We visited Melbourne earlier in the trip, so we slept in rather than heading out to town in the morning. Our late departure from the ship allowed us to hear the captain’s sad announcement. Due to bad weather conditions, the ship is going to skip Hobart and the Milford Sound. Instead of going around the southern end of the south island of New Zealand, the ship is going to traverse the Cook Strait and head to Port Chalmers a day early and stay overnight. Valerie is very disappointed to miss the Milford Sound. She says we’ll have to visit New Zealand again.

We eventually got up and left the ship in search of internet access. At the general store just outside the port, we purchased 2 hours of WiFi and cancelled our rental car in Hobart and booked a rental car for the extra day in Dunedin. Afterward, we took a very short walk along the beach before heading back to the ship.