Milford Sound and Leaving New Zealand

Thursday 31 January 2013 - Tasman Sea

Just an update as we head west from New Zealand to Tasmania, Australia.

We continued our glorious close up view of the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand yesterday after the morning visit to the unbelievably beautiful Dusky Sound. Late in the afternoon our socks were equally knocked off by an extremely rare sunny visit to Milford Sound, the most famous and arguably most beautiful fjord in New Zealand. There are thousand foot high waterfalls and all sorts of wildlife surrounded by share vertical rock walls and with 10,000 foot high snow covered mountains in the distance. You can visit Milford Sound 50 times and never see it in other than fog and mist. That is to say, not really see it at all. I've been there twice before and while I found it beautiful, it certainly wasn't sunny and clear on those previous visits. Yesterday was the gem. No need to go back, I guess, but I hope we do!

We left New Zealand after dropping the fjoyd pilot off and picking up a bunch of guests who had booked an overnight land arrangement from the previous stop in Dunedin. We watched their excursion boat tie up alongside Silver Whisper in 40 knot wind and hoped some of their money would blow up to where we were watching. We then sailed out due west as we passed a 500 foot waterfall which had its colored lights turned on apparently to see us off.

After heading back out to sea, I was able to discuss the (very few) shortcomings of Silver Whisper with the Hotel Director who suggested I take up any complaints with the Chairman of Silversea Cruises. Fortunately, I found the big boss working near our suite. He was most sympathethic to my requests and said he would consider my advice.

More after our visit to Hobart in a couple of days.

Between Sounds: Reflection #1 on a Very Long Cruise

Wednesday 30 January 2013 – Between Dusky and Milford Sound, New Zealand

As we sail in 5000 foot deep water just a mile or so off shore from the New Zealand fjords, I thought I make a few additional comments on Silver Whisper and a very long cruise.

Silver Whisper was built in 2001. It doesn't really show its age as much as it does the style of decorating that was considered the last word in elegance 15 years ago. Barbara describes the décor as blond wood, kind semi-Italianate but without the gilt. I'd say it has a huge bit of guilt considering the very bizarre (and probably very expensive) artwork throughout the ship. Strange looking impressionist sketches appear in a few public rooms, but the stairways have niches with what looks like wire sculptures of people with debilitating diseases. The small forward elevator that serves Deck 4 suites has what must be a classical drawing of a strange woman with either a dead animal or perhaps a male body part around her. I try to avert my gaze when using the adjacent stairway as it invariably causes me to giggle and/or make a rude comment. The inevitable Filipino butler or housekeeper present always looks confused at my behavior but never fails to say, "Good morning", whenever I pass whatever the time of the day or night.

The above mentioned lift, by the way, is the local alternative to the bank four elegant elevators at mid ships along with the inevitable ship's space wasting curved staircases which provide access to most public areas. The small elevator unfortunately is used by the most geriatric guests on the ship along with the butlers delivering room service during the busiest hours when the crew lifts are overloaded. The end result is that a ride to any deck in this lift is slower than the Canarsie Line on a Sunday. Of course, most people forget their destination when they glimpse the animal clad/penis lady. The poor cane or walker crowed hardly giggle but do look alarmed.

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, about 120 of the 340 or so guests onboard this segment are "World Cruisers" who embarked Silver Whisper in mid-December in Fort Lauderdale or early January in Los Angles but unlike us who are getting off in Hong Kong in a month are going all the way and disembarking in early May in Fort Lauderdale or even later in the Spring in London after a second Atlantic crossing. These folks either have no home, no life, or enjoy multiple lifeboat drills (now required before every cruise segment instead of once per total cruise after the Costa Concordia tragedy). These folks, who seem quite friendly and make for pretty delightful dinner companions proving that money can buy happiness under the right circumstances, generally keep pretty much to themselves. Except for watching only one so-called news network and repeating what they hear as truth because they heard it on that news network are remarkably unassuming otherwise. I guess the homeless often are modest in demeanor.  The World Cruisers however tend to pretty much ignore where the ship is and refer to previous cruises as having "done Singapore to Bombay" or the like. We have surmised that using the verb, "done", avoids having to say that they have really been, seen, or toured a place. Just our theory.

For all it's worth, it is true that many of the older world cruisers have kind of forgotten details of their previous travels and also are a bit jaded. I said to one guest this morning after the fantastic transit of Dusky Sound, "Wasn't it beautiful this morning?". He said, "Where?". And earlier in the cruise a nice elderly lady insisted that she had taken the 4-wheel drive into the mountains on an earlier visit to Rangiroa. Unfortunately her memory might have been a bit off as Rangiroa is nothing but a huge circular reef with a maximum height of 5 feet MSL. On the other hand, nobody on board had any comments about anything unusual in the 30 minute time zone change when approaching Huku Niva.

We are at the half way point of our longest ever 50 day cruise now and have discovered another consequence of such a long sea voyage. (There are others that I will address in a future entry.) That is, one's infrastructure can go to hell in a hand basket when so far from real cities and with the many sea days that world cruise itineraries are often programmed to contain.

Here's a summary of our major events and their resolution:

1.       1. Shortly after sailing on the initial 8 days at sea from Los Angeles to the Marquesas Islands, Barbara discovered that the power supply for her laptop somehow disappeared, probably on the TSA screening belt at Denver International for our flight out. After we searched through the ship's collections of computer parts, cords, power supplies, and various other goodies left and unclaimed by previous guests since 2001, the Computer Room assistant on Silver Whisper ordered a replacement power supply and US cord from Dell. It was delivered by the port agent in Auckland. The Internet guy told me, "No Charge". We bought him a very nice Kiwi beverage as thanks.

2.       2. Both mine and Barbara's cheap Timex everyday watches stopped shortly upon sailing from LA. The friendly but very negative watch repair guy in Papeete pronounced Barbara's watch DOA and mine unable to be repaired due to a storage of common watch batteries in French Polynesia. We had my battery replaced at a very expensive jewelry store in Auckland in a few minutes after our volcano climb and will replace Barbara's probably in Sydney.

3.       My brand new electric shaver failed after a week on board. Fortunately I had a number of Gilette throwaway blades in my toiletry kit and purchased Edge Shaving cream in the ship's giftshop at "popular prices".  I will deal with Phillips warranty procedures upon return to Boulder.

4.       3. My venerable camera came up with at least three sets of bad rechargeable batteries, and the camera itself needed its electrical contacts cleaned. I'm down to two ok but old sets of AA's, but Sydney abounds in Woolworths and other similar stores instead of relying on the overpriced batteries in the ship's shop. The camera contacts were dealt with by the application of high proof unflavored vodka with the suite's supply of Q-tips. (This is a well known technique, especially with the free booze policy onboard. I like to use Grey Goose, a premium brand for my electrical needs.)

5.       4. My GPS/Pedometer locked up during charging a week or so ago. I burned through only 3 minutes of Internet time to do a very well thought out Google search for "Garmin 305 Soft Reset" to find that one presses MODE and LAP simultaneously and then repowers up to unlock Garmin 305's. Good to know and completely not in the manual which I had saved on the computer but to no avail.

6.      5.  It was easy to buy a replacement sunscreen tube onboard the ship when I discovered that the one from home must have been well aged and was therefore making me break out upon each application.

7.       6. We still have our three baseball hats and two larger straw or floppy hats in case of strong winds feeding one or more same to the sharks.

 

We will be entering Milford Sound in a few minutes. I will post a bunch of pictures in the next couple of days during our Tasman Sea crossing to Tasmania. Please keep in touch.

Dusky Sound at the SW corner of the South Island of New Zealand this morning

Dunedin in Good Weather

Tuesday 29 January 2013 - Dunedin, New Zealand

We docked before 7 am to what appeared to be a pretty busy container and lumber port. The wood is shipped to China from New Zealand and returns after processing so that houses can be built here as local building materials are somehow in short supply.

It rained when I was in Dunedin last. It is said that it always rains in "deep south" (South 45 degree) Dunedin. Today was 70ish and quite sunny. We took the first shuttle bus the 8 miles from Port Chalmers to the town square--actually a octagon--of Dunedin. Dunedin is the "most Scottish town in New Zealand". Actually Dunedin means Edinborogh in Gallic. They make whisky (note the current spelling), and there even ware four bagpipers on the pier (unphotographed). 

The town was quite lovely despite another Princess ship--the Sun Princess--which followed us into the port. We managed to dodge the many name tag clad people to the statue of Robert Burns and the quite lovely but modern built Anglican cathedral and made our way down through the handsome downtown to probably the most beautiful railway station in the Southern hemisphere. The station has mosaics of locomotives, stained glass windows of locomotives, and a beautiful ticket booth lobby. Unfortunately, there is no actual locomotives as there is no scheduled train service any more. Fortunately, the volunteer tourist train into the interior of the South Island I took years ago still runs daily. We then visited a local museum for its free wifi if the truth be known and then depleated our New Zealand dollars at the Chinese Gardens, a 6 million dollar gift from the city of Shaghai to Dunedin. We visited the actual gardens in China a couple of years ago. So it was interesting to see the same "windows" providing the same views. We then returned to the ship after looking at more pretty modern churches to get a good view of the beautiful sailout which was shared by chefs taking pictures of the Food and Beverage Manager, a Silversea tradition.

Sleepy 500 PersonTown of Akaroa with 6000 Cruise Passengers

Monday 28 January 2013 - Akaroa, New Zealand

I was surprised to find when I was planning for this cruise that I had visited artsy and historic Akaroa before. It was just that unmemorable although it is the remnants of an abortive French colony (the English got there 6 days before the French ship in 1840) with an interesting assortment of pre-fab 19th Century architecture. I recognized nothing from the obviously forgettable earlier visit this time as the town has now become the cruise ship alternative to the still being demolished Christchurch after the devistation of the recent earthquakes. Over 100 cruise ships visit Akaroa per summer now instead of the handful of small ships when I was there last. Monday was the "all time high" record of four ships. Most obvious was the Dawn Princess whose guests seemed to be obliged to wear their nametag/keycards around their necks 24/7, presumably so that they could purchase water, air, food, and toilet flushes onboard their ship. 

We were first in line sailing through the headlands into the huge collapsed volcano that forms Akaroa's archorage, immediately followed followed by ship number 2, the Seaborn Legand which is a very similar ship in many ways to Silver Whisper. The big Princess and a small expedition ship joined us presently. The view from the tender's very salt strayed window was what appeared to be that of a fishing village, albeit a New England fishing village. We found that the shacks were actually gift shops. So Barbara and I started a pleasant 3 mile hike by going away from town to a picturesque lighthouse. It was recently relocated from the distant headlands no doubt to accomodate the cruise passengers. We saw lots of sheep but always with a backdrop of cruise ships or their tenders which were ferrying increasing numbers of gift ship customers into the used to be artsy and quaint town. We then returned to town to watch the Princess crowd taking pictures of each other posing in front of closed public buildings which have been condemned due to earthquate damage and then worked our way back to the ship through the hoards of Princess passengers being entertained by a young bagpipe player. A young bagpipe player! We enjoyed some, quite a few actually, drinks as we sailed away, having already forgotten this formerly artsy and historic town.

Wellington - First Visit

Sunday 27 January 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

On a previous cruise to New Zealand, it was way too windy to dock at Wellington. Even the locals refer to the capital of New Zealand as "Windy Wellington", not because of the long winded politians as in Chicago but because this place gets very windy. Go figure. Our visit proved to be in calm, sunny and warm weather. Really calm since it was a Sunday morning. Kiwi's take their Sunday mornings very seriously. That is to say, the streets were empty of cars and people and everything was closed except the McDonalds. (The shuttle bus driver pointed the Mickey D out and called it "The American Embassy." Nobody laughed.) Fortunately the little cable car ride to the top of the Botanic Garden was running. We looked at the ship and the lovely inlet at the bottom of the North Island that Wellington sits in and tried to avoid seeing the gigantic Princess ship that docked along with us. We walked around the quiet (did I say quiet?) city, passed by the beehive shaped Capitol and visited the comatose railway station and returned to the ship for lunch. (See what only restaurant was open, above.) 

After lunch we returned to the town which had gotten quite a bit busier and walked along the waterfront to the quite spectacular museum. Strange things were going on at the waterfront and at the museum. Beats me what these things were. 

It was altogether a very pleasant first visit. Some day I'd like to see Wellington when it's open.

Auckland - Climbing a Volcano (again) and a Successful Watch Battery

Friday 25 January 2013 - Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland is called the "City of Sails". Notice this is not the "City of Sales", but unlike Papeete in French Polynesia where the guy in the jewerly store said, "Non, non, non, monsieur, we do not have your EXOTIC battery", we were able to got my $35 Timex Expedition watch's battery changed albeit at the cost of NZD 25 or about $21 US. Not cheap--but it was possible. This was my 5th or 6th visit to the biggest and most high strung city in New Zealand. High strung because there was actual traffic on the streets and we actually heard one fire engine and one ambulance in the entire day we were there. Never did see a police car, much less run running with lights and siren. But I really do like Auckland. Nobody doesn't, except maybe the very sad looking puppeteer. (Ray in Ambleside, take note.) 

As planned, Barbara and I repeated the most wonderful ferry ride and hike to the top of 1000 foot high Rangoroto volcano which sits in the middle of the Auckland Harbour. The entire island is a natural area in which all non native flora and furna have been expunged. The old rat/moose traps I saw 6 years ago were still there, but a sign at the ferry wharf said they have left the traps there in case "someone brings any non-native animals." I'm glad I didn't bring my rat. The view from the top of the volcano was wonderful, as was the hike amidst the old lava floes, and the boat ride was a good as before. See my previous trip blog for more details from the link under my picture at right.

A nice revisit to Aukland for me, and a great first visit for Barbara in 80 degree sunny weather. 

Northern New Zealand - Emu, Dead Maori's, and the most scenic toilet in the world. Did I mention glow worms?

Saturday 26 January 2013 (Australia Day) - at sea off the eastern coast of the north island of New Zealand

Getting caught up on our fantastic landfalls in New Zealand after essentially three weeks of sea journey. The following narrative is for Thursday's visit to the Bay of Islands. The text is from Barbara's narrative with a little help from me. I will add blogs with my comments on our tremendous visit to Auckland yesterday (where we climbed a volcano and had a watch battery replaced) and then our visit to Wellington scheduled for tomorrow.

Bay of Islands

Finally, real, honest to goodness land appeared on the horizon.  Our Pacific Ocean crossing was complete.  Michael and I woke early Thursday morning to see the headlands of the Bay of Islands on the horizon.  It took a few minutes of staring before I convinced myself that I was seeing substantial land as opposed to another hunk of rock with a reef around it.  The sight of the iconic "hole in the rock" was convincing proof that this was indeed the Bay of Islands.

The sum shone and the temperature was in the comfortable mid seventies.  Silver Whisper anchored well out in the bay.  The tender ride to shore at the Waitangi Wharf took more than the advertised half hour.  Almost a hundred passengers piled aboard the tender.  The helmsman backed us away from the ship.  Suddenly there was a lot of back and forth radio chatter.  The Staff Captain, second in command of the ship, appeared in the tender bay and ordered us to await a safety officer.  Even though the helmsman had piloted a tender ashore to the Waitangi Wharf many times, new regulations require that a safety officer be the first to bring a tender ashore in a new port: another consequence of the wreck of the Costa Concordia.

Eventually the other ship's tender appeared around the Whisper's bow.  Some minutes of maneuvering passed and a safety officer jumped from one tender to the other.  He displaced the helmsman at the controls and piloted us to shore as per the new regulations.

Waitangi Wharf sits in isolation by the Waitangi Yacht Club and a now dowdy upscale hotel, at the entrance to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.  The area is a National Trust site commemorating the 1840 treaty between the Maori chieftains and the British that established New Zealand as a British colony and ultimately a nation.  The wharf is scenic in the extreme. Shuttle buses waited to take us across a narrow one-lane bridge to the very touristy town of Paihia. 

The New Zealand summer holiday runs from Christmas through January.  Paihia was full of tourists from all over New Zealand and Australia celebrating the last week of their summer break.  Tour buses filled the street.  Mobile homes and vans filled the parking lots a block from the main street.  A helicopter took off and landed every ten to fifteen minutes taking tourists "flightseeing" around the bay.

Michael and I paused briefly to view the artisanal merchandise on sale in tents on the village green then set out to hike to the top of a scenic overlook nearby.  Less than a block from the main road, we were essentially alone.  Paihia is a very small place with few streets inland from the shore shops and beaches.  Half a mile from the shore, we were in wilderness.  We walked up School Street, past the Paihia School, many bed and breakfasts and rental cottages and came to the head of a well-marked hiking trail. 

The trail began in a boggy area, full of plants I had never seen before and soon climbed steeply.  We walked through trees, giant ferns and bushes that were totally unfamiliar.  An hour of strenuous exercise and we arrived at a lookout point where we could see our ship in the bay and could view islands in various shades of green dotted all about.  We couldn't linger because we had to be back at Waitangi Wharf by 12:30 PM to take our scheduled tour.  As we exited the trail, we passed two young New Zealanders starting the walk.  The woman was wearing flip-flops and the young man was barefoot.  Michael made a comment about his lack of footwear and the young man said he was wearing "Samoan sandals."  New Zealanders really are not afraid of anything but apparently do not think highly of Samoans.  Then again, no one in the Pacific seems to think highly of Samoans.

Our tour of the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves and Kawakawa actually took us in a large circle east, south, west and back north to Paihia.  We saw the glowworms as we walked through the cave, a private, family run operation by descendants of a Maori warrior chief. The ceiling and walls are occupied by tens of thousands of unique creatures that emit a blue green light. 

During a scenic drive from the cave during which we saw a Maori burial grounds and our first emu in the wild, we stopped in the small town of Kawakawa.  Originally established as a coal-mining town, it developed into a tourist destination after the mines shut down.  An immigrant named Handwasser built a bizarre public toilet that looks as if Art Deco met Salvador Dali. The toilets and an excursion train down the middle of the street draw visitors who Michael says are easily amused from all over New Zealand.

The tour continued west and north through the countryside and through some small towns hard hit by the closing of a dairy processing plant and a meat packing plant.  The North Island of New Zealand raises dairy and beef cattle.  Consolidation and modernization have led to high unemployment.  Modern plants are fewer in number and hire fewer workers per plant.  Our bus driver, formerly a local welder, hopes that expansion of the timber industry will bring jobs back to the area.

The last stop on our tour was at the Haruru Falls.  This was a miniature Niagra-like waterfall by the bridge at Haruru Road.  We all piled out of the bus and took pictures. I think it is the largest waterfall on the North Island.

The Missing Monday

Tuesday, 22 January 2013 - South Pacific Ocean, South 28.5, West 173

Some odds and ends:

1. We crossed the International Date Line last night and went directly from Sunday 20 January to Tuesday 22 January. Copy of birthday wish note to friend below.

2. Since leaving the tropics, the temperature has dropped. It's now 78 degrees and mostly sunny compared to 85 and kind of cloudy. The following swell which caused some more scary looking than troublesome very slow pitching of the ship has gone down to just about glassy seas although we are 750 miles or so NE of New Zealand in 18,000 foot deep water, very far from any island, ship, or anything except a very far from home bird or two. The seas were more scary than troublesome since the ship's stabilizers can't stop pitching. While nobody looked worse for the movement of this 600 foot long, 10 story hotel, the daily laps around the "jogging" track looked like an E-ticket ride. We were walking quite a bit up hill for 10 seconds or so and then steeply downhill seemingly into the ocean. Kind of existentially scary but of no concern except if you thought about it.

3. I've gotten a request from a friend to clarify (actually to correct) my comments about Oceania's Marina. It actually is a nice product, and to tell the truth the tender that was used by the local surfer as a wave maker was from the Pacific Princess. I suppose I forgot to mention that everything in my blogs are completely true, but I sometimes change the facts for literary effect. Read Barbara's blog if you want complete objective honesty, if you really need that overrated attribute. Actually, her blogs are awfully good. http://barbara-spacific.blogspot.com.

4. There's been little mention of ship's and other guests' quirks or heaven forbid problems to our enjoyment. Well, gosh, there are too few to mention (another literary allusion). Yes, the unlimited deck chairs by the pool--just ask and one will be set up where you want it by the always helpful deck crew--are usually "reserved" by 8 in the morning with an unread library book without a bookmark despite a stated prohibition in the ship's guidelines. My guess is that as soon as one couple does this, the behavior gets copied. One nationality of this international manifest seems to be the most guilty, but we WON the rebellion in the late 18th Century. No hard feelings. 

5. As mentioned earlier, the ship's staff is the "A-Team". Just about all the frustrations of luxury shipboard life have been trained out of the staff. Now the primary obstacles to Silversea regaining #1 status in all categories--it's there in most in my opinion already--are structural. Communications pathways between the food and drink servers in the various dining venues have to be restructured, authority of the Head Waiters has to be enhanced, and perhaps some outside consultants (!) and even some less emphasis on inbreed promotion from within need to be considered. (Details upon request from FLL HQ.) And what about the port side of the pool area being a constant pathway for kitchen staff and noisy food carts?

6. The GPS/weather display is still going crazy. This morning the time display completely disappeared after the IT Officer apparently found it impossible to get it to display 22 January 2013 and GMT + 13 hours. For a short time he managed to get it to show 18:30 instead of 6:30, but it said Monday. The humidity is now saying 55%, an improvement from 105% of a few days ago, and for a short time yesterday the humidity field was replaced by a happy sun face. Shame it was quite cloudy. (The clouds cleared later so that Barbara and I could pay our respects to the Centaurus constellation and glimpse the Southern Cross. Hooray.)

7. Had a nice conversation with a recently retired Psychiatrist about why some actually pretty nice other guests feel they must give their political opinions ("Fair and Balanced") upon first meeting. Interesting insights were obtained. 

8. Silversea's tryout of a new laundry team (Indonesian rather than the long term Chinese contractor, I'm told) is a continuing problem. Barbara's pants are no doubt now in someone's closet at home or on the ship. They will only be discovered long from now when the lady finds they don't fit. Worse than that, my once a cruise segment Dilbert tee-shirt, "I'm not unemployed, I'm a Consultant", went missing for two weeks. It was discovered this morning HANGING ON HE WALL of the ship's industrial laundry. Oh, the mysteries of the high seas.

9. As mentioned above, in close to two weeks worth of sea days we have seen only One (1) other ship, two albatrosses, a couple of frigate birds, and a weird looking eagle like thing. We did go through two huge schools of dolphins. Way cool. Lots of rain on our Equator crossing, but the food on board is exceptional and life is good.

10. My birthday greetings to perhaps not a day older friend Ellen: 

Hi Ellen,

Happy Birthday. Sorry we can't celebrate your birthday with you. This is not only because we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (always a poor place to attempt to celebrate a birthday in New Jersey, as celebrating anything in New Jersey is often a struggle and even harder from the middle of the Pacific Ocean) but also because we will be crossing the International Dateline tonight and we not actually have a January 21st. Today is Sunday 20 January here now, but tomorrow will be Tuesday 22 January for us. We will have two of the same day as we fly back from Hong Kong, but there isn't anyone I know who has that day as their birthday or would opt to celebrate two of them anyway.

I suppose when we all were working, missing a Monday wouldn't have been all that bad anyway. But in compensation of not being able to call and wish you the best of your special day, I am sending you a picture of the ship's chefs and the fresh Tahitian 165 pound moonfish that has oddly enough appeared on the lunch and dinner menu for the last couple of days. 

Enjoy your moonfish photo--which is a most remarkable birthday gift, certainly from someone who won't be even be experiencing January 21st this year.

Regards from the Silver Whisper,

Mike and Barbara

A Country Short and a Time Zone Weird

The weather cleared up yesterday evening, promising a lovely stop this morning to explore Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. I was keen to step foot on this new country for me (#138, but who's counting) since the large sea swells in December 2008 prevented the ship's tenders to be deployed. This morning was a repeat, alas. I'm now 0 for 2 for the Cook Islands. The Tour Desk Manager, Mark, told me that he's 0 for 3. I guess the Cook Islands may not get a lot of cruise visitors judging for our experiences. But it was pretty enough for a nice picture from the unsheltered anchorage. We are hoping for a full day stop in 4 days at the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New Zealand as a compensation.  It should be possible to arrive at 8am or so instead of the scheduled 1:30pm on Thursday.

My technical sense was satisfied by the ship's engineering staff dealing with the supersaturated humidity of over 100% over the last few days by removing the humidity field from the ship's information display. I suspect Rarotonga will somehow disappear from this cruise segment's itinerary overnight as well. Oh well.

Speaking of interesting technical details, as we leave Polynesia heading west we will set our clocks back one more hour to the GMT -11 hour timezone. This means we will be the last folks on Earth to see the sunrise tomorrow morning. Midnight tonight will be the beginning of Sunday, noon in England, and because of Summer Time (aka Daylight Savings Time) it will be 1 am Monday morning in Auckland. Therefore for us tomorrow (Sunday) will be followed by Tuesday without our changing our clocks as we will be crossing the International Dateline and entering the oddball timezone of GMT +13 hours. Kind of goes with the 108% humidity. I suspect a lot of the guests will be more confused than ever as they have accepted the 108% humidity as "really, really, humid". It is what it is.

Dinner tonight with the Hotel Director. I will try to think of something arcane to ask about. Maybe something about the butler's supply of optician supplies. (See, I'm still very impressed by out butler, Chen, repairing Barbara's glasses.) Today, a deck hand told me how much he is enjoying my blog. So it goes....

More in a few days from New Zealand. Meanwhile check out Barbara's blog at barbara-spacific.blogspot.com. She will be posting her experiences in French Polynesia later today.