All over red rover

We're finished! Done. Very sad really, because now it is back to real life for everyone and back to a whole new life for me. I have been dreaming about school for the last couple of nights and Hannah tells me she has been dreaming about it for a week. Oh no! I am excited though!

Well, we are waiting in Brisbane Airport at the moment for our flight home. Not long to go now.

Almost over...

Well, this is our last night on the cruise and we have to be off the ship by 9am tomorrow morning. I'm currently trying to use up the rest of my prepaid internet minutes, which will not take long as it costs an absolute fortune.

We have arranged to go on a segway tour in Auckland, which is excellent! We had so much fun in Wellington that we decided to see if they had any available, and they did! We're actually getting a tour of Devonport, which is across the bay (?). Anyway, it doesn't really matter - we'll be on segways! :)

We leave Auckland on Monday afternoon at 2pm and arrive home at about 7 - 7.30 Monday night. Alli - would you please pick us up? I'll text you about the exact time and flight number when we are in Auckland.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon (and getting nervous about starting work!).

xoxo

Day 13 - Volcanic White

Friday 16^th January 2009 2.40pm

As I write this we are sailing around Volcanic White Island, which is an active volcano off the North Island. We are sailing around it in one direction so the people on the starboard side of the ship can see it, and then sailing around it in the other direction so that we who are on the port side can get a good view. Jordan and I have been up on deck looking and taking pictures, and now we are having a drink and enjoying the view from the Mast Bar at the very back of the ship. We’ll head up to Mum and Dad’s balcony to watch it again when we turn around the other way. There is a naturalist on board, and he is giving commentary over the loudspeakers, which is really useful. The volcano is actually smoking!

Today has been a sea day and we have not done much. We attended a disembarkation seminar this morning to hear about how we will get off the ship on Sunday morning. As it turns out, we will be in the last group to disembark because we made our own arrangements in Auckland. Excellent!

Tomorrow, we will be docking at Mt Manganui (I have probably butchered the spelling here, but will correct it when I find some documentation with the correct version!). This is the resort town outside of Tauranga.

Day 12 - Wellington

Thursday 15th January 2009 2.45pm
Good afternoon everyone!! We just had the most fun day so far on our trip! The segways were SO SO SO SO much fun – I am a genius!  We took the shuttle bus from the ship to the city at 8.30am and wandered around Wellington for a little while. We found the visitor centre and arranged for our segway tour to be at an earlier time so that we could get back to the ship before it sailed. After that, we went to the mall and bought me a t-shirt because I was too hot to wear my long sleeves.
While we were doing that, we saw a poster for the Chinese terracotta warriors on display and we went to see that. They were not the original warriors, because the Chinese government will not allow them out of China. However, they were replicas and although it would have been awesome to see the originals, it was a great experience to stand next to the very good replica versions, and learn about the burial and history all over again.

After that, we met up with everyone at Civic Square for our segway tour of Wellington. Our guide, Hedda, was lovely and taught us how to use the segways. I had a go first because it was my idea. Although I was a bit embarrassed because there were lots of people around, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It goes on your balance, so if you lean forward it goes forward and the speed is controlled by how much of your balance is forward. To reverse, you put your weight into your heels. The handle bars move left and right and are fairly sensitive. If you go to spin too tightly at too high speeds, you go into a ‘death spin’ (Tristan) and fall off. Dad managed to fall off into the garden bed at the front of old parliament house because he was attempting to demonstrate his mad braking skills. According to Em, he did a ‘full death roll’ into a garden bed of lilies. SO funny... wish we had it on video. We were allowed to ride our segways back into the port and right up to the ship. The guys at the port security post were intrigued and we saw them playing with our segways when we were back on the ship.
Anyway, tonight is the last formal night, tomorrow is a sea day and we are rapidly coming to the end of our trip. Hope everything is well at home. Miss you!

Love Katie(written with the assistance of Jord, Tris and Em).

Day 11 - Akaroa

Wednesday 14^th January 2009 12.30pm

Today we are in Akaroa, which is such a pretty place! It is the only French colonial settlement in New Zealand. The water here is aqua with beautiful green hills. We have found a cheap place to connect to the net and put some photos up of the sounds and the steepest street! Lissy, we are really sad to hear that you’re still sick. We’re praying for you and hope you are feeling better very quickly. We have our segway tour of Wellington tomorrow, which we are really excited about. Thanks for all your comments! It is nice to log on and know you haven’t forgotten about us. xoxo

Day 10 - Dunedin

Tuesday 13^th January 7.20pm

Our dinner last night was sooo good! Almost my favourite meal on the cruise. I had garden vegetable minestrone, almond crusted turkey breast with potatoes and broccoli with béarnaise sauce and green apple sorbet. Yum!! After dinner we all went down to the big heated pool and had a soak to relax before bed.

Today we were in Dunedin and the forecasted temperature was 11 to 17 degrees. We woke up early, had breakfast and were off the ship by 9am. We were docked at Port Chalmers and took a shuttle bus to get into the city centre. My main aim for today was to see and walk up the steepest street in the world! The steepest part of the street has a gradient of 1 in 2.86. Crazy! We asked at a gift shop in the city centre for directions and were given a map and told that it was definitely possible to walk up it. So, we set off. Turns out we have walked over 8km today!!! The walk to and from Baldwin Street was about 4km each way, and we sure climbed a lot of vertical metres walking up the street! We had dressed for cold weather, but along the way lost our layers of clothing. The weather was really strange though, because Emma and I kept putting them back on and taking them off and putting them back on, especially in the afternoon when it got really dark and overcast. After we walked up Baldwin Street, we stopped at a fish and chip shop to get Dad a piece of fish. We spoke to Grandma and Grandad, as well as Mum Q and were told that it has been raining non-stop in Townsville. How insane – it always rains like crazy when we leave town! Anyway, we were assured our houses are a-okay, which is good. We have had fun buying little presents for our little nephews, too! There are some seriously cute things over here for little kids (and bigger kids like ourselves!).

We stopped at the Otago Museum on our way back to the city to have a delicious lunch and explore. We had an excellent time looking at several different exhibits. There was a hall dedicated to Polynesian and Micronesian people. I particularly enjoyed this exhibit because of the anthropology and history subjects I have done at uni that have investigated these areas and people. They had lots of interesting artefacts, including a case of fishing implements from many different islands which Jordan enjoyed. We also had a look at an exhibit dedicated to the Otago peninsula (where Dunedin is), and the maritime history of New Zealand. I would have liked more time there, but that is always the case with museums! J

After this, we still had about 1km to walk back. We were SO tired, I felt like I was just staggering along. Hope it didn’t look like that, of course.... but it sure felt like it! When we got back on the ship, we slept for about 1 ½ hours. We’re about to head off to dinner so I should finish this up so I can post it. Hope you’re not too wet! Love to you all.

P.S – Congratulations to Brad and Georgia on the birth of Lucy!! We are so excited to meet her!

Day 9 - The Sounds

Monday 12th January, 2009 12pm
Yesterday, we had ‘boat church’! About 14 of us got together and Ken, one of the men we met, led us in a bible study of John 3:14 and its corresponding verse in Numbers. It was really great to get together and study God’s word with people we had just met but with whom we had something great in common.
After that, we had to go through NZ immigration and customs. The NZ officers got on the ship in Melbourne, and so get 3 days’ passage on the trip for 1 days’ worth of checking passports! What a life. After that, we played Jenga with Kenton, Ken’s son, who we have been spending some time with. After more games of Jenga and cards, we headed off to have lunch and then a swim.

After that, we had a nap, went to the gym and got dressed up for formal night. Dinner was amazing again! I had chicken and mushroom vol au vents; baked potato soup with bacon; osso bucca milanese with saffron risotto and chocolate lava pudding! We headed back to Mum and Dad’s room after dinner to watch Tropic Thunder all together and got back to our room at about 1am.
Today we are cruising through the sounds – Milford, Doubtful and Dusky. We got up early at 6.30 to get rugged up and go up to Deck 11 to watch us sail into Milford Sound by 7am. We have been told that this is the best weather ever (according to Basuki who has done this trip 6 times now). The skies were clear and the temperatures were quite crisp. When we were up at Deck 11, there were crowds of people there and it was quite sunny. We decided to take advantage of the thermal mug and hot chocolate deal on offer and head down to Mum and Dad’s cabin to watch the sounds from their balcony. All 6 of us spent from 7am to 9am there watching as we sailed into and out of Milford Sound. It is amazingly beautiful and I don’t think you could ever get a proper idea of how majestic it is unless you come here yourself. We took a stack of photos, though, in an attempt to preserve the memories. It was very cold once we entered the sounds so we were rugged up in scarves and wrapped up in blankets sitting on the balcony, which was quite a nice change from the weather we have been experiencing back home in the Ville!

At 10am, we went to the grand Brunch buffet in the dining room. There were huge bouquets of flowers that were actually fruit carvings – radishes, beetroot etc. Also, there were little bakery shops and people that were made out of baked bread. Ah! So cool! There was so much food that it seemed rather excessive (much more than the ‘normal’ excess that we have been experiencing here). We hope that it gets eaten and does not go to waste. I do wonder what the crew members think when they get paid so little but see the passengers just gorging themselves or wasting copious amounts of food unnecessarily.
Now we are on the balcony again watching as we cruise through Doubtful Sound. Still gorgeous, but it is not quite as breathtaking as Milford was. Heading to Dunedin tomorrow which should be fun. We have arranged shuttle bus tickets to take us from the port into the city. We’ll just wander around and do our own thing. Xoxo

Day 8 - Sea Day

Sunday 11^th January 2009 9.17am

Our day in Melbourne was fun! After Starbucks and posting to the blog, Jordan and I went shopping in the mall. The David Jones and Myer stores in the Bourke Street mall are amazing! I got a cute Table Eight cardigan for less than half price, which was good. We have found that we are now used to the motion of the ship when we are at sea, but we are struggling with motion sickness when we get back on solid ground. Our time in Melbourne was good, but I felt very dizzy and sick for the most part. Mum, Em and Tristan found the same thing. Emma and Tris spent their time in Melbourne catching up with Nanna Pye and visiting the art gallery, while Mum and Dad wandered aimlessly along the Yarra.

Once back on board, we attended the sailaway party to listen to the band and watch Melbourne fade into the distance. Port Phillip Bay is huge and the entrance into it is very narrow. We enjoyed watching as we went through this on the way out. Jordan went to the gym twice this day! The rest of us went only once. We are trying to go each day and work really hard so we don’t feel bad about how much we’re eating! The Bass Strait is quite rough!! The dining room is above some of the props, which were making loud noises during dinner. Our waiter, Wayan, said that it was because the boat was moving and the props were coming up slightly. Jordan disagrees – but cannot explain the noise! At any rate, Emma started getting nervous, which made me nervous and then Dad was asking stupid questions about lifeboats and the Titanic. Surprise, surprise!! Because it was fairly rough, we all went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday, Saturday 10^th, was a sea day. We sailed from Port Phillip Bay down to the north eastern tip of Tasmania, and then out into the Tasman. We had to turn our clocks forward by one hour, which made us 2 hours ahead of Townsville. We slept in until 9.30am, and then had breakfast until 10.30. The seas in the Tasman are much calmer than the Bass Strait. We are very thankful that they are still that calm, even this morning. After breakfast yesterday, Jord, Tris, Em and I played Jenga and cards and enjoyed the most delicious hot chocolate in the world!! After that we went for a dip in the Thalassotherapy (‘Thalassoraptor’ to us) pool, which is just like a giant hot bath with bubbles around the sides. We all piled into our room again to watch a movie and then went down to lunch at about 3pm. After lunch, it was time for a nap, then off to the gym. Before dinner, Jordan and I went to Michael’s Club, a piano bar, to listen to some Frank Sinatra songs. After dinner, we all went to a karaoke session (lame-o!!) and then to the nightclub to dance to motown songs played by the live band. It was heaps of fun, both the dancing and the spectating! There was a completely hilarious older couple who had some smooth moves. HAHAHAHA. He had good hip action for his age, actually. Quite impressive!! After this, Jordan and I got more good hot chocolates and played cards until 1am (well, 2am really because we had to wind our clocks forward by an hour again!).

This morning, Sunday 11^th, Jordan got up after only 4 hours of sleep and went to the gym again. I did not. No way Jose.... I wanted to sleep! We are about to go to ‘church’ now!! We have managed to find a group of younger people who are Christians and they have organised to have a bible study type of thing this morning. Should be fun. I had better go and post this so we won’t be late. Xoxo