Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 16

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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 16

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Post by melsea »

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 16

Day 50. Tauranga, NZ. Sunny & warm. 9.30 - 8.30.

27th February. Evening casual.

We arrived in this beautiful part of New Zealand at 9.30am. We went to breakfast at around 9.45. I went ashore and I took the shuttle bus into town. The first thing I saw when I got off the bus was an art shop where I spent quite a while looking around. It wasn't a big shop but it was fairly sufficient in the basics of art supplies. I bought a thin marker pen and the Gouache paint that James Gray said would be an idea to get. So with my two purchases I then went off to explore this little bit of NZ. First I went to the tourist information that was just across the way to pick up a map just like the one that some people seemed to have got from the ship. While there I wondered if there was any wifi which there was but it took a few goes before I got connected and managed to get emails, look up facebook & messages. Once I had done what I want I then made my way up the road to locate public toilets as I was in need of one. I actually took a wrong turn and found a shoe shop called 'footloose'. They had some really nice shoes and one pair caught my eye. They were not in my usual size 34/35 but 36's. I tried them on and they fitted really nicely. I was unsure whether to buy them as they were a little bit expensive. So I moved on and walked down one side of a street and looked in a few more shops. I went into a couple of other shoe shops but none had the nice range or at good prices. I continued on and found a Starbucks and stopped to have a white hot chocolate, yummy. I tried to log into their free wifi but I couldn't get connected at all. So off I went and headed for the quay side where they had a waterfront walkway. It was very pleasant. To get to it you had to cross a rail line. It didn't take too long to get to where there was an arts & craft market which had a few nice things. I then headed back towards where I came, I hadn't got far when I bumped into Brian & Lorraine, we chatted a few minutes and I said I was on my to buy a pair of shoes as I had decided to go and buy the sandals I saw earlier and hoped no one else came by and bought them, which they hadn't and so I got them. I did ask the lady in the shop if she would take an extra discount as I was a passenger from one of the two ships in town but she said she couldn't as they were already discounted quite a bit, well I had to try didn't I. There I was a happy bunny with my new shoes. No sooner had I walked out of that shop that I bumped into Brian and Lorraine again. I showed them my new shoes and Lorraine said they were very nice. I nearly went past a shop I ignored earlier but saw that it was like a pound shop type of place and wondered if I could get something for St.Patricks Day. This I managed to do, I got Bill a small green sparkly bow tie and I got a very tiny hat that you clip onto your hair, it's rather cute. Having done my shopping I thought I had better head home. I forgot to mention that before I got my shoes I went into the Art Gallery where they had some interesting art. There was also an exhibition of photography. They were black and white photos of WWI memorials from around NZ & Australia and the collection I saw took the photography thirty years to do. Across the road I sat on a bench and got reconnected with the same wifi from earlier and this time the photos I tried to load up before uploaded really quickly. I had run out of Megabytes and so I could no longer go onto the Internet. By this time I made my way to where the shuttle buses were and there was one standing there so I got on and would you believe it I saw Brian & Lorraine. I said I was going to try and go to the beach area when I got back but they had said earlier that no one could walk around the port and so could only go to where we just came from. I found this a bit odd as I remember we got there but couldn't remember how we did this. Anyway I got back on board to drop of my things before I went out again. Bill came with me and we got out just as we did last time. They had barriers to stop you wandering around the dock areas and so you were guided to an exit. It was a pleasant afternoon/evening and we ended up walking around the base of the same mountain to walked up last time. It was a very pleasant walk. We were out for two hours. On our walk we stopped and sat at one of the benches they had dotted around and just marvelled at the wonderful views we had on our walk. We saw Rabbits which are pest here and they had laid poison to try and cull them as they are not meant to be here. We saw sheep as well as numerous birds including the very one I saw in the forest of the Bay of Island. These ones were quite tame and we were able to watch them quite a while. When flash their tails it looks a light flashing but actually the under side of their feathered tail is white.
We got back to ship with half hour to spare.

Day 51. At sea. Sunny and fairly warm in the bright sunshine.
28th February Black Tie, B/W

Face to face immigration with the Aussie officials.

Alarm went off at 7.45 I started to get myself ready slowly for when they start to call our cabin for the face to face inspection. Bill got up not long after and was ready as usual in 10 mins flat. As it was they called the port side of A Deck first and it wasn't long before they called the rest of the A deck, it had just gone past 9am. Off we trotted and we were in and out in 10 mins! There were only about half a dozen in front of us so we were glad we did it so early. We were actually early for breakfast at the glass house! At 10.30 we made our way to the Alexander Restaurant for our World Cruise Coffee Morning. We were on a table of six. This was a first for P&O doing something like this and there seems not be any explanation as to why we were there! Oh well it was different.
With all the tea and juices at breakfast we were kind of busting.
I sat outside for while on Deck 7 first in the sun and then at the table. I went back to the cabin to meet Bill and go for lunch. It was just before 1pm and I had decided I wanted to go to the art class. Lunch was very nice cod & chips it was a shame that the service was not up to standard! The waiters are usually very good but hey I guess they have off days but not both of them!
Art class was good as there were not as many and I managed to get a fairly good spot. I sat with two people I hadn't seen before even though one of them has been on since Valparaiso, the other passenger got on in Auckland.
When I started to add paint to my new paper I realised that I was painting on the back side as it was picking up lumps and bumps and they were highlighted by my Cadmium Red & Yellow. I also put far too much red and it wasn't looking too good but I had wondered that when I paint in the rocks that it would separate the image better. As it turns out the painting came fairly good and even James said that it turned out good in the end. So it goes to show don't give up just go with it which is easier said than done really.
At 5.30 I went for a walk on the top decks as the sun was shining and most people were in due to the fact we had a dress code of Black Tie tonight. I did an hours walk which felt good.

Day 52. At sea. Sunny and warm with a little bit of a breeze.
1st March. Evening Casual

Clocks went back 1 hour last night to +12 GMT.

Being a Sunday we had the Church Service. So we went to breakfast early at the Glass House as we were going to the service.
Later I took my pieces of Opal to show the lady who is on board showing & selling Opals. She did the talk yesterday which I missed. I wanted to have my Opals confirmed what they were. My very first piece I ever bought back in 1988 is Bolder Opal which is rare and a very nice piece she said. She couldn't actually value them but she said they would certainly be worth more than when I bought them.
I went to reception to give in my questionnaire on our visit to Auckland. We had been a questionnaire by the New Zealand tourist board through P&O. As I was in reception I went to the future cruise/Loyalty desk to ask when we might be collected from the ship for our World Cruise Ligurian Evening. They said we will get the details nearer the time but it is likely to be 6.30 and back at 11.30pm. She also told me something interesting when she said that Arcadia are having theirs on the March 17th, I was just about to say but haven't they had theirs already, when she said they will have theirs in Singapore! So goes to show don't always believe what others have told you, I heard from someone that they Arcadia had already had theirs in Hong Kong. But they actually hadn't it yet.
Having done that I went and sat on deck 7 where I finished writing up yesterday's journey on here. At just before 1pm I went back to the cabin to meet Bill to go to lunch. We both had very nice meals, I had Liver it was absolutely delicious, Bill had a curry. 1.45pm came round quickly and I made my way to the crows nest having collected my art stuff from the cabin to go to the art class. I am not sure when people turn up but I always seem to still struggle to get a seat with a table. Today was a painting with a heron on water. Alas the paper I bought in Valparaiso is not of good quality and so it's looking like I may have to buy some in Melbourne or even the other two Australian ports before we head back out on our sea days.
The day seems to be galloping along and it wasn't long before it was 5pm when I went out for my walk. It was quite windy but I did managed to do an hour.

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emjay45
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 16

#2

Post by emjay45 »

I don't know how but we completely forgot about our World cruise coffee morning. Did we miss anything?

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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 16

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Post by melsea »

No not really but it felt really weird as no one knew why we were there and no explanation was given but we did have nice tea with cakes & biscuits as I recall.

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