Day 31 - Christmas Day in Akaroa

Well, by the time we woke from a sound sleep (hooray...) we had berthed at Akaroa. Now my NZ geography isn’t much better than my world geography, so it was a bit of a surprise to find that this tiny place is over 80kms from Christchurch, so unless you were doing  a Princess tour to that earthquake devastated city, it was irrelevant even mentioning it!

We watched the Wake Show and this was a cracker.  Cruise Director Warren made a superb Santa and with new Deputy Cruise Director Matt Thompson as his new sidekick since Sydney, this duo really gelled.  Made up for the previous Deputy who we didn’t really care for.  They really appealed to the kids and later, in the atrium, they really did an excellent job, posing for pics with kids young and old.

We met up with Cathy and Greg again and caught the tender to shore.  A stunning day in a stunning bay.

The locals were well aware of the ship’s arrival so well over half the retail establishments were open.  There is a strong French influence here as the French were apparently the first settlers.

Prices appeared to be very high here (confirmed by Kiwi friends who had been before) even without holiday surcharges. As we strolled away from the centre, the girls found a retail establishment that looked like a derelict shed, (see pic) but prices were up to 80% cheaper than for identical items in town.  Guess where they spent their money. On our walk back, although I craved fish and chips (I usually do by the sea!) the prices were astronomical.  At the fish and chip shop it was about $16.50 and at the “Bully Hayes” cafe, where we plonked ourselves, a staggering $24.50.  I opted for the seafood chowder, another favourite that tends to vary in quality and price.  A normal bowl was $11 and a large bowl, $15.  Sorry, not worth it! (Our local cafe seafood chowder is a bigger bowl, tastier and with heaps more seafood in it for $8.50...) Overall a very pleasant place but far from cheap.  To the side of the mainstreet was a statue of an artist so the natural pose was to stand behind the frame.

Back to the ship and en route, a hokey-pokey ice cream. Now normally, mass produced ice cream can’t possibly be as good as a locally made item, but in this case, the commercial stuff (Tip-Top) is better! (And cheaper...)

We were back on board about 3pm and had a lie down and a read before the trivia.  Now you would think that the cruise staff would have a kind, mild, quiz for Christmas Day.  Not a bit of it!  The winners managed 6/20 and we managed 5!

Christmas dinner was traditional and not bad at all.  A good portion of turkey for me.  Even the English style Christmas pud was tasty.  After that, we headed (early) to the theatre for the staff’s Christmas Pantomime – Cinderella.  Brilliant!  Lots of fun, though I think the Americans were a bit confused... English panto is a tradition that obviously never really crossed the Atlantic.

Despite the filling Christmas dinner, Greg still dragged us up to the buffet after the panto.  Well, certainly a different Christmas day from normal, but all the better for that.

Boxing Day and we hit the nation’s capital – Wellington.  No doubt many places will be open and hopefully the pleasant weather will continue, as we know that neither Sydney nor Auckland have been brilliant recently.  Once again, we haven’t booked any tours but we are keen to visit Te Papa museum, to see where our rates surcharges for the last few years have been spent.