Our last stop in New Zealand before heading out across the Pacific to Samoa was Auckland . We had spent over a week in the city when we were last here three years ago so we didn’t need to take any of the tours or visit most of the sites.

We did go to the Maritime museum which was walking distance from our ship and which we had not seen during our last visit. It had a complete collection of Polynesian boats and charts and text showing how the Polynesians navigated the Pacific using only the stars. There was also a replica of an ocean-going canoe of the type used by the Polynesians for long-distance voyages.

On another floor there were exhibits on the maritime history of New Zealand and a video on New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster.

The also had an exhibit on pleasure and racing craft including the boat the won the America’s Cup in 1995 breaking the U.S. unbeaten streak.

We returned to the ship for lunch and then went back out to a shopping center which was due to be demolished a where the stores were all having major moving sales. Laura managed to find a pair of silver earings to replaced the ones she lost a few weeks ago. And we also managed to get children’s books and puzzles. I also found a really nice Maori-design shirt which did not have souvenir of New Zealand written all over it.