June 14, 2024
Travel Day - Gran Canary to Lisbon to Hamburg
I flew from Gran Canary to Lisbon Portugal on TAP - Air Portugal. Easy 2-hour flight, but the Lisbon Airport was a crazy experience! I had 2 hours, between the connecting flights, but spent the time being routed all through the airport. First try, they routed me in a giant circle and I ended up going through the long lines, to clear customs, twice! Second time through I followed different signage, but again could not find my flight listed anywhere on the monitors where I was. I finally figured I must have to change terminals for the connection. When I went all the way through baggage claim in first terminal I came out of the building and saw another terminal across the way and then finally found monitors showing my flight. Shockingly it listed my gate and flight as FINAL CALL. I now had to boogie through this new terminal's security (TSA) and the extremely crowded duty-free shops and tons of strolling passengers. Then, I hear my name being called over the PA system and I am sprinting to the gate, arms waving and thank goodness they saw me. They radioed the taxiway bus, and he quickly got me to the plane. I boarded to lots of stares and breathed a sigh of relief! They shut the doors right behind me and we were off!
Farewell Canaries and hello Lisbon Portugal port, stadium and aqueduct - views from plane.
Unusual store I saw in Lisbon airport confusion that was selling tons of fancy cans of fish!! Shocking not a ton of shoppers here!
We had a beautiful sunny day to explore Wellington ! Was a very nice change from the stormy, big swells weather we have had the last two days! Wellington is the Capital city of New Zealand and the CBD is nice and big with lots of shops and museums. We didn't make it to the LOTR studios due to the time crunch but we took the cable car up to the top, for a scenic overlook of the port and then leisurley walk down through the Botantical Gardens, parks and historical cemetary.
Rotorua became a bonus city for us. Our Port stay in Tauranga got cut down to one day, due to NZ biosecurity regulations and since we really wanted to do Hobbiton, we decided to get off the ship and stay in hotels and get back on the ship, in a few days. Due to a variety of factors, the Ship ended up doing a quick pick up of us in Tauranga, three days later. The Kiwi's we encountered along the way, who helped with all our last minute details, were amazingly kind, hospitable and generous. Below is our tired, chilly group huddled at the security shed, outside the Port in the wee hours (1:30 am) Monday morning, awaiting our final hurdle of getting back on our Home. Home sweet home! What an adventure!
Rotorua, New Zealand is known for it's geothermal activity ( geysers, mud pools, hot springs) and rich Maori culture . I saw lots of that last time I was here in 2016, so this time I wanted to see their Redwoods in Whakarewarewa Forest. John and Colleen joined me in exploring. Their redwoods are smaller than the ones in Muir Woods California, but still impressive. Both are planted forest dating back to around 1908.