Auckland morning, Alicia and I went Easter decoration hunting for Club HAL and had an amusing, sometimes frustrating time of it. New Zealanders do not die eggs like we do. It was almost impossible to find food coloring and completely impossible to find any egg dying kits. They seem to paint them instead, if they do anything at all. Also, all of their chocolate was labeled as potentially coming in contact with nuts, so with all the kids out there with peanut allergies, Alicia had to buy these weird marshmallow thing with fruit flavors for her peanut allergy kids. Luckily, the kids like that this cruise are not the ‘can’t even be in the same room without dying’ kind.
I then went to work, did the usual stuff and called my mom after, since it was her birthday. Of course, by then it was about 11:30pm EDT and she was more than a little asleep, but at least I called on her birthday stateside! Then I hopped off the ship again and bought a few more little presents for people, thus mostly ending my shopping spree. Overall, embark day went off without a hitch and I killed ratings, so that was a very good thing! 600 of the 1400 guests we picked up this day will be with us until May 2nd when I get off. A smaller percentage of those will even be here a week after I leave and do the first Alaska cruise. Crazy!
We were back in Tauranga on the 29th and I decided to climb Mount Manganui again. I got part of the way up and just happened to meet two friends and fellow crew members – Lester and Sarah - so we went up the rest of the way together and came down too. Then Lester and I went out and explored the little side island (which has a very super interesting history, I think I mentioned it last time I crawled around out there) before heading back into town where we ran back into Sarah and decided to grab lunch together. It was all very cool and lowkey. On the way back to the ship, I got the one thing my mom had specifically asked for – a little inch/inch and a half tall glass kiwi for her glass bird collection.
I actually got to get off in Napier! I traded Wellington for Jo in exchange for Napier. It was a cute little town. Six of us were originally going to do a bike and wine tour, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we took the shuttle into town and then went to the Napier Wine Centre, where we did a fancy Virtual Wine Tasting – we got to try 6 red wines while a video ran with each of the owners of the wineries we were tasting talking about their estates and the wines. While I would have preferred the white tasting, Christina said that the Napier area is more known for its red and it ended up being a group of 10 crew together, so we had a really fun time. Then we just wandered around town for a bit – Napier is known for its Art Deco décor after it had to entirely rebuild itself in the 1930s (which, they are still obsessed with that earthquake and it kinda felt like the town was still living in 1933 immediately following said earthquake). The town is a cute little place, though, and we all got ice cream called the Hokey Pokey, which is a New Zealand specialty – vanilla ice cream with this delicious little hard balls of butterscotch. I enjoyed it! Of course, I enjoy food in general.
In Wellington, we had a big ol’ Emergency Drill with Wellington Port Control and then I spent the rest of the day just hanging in my room until work, since I’d traded with Jo.
I went on a hike in Picton, heading out much the same way Jo and I had on an earlier stop, out into the sound, but I took a different path. This one remained open to the water the whole time so I could see the sweeping vistas. Then, I turned off and went down to one of the accessible bays. I was going to just turn around and go back – I didn’t particularly feel like retracing my steps, when all of a sudden a couple came around the end of the bay walking along the beaches! I thought this was a great idea so I wandered off down the beaches for maybe twenty minutes or so and then reached a point where the water level was too high and slowly made my way back. Along the way, I had a close encounter of the cormorant kind and got some great pictures. It was a really nice walk and I only saw one other person – a local fisherman who stopped me to make sure I was okay and warn me that I wouldn’t make it too, too far with my sneakers on (he had on knee length waders). I explained I was aimlessly meandering and that was quite all right, but thanks for the warning.
I then cut back through town, stopping for some wine and a couple more snacks at the grocery store – I figured, when else am I going to get really good New Zealand wine for less then $10 USD a bottle?? I really should have bought even more! I’ve been drinking the local Pinot Gris which is really, really good. You’ll all be happy to know there is still a bottle and a half of two left and I was sharing last night! I stopped at a little local bakery I’d spotted the stop before and picked up an absolutely delicious homemade steak & cheese pie and, surprisingly, a Pepsi (like most of the rest of the world, New Zealand and Australia seem to be almost solely Coca-Cola places). Then I wandered down to the waterfront to eat my pie and enjoy the nice weather. When I delved into my bag of locally made sea salt and balsamic vinegar chips, all of a sudden the pair of sleeping ducks on the other end of the bench found me very interesting! I practically had them sitting on my foot begging from the moment they heard the bag crinkle. They knew what was what!
On the 2nd, we were in Akaroa. Again, I didn’t bother getting off, taking a nap instead, since the tender ride alone is an hour there and back and I’d been off every other time there.
The next day, we arrived in Dunedin and, after a bit of a mishap in the morning, due to poor scheduling, Alicia, Jenn (our new Club HAL person) and I got off and took the shuttle into town. Once there, we wandered around, grabbed coffee and a late breakfast at a little local coffee shop – I had the most delicious chocolate chip and banana muffin ever! Then we wandered through to the various landmarks – the Spieght’s brewery (decided not to tour and couldn’t sample without touring. It kinda stunk), the railway station, the big old original cathedral church and the Octagon at the center of town. After attempting to find a place that might do a beer sample for us and failing, we pool our remaining cash and each grabbed a drink where the one woman had been super nice – Jenn and I both got a local hard cider that was delicious and Alicia had another coffee and we sipped outside in the sunshine – it was a prefect fall day! Then, we decided we didn’t feel like returning to the ship and getting Lido food so I offered to charge lunch. We went across the street, grabbed another outdoor table and Jenn and I split a big old pizza and Alicia got a calzone. We all agreed: Way better than the Lido! In trying to catch the shuttle back, we almost got stampeded by impatient passengers so let the first one go and caught the second. There was also a young boy there – maybe 13-14 – who played his bagpipes (whatever possesses a kid to take up the bagpipes?) and made a killing off all the guests who wanted to get rid of all their New Zealand coins. Smart marketer, that one!
Then we headed off to sea. On the 4th, we were in Fiordlands National Park again, cruising through the Sounds. We got to Milford Sound about when I got off work in the afternoon, so I ran downstairs, grabbed my camera and went to the top deck to steal some pictures. It is so gorgeous, no doubt about that!
The next two days were uneventful sea days. Long, very long, especially my afternoons when I’ve gotten used to usually have an hour of the 3.5 hours taken up by book club. Because of the set up of this cruise, though, we decided book club wouldn’t work well (and I dislike the book) and I’m going to do two for the repo cruise.
Today, we’re in Burnie, which I gave Jo in return for getting to at least set foot on American Somoa when we get there on the repo cruise. As I’ve said before, Burnie’s not my favorite port in the world.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Coming up:
Sunday (tomorrow): Melbourne (no set plan but going to get off)
Tuesday: Sydney (some last minute shopping and sightseeing)
Friday: Noumea, New Caledonia (IPM)
Saturday: Ils de Pins, New Caledonia
Sunday: Easo, Lifou, New Caledonia
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