{"id":159,"date":"2009-09-09T10:30:45","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T10:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=159"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:05:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T02:05:09","slug":"off-to-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"Off to New Zealand \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>March, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n<p>After many years of holidaying locally we took the plunge and booked a cruise. &nbsp;We picked up a special to New Zealand with Holland America on the Vollendam. The kids were old enough to look after themselves for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_139\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-139\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00513-e1402309801298.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-139 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00513-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Getting into ship board life. Steaming across the Tasman Sea heading for NZ.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-139\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getting into ship board life. Steaming across the Tasman Sea heading for NZ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We soon discovered we were the youngest couple on board. Not really an issue once you learn to scoot past the walking stick people.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_140\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-140\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00518-e1402310514650.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-140 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00518-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Early morning cruising into Milford Sound, NZ\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Early morning cruising into Milford Sound, NZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>New Zealand and Australia enjoy a symbiotic relationship. &nbsp;Lots of New Zealanders live and work in Australia, lots of Australian holiday in New Zealand, but every time our countries play sport against each other, you are guaranteed a savage contest.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Map showing Milford Sound<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-141\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00521-e1402311168141.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-141 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC00521-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Departing Milford Sound late in the morning. The weather has cleared and the beauty of place is evident.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-141\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Departing Milford Sound late in the morning. The weather has cleared and the beauty of place is evident.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our cruise crosses the Tasman Sea arriving a Milford Sound at dawn. &nbsp;We are up on deck at first light, it&#8217;s very cold. &nbsp;What become clear is how close our ship is to shore and how high and steep the surrounding terrain is. &nbsp;We enjoy a wonderful morning cruising the sound created by an ancient glacier.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Michael and Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March, 2009 After many years of holidaying locally we took the plunge and booked a cruise. &nbsp;We picked up a special to New Zealand with Holland America on the Vollendam. The kids were old enough to look after themselves for a couple of weeks. We soon discovered we were the youngest couple on board. Not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67],"class_list":{"0":"post-159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-cruising","9":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23344,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/23344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}