day 102 Auckland, New Zealand

Day 102 Auckland, New Zealand

Relaxed, friendly, open areas and parks, beautiful harbour, spring flowers and blossom, stately old buildings, city of sails….

DP sailed across Waitemata Harbour to dock alongside the Hilton Hotel. Today we wore our jumpers and jackets, the first day since Scotland. Yesterday we experienced the cooler temperate which we expect to continue till to end of the cruise. As the ship docked we called greetings to the hotel guests who stood on their balconies looking at us on ours.

Paul and I were greeted by Lesley and her husband Paul, who showed us their New Zealand hospitality. We were driven around the beautiful harbour side city of Auckland, and were impressed by the wide clean streets and motorways and the stately old buildings, restored to their Victorian elegance. Cornwell Park with its rich green pastures, many old trees and gardens of spring flowers, has a central hill and lookout called One Tree Hill. We were there early on this Sunday morning and passed many walkers and joggers enjoying the fresh morning air. The views of the city with its famous Sky Tower, harbour and Harbour Bridge could all be seen past the green grasslands home to young lambs and their mothers.  Our tour included the western suburbs, Devonport which can also be accessed by the harbour ferry from Auckland. In Devonport the garden verges had been planted with electric blue pansies, parsley and silver beet. We then over the harbour bridge to the Selwyn Domain on the south eastern beaches of the harbour blue pansies, parsley and silver beet. We enjoyed a lunch here with Paul and Lesley before our return to the ship. Many thanks to both Paul and Lesley for their warm welcome and time showing us their lovely Auckland.

Oh no, only two more days before the end of our 'trip of a lifetime'

Sob, Sob.

Happy Father's Day to all Fathers who read this blog, especially DS Rob who is celebrating his first Father's Day.

 

 

Day 97 Apia, Samoa

Day 97 Apia, Samoa

Perched just east of the International Date-line this tropical island country in the South Pacific became our second to last port before our expected arrival into Sydney. We arrived at this tranquil haven early this morning, Paul and I were again sitting on our balcony with our continental breakfast but this time we were entertained by the local Samoan Music and Dancing Group on the wharf. Ukuleles, guitars and drums accompanied the singers as the dancers swayed on or pounded the ground they stood on.

We joined Brian, Ros, Merrilyn and Roger to find a taxi to take the 6 of us on a tour of the island for our stay in Apia. When we arrived at the gate Brian spoke to a taxi operator who had negotiated with a group of 4 who were intent on the same type of hire. It worked out this taxi driver had a van which took the 10 of us at $25 US or AUD each. Ed and Bev are cruise critic members whom we had already met, Janet and Brian had been on the ship for almost the same time as us but today is the first time we had met. Janet explained she had fallen over their luggage the night before the Sydney departure and had cracked her knee cap in half. Whilst she was in hospital getting it wired and pinned her husband took the luggage and himself onto the DP and sailed to Darwin where he disembarked and flew back to collect Janet in Sydney. They then flew to Singapore and joined the ship. The plane had to circle Singapore for an hour before it was safe to land in the tropical thunderstorm. Oh I remember that storm! Janet is managing to walk quite well but with care around the ship. Remarkable. Good on ya Janet.

The stately mansion and tropical gardens of Robert Louis Stevenson was our first stop. Note to self: when home get at least one of his books, Treasure Island, Kidnapped or Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and read them to some of the grandchildren. Stevenson was loved by the Samoans and the engraving on his tombstone was translated to a Samoan song of grief which is well known and still sung in Samoa.

"Under the wide and starry sky,

 Dig the grave and let me lie.

 Glad did I live and gladly die,

 And I laid me down with a will.

 This be the verse you grave for me:

 Here he lies where he longed to be;

 Home is the sailor, home from sea,

 And the hunter home from the hill"

This morning we experienced a few showers, however as the day progressed, most had cleared and the sun ended up shinning in a cloudless blue sky. As we drove along the coast the seas were quite choppy and grey but as the clouds passed the water turned to that beautiful tropical aqua blue. We stopped at a resort nestled alongside the Methodist Church which is built over the islands' lava tubes. We walked along the beach of the resort, across a couple of dry sandy creeks and through a barbed wire fence to see the cave pools and underground caverns formed by the lava tubes.  By the time we climbed the stairs to the church we realized we should have entered by the main gate and paid a fee to see the caves.

The last stop before heading back to Apia turned out to be the Falefa Waterfall. The viewing point just happened to be guarded by family members who owned the local land and waterfall site, so a fee of $2 each was paid by us to stand near the edge of the road to take photos of this delightful waterfall.   

Janet requested to see turtles, so the driver obliged by driving us back, through the capital city, Apia, to the beaches on the other side. Of course the drive through Apia take no more than 10 minutes. It turned out to be a great suggestion of Janet's. Lots of different sized turtles. We stopped off at a supermarket/bakery to buy several loaves of bread to feed the turtles but the bread was fresh and as we hadn't had anything to eat since 7am and it was a least 1pm, we were all hopping into the bread. It worked out to be one piece for the turtle, one for me! Yeh, you say, you are on a cruise ship and all that food 24/7 and you are starving? Mmm. I try not to think of it but we only have 6 days left. Everyone is mentioning it. You get into a lift and the subject is about the number of days left before getting off the ship. You sit down next to someone and the subject is which port you are getting off in, Auckland or Sydney? Ugh, don't want to think about it but we are missing our family and friends and are looking forward to seeing them.

We enjoyed our second visit to Samoa and would gladly return to this friendly, orderly and idyllic country.

The ship had sailed out about 2kms past the reef when it changed direction. A 180 degree turn to sail back into Apia. It happened to be about 5 mins after we realised the ship had been negotiating this turn that the Captain broadcast the ship was returning to Apia for a medical emergency. The DP reached to reef when it slowed and stopped to allow the pilot boat to come alongside the opened ship's tender platform. This is when we saw two people and luggage transferred to the pilot boat before it headed back into Apia and we turned once more to sail to Auckland. We heard later today there were 2 other passenger medical mishaps. A lady slipped and fell on deck 14 and broke her leg and another lady slipped and fell on tour and broke her foot. Come on guys….we have less than a week of the cruise. Hopefully we do not have any more medical emergencies.

Day 94 Bora Bora

Day 94 Bora Bora, Tahiti

Bright turquoise water, lazing the day away, protected lagoon edged by fine white sandy beaches, trade winds, beautiful island gem….

Set a 6am wake-up call, ate our continental breakfast on the balcony, we were ready and waiting in Jarmers at 7am with the rest of our tour group to be on the first tender into Bora Bora. Once there we walked the entire strip of shops by 8am! (not many). We waited with the rest of the group to meet the Lagoon Snorkelling Guide for the 9am appointment only to be disappointed to hear an exceptional high tide and strong winds caused all water activities on the island to be cancelled. Bummer; but we took the local bus to the famous Matira Beach to see if we could have a day swimming in the protected waters instead. A few brave (or foolish) people tried to swim but the waves and current (rip) were too dangerous to stay in the water for long. We had heard when we returned to the ship, someone had drowned today swimming in the waters.

We watched the surfers for over an hour then decided to catch a Le Truck to the Sofitel Coralia Marara Resort and pay the money to enjoy the hotel's facilities for the day. We swam in the horizon pool and appreciated the surroundings. The high tide flooded the beach and front bungalows overlooking the lagoon bringing a lot of natural debris with it. The water splashed up over the decking of the pool and the jetty going out to the little hut at the end. The decking around the pool started to break-up whilst we were there and the staff had to go out in a boat to retrieve the loose boards floating away in the lagoon.

This place is remote; we sailed 5 days from Hawaii to get here. I don't know how many connections someone would need to take to fly here, but it is the epitome of the Pacific Dream, Bora Bora is a Garden of Eden, so beautiful it is hard to believe the reef-fringed islands and translucent aqua lagoons exist. No wonder it is favourite honeymoon destination.

Both Papeete and Bora Bora had its generic dogs which seem to have the same parents. Locals seem to regard them with a casual nonchalance however the dogs appear to be good natured. I would have patted a couple of these friendly beings but they looked pretty mangy and goodness knows what parasites they harboured. It is common for the islanders to have fowls as pets, wandering free around the houses. Some of the roosters have the colourful red, orange and brown feathers. We were told they ate the many centipedes which live on the islands.