We visited 2 wildlife sanctuaries, one in Tasmania and one in Melbourne. We learned a lot about marsupials. Those are mammals who raise their young in a pouch on the outside of their bodies. I always thought that meant after the babies were born they suckled and kept comfy in this pouch, but no, they come out of the birth canal as a fertilized egg no bigger than a grain of rice,...

We were supposed to have 6 Ports in new Zealand, plus cruising the fjords in the South but as it turned out we only made it to 4 ports and skipped the fjords.At least, we had a couple of memorable excursions. In our first stop of Tauranga, we did the railcarts. 

Wow. This is an experience. Not necessarily a good one😜. We just spent an extra 3 days at sea off the coast of Tauranga in order to get our hull scraped. New Zealand has very strict biosecurity laws. Even though the odyssey had its hull cleaned in the Philippines, that wasn't good enough for them. I get it. As an island where any infestation could be catastrophic, they nee...