Wild and Woolly

Having had two and a half weeks of calm seas, we finally hit wild seas on Monday morning. 4 -5 metre swell with occasional squalls hitting the ship. She's a big ship but she still managed to corkscrew around in the waves like a runabout. Lot of people being seasick - sick bags were placed all over the ship for those unfortunates who couldn't hold their stomachs. For the first time ever I started to feel unwell, but we then decided that I probably had my first hangover of the cruise given the 1.30am finish at Jammers nightclub - you guessed it, another karaoke session. After a couple of seasickness remedies (mostly gin & lemonade) I came good. The temperature plummeted outside to a chilly 10 degrees and that wasn't including the windchill factor. Out came the winter coats and scarves, although some idiots were still walking around in shorts and t-shirts. The seas calmed after we sailed into the shadow of the north island of NZ so we had only twelve hours of rough wealther.

Arrived in Auckland at 7am Tuesday and what a lovely little city. I came here in '86 on the Oriana and the water front has changed a bit. They now have a Hilton Hotel built on the pier where the ship docked, so it was amusing to be looking into peoples rooms from deck 14! Fenna and Fred headed off to find supplies so Bryce and I wandered into town a bit later. NZ prices are pretty low, so I had a great time looking at goodies to buy. The four of us then met up with our friend Jill Wolfram who is a local. Jill was just as thrilled to see us as we her. The rest of the day we went to the Viaduct and sampled local and international beers (well, the boys did). I managed to get back to the shops in the afternoon to see if there was anything from NZ that isn't sheep or rugby related - it was a bit difficult but I found a few things.

Set sail at 4pm and we all commented on how lucky we've been that every Pacific stop has been sunny, even though rain was forecast at each one. Today, Thursday, is now packing day and clearing customs and immigration. The nice people from Immigration boarded in Auckland and will clear the ship before we arrive tomorrow. From the short update Bryce just gave me when he brought me a cup of tea, two of our other lady passengers spent the whole night partying with the customs and immigration boys and apparently only just headed off to bed! Bet the government people will have little headaches when they start at 8am. He he he...

Erika & Bryce