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Published: February 28th 2010
Trip of a lifetime and everything I had hoped for. Accompanied by Aunt Ann and had a brilliant journey, getting together with cousin/nephew and family in Sydney. San Francisco was a bit chilly but just one of those places you would hope to go back to. With the help of Ann's prior knowledge, did the place justice in one and a half days! Boarding Queen Victoria was such an experience and sailing out under the Golden Gate bridge never to be forgotten. Few days at sea across the Pacific in between stops and gained sea legs after about 3 days (with the help of sea bands on wrists) - interesting fashion accessory! Totally spoiled with Cunard service, food and entertainment. Never a dull moment and met two lovely couples at dinner who have become good friends. Made for impressive quiz team in on board pub (yes, sitting in middle of Pacific in a pub doing quizzes at 10.00 in the morning)! One of dinner mates was a bird watcher (insisted not a Twitcher) and the entertainment we had spotting bird varieties was memorable. Formalities on board proved interesting, trying to decide what clothes fitted Elegant Casual, Semi-formal and Formal dining (ohh
Powell & Hyde cable car turntable.
Not all mechanical! Great cable car ride past squiggly Lombard street.the decisions)! Every night was effectively Saturday night out. The cruise stops were Lahaina, on Maui and Honolulu on Oahu, in Hawaii; Pago Pago (Pango Pango) on American Samoa; Lautoka on Viti Levu, Fiji; Auckland, Lyttleton for Christchurch and Wellington in New Zealand; and Sydney, NSW, Australia. All spectacular in their individual ways. Weather was mixed but definately warmer than at home! Honolulu had its first day of welcome rain after two months on the day we arrived and all view points were pointless due to low cloud on organised trip. Cleared up in afternoon fortunately for walking around city harbour. There were two separate lots of four days at sea between ports and the second period involved crossing the Equator and an old ceremony for seafarers where Equator sea crossing 'virgins' known as Polywogs are initiated and become Shellbacks. Part of this involved kissing a fish (hell would freeze over before I did that)! All the same a ceremony to watch - Neptune, his wife and a judge presiding over 'volunteers' getting doused in kitchen slops and those less keen to be sticky having to kiss a fish. Final destination Sydney with 4 night stay was great end to
On board
Ann overlooking Alcatraz journey. Temp. reached 100 degrees C on Monday, 22 Feb. Plenty to do and see, including family. Great city. Long trip back with two hour stop at Hong Kong airport but on time and back to reality to a damp and cold UK!
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