Concordia Grade 5 student Jenna Gaylord and her family take a cruise through Australia and New Zealand

Over Christmas break, my family and I, my grandparents and two other families went on a Princess Cruise around Australia and New Zealand. This was the best way to see both places because we were able to stop at many cities without ever having to check out of our hotel at sea.

We started our trip by flying to Sydney and spending three days there sightseeing. One of the places we went to was the Sydney Opera House. We took a tour where we got to see the stage and the set. We also watched a movie about how the opera house was built. Did you know that the Sydney Opera House is made up of many tan, patterned tiles? Afterward, we saw the Sydney Harbor Bridge and took a boat tour of the harbor.

We took a bus to the Blue Mountains to see the Three Sisters Rocks. Legend has it that the three sisters were turned into rocks by their father who was trying to keep them from getting married. Unfortunately, he was killed in battle and never returned to turn his daughters back to humans. On the bus tour we also visited Featherdale Wildlife Park where we were able to feed kangaroos and pet the koalas.

After some more sightseeing and expensive shopping in Sydney, we finally boarded our ship, the Diamond Princess. There were 13 floors on the ship, three pools and six hot tubs. Our room had a balcony, a bed for my parents, a pull-out couch for my brother and a bed that came down from the ceiling for me. We even decorated it with Christmas lights. Every night, our room steward made our towels into different animal shapes and left chocolates on our pillows.

On our cruise we went to Melbourne and Tasmania in Australia and to Fiordland National Park, Dunedin, Christchurch, Tauranga and Auckland in New Zealand. One of the highlights was shopping at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. It was a big outdoor market that sold everything you could possibly imagine.

In Dunedin we saw the Larnach Castle and penguins. The Larnach castle is a real castle that the Larnach family used to live in. I loved being with the penguins. We went in a little tunnel partly underground with big holes in the sides to look out of. I remember one of the penguins stuck his head in the hole and we just stared at each other. I could tell by the confused expression on his face that he didn’t know what we were.

In Tauranga, we went to the Maori Village. There we saw fire geysers and learned how the Maoris (New Zealand’s native people) lived. We also went on the Kiwi 360 tour. When you first walk in you see a giant kiwi fruit that you can walk around in. Then you are taken on a tour of the kiwi farm in a kiwi tram car and you get to see how the fruit is grown. After that, we went to Christchurch and went on a jet boat ride in the ocean. The guide even let me steer the boat for a while since I was sitting up front. Following the jet boat ride, we went on a sky ride to see the mountains and the city.

Overall, I loved every minute of this trip spent with my family. It was great to be on a cruise ship and have the chance to see all these wonderful places.

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