Queen Mary II

I realise this was a while ago now, but the weekend after I first moved into this apartment, the Queen Mary II arrived in Auckland for the first time.

You might have heard about it, since she's the biggest ocean liner in the world. Technically, she's not the biggest passenger vessel, since the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship has a higher gross tonnage, but Queen Mary II is longer, wider and taller than Freedom of the Seas. She's too big to tie up alongside Prince's Wharf or Queen's Wharf where most passenger ships dock, and instead had to tie up at one of the container terminals. That was pretty good for me, since I got a great view of her coming and going.

Here is her arrival just after sunrise:

All day the roads and footpaths around the docks were congested with people coming to take a look at her.

They had to be quick since she only stayed for the day. Here is her departure just after 10pm the same night:

There was a massive fireworks display for her departure, unfortunately it was too far west for me to see from my apartment (which faces east). Luckily for me though, it was perfectly reflected on the side of the Lumley building, so I just sat back inside and watched the fireworks on a big screen.