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Published: January 31st 2009
Hi blog readers! I'm afraid I've been neglecting you in the last couple of weeks. So let's do a few excuses. First of all, the internet access on the ship was very expensive, and also very unreliable. Secondly, I've not had the time or the inclination, as there seems to have been a lot happening, which I'll try and summarise.
After leaving Tauranga, we had a day at sea, en route to Christchurch, with excellent weather, so we spent a lot of time on the deck, in and out of the various swimming pools and hot tubs, trying to catch a bit of sun. Once we had spent a while on board, we realised just how vast this thing was, with bars and restaurants all over the place, so that we had to carry around a card with all the various locations on it.
We'd seen Christchurch before, but the ship docked in Lyttleton Harbour, in the Banks Peninsula, and as there wasn't much to do in Lyttleton, we caught the shuttle and went into Christchurch. Although we'd been there a couple of times, it had always been in winter, so it was an ideal opportunity to revisit the botanical gardens in the height of summer and see the contrast.
Dunedin, in Otago, was the same; we had been there a couple of years ago, when we stayed in the ghostly backpack and spent the most freezing, eerie night of our entire lives. Also quite scary are the rugby teams in this area; the ground in Dunedin is nicknamed the "House of Pain" It would have been good to see a game there, but this was the wrong time of year. This time we stayed in the port, Port Chalmers, and spent the day exploring this small seaport. Needing the exercise after a few days at sea, we climbed up the hillside, via a memorial garden known as Lady Thorn's Dell, to see the Scott memorial at the top. Nothing to do with Ivanhoe, this Scott was the Antarctic chap, who allegedly sailed from Port Chalmers on his fateful voyage to Antarctica, from which he never returned.
Dunedin means "town of Edin", as does "Edinburgh", so you can see the Scottish connections there very clearly. There is even a statue of Robbie Burns in the Octagon, in the centre of Dunedin. The local police pipe band came on board and entertained us for an hour or so, before piping us out of the port and then marching off into the distance. Another moving moment, but I couldn't hold back a wee chuckle when I thought of my dad's old saying "Bagpipes are best heard from a distance - Scotland is just about far enough"
After leaving Port Chalmers, we settled back and looked forward to three days at sea, via the South-Western New Zealand fiords. So we looked forward to several days of lying by the pool, stirring only for the odd cup of tea and cream cake, or a pint of beer; dragging ourselves off our sunbeds only to see the magnificent New Zealand coastal scenery. We even ordered ourselves a champagne breakfast to be delivered to our cabin, so we could relax on our balcony eating smoked salmon and toasting the fiords with Moet and Chandon. Well that was the theory. Not a bit of it! The weather turned lousy, and we had to postpone our visits to Dusky Sound and Doubtful Sound, as the conditions were just too dangerous for us to enter. Fortunately, the weather and visibility improved sufficiently later in the day for us to be able to visit the daddy of them all, the fantastic Milford Sound, where we were able to see some majestic scenery, with sheer cliffs and high waterfalls, and also to see dolphins frolicking beside the ship, with seals lying somnolently on the rocks at the side. I wish I'd had a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle! Needless to say, the champagne and smoked salmon didn't go to waste!
We then set off across the Tasman sea for Australia. The Tasman is notorious for its rough conditions, and this was no exception. With visibility so bad that the ship's foghorn was sounding day and night, we had to settle down to indoor activities. Even without any shoe shops, we managed to amuse ourselves by reading books, joining in the Trivia quizzes, and of course the meals. The theatre shows were excellent; how those dancers could dance, with the ship rocking from side to side and to and fro, was a mystery to us, as we couldn't walk down the corridors in a straight line. The other favourite pastime of ours, as always, was people-watching, and with such a mixed bag of passengers, there was plenty of scope.
So eventually we arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, which I suppose is sort of Australia, but the excitement was mounting for our arrival on the mainland. More next time!
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Joff
non-member comment
Drinking
Are you sure the reason you couldn't walk in a straight line was due to the ship? I think all these champagne breakfasts and lying around drinking all day could be affecting you ability to walk straight.