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.}