Day one
Today is the day we leave for our big adventure. We are departing Canberra by train to Sydney from the lovely Queanbeyan station which incidentally is about 500 metres from our home , very handy indeed.
Our Timmy has loaded up the ute with all the baggage and the boys and I walk up to the train station. Our little doggie sits at the gate knowing something is going on but not quite sure what.
It’s hard to say goodbye to Tim but he is happy and eager to get back home as from today he will be living (back) in our home ,looking after Rose (the doggie) and sharing with two mates. Free of the parents harassment at last.
The train ride passes quickly and we are still in a bit of disbelief about what we are to embark on. We make our way with what feels like 5 tonne of luggage to Circular Quay and there we see our ship. Our luxury home away from home, our floating hotel,our humble abode!!
Once aboard we find our little cabin which they now call a “stateroom” making it sound so elegant and palatial, trust me it is not. Small,clean smart decor and still small. But we opted for only what the budget would allow and with what we paid it should have been a broom cupboard. Did I tell you we got a pretty amazing price for our digs for the next 7 weeks.
We quickly unpack and organise ourselves and set of to find our way around the maze of the ship. It’s just had a refit so everything is shiny and new, tastefully decorated,not blingy or glitzy, elegant and sophisticated. Although one of the dining areas feels a bit cold, lacking in some homey sort of feeling, feels a bit like a food court.
Of course we have had only one other cruise experience to judge this by. The Carnival Spirit was over the top Americana decor. A bit cheesy in places but a warm comfortable feeling, completely different to the Aurora. But were here for the experience not the decor.
So by now we have realised we’ve boarded a floating nursing home and we look like the grand kids who have come to visit. Seriously, I’ve never felt so young and agile as I fly up and down the stairs battling walking sticks and zimmer frames. If this is a nursing home then I think this is the one I’ll book into.
In all seriousness we are one of the few younger ones but we fully expected that. There are about 12 kids one board ranging from toddlers to 16. We may pick up a few more in San Francisco.
The ship has everything we need, a gym,a tennis court and basketball hoop,golf putting nets, library, 3 pools, saunas, spas, kids clubs, beauty spa, theatres, casino, bars, cafe, restaurants etc etc. And about 1500 whining POMS. Not really.Most we have spoken to are lovely but there are still a few whining ones.
Our first night aboard and the captain says it’s going to be rough. Oh great, perfect really looking forward to that. Well we waited for rough to happen and it didn’t seem to rough to me, so very pleasantly surprised.
Milford Sound New Zealand , here we come.
MILFORD SOUND
Today we awoke to land. so comforting seeing land after 3 days at sea. The sheer cliffs, the beauty and the almost complete silence (humming of ship) made for a stunning backdrop. On board we had a commentary from a New Zealand park ranger giving us all the facts about the Milford Sound. We could see sheer waterfalls that fell from the mountains. We saw iced covered mountaintops where the ice is apparently eleven thousand years old. It was an amazing sight and to be floating up the Sound in this massive cruise ship seemed surreal. Nature completely untouched truly beautiful to see.
We spent several hours there marveling this spectacular sight before heading out to sea again on our way to Dunedin.
DUNEDIN
We arrived at Port Chalmers on the South Island of New Zealand at about 8 am. The scenery was spectacular. Green rolling hills, turquoise waters and what looked to be a charming little place. We were shuttled into Dunedin on buses which took about 20 minutes. Upon arriving I knew I would like this town. It was full of character and beautiful buildings. It was orderly and quite even though there seemed to be a lot of people around. We walked around the town taking in the architecture, the galleries the hilly streets and the views.
We stopped at a little cafe called The Perc and had a coffee. and it was delicious, my first coffee since leaving Australia. Brits do not know what good coffee is. Ship coffee is utter crap.
We made our way back to the ship for lunch then i ventured out again by myself. I walked around Port Chalmers. Once again lovely architecture, so quaint. I walked up some pretty steep hills to some lookouts to see the amazing view. So gorgeous, so green, the sea so blue on so picture perfect.
Then like every modern day tourist I made my way to the “free wifi”, an essential necessity these days. I mean how could my Facebook friends cope if they didn’t know what I was up to that very minute. You have to check emails, bank accounts, facebook status’. It dawned on me today that cafes no longer rely just on their good coffee, they have to have free wifi to attract customers these days. Sad isn't it. Cafes full of people poking at their little devices catching up with the world they left behind. How did we cope before all of this. Oh that’s right we enjoyed our holidays more because we didn’t feel the need to check in. And if you felt really compelled to do so you wrote a postcard home that was sure to arrive well after you returned home.
Anyway we must forgive ourselves for using our modern day devices and not feel guilty. My handy dandy device allowed me to harass my travel agent and say where the hell is my on board credit that we were promised so I can enjoy an afternoon cocktail. after a hard day of being a tourist. So far it’s been a “dry “ cruise. Very dry!!!
AKORORA
Today we had to tender to shore . Oh what a beauty this little place is. Oh my god New Zealand is beautiful. Here we are in the most gorgeous, adorable,quaint little French village in New Zealand. Turquoise waters, green rolling hills (I feel like I’m repeating myself) simply stunning. The buildings are colorful and uniquely built. Old colonial wooden buildings perfectly kept. We hiked up a trail to overlook the village. Steep once again but worth the whinging and whining from one of the children, who correct me if I’m wrong declared that we are “climbing that hill out there”. We walked up through a bushy trail and then walked down through the neighboring residential streets which were all named in french. And Elliott was able to correct us on our poor french pronunciations of the streets. Ellz is our french speaking expert. We checked out the local museum and learnt how the french came to be in Akorora.
We continued to explore this delightful little seaside town before tendering back to the ship.
WELLINGTON
Today we were alongside in Wellington port on waking up. Once again those steep hills as we looked out from the deck. Ok I’m a slow learner, New Zealand is just hills and mountains I get it. We were shuttled on buses in to the city centre to the hustle and bustle of downtown Wellington. Not too bad for a city, busy but not crazy and all the usual city fare.
The I Site was our destination. This is the tourist information place. Harison picked up a brochure to the Weta Workshops. It was something to do with Lord of The Rings. Quite frankly I wasn’t really interested and Elliott displayed his annoyance at having to look at something that clearly didn’t interest him as well. Nevertheless we booked our tickets then spent the hours waiting time “wifi-ing!!!”
So we got on our little shuttle bus which took us on a 15 minute journey into the suburbs of Wellington and not even the fancy suburbs. We are dropped off at some industrial looking area which is the WETA Workshops. One of the most amazing tourist sites I’ve ever been too.This is the work place of the movie props,special effects and digital imagery of all the big blockbuster movies. For me it was absolutely fascinating because of all the artistic elements. The kids were amazed because of the real movie costumes, prosthetics, armory etc etc we got to see and learn about how is it conceived and then made. Fascinating really worth while to go and see. Loved it.
This is basically overseen by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fame. He lives right there in Wellington and contributes to the city in many generous ways so we were told. As does James Cameron of Avatar fame. Apparently they are shooting concurrently the next 3 Avatar movies right there in Wellington. The Weta workshops makes all the props, costumes, digital stuff right there for it. I’ll say it again ,fascinating, so inspiring. Our tour guide was an actual technician and gave us a real insight into how the process happens. We even saw real yes real Hobbit feet!!!!!!
Who would of known that Hollywood magic is made right there in Wellingwood oops I mean Wellington.
Great day.
BLACK TIE NIGHTS
Dressing up in formal attire and pretending to be posh is all part of cruising. Personally I can’t see the point of getting all dolled up to sit and eat a meal and then return to your cabin to get changed again. Particularly for us as we choose to eat as a family and don’t wish to share a table with others at dinner. So it’s not really an event for us it’s just dinner. We’re hungry, we’re champing at the bit, we just want to be fed, we don’t care what we are wearing, just feed us.
I could quite happily go to dinner with my mocco’s (slippers ) on but that might upset the establishment here on board. The cruise mafia as I’d like to call them. They’re the ones that look down there noses to see if you are suitably attired for the nights event. Relax, it’s supposed to be a holiday.
Gastro bug
Some unsavoury passenger embarked in Sydney with more than just his luggage. He (or she) bought with them the dreaded gastro bug. So procedures have had to change around food handling. You can’t even get yourself a glass of water and it has to be done by a staff member. The use of the antiseptic hand wash is overkill. You are squirted with a shot everywhere you go and don’t even try to slip past the squirter at the door of the restaurant or you’ll find yourself being ushered back to the end of the dinner queue like a naughty little child. All with the glare of the cruise mafia upon your shameful self. Ok that bits not quite true.
I do not wish to find gastro turning up in my cabin and all precautions must be taken so we will have to play along with the health procedures they have in place. Several people have been sick but the captain assures us it seems to improving now and I guess in a few days we can go back to making a cup of tea or serving our own food.
You don’t want that little bug ruining your cruise.
Unwelcome visitor
Pamela your not welcome at all but we did have to put up with you and the misery you bought. Cyclone Pamela was headed straight into our path on our journey to Samoa after leaving New Zealand. We were supposed to travel north up the east coast of New Zealand to head to Samoa. However thanks to Pammy we were diverted so we didn’t meet her head on. So we travelled up the west coast of New Zealand and around the cyclone.
This diversion bought us over 24 hours of rough seas and lots of queasy tummies.
Although the waves were pounding outside the ship was remarkably stable. Thank god as I was rather worried about it. Now we have to miss a port of call because we had to sail so far off course we now have to make up for lost time. We were supposed to visit Samoa and American Samoa, now we’ll only be going to the latter.
We have heard of the devastation caused by Pam and grateful that we only got rough seas to deal with.
It was a quiet day on deck, not too many people about. I spent some quiet time in the cabin and later we watched a movie on the big screen. Lazy day. It was also a black tie evening and it appeared that not too many people were at dinner either.
American Samoa
Ahhh American Samoa. As we entered the beautiful harbour of Pago Pago ( prononced Pango Pango) we were greeted with stunning views of tropical volcanic mountains all around us . Then as we got closer to the dock the view suddenly lost all it’s charm when when against the back drop of this beauty there standing out like dogs balls were none other than the massive- can you guess? The “golden arches”. just so you really know you are on American claimed soil there stands their pride and joy McDonalds. REALLY??? This is not something you should be faced with when entering tropical paradise.
So here we are in a very remote tiny poor part of the world and what are all the (American)Samoan’s driving? yank tanks. OMG I’ve never seen so many trucks or bigggg SUV’s. And not old beaten up models. the latest flashy all singin’ all dancin’ trucks. We passed a petrol station and checked out the price of “gas” and worked out it was .75centsAU a litre Cheap for us ,yes. but this place is poor and those petrol guzzling vehicles can not be cheap to run. The other thing we noticed is that , just like in America people didn’t seem to be walking. Well why would they when they have those big arse comfy trucks to get around in. Anyway we’ve visited a few poor tropical paradises in our time and NEVER have I seen cars like this.
Our visit was lovely with a bit of snorkelling and walking the streets of Pango Pango. we visited the marine centre and looked at the street market and stayed well clear of McDonalds. Actually that’s not quite true. I was looking for a bit of free “wifi” and tried Maccas but it was full, standing room only. And can you believe in this blimp of a tiny island some where out in the Pacific there is not one but TWO MACCAS, two McDonalds yes 2 of them. makes me want to cry.
