Time Spent at Sea

The Princess Pop Up Chorus Performance - that's Scott on the far left in the Bass section. 

 I'll say right away that Scott and I have found the huge numbers of sea days a liability. Due to the Cyclone we missed a visit to American Samoa and therefore had five days at sea between Auckland and Tahiti. Then we had another five days from there to Hawaii. Next we'll have five more days to L.A. These stretches feel very long to us - activities and menus are repetitious. We enjoy the trivia games, but two of those a day are more than enough (there are many more). The "enrichment" sessions are few and far between and often turn into sales pitches for the art gallery or ship excursions for example. The musicians are very good but seating at the bars where they play is often difficult to procure. And we are not drinking much now. We didn't take the package thank goodness because we've often gone long periods without any alcohol due to our colds and even when we feel up to it, we might have one cocktail and/or a glass of wine. 

For this one we got to sit in the first
row and Scott got to dance with her.

Lisa Woodhouse gave two performances - both great. 

One highlight has been Scott's joining the Princess Pop Up Chorus. He attended four rehearsals and then they gave a performance in the Piazza. It was really fun and they were great!

Scott, Heather, Nina and Rhys celebrating Heather's 80th birthday!

But we have met some very nice people. And one couple, Rhys and Nina, have turned into real friends. We see them almost every day for a trivia session and a drink. As a team we've won two competitions - that's out of 200+ attendees! We finally celebrated my 80th birthday with them at Sabatini's - lovely night. But they are leaving the boat in Oahu - a big loss.  We mostly have dinner at a sharing table and enjoy meeting others, sometimes more than once. But so far that hasn't led to further involvement. 

We loved this performance of the Princess orchestra, which consists of all the musicians aboard.

The entertainment in the big theater. has been mostly good, occasionally great, often just OK. We loved Lisa Woodhouse, the Celtic Rau, and the Princess band and dancers. Jugglers, magicians and ventriloquists are not my usual preference but we have a lot of time on our hands so pretty much go to everything when we're well enough!

This salad illustrates the detail in 
presentation.

A selection of desserts

The food is always good and sometimes great. They do an amazing job really given the long times between provisioning. But our appetites have been affected by illness. And we're not alone. I think about 25% of the people on the ship are coughing! Loosing weight is nice but I'd rather we both were well! This is day 20 of our 33 - hopefully we'll both continue to improve and be totally healthy again. 

Right now we're in Honolulu and it's 11:30 AM and we are still not getting off the boat! They had to put the 800 passengers leaving us through immigration first and then the official tour groups (didn't get warned that would happen or we might have booked one of them). Two days in port and one of them is slipping away. Luckily our big booked event is a Luau tonight and the pick up isn't until 4:15 PM. More on all that in my next post.

Mo'orea

That's Mt. Mouaputa on the right - an iconic profile!

Looking back at our cruise ship  in Cook's Bay. 

We moved over to Mo'orea during the early morning. I woke up to a change in the engines and watched as we entered Cook's Bay. A large mego yacht was anchored just ahead of us. It was overcast and wisps of clouds obscured some of the mountains, but it was still gorgeous! We had booked through the cruise ship a 4 hour bus tour starting at noon, so no rush. This is the only tour through the ship we had planned and it turned out we could have easily done it on our own. We got to shore at 11 AM and not much to see, just a big shopping mart. The local band had just taken a break so I got a photo with a few of them.

We're sorry we missed hearing them play!

William was our driver and very funny. His grandparents came from Switzerland and their son married a Tahitian woman, as has William. But he has blond hair and looks western. He was an extra on Mutiny in the Bounty (Mel's version) as a soldier and drove their food bus. He had lots of stories. But the stops weren't anywhere as interesting and didn't have walks like yesterday. Just went out to take photos. The first site was up the Opunohu valley once owned by the Kellogg Family and sold back to the French for what they paid, as long as there was no development and an agricultural college only. That was William's story but I found no collaboration on the web about the Kellogg connection. The second site overlooked the iconic hotel with bungalows over the water ($1,000 a night according to William). Then a shopping bathroom stop at a black pearl shop that I bet was owned by William's huge family. 

The road up Opunuhu Valley

The view from the top. The road up was steep with hairpin turns. William had to do 3 point turns around the corners. They must organize it so only one bus is up there at a time!

We saw a number of churches along the way, both Catholic and Protestant. The earliest one was right by the landing and built in 1822 over an existing sacred site, which forms the floor of the church. We did make a brief stop at one of these platform sacred sites that has been excavated. Another, the Church of the Holy Family was another quick photo stop on our tour. It was a short day and we were off for 5 sea days until we reach Hawaii. And for a blessed change we have had calm seas and sunshine! More on sea day time in my next post.

The Church of the Holy Family

The earliest Christian church on the island, built on the destroyed
native sacred place in 1822.

Sofitel Kia Ora Moorea

Tahiti across the bay.

Paradise Found

 

The black beach at Venus Point

Posing in front of the twin falls

We certainly now understand why Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers wanted to stay in Tahiti! What a beautiful island.  I woke early and watched for awhile as we entered Papeete. Happily the weather report was wrong and we had sunshine all day! Scott and I had not booked any cruise ship trips (except for Moorea where we understood little local activity and a short stay meant it was safer to go officially.). So we exited the ship and found a local tour company right away with a four hour round the island bus trip. It was a hoot as our guide was a singer and the whole bus joined in. The trip lasted 5.5 hours but no one complained (we had until 2:15 AM to reboard so no worries on that account). 

You can see the height of the 3 sisters
Waterfall here.

The twin falls surrounded by flowers

The Water Park

We visited Venus Point (beach & park), 2 sets of waterfalls, a Water Garden, and a Grotto. We took lots of photos as you can see. Now we're in Moorea and going on a official trip around the island by bus a little later this morning. More on that in my next post - which may be 6 days from now in Hawaii. 

This lighthouse was a Memorial to Robert 
Louis Stevenson.

Flowers everywhere

Scott at the Grotto

This family group was enjoying the water just off the road.

The sacred ruins of the palace of the last King of Tahiti. King Pomare V until his forced abdication. The monarchy was abolished by France when they annexed Tahiti in 1880.

A Bulletin from mid Pacific

 

Looking back at Sydney over the Pool Deck

"Nobody expects a cyclone.." (parody of Monty Python "inquisition"). Now I know why repositioning cruises are (supposedly) a bargain. They bring the ship away from the bad weather. Well, sometimes they don't get away in time. And that was how we made some headlines for spending three days in Auckland when a predicted tropical storm turned into a cyclone. The best birthday present I could have had was hearing the Captain announce that we wouldn't be leaving that first afternoon in the already terrible weather. We might not get out for two days more was music to my ears. Others bemoaned losing our visit to Pago Pago, but at what cost I asked? Cyclone Tam brought high winds and seas to New Zealand with many people in Auckland without power for 4 days and major flooding. 

We kept the special cake they gave us 
for the next day as we wanted to try
a few of their other desserts, one of
which is shown here.

The waiters sang "Happy Anniversary" to us 

The trip from Sydney to Auckland had been beautiful with nice weather on our 3 sea days to Tauranga, south of Auckland.  We were able to celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary in the lovely specialty restaurant, Sabatini's. The food and service was impeccable. We brought a bottle of champagne we had bought in Sydney - perfect. 

The Royal Princess over the harbor as we walked down the beach in Taranga

That's the boardwalk with Maunganui Mountain ahead of us.

And it was lovely day there. Perfect weather for a walk down the beach to Maunganui and then a walk around the mountain. It was spectacular and I managed fine with lots of rests at frequent benches to enjoy the scenery. Neither of us was tempted to make the steep climb to the top.

It reminded me a little of Acadia Nat'l Park

The path had lots of historical plaques and benches

Here we turned the corner and started back
 towards the town.

 But the news of the cyclone dampened our delight. The trip overnight was rough. We had great advice from experienced cruising friends and had booked a lower down mid ship balcony room. But we put in a low bid on an upgrade and were excited - and didn't think about the location change. We moved to the 14th floor at the stern. In the bad weather we experience the shudders and noise of the propeller. Walking down the corridors requires a special concentration - everyone looks like they've been drinking.

We've really enjoyed the Enrichment lectures
Our favorite was two Maori teachers where
we learned to sing a song in the Maori
 language and the meaning of the traditional
tatoos. 

Our next challenge was another pair of colds and as usual I started first. Our evening sailing from Taranga to Auckland - a rough one. It started and ended in my chest. Nine days later I ended up in the medical offices and prescribed Codeine and Prednisone. And that has knocked it out of me. Scott waited for 7 days before coming down with a more usual cold. We think they are not related. 

Two views of Maunganui from the sea

The tip

A rather bedraggled Heather - now 80!

Our steward made this charming Happy 
Birthday gift for me. We didn't use the 
glasses as I stopped drinking while I'm sick.

After our three days we left at Noon. The main body of the cyclone had passed us but it was very windy and rough and remained so for several days. But we were lucky as huge thunder storms followed our departure and Auckland was hit by over 200 lightning bolts that night. 

My 80th birthday was supposed to be when we crossed the international dateline and therefor 2 days long. But because we were delayed - it was just one day. And not the one we planned. I was sick so stayed in bed. We'll celebrate it later after we both recover.

But more about the rest of our 5 sea days when we get to Papeete. We bought one 24 hour session mid trip.

Beautiful Sydney Part Two

Manley Beach in one direction

And then another. Like many of the beaches in both
Australia and New Zealand it is bordered by parks
and several walkways.

We really loved The Pantry, located right on the
beach with wonderful food. We treated ourselves
to some wine as well. That's unusual for us now
at lunch.

The ferry ride over is so lovely and passes all the
iconic sights - here the Opera House.

 

Daytimes we explored the city by ferry, bus and lots of walking. First we took the Ferry over to Manley Beach and had lunch at The Pantry - a day recommended by the other new friends we met in Uluru, Eoin, Toni & Senan. Their other suggestion we also followed, over  to Bondi Beach, although not with great weather. Then we did the Hop On Hop Off buses - the town and the beach routes. And two museums - the Australia and the Maritime.

We only got off the Bus a few times, once here
at the Opera House for a day visit.

Darling Harbor where we visited the Maritime 
Museum.

And Bondi Beach. We had a good lunch at a cafe
but the weather wasn't attractive enough for the 
long walk we'd hoped for.

 

At the former we saw the Machu Picchu exhibit - lots of fun and interest for us as we spent two months in Peru years ago including hiking the Inca Trail into Machu Picchu. We also enjoyed the amazing artifacts displayed in the historic First Nations Gallery.  On the top floor there is a cafe with views over the city where we had lunch 

The entrance to the Machu Picchu exhibit was
very dramatic.

This beautiful bowl illustrated the history of 
the supernatural Inca hero, Ai Apaec. Many
of the pieces chosen for this show involved
his story.

I simply loved this piece.

There was a lot of fabulous gold and silver pieces

 

A view of the city from the rooftop cafe at the
Australian Museum.

The beautiful First Nations Gallery

At the latter we toured a variety of ships anchored there - first, the replica of the Duyfken, the Dutch trading vessel that in 1606 "discovered" Australia (for Europeans). This small crude ship had voyages that boggle the mind and the replica itself has been sailed as far as Amsterdam in this present day. It takes paying crew around the Pacific and it fact was leaving on a trip the following day. Our volunteer guide said, "We have room for two more if you'd like to join us!". No way - you sleep on the deck and I can't imagine how people lived for months on board, let along a week. Our next vessel was a big change, the submarine "Onslow". I'm more than a bit claustrophobic and it was a challenge for me to tour it. On our way down the steep ladder a man panicked below and we had to go up and let him get out. He looked white! I should have turned around. But I managed, although I had to be helped through the small round access passages between compartments. 

The Duyfken

One of the many small hatches between cabins
that Scott and I found very hard to manage.

I am horrified at the thought of living in these
tiny narrow rooms and this one was for 
officers!

The larger sturdier deck of the Endeavor

The last ship we visited was the replica of Captain James Cook's Endeavor, a much sturdier and bigger ship than the Duyfken and it too takes paying crew and passengers on voyages. Although vastly more comfortable than the earlier ship, you still sleep in hammocks (better than on the deck I guess) and for this (and working) you pay $3,000. And for most of the floor below the deck, Scott had to do on his knees and I had to bend over in half. But they have no problem getting volunteers!

Our room at the hotel

Our hotel, the Sydney Boulevard was great and centrally located. We were able to walk down to the harbor, and it was right on the bus line. They didn't have a restaurant but there were lots of them within blocks. We found our favorite breakfast cafe, Bohaus, and became (temporary) regulars. But our room was very comfortable, and the staff were very nice. 

But our stay in Sydney was over and the next morning we "boarded" our cruise ship. But more about that in my next post, which will be in Auckland.