We are spending just under 5 days in Tokyo before heading back to the US. On the morning of the first day, we flew JAL from Taipei to Tokyo Narita. After a bit of confusion about how to get a tourist 3-day pass on the Tokyo Metro, we took the Skyliner to our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) near Sendagi station. Tired, yet hungry, we took the JR to Shinjuku for some food and sightseeing.

On the second day, we started the day with a walk along a small market street near the ryokan. We bought flavored mochi, Japanese crackers, and sushi for breakfast and went back to ryokan to eat. (I’ve been told that eating while walking is frowned upon in Japan.) Afterward, we took a self-guided walking tour of Ueno Park. After a lot of walking, we met Valerie’s cousin Wes for dinner near Yurakucho station.

On the third day, we spent the day eating Japanese street food. We started the day by taking the metro to Asakusa, which has a large temple and an even larger market area in front of that temple. We picked up some food on a stick along the market street then took metro to Shibuya. We got a lot of tasty treats at the Tokyu FoodShow and then took the metro to Harajuku. Along the way, we stopped for donburi at a small restaurant near Omotesando station. We then walked along Takeshita Street, which was much emptier than the last time we were here, and proceeded to eat some Calbee fries and a crepe.

The next day, we woke up relatively early to head to Tsukiji fish market for early lunch of sushi at Sushi Bun. The food was not as good as Sushi Dai where we ate last time, but the line was hours shorter. We spent the rest of the day on the artificial island of Odaiba. We visited Miraikan (museum of emerging science and innovation) where we saw the asimo robot perform a dance and poetry reading. Finally, we stopped by Sega Joypolis. We didn’t ride any of the attractions at Joypolis, but I was able to scan my face onto a virtual manatee in a virtual wall aquarium.

On our last day in Tokyo (and on this trip), we spent the day eating pricy Japanese food. For brunch, we had omakase at Kyubey in Ginza. The tuna was just amazing. Afterward, we took the metro to Roppongi to look at the Christmas decorations. We stumbled upon Le Atelier by Joel Robuchon. We were able to get a seat at the counter without a reservation as long as we could finish eating in 1.5 hours. The “Japanese wagyu beef” was superb.

This has been a long and exciting journey. I’ve been traveling for so long that I’m almost apprehensive about going back home. It’s the same feeling of dread that I normally get before long trips. It may take a while to get used to “home life” again.

After a fine breakfast of Taiwanese breads and pastries, we headed out for an exciting adventure with Valerie’s mom’s childhood friends. One of the friends picked us up in a van and drove to an old street in New Taipei City where we saw a 104 year-old elementary school. Afterward, we drove up a mountain to eat a large lunch with specialty tofu made from black soybeans. For dinner, we met another of Valerie’s mom’s friends at a restaurant near the top of the Taipei world trade center. The view of Taipei from the restaurant was spectacular and the dessert selection was quite enjoyable as well.

In the morning, Valerie and I took a taxi to pick up a bunch of pineapple cakes to bring back to the US. Afterward, we took the MRT to Tamsui to meet with more of Valerie’s mom’s friends who treated us to a full lunch of Taiwan-style seafood. On our way back to the MRT station, we walked along the Tamsui beachfront, which had the highest density of tourists of any place we’d been to in Taiwan so far. On our way back to downtown, we stopped by the National Palace Museum, which is famous for housing many of the national treasures of China. We saw lots of bronze-age bronze, historic pottery, old furniture, and other various treasures. Oddly, there was very little gold, which surprised me given the prevalence of the color gold in Chinese culture.

We spent the last two days visiting Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan. On the first day, we took the train to Hualien and then a bus up the mountain to Tienhsiang. We stayed the night at the youth activity center, which despite its name is more like a hotel than a hostel. True to its name, that night the youth activity center hosted a large collection of youth who spent the night karaokeing and dancing.

The next morning, we woke up early to hike to Baiyan Waterfall, which was sadly closed due to recent rock falls. On the way down the mountain to our next hike, we met two fellow tourists from Germany and Singapore. While our trip has been quite long, theirs are even longer. The German tourist is midway through a 9 month journey. The Singaporean tourist was just starting a 6 month journey. We all got off the bus near Swallow Grotto where we got a great view of the path the river carved through the marble walls of Taroko Gorge. Our next stop was the Changchun Shrine. We tried to hike up the mountain to the shrine, but I was too tired and gave up about halfway up. Instead, we took the bus to visitor center and took a break at the café. After a brief hike, it was time to head back, so we boarded the bus back to Hualien and a train to Taipei.

After an overnight stay in Sydney, we flew to Hong Kong and then to Taipei. From the airport, we took a taxi to an apartment near Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. Valerie’s mom and aunts are also visiting Taiwan during the same period as us, so we are staying with them.

In the morning, we took the MRT the Maokong Gondola and then rode the gondola to the top of the hill. It was raining a bit, so the view wasn’t great, but we stopped for some delicious Taiwanese street food. Oddly, the Maokong Gondola station and cable cars are decorated with Hello Kitty. According to Wikipedia, Maokong literally translates to “cat empty.” I wonder if those two facts are related. After Maokong, we went to Din Tai Fung and ate a lunch of delicious xiaolong baos.

I’m pleasantly surprised by how affordable and easy mass transit is in Taiwan. All the announcements and signs on the Metro are translated to English. Almost any ride can be paid for using a rechargeable EasyCard. The Taipei MRT only costs around US$0.50 for a short ride.

It’s the end of another cruise. The ship was like a home away from home, but now we’re on our own again. We disembarked around 9pm and boarded the metro into Auckland to pick up a rental car. Our first touristic stop was the Waitomo Caves, which are known for their glowworms. The tour through the cave was an interesting experience. Silently looking up at the cave ceiling from our boat was like looking up at a starry sky. Unlike most tourists, we then drove further along the Waitomo Caves Road to some lesser known touristic stops: a waterfall, a cave, and a lookout point. None of them were particularly amazing, but it was nice to see them since we were already nearby. We stayed the night at a B&B near Lake Taupo where we enjoyed a fine meal of Dominos Pizza.

On our second day, we started by driving to Huka Falls. Huka Falls seems like a bit of a misnomer because the water doesn’t really fall vertically, but rather horizontally as an impressive series of rapids. It’s definitely worth a visit for anyone in the area. Next, we drove to Mount Tongariro. We drove up to the ski resort for the view, but didn’t take the chairlift to the top because it was raining. On the way up, we stopped by the side of the road to look at Mt. Ngauruhoe, known for its role as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. It was getting late, so we didn’t take any of the long famous hikes near the mountain, but instead hiked to a small falls near the visitor center. We stayed the night at a B&B in Te Arona.

On our third and last day in New Zealand, we started the day by heading to the Hobbitton movie set for first tour of the day. The Hobbiton set is surprisingly well maintained for a movie set and is definitely worth the steep admission cost for LotR fans. Next, we drove to the Karangahake Gorge, where we walked along the Window Loop Trail. Unfortunately, the trail was closed part way through due to rock movements. Finally, we returned car to Auckland and boarded our plane to Sydney.

Today, the ship docked in Tauranga on the north island. We got off the ship around 10am to board the bus tour to Rotorua that we booked yesterday. Our first touristic stop was Kiwi 360, a complex celebrating the kiwifruit and its relation to New Zealand. Kiwi 360 is easily identifiable by a giant elevated wooden kiwifruit along the side of the highway. Our next touristic stop was Te Puia, a Maori cultural heritage site with geysers, mud pools, steam vents, and a 30-minute cultural show. By the time we got back to the ship it was raining, so we decided to head back aboard rather than walk around town.

Our ship is made a short stop at Napier today. We didn’t have any plans for the day, so we took our time and disembarked the ship around 10am, 3 hours after arrival. We took the compulsory shuttle into town to the drop off point near the national aquarium. After a little research, we decided to skip the aquarium and walk along the Marine Parade toward Tennyson St (main pedestrian walkway). Since we didn’t have any plans for tomorrow either, we stopped at i-Site (government sponsored tourist information) and signed up for a tour tomorrow in Tauranga. Along Tennyson St, we stopped at a bakery (which claims to be the best in New Zealand) and ate a mince pie and chocolate pecan tart. Both were tasty, but probably not the best in New Zealand. On the advice of the shuttle driver, we walked up to a bluff near town, but failed to find the advertised lookout.

Today, we are in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Yesterday in port, Valerie had the foresight to book a Wellington Walks reverse walking tour of the city. The walk starts at the train station and ends near Te Papa, in the reverse direction of the normal Wellington Walks tour. This makes it easier to for cruise ship passengers to get to the start of the tour in time. However, since the reverse tour needs to be reserved in advance, very few people take it. Luckily for us, this resulted in a private tour for us, while the forward tours that we passed had about 10 tourists each. Our guide Gavin was excellent. He led us to see the standard landmarks: the “Beehive” parliament building, old St. Paul’s Cathedral, new St. Paul’s Cathedral. In addition, he led us to places that we probably wouldn’t have found on our own: the founding documents of New Zealand in the national archives, the pine cone shaped interior of the new supreme court building, the Olympic medal on display at Fergs Kayaks.

After the conclusion of our tour, we quickly walked around Te Papa (the national museum) for a while before sitting down for a bite to eat at the café. Quickly running out of time, we scrambled back to the ship, taking a brief detour to run through the Museum of Wellington City & Sea.

Today, the Oosterdam docked in the small town of Picton for the first time ever. Unfortunately, most of the stores in town were closed due to a local holiday. As far as we can tell, there isn’t much of cultural interest in Picton, but it has several nice hiking trails (aka tramping tracks in New Zealand, bushwalks in Australia). After we disembarked the ship and compulsory shuttle, we walked along the main street in town, stopping at a supermarket to buy a lunch of pies and a scone. (The pies were just terrible, which taught me a valuable lesson about buying meat pies at the supermarket.) After a quick stop at the library to log onto the free WiFi, we started our hike. We spent about half an hour walking to a small beach called Bob’s Bay where we planned to eat lunch until it started raining on us. After the rain stopped, we walked up to a harbourview lookout and then to a trailhead on the “snout”, a long forested peninsula. Because we were tired, we didn’t actually walk the hilly 1.5 hour trail to the end of the snout, but it seems like a good trail for people in better shape than us.

Due to the earthquakes in Christchurch a few years ago, cruise ships are anchoring in nearby Akaroa until the port of Christchurch is able to handle cruise ships again. The captain warned us that due to high winds, we might not be able to tender into Akaroa, but in the morning I guess things looked good enough for passengers to go ashore. Valerie booked us a tour yesterday via the Internet and after disembarking we had about an hour to burn before the tour started. We wandered around the main beachfront promenade and then to the library which was surrounded by cruise passengers, a sign of free WiFi. We checked our email before heading to the meeting place for the tour.

The tour bus drove us into the nearby hills surrounding Akaroa. The bus driver mentioned that the land and harbor around Akaroa were formed by an ancient volcano. He speculated that the rocky soil allowed it to withstand the earthquake much better than the sandy soil of Christchurch. Along the way, we stopped at a cheese factory, but didn’t buy any cheese.

After the tour, the winds picked up considerably. Valerie was worried that the weather would get worse, so we headed back to the ship early. She was right. When we returned, the captain had decided to stop passengers from disembarking. Other passengers returning later in the day reported that their tenders were pummeled by waves and flooded during the return trip. According to some reports, one of the tenders experienced some engine problem during a return voyage, stranding several passengers for hours.