Time To Go Home!

We left Sydney on Wednesday at 2 p.m. and got into Dallas on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.  Go figure!   But after a great 15 hour flight to Dallas and a short flight to Huntsville, we are home again!

We really did have a great flight because of a great flight attendant with Qantas.  I won't call names, but you know who you are!  We had booked exit row seats and as we were settling in, I stopped an attendant and asked where our TV monitors were.  She looked at me very seriously and said, "oh, with those seats, you don't get a TV!".   Then she quickly pushed a button between the seats and raised it up.  She later told me the expression on my face was priceless!   That began a great new friendship.  Right after take off, she asked what we wanted to drink and Richard asked for two glasses of red wine.  The other attendants were busy preparing a "welcome aboard" drink that looked like pink lemonade.  She quickly came back with a bottle of wine.  She looked around at the attendants and the pink stuff and said "you don't want any of that slop, I brought you an entire bottle from first class...I'll just put it here and you can let me know when you want more".   Did I mention a new best friend?  

Every time she walked by, she seemed to be giving us something else.  After the wine, came packs of M&Ms and two bottles of water.  After dinner, she came by with two plates of cheese, crackers, and figs along with a glass of Port and a glass of Cointreau; oh and then there was the vanilla bean ice cream.  An hour or so later, two twix bars, more blankets and pillows.  During the night I got a tour of upstairs.  She wanted to show me the best seats on the jumbo jet.  At sunrise, we got two new pairs of Qantas pajamas and two first class leather amenity kits that were designed by SK-2.   Then, shortly before landing, here comes a duty free bag with not one, but two bottles of Australian wine.  I'm so glad we checked all our luggage and had an almost empty carry on!  We exchanged emails with hopes to see each other again.  We hope she comes for a visit to Alabama!

So, we finally got home last night!   Life is good!

Last Day in Sydney, then Back to the Future!

Today we headed to Bondi Beach and did the coastline walk along the cliffs for awhile.  It was quite warm today and the sun was shining!

 

 

 

We ran into a couple from Florida that had been on the ship with us while at Bondi Beach.   We then made a brief trip to the botanical gardens.  It is 75 acres and has huge green spaces.  It reminded me of Central Park.  Maybe we were just weary, but we made our way through it quite quickly. 

 

Tomorrow morning (October 21, 2015) we pack up and leave Sydney at 2 pm.  We will get to Dallas at 1:35 p.m. on October 21, 2015.... before we actually leave Sydney!   Coincidently, tomorrow is the day that Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to in the  movie "Back to the Future Part 2"!   If Quantas has a

DeLorean parked on the tarmac, I'm staying in Australia!

 

 

 



Down Under

The apartment we rented in Kings Cross through Airbnb (Modern apt in heart of Kings Cross) is very comfortable.  Its close to the train station and is in walking distance to lots of restaurants.

There are 4-1/2 million people that live in Sydney.  We waited until after rush hour to take the train to the harbor.   From there, we took the ferry to Manly Beach.  This is where our friends Jim and Corolla live, when they aren't sailing the world.  We met them on our South America cruise last year.  Unfortunately, they weren't in the country today.

We stopped back by Watson Bay and walked around this quaint little suburb.  Apparently they are fighting a large developer that is wanting to convert several historic buildings into hotels.  They don't want it to turn into a Darling Harbor type area.  I guess we'll have to visit Darling Harbor tomorrow to see what it is they aren't wanting!

We went back to the harbor at sunset and walked around The Rocks.  A number of people were doing the arch walk, but we just didn't feel the need!

However, I get upside down, down under!

Moving on to Sydney, Australia!

We left home one month ago today (September 18th).  Last night after our Milford Sound trip, we were strolling along the streets of Queenstown looking for a place to eat dinner.  Richard happened to be wearing his hoodie with the Muscle Shoals documentary logo on it.  Suddenly, three very nice ladies ran up to him and announced that they were from Florence, Alabama!    Some students from the University of Alabama were on a study tour and one of the girl's mother and her friend came to visit her.   Naturally, after talking for two minutes we realized we had common friends and one of them was my sister's neighbor.   It is truly a small world.  But had it not been for the Muscle Shoals music documentary, we would have never met.....at least not in Queenstown, New Zealand!

We headed back to the airport this morning to go to Sydney, Australia.  Richard has been here before, but its a new country for me to check off.   We are flying Air New Zealand and have been impressed with them (so far....I'm writing this while flying).   When they began the boarding process, they announced that rows 1-15 would board through the forward door and rows 16-32 would board through the rear door.    Makes perfect sense, you've got the back door, why not use it to make things more efficient!   The safety video was shown on the TV monitors and it was a rap rendition of a Men in Black spoof.  The All Blacks are New Zealand's rugby team and are as highly thought of as our favorite SEC team.   It was pretty innovative and definitely kept everyone's attention to the end.  We also noticed that all the female flight attendants wear their hair in a neat bun at the back of their head.   I'm not sure what the hair requirements are for the men!

We continue to be thrilled with our decision to disembark the ship in Dunedin.   We did hear that the Golden Princess made it to Milford Sound after all.  As the people in Queenstown said, two days is too early to make a prediction regarding their weather.  

We look forward to exploring Sydney and the surrounding area for the next few days!   Until then.....

Milford Sound

If one picture is worth a thousand words,  then this post is going to go on forever!    As I mentioned earlier, the primary reason we jumped ship was because our overnight excursion to Queenstown and Milford Sound got cancelled.   Today reaffirms that we made a good decision.   The weather in Queenstown changes by the hour.  As soon as we arrived in Queenstown on Thursday we booked a scenic flight to Milford Sound for 10 a.m. on Friday morning.  They only make these flights if weather conditions are absolutely perfect.  At 9 a.m. that morning, we received a call informing us that they would not be flyng that day.  We rebooked for 2 p.m. the following day at their advise, because being familiar with their weather patterns, the company thought that was the best chance of going.  At 1 p.m. yesterday it was confirmed that we were going. 

They sent a taxi to our hotel to pick us up and took us to the Queenstown airport where we boarded the 6 passenger Cessna plane.

There was just our pilot, Nick, a young lady from the tourist information center, and us!   Milford Sound is located on the other side of the mountains, on the western coast of the south island.  The trip by car or bus is 5 hours one way.  Although we were told the scenery was beautiful, that's really a long drive.  Richard recommended we get there in 35 minutes by plane.  Great idea!

As we made our way through the mountainous terrain, Nick turned the microphone on the headsets to "crew".  He and Richard enjoyed too many laughs.  

He did comment once that to the passengers in the back, it looks like we're really close to these mountains!

 

Nick flew us to the mouth of Milford Sound, where it opens to the Tasman Sea.   It was truly breathtaking!

 

He then banked left, descended, and gracefully landed on a tiny runway surrounded by huge mountains.

 

The 1-1/2 hour boat excursion we took once we landed was very good, however, it paled in comparison to the flight over these majestic mountains!

On our return flight to Queenstown, I was so overwhelmed, that I realized tears were flowing down my face.  I've heard that travel is the only thing you can spend money on, that makes you richer!  This day confirmed that.

Queenstown NZ

The scenic flight to Milford Sound that we had scheduled for today got cancelled due to poor weather conditions.  So we set off and walked to the sky line lift that took us 1500 feet up to get great views of Queenstown and the surrounding area.  Queenstown is the farthest city from London.

 

The views were pretty amazing.  Queenstown reminds us a lot of Banff, Canada.  The downtown area is very touristy, but it really comes alive at night with young people everywhere. 

 

I realize New Zealand has a strong European influence, but was disappointed to see so many people, especially young people, smoking. 

 

 

Its really difficult to fathom it being Springtime, in October.  The cherry trees are full of blooms, the rhododendrons are spectacular, and the air is so fresh. 

 

We have also enjoyed the New Zealand slang.  We are finding ourselves using words such as "no worries", "car park", "cheerio", "lift", "take aways", and above all else, you get "tomato sauce" instead of ketchup!   Got to love it.

 

Queenstown, NZ

We visited the First Presbyterian Church in Dunedin this morning that was built in 1848 and was the first Church of Otago. 

After lunch we hailed a taxi that took us back to our B&B to get our luggage and take us to the bus station.  The 4 hour bus ride went quickly, as the scenery was incredible (and they had wifi)!  As we traveled from the east coast of the south island to the west coast, the snow capped Garvie Mountains could be seen in the distance.  We passed beautiful green pastures with grazing sheep, vineyards, a couple of dams along the river, and through several small towns.   

When we neared Queenstown, we traveled along Lake Wakatipu and the snow capped mountains could be seen behind it.  Our hotel (Rydges) is located right on this lake.  We spent the evening walking around town.  The weather is slightly cooler (50s).  We booked a flight to Milford Sound for Friday.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate, as its quite unpredictable from hour to hour.


So far, Queenstown is our favorite place in New Zealand.  It reminds us of the Banff/Lake Louise area. 

Jumping Ship For New Zealand!

An extremely interesting 24 hours we have had!  At 4:30 p.m. yesterday we returned to our cabin to find a letter in our mailbox.  It was to inform us that they had decided to cancel our overnight excursion the following day that would take us from Dunedin to Queenstown, through the historical gold mining country and various other inland locations.  This cancellation was based on very early expectations that weather conditions would prohibit them from going into Milford Sound, where we were scheduled to be returned to the ship. 

We had scheduled this excursion several months ago because we felt this would give us a much better picture of New Zealand, than just visiting the port cities on the agenda.  Needless to say, we were shocked and devastated, especially after having missed Akaroa yesterday.   We quickly decided that we needed to take our vacation into our own hands and went to ask if it would be possible for us to disembark the ship the following day.  We were notified that we would have to let them know for sure if we were going to depart no later than 7 p.m.  This was because the young man we spoke to got off work at 7 p.m.! 

So, for the next 2-1/2 hours, we researched our options on the ever so slow ship internet.  We first found that there were inexpensive fights from Queenstown to Sydney, Australia.   We then found an inner-city bus that makes the journey once a day.  It was booked for the following day, but we reserved two seats for Thursday.  We then found a quaint B&B in Dunedin for one night, and a waterfront hotel in Queenstown for the next 3 nights.  At 7 p.m., we returned to the Purser’s desk and notified them that we would indeed be departing the ship the next morning. 

At 7 a.m. this morning, we were required to come downstairs with our luggage to meet with the Customs agent.   Afterwards, we returned to our room and finished our packing, showered, and of course had breakfast!   We were fortunate to get to catch up with several new friends we’d met on the ship and say goodbye before we left (Steve and Bailey, Dean and Rosie, the sisters from Australia, and Scottie (Lauren, the singer on the ship’s boyfriend from Australia).

We eventually left the ship around 11:30 a.m. and traveled into Dunedin.  Once there, we found ourselves walking towards our B&B when we met two nice young ladies that stopped and asked where we were from and where we were headed.  When we told them that we were from Alabama, they turned to a car coming down the street and stopped the man driving and yelled to him that we were from Alabama.  He got out of his car and came over to us and told us that he was from Anniston and had gone to Jacksonville State University.  What a small world!   After chatting for a few minutes, they picked up our luggage and told us that would take us to the B&B; that it was too far to walk.  We were amazed at their hospitality and jumped into their car.  After arriving at the B&B, the young ladies insisted on helping us to our room with our luggage.   The man had moved to New Zealand after 9/11, wanting to take his then young children away from the madness in the USA.   Apparently not a bad choice for them, as she has grown up to be a great young lady!

Our B&B host was there to meet us and showed us to our room.  He and his family lived next door and had purchased this 15 room establishment several years ago (Brother Boutique Hotel).   It was near Dunedin’s  center city, and although its only a 6 minute walk “down” to the town, its at least a “12” minute hike back up!

After settling in we walked back into town and watched as the last bus headed back to the ship left Dunedin.  We breathed a sigh of relief and did a high five that we were now in charge of our schedule and our destiny for the next week!

At 5 p.m. our host invited his guests into the common area for a drink.  We met two nice New Zealand business men that were traveling separately.   They are as passionate about their rugby as we are SEC football!   As I mentioned before, everyone we’ve met so far have been extremely friendly and so welcoming to their country.

Akaroa....Change in Plans!

As we prepared for our day ashore in Akaroa (Christchurch), the captain came on the intercom system and announced that he had been in touch with the port authorities and they were reporting 2 meter waves and 40 knot winds (this is a tender port).  For our safety, he informed us that regrettably we would not be stopping in Akaroa today.  So we travel on to Port Chalmers (Dunedin) today. 

Although disappointing, if this had to happen, this would have been our choice to skip.  We had already decided against taking a 1-1/2 hour drive to Christchurch (New Zealand’s 2^nd largest city) due to the remaining destruction from the massive earthquake that happened 5 years ago.  Although some sections of the town were unharmed, most of the city is still blocked off and remains in disrepair due to disagreements in how to restore/rebuild it.

So our plan (weather dependent) was to stay in Akaroa, which is a sleepy little town with a French flair dotted with 19^th and 20^th century colonial dwellings. 

This change in plans gives us more time to prepare for our big overnight excursion tomorrow.  We leave the ship tomorrow in Dunedin and travel inland across the south island and spend the night in Queenstown.  We will be tendered back to the ship the following afternoon in Milford Sound.  Our fellow cruisers still onboard will spend that day cruising through the Fjordland National Park.

Wellington, NZ

We were welcomed to Wellington with blue skies and warm temperatures today!  This was a pleasant change from some of our other stops.  Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, has a lot to offer.  It sits on the Cook Strait at the southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island.  The Cook Strait separates the North and South islands.

We began our day by taking the cable car 390 feet up to see dramatic views of the city’s rolling hills, the downtown area, and the harbor.   The botanical garden was just coming alive in the early Spring, and the tulips were spectacular!   

We then made our way to the Te Papa Museum which focused heavily on the Maori, but also housed a lot of interactive information on New Zealand’s earthquakes and volcanos.  It also had a display of a colossal squid that had been caught several years ago.  But the newest and most popular display was about New Zealand’s involvement in World War I at Gallipoli.   The huge life-like WWI soldiers displayed looked amazingly real.   The museum was very modern and used state of the art technology in its interactive displays. 

The city was very clean and the locals were very friendly.  The botanical gardens and the museums in Wellington were both free to the public; an unusual concept for us Americans.

For shoppers, the souvenir that we saw the most was gloves and scarves made from merino mink.  This is actually made from part sheep and part possum!  This came about because possums, which are not native to New Zealand, were brought here by the Aussies and were very destructive.  So, they found a use for them!    They were soft to the touch, but it wasn’t something I felt compelled to purchase.

 

Auckland, New Zealand

This morning at day break we entered Auckland harbor and docked at Queens Pier.  We have sailed 7500 nautical miles since we left San Francisco three weeks ago to finally reach New Zealand. 

We left the ship at 7:45 a.m. and took the ferry to Devonport.  Devonport is a quaint little suburb of Auckland and is one of the oldest settlements in New Zealand.    We strolled along the streets and visited a cafe that was full of people at 8 a.m., just staring at a television mounted on the wall.  There was a deafening silence and as I looked around,  I found myself looking at the TV to see if there was some breaking news of a horrible event.  However, I found that New Zealand was playing in a rugby championship and everyone seemed to be in a catatonic state.   I’m not sure if it was because they were losing or if it was just too early on a Saturday morning to get excited.

By mid-morning, we headed back across to Auckland by ferry and walked down Queens Street, which is the main shopping area in Auckland.  We then visited the art gallery and walked through a park in what appeared to be a bohemian section of town.  We then visited the harbor area where there were many luxury yachts and sponsored sailboats for the Americas Cup.   As we walked around the harbor area, we came across a family enjoying an ice cream.  They weren’t posing, but I couldn’t help but stop and take a picture of them. 

 

 

The Sky Tower is probably Auckland’s most familiar landmark.  It stands 1072 feet high and has two observation decks and a revolving restaurant.  There is a glass-floored observation deck and I understand that bungy jumping is available if you dare.  

 

After spending so much time at sea, we were ready to walk on land, but found ourselves swaying a little bit when we were standing still.  But we did walk…..a lot!   My fitbit showed that we had walked over 28,000 steps!   The weather has cooled off dramatically.  The high today in Auckland was probably 60 degrees. 

The Cool Down!

The seas have settled down after a couple of days of 10 foot seas.   The Promenade deck was closed yesterday as waves were splashing onto the 7^th floor.  As expected at this point of the trip, the temperatures have begun to cool down.  Its in the low 70s and we’ve likely seen the last of the 80+ degree weather. 

Today has been a day of relaxing, reading, and napping.    In between meals, we’ve just been hanging out in our cabin with the balcony door open.  The sound of the waves hitting the side of the ship is quite relaxing.   We went to the Skywalkers lounge yesterday afternoon for their happy hour hors d’oeuvres and realized at bedtime that we’d never eaten dinner. 

The crew continues to try to meet everyone’s varied tastes with regards to entertainment.   We’re still waiting and hoping for a blues/R&B jam session.

The Day That Never Will Be

After 18 days of travel, we are now on our way to New Zealand.  Today is Tuesday and we still have two more sea days after today before we reach Auckland on Saturday.     Since leaving San Francisco on September 19^th, we have moved our clocks back 4 times, putting us 6 hours behind Central Time.   But that all changes Thursday, when we cross the international date line.    Actually according to our maps, we have already crossed it.  But the ship is declaring Thursday “international date line day” and poof Thursday, October 8^th doesn’t exist “for us.”  So today is Tuesday, October 6^th, tomorrow is Wednesday October 7^th, we then its Friday October 9^th.  So instead of being 6 hours behind, we will jump 18 hours ahead.  Think about that for awhile!

Pago Pago, America Samoa

When we woke up this morning we were approaching  Pago Pago, America Samoa.   The weather was foggy and rainy.   We hailed a taxi and went to the other side of the island to Tisa’s Barefoot Beach Bar.  We had read about it on Trip Advisor and with it being such a small island, this was a highly recommended place to just chill.  We arrived early and were told that they were preparing a traditional Samoan feast.   We could smell the food cooking and smoke could be seen seeping out from under the banana leaves piled on the ground.   Today was Tisa’s  birthday!  She was a beautiful Samoan lady that looked much younger than her 67 years.  

Tisa

We had read that they collect college football memorabilia so we brought them an Alabama Roll Tide sign to hang.  We saw flags from Georgia and Florida, but nothing from Alabama!

Candy Man

Her bar was nestled between the road and the beach and you could have easily passed by without seeing it.   It had apparently survived many storms but only by being rebuilt with items that had washed up from the sea.  You could walk on the beach and see the many layers of decks that had once been part of Tisa’s. 

 

As expected, the food was fabulous.  It was served on banana leaves spread out on a wooden table and served family style.  They came around and put lots of food on our banana leaves and we were instructed to eat with our fingers.  Napkins were distributed after we finished.  We weren’t really sure what all we ate, but did recognize pork, plantains, and heard them mention bread fruit.  

 

While we were eating, the bartender, (Candy Man), ran out from behind the bar, grabbed a buoy and life ring and ran down to the beach.  He had noticed someone that had gotten caught in a rip tide and was struggling.  The winds and waves were really rough and he managed to make it to the swimmer and pull him in.  It happened to be one of the production staff members on the ship.   Before we left, the same bartender had to swim out and rescue a snorkeler that had also gotten pulled out to sea.   All in a day’s work!

Our taxi returned to pick us up and returned us to town.  A tour of the island would have been a waste of time with the weather we were having.   But we would love to return here one day.  It’s a paradise filled with very friendly people and we would definitely return to Tisa’s!   

Traveling on to Pago Pago

^{The food on the ship has been outstanding.  Last night we ate in the dining room alone and had an outstanding waiter, Roel from Chile.  Richard had orange roughy and I had prime rib.  After two weeks on the ship, we didn’t even look at the dessert menu tonight.  There wasn’t much going on so we opted to return to our cabin and just watch TV.} 

^{There are plenty of options for things to do on the ship.  Here’s a sample of today’s schedule.   The love boat disco deck party line dance class, arts and crafts (crepe paper flowers), improve your health and longevity with your onboard herbalist, lawn bowls, bodyless trivia……ok now they’ve sparked my interest.  I might just have to see what this one is all about!}

Seriously though, there are a wide variety of activities…bible study, trivia, art auctions, movies, pub lunches, movies under the stars, comedians, musicians, and of course the casino.

I will be posting pictures soon.  The ship's internet is so slow that pics won't upload.  Stay tuned.

Bora Bora

^{Several weeks ago, we rented a 13’ skiff online so that we could spend our second trip to Bora Bora snorkeling the beautiful, clear blue waters.  However, when we woke up this morning, we found the waves to be high, the winds at gale force, and a slight rain.   We tendered in around 8 a.m. and did a little more Tahitian pearl shopping before meeting the boat rental people at the dock.  They took us to the boat and gave us the choice of whether to take the boat out or cancel.  When we arrived, there was no doubt what we would do.  We opted to cancel and the owners of La Plage said they would refund our deposit.  A great place to rent from if you ever make it to Bora Bora!  We asked them to drop us off at Matira Beach and we walked back to Bloody Mary’s….a great little beach bar.  From there we took the shuttle back to town and spent most of the afternoon walking around and getting on the internet.  Unfortunately the wind and rain continued all day.}  

^{We returned to the boat and at 4:30 p.m. we departed Bora Bora.   Shortly after lifting anchor, the Captain came on the loud speaker and informed us that we were going to be in for a rough night.    He said to expect 10 foot seas and 40 mile an hour winds.  Richard and I just looked at each other.  He also told us to secure any items in our stateroom that might be tossed around!  Yikes!}    

Papeete, Tahiti

^{An interesting day to say the least!  Richard is now sick with a sinus infection.  After feeling absolutely awful last night and burning up with fever, I gave Richard the option of seeing the ship’s doctor or going ashore to see what we could find there.  I went down to the 4th floor and the waiting room for the ship’s doctor was full!   I must say I’ve never been there before and hope to never go there again.  We left the ship and went straight to the pharmacy where a nice lady told us that there was an excellent doctor just next door.  She told us that their over the counter meds were pretty lacking and that she stocks up on Mucinex when she visits the States.  So we heeded her advise and went to the ATM to get French Polynesian dollars and paid Dr. Carpenter (a young French doc that looked like he played a doctor on TV) $36 to find out that Richard was running a fever and needed antibiotics, steroids, and a pain/fever reducer.   Back to the pharmacy to fill the scripts and now all is much better!  Forget insurance, this was great!}  

^{Richard went back to the ship and I went shopping!!!!!    A win-win for us both.   I may not like Hawaiian music but I do love Tahitian pearls!   Mid-afternoon I returned to the ship to check on Richard and to eat lunch.  He felt like getting off the ship for a while so we went to the farmers’ market, found a restaurant with wifi, purchased a coffee and checked our email.  We walked around until time to reboard the ship.}