April 18, A Day at Sea, due to Bad Weather!

Last night we ran into our first day of inclement weather. The winds were over 40 miles per hour and that created rough waves over the ocean. We experienced the movement of the ship as we went to sleep last night, but neither of us had any difficulty sleeping – at least not due to the ship’s motion. Doug could not sleep for a long time, because he had napped for almost six (6) hours that day. The high waves continued this morning, and as a result, the captain decided to cancel the onshore excursions; the rough water created a risk for the small transfer boats that would have to take passengers from the cruise ship to the shore in North New Zealand. The one downside is that Doug will not get to see the famous glow worm caves, after all. We could not fit it into our weeklong land tour of New Zealand, so he was looking forward to this excursion to make that possible. Oh well, it’s just a reminder that it is not possible to do or to see everything in one trip.

(Hard to tell from this photo, but the seas and the wind were up overnight and continued into the morning.)

(All of out north New Zealand excursions were cancelled because the smaller transfer boats would have had a more difficult time safely taking passengers ashore.)

So the captain kept everyone on board, still Doug and I enjoyed another day of eating, resting, reading our books and walking around the ship.

After we ate lunch, we went to play Fuzeball again. This time Patrise won.

(One of the many islands in New Zealand's Bay of Isles. We could only look through the fog, as we would not be going ashore onto the intended island.)

(Patrise enjoys a snack, while we sit in the Concierge lounge.)

(Part of the arcade area in the SeaPlex. Note the Fuzeball table in the background.)

(The site of the contested game. She's starting to get the hang of this.)

We then starting reading our books again before we drifted out to sleep again. After we awoke, we went to spend time in the Concierge Lounge where we could relax, read, look out of the large windows to the ocean and have drinks and hors d'oeuvres. We then left to have dinner at 5:45 p.m. at the Solarium Café. Patrise had lamb tangine, and I had lobster. This was a very relaxed dining experience, yet we thought that the food was just okay – nothing to write home about.

After dinner, we went to handle some business with the IT Coordinator about the poor quality of the internet service we had paid handsomely for and to speak with customer service. We had pre-purchased internet service for the duration of the trip, but neither one of us has been able to get access to the coverage on our phones, while in our cabin suite. We needed to get a refund for the purchase since it has not work. During this process, the service provider informed us that there were certain areas on the ship that could not obtain access to the internet! Patrise was livid because she wanted to know why they would sell something that they knew in advance might not work.

When we went back to our room, we processed our clothes for washing and played 500 gin rummy, before watching a little television and turning in.

Tomorrow, we will be docking back in Auckland. Patrise will be taking an excursion to visit the Māori culture center, while I travel back to the Airport International terminal, to pick up my original passport which Air New Zealand found aboard the plane we flew from Auckland to Melbourne. While I am blessed enough to have returned to Auckland on our cruise, the have the opportunity to get my passport means missing the Māori culture experience. Yet even though the old passport is now cancelled, I still want it. It has some country stamps I want to have a record of, most particularly, my stamp from having visited Antarctica in 2021.