm and pleasant to swim in. Got plenty of sun and sand in today!
We needed to board the ship the next day at 4pm, so there was plenty of time in the morning to walk around Auckland and see the city itself. The city was clean and was very walkable - despite walking around for most of the day, there were a lot of areas I didn’t get to. Here are some photos of the areas I did see though!
That’s all for now, can’t wait to board the ship tomorrow!