NZ Day 2

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Tuesday 21st February:

Today we did our usual day at sea after a day ashore: we over-slept, missed breakfast in

the main restaurant and had to drag ourselves kicking, screaming and bleary-eyed to the

gym. But it was worth it because while we were there another mega pod of dolphins

danced towards the ship. Hardly anyone kept going with their exercise as it's such a

wonderful sight to see so many dolphins leaping out of the water. I wonder why they do

that? Maybe it's just because they can.

The other bit of news from the ship - and it's pretty mega - is that both Tilsons chose

to skip lunch today. Never in the history of this trip has either of us chosen to go

without a meal. Mind you it's really only reflective of the fact we ate a very late and

rather large breakfast in the help yourself to as much as you can buffet. And it also

gave us the perfect excuse to go for a cream team later in the day. So we didn't

actually skip any calories; we just changed the time we consumed them!

This afternoon we went to the theatre to watch a film - "Amelia" with Richard Gere and

Hilary Swank. It's the story of Amelia Earhart and it was really nicely done. Made me

cry. But then a decent Oxo ad on the tele can achieve that so it's not really saying

very much!

This evening we went to one of the speciality restaurants on board for a wonderful

Indian meal. It was fantastic with a very alcholic and bright pink amuse bouche, some

weird and wonderful pre-starters and a great pudding of basmati rice cooked in coconut

milk and served on top of pineapple carpaccio. I have a feeling we shall be going back

before this trip is finished.

Finally we went to a dance show in the theatre. Some of it was utterly thrilling ...

and some of it was utterly tedious. A few too many "yee haa's" for comfort but it's a

bit rich for me to criticise as I didn't have to attempt some very energetic dancing for

an hour on a moving floor!

Tomorrow we visit Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We're off along the coast to

visit a seal colony which we're both really looking forward to.

Hope all is well in the UK. This side of the globe is definitely sunny side up right

now.

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