December 26th

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Akaroa, New Zealand, South Island - December 26th - 5:52pm
I’m starting to think that the days just get longer and longer. Lee and I got room service today at 6:30am so we could be up and ready by 7:15 to go on our 9 hour tour. I was a few minutes late but much better than last time. Things started off ok, I helped get people out of the rendezvous lounge and into the tender boats. Tenders are always make for a scrambled day, but things went alright. We were a little behind schedule already but that’s alright we have a few hours on the bus to make up for it.

Lee and I were the last ones on the bus as we escorted everyone to the correct busses and we were stuck sharing seats with strangers, we were a full bus. It would have been alright but I was exhausted and wanted to sleep on him. It was an hour and a half bus ride that I couldn’t stay awake for. The first hour was great scenery but the last half hour I got a great view of the inside of my eye lids.

We got to the train and one guest that has been giving Lee and the rest of the shore ex department a hard time came up to Lee and I and said “I drank way too much last night, I need some bread and water do we get any?” I laughed my ass off, well not even 2 minutes later she ran to the bathroom but didn’t quite make it as she got sick outside the door. It was so funny, karma’s a bitch.

Lee had a little bit of a nightmare on his hands as we were one seat short on the train and a bus driver had to stand. But he managed to get all the guests seats which was good. We sat beside a really nice couple currently from Japan but originally Kansas City. We had a really good time with them. The views from the train were amazing. The tracks head up to the top of the hills with mountains all around and gorges just to the right of you. It was awesome. We spent about 3 hours on the train, got some food which I could have done without, but overall the views from the train were breathtaking.

We then got to the end of our train ride and had a 4 hour bus ride in front of us. They spread the stops out perfectly but it was still a really long time on the bus. We stopped at one place which the called the caves but it was a massive gorge. It was very cool and that was the main place where the filmed Chronicles of Narnia and just around the corner is where they filmed a few scenes from Lord of the Rings. It’s neat to see these places as you can see some clips of the film in them.

We got back to the tender boats safe and sound. We had to wait a bit as the tender line was large but we browsed through the local stores.

10:13pm
We got back on the ship in time for Lee to shower and head up to work. I took my time but did manage to get up there. Darlene (the housekeeper that’s training for shore ex) was in the office doing shuttles so there wasn’t a computer for me to work on. I sat in Luc’s office and laughed at Lee as he dealt with a few guests. He had one guest till him 9 times over and over about how upset she was from this tour. Lee had to finally nicely walk away, he couldn’t listen to her anymore. I laughed but I know my turn will come sometime.

Not too much drama happened at the desk. JC was himself and through a couple hissy fits but nothing else. I did some shuttles and Lee taught me a few more things. It seems fun, I think I’ll enjoy it. But for now I’m off to bed as I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow. I’m going on another train ride but Lee has to do that worky worky thing.

Night!

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