On Parole !!

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Geo: -36.8474, 174.766

Thursday 12/03/09 Auckland - New Zealand (Still) Temps Air 24°C

Woke up not a sound, no movement, no rocking, (come on keep it clean I know what you're thinking) yup we're still in port. Having showered we went for breakfast to await the announcement as to what was happening, (a quick look out on deck showed the gangways and all the customs paraphernalia removed) Finally we were informed that the final bout of testing indicated a fault in the oil line supplying the new thrust bearing (are you thinking what I'm thinking?) and it was anticipated that we'd now be sailing around 18:00 subject to satisfactory repairs to the oil line.

As we had to be back on board by 16:00 we decided to catch a bus to Takapuna, a little town we noticed from the coach the other day. As we left the ship we were as usual accosted by all and sundry outside wanting to know what was happening and it was then we were informed that the ship was really big news now having been dubbed on national TV as the "Prison Ship".

I'm not sure what you'd call the day but when you're on a run you keep on going, well that's what Linda said having bought 3 or 4 skirts and tops in the first shop she was obviously going to have some serious retail therapy, we left the bags there to collect upon our eventual return and continued on what I suspected was going to be a marathon shop fest. Boy was I right nearly every shop Linda saw and bought something, and I must confess even I bought a great shirt, along with a couple of pairs of wicked shorts.

Eventually suffering from severe arm fatigue we started to make our way back to the first shop to collect what we'd left behind, we called into a small shop on route to buy some new sunnies when all the power went off so we paid cash and toddled next door which was the first shop we visited except the store was in darkness and the electric doors firmly locked and we couldn't raise anybody, the whole town had had a power cut!

With only 2 hours (including the 20 min return bus journey) before we had to be back we started to worry just a bit and then I had an idea, we went round the side of the building to the car park and the there they were puffing away, it was lucky some of them wee smokers; they remembered us went under the roller door and brought out our shopping out for us, phew want a day. We had an uneventful return to the ship and, and, yes we sailed away at 18:00 we're actually on our way again, we'll need to get the old sea legs out again.

The captain again made an announcement about the problems experienced and then confirmed rumours circulating that the Carnival Cruises' ship" Millennium" which was in Sydney at the same time as us and actually left 3 hrs before we did had broken down with one of their Azipod propulsion units failing, this has necessitated cancelling the existing cruise as well as the next one and flying all 1900 passengers home, whilst the ship limps across to, go on have a guess, yes, Auckland to be repaired in dry dock, the retailers will be disappointed that the ships not going to be unoccupied.

13-14/03/09 At Sea Temps Air 23°C Sea 26°C

Saturday 14/03/09 today we cross the International Date Line so at midnight the clocks go back 24 hrs meaning we'll have 2 Saturdays this week but no extra time in bed, bugger. I was looking forward to putting the clocks back and hopefully recuperate some of the lost sleep time, but I forgot about the crossing the date line so now rather than being 13hrs in front we're now 10 hrs behind so we've still got to keeping putting the clocks forward, oh well.

Monday 16/03/09 At Sea Temps Air 27°C Sea 29°C

We crossed the equator for the last time at 13:30 so we're now firmly back in the Northern Hemisphere.

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