The voyage begins:

The first night onboard, I had dinner with Marcie and Tom and Ngaire's sister and brother, June and Brian. What delightful people they are! I look forward to getting to know June more on NINJA June 25. Don't think Brian is on that one. Anyway, it was an early night for me, way to much of the vino and jet lag. I awoke at 3 a.m. to some seas, took the dramamine and got up at 8 feeling better. We were at sea the first day out, and I enjoyed the lecture by David Broder, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from the Washington Post. He had 30 minutes to talk on 9 Presidents starting with Eisenhower, so it was not an in-depth thing, but interesting. Then Marcie called me for "Smoker's trivia", which is the 12:30 version of the one after teatime. She has a very good team, and they often win!

Dinner that night was formal, and I coat-tailed on an invitation that Marcie and Tom had from the Food and Beverage Manager and another lady who has done many world cruises. The officer was sort of inviting complaints, and this lady was quite forthcoming in her complaints about the spa prices, the number of computers onboard, and various other matters. When he said what space would you like to give up in order to have more room for computers, her answer was sort of "Well, that's your problem".

I excused myself at 9:50 to get to the show, that featured an Australian pianist doing everything from classical to pop to show music. I really enjoyed him. Joined Marcie in the Voyager Lounge for a drink, and then on to bed. The Voyager Lounge is really quite a gathering place for people before dinner, and when I would plan to meet someone there before having dinner together, it was always standing room only. Goes to show the socialization factor of all-inclusive.

In our first stop, Picton, I had chosen a different excursion than Marcie and Tom called Farmlands and Waterways. We started out with a catamaran ride (of the mostly enclosed variety with seats) on Queen Charlotte Sound with some lovely views, and stopped in a couple of coves to feed the birds. Lots of jellyfish in the water here! We disembarked at Momorangi Bay for transfer to the coach, and on to Blenheim and the Tastes of Marborough, which was really a shopping opportunity with some wine tasting. This was really just a fair excursion, not that great. Friends from the pre-cruise did the Marlborough Farm and Gardens which sounded much better, as it had the sheep-dog demonstration as well as a visit to a private home with beautiful gardens and a great lunch.

Back on the ship, I had a late lunch on the outside deck of Verandah restaurant, and really enjoyed the views of the bay surrounding us. That night, I enjoyed dinner with Stan and Shirley from pre-cruise, and Jane the librarian and we had a great time. Went to part of the show, Lullaby of Broadway, but have seen this before, so on to Voyager Lounge to visit Marcie and Tom and on to bed.

The next day was to be a sea day, but as Marcie has explained, the Captain went instead to an extra port stop in Akaroa. Now I have to tell a "Tom" story. I had hopped on the tender by myself, and noticed Tom and Marcie got on, and we waved. I noticed they had waited for me when I got off the tender and Tom says "Well, do you want to go with us and be in the way, or do you want to go off on your own"? People hearing this just started laughing! So we set out shopping a bit, and, trying to find a graveyard, entered some park for a short hike up a steep hill that had a beautiful view over the harbor. Marcie has put those pix on ofoto.

Back to the ship for another late lunch at my sunny spot outside Verandah. I lasted 10 minutes that night for the show, which was two brothers and their wives.

Christchurch: I was up early for my excursion that left at 8:15, and I really enjoyed that one. We paid a visit to a private working sheep farm, and the owner gave a demonstration with his border collie going WAY up a hill following different commands from his whistle. Left, right, straight ahead, stop, faster. This was fascinating to me! The sheep were of the Merino-wool producing variety. The farmer is getting out of it because there is no money in it, and will soon start raising lambs for the food market. Anyway, we had the obligatory sheep-shearing demonstration. We ended up at the Botanical Gardens, which were so lovely. as you know, I love gardens, and took a lot of flower pictures as usual. It was cold, and I returned to the ship for lunch and warmer clothing and returned to town to see more of them. Walking around is really easy here. Right next door to the Botanical Gardens there is a Museum that time did not allow a full look-see, and an Arts Center right across the street with tons of local artisans selling their wares (really good quality stuff), and down the street there is a plaza that is quite a draw for the tourists as well. I was sorry to have gone back to the ship, as it took a lot of time, and I just didn't have the opportunity to see all I wanted. Dinner that night was with M&T, their friends Roseanne and Victor (the ones who kept adding legs from Ft. Lauderdale), and Paul, who was exhausted from his long excursions. Show that night was an Irish comedienne. I left early as usual, and headed to bed since we were leaving in the morning early for our overland trip to Queenstown and Milford Sound. Marcie has already posted about this, and I will only reiterate that our jet boat ride on Shotover Gorge was one of the most fun things I've ever done on an excursion! We laughed and laughed. Watching the bungie jumpers over both the bridge and up on Bob's peak in Queensland was great, so fun to hear the reaction of the falling person. The views over Queensland from Bob's peak were spectacular. The only bad part about this excursion was no air conditioning in the hotel. Fortunately, I had a balcony and could open the doors, but it was so hot I slept on the couch in the living room rather than the bedroom.

By the time we were back on board, it was getting late, and our fjord viewing from the ship lasted not too long. Others who stayed onboard said it was a lovely day of cruising, and next time I will try it that way. I had made dinner plans with another couple from pre-cruise, and really enjoyed their company. Too tired to enjoy the show, with the Peter Grey Therhune singers.

Crossing the Tasman sea the next day was a little rough, but now I knew to take the meclazine(definitely NOT the mescaline I had reported to my daughter as my remedy) or dramamine anytime at sea for a precaution.

More later!