Sailing into New Zealand
We reached the Bay of Islands in the morning and moored offshore. We didn't have an excursion planned until later in the day so that gave us a chance to have a leisurely breakfast and relax on the ship while others were getting off. There was a lot of stress amongst passengers over the two hour wait times for tenders for private excursions so we were glad we had a booked tour.
Bay of Islands
After some trivia and lunch, we went to Tuscan Grill where priority tendering was being offered for Elite guests. We only had to wait a few minutes to be escorted down to deck 1 to meet a tender to take us to the island. We explored the Bay of Islands Yacht Club while waiting for our excusion to start.
Zane Grey's Hole in the Rock
We were informed at the dock that instead of having a private boat to Zane Grey's Hole in the Rock, we would instead be on a public shuttle, meaning we would have to make multiple stops to pick up and drop off other passengers. We complained to Celebrity later about this and they provided a discount since the excursion had been publicized as a private excursion.
The boat took us out to Motu Kokako, also known as Piercy Isalnd, but better known as the "Hole in the Rock" where author Zane Grey worked in the 1920s. The island is at the northern end of Rakaumangamanga. Our captain was able to navigate the boat through the 60 foot hole, which gave us a chance to marvel at the striations of rock.
Comedy and Blu
After returning from our excursion on one of the last tenders, we grabbed a snack from the Mast Grill and changed before getting a martini at the bar and them going to Simon Palomares comedy show. Simon is a Spanish-Australian comedian and actor who starred on an Australian show, "Acropolis Now".
Following the comedy show, we were back in Blu for dinner and then attended the late night show by Van Anh Nguyen.