Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 18

[melsea]

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 18

Day 58. Sydney, NSW Day 2. Cloudy at first then sunny not long after.
The Horizon said back on board by 5pm, muster drill 5pm, sail at 6pm.
But as we left the ship the board that tells you when to be back on board said 6pm!

7th March.Evening Causal/Tropical.

We were picked up by our Australian friends Mal & LInda & their daughter Sarah who flew in from Canberra for a few days. We were driven their home in Castle Hill for a brief stop before we headed of to Richmond where Mal & Linda met during their college years. We had lunch and lovely place called Sassifire Cafe with spectacular views of the bush country side which was beautiful on our journey there. We met our Australian friends on our 2010 world cruise when they were on our table and they celebrated with us our engagement. They are such a lovely family and when we have visited Sydney before we have always met up with them on some memorable times. One being we had a meal at the revolving restaurant of the Sydney Tower. Our time with our friends was passing by and we headed back to Sydney Circular Quay to get back on ship, we arrived at 4.20. Mal afterwards was heading to the airport as he had a flight going to Singapore. We said our goodbyes and had photos taken of us all in front of Aurora. Sad goodbyes.
Our muster drill was at 5.30 in the end. There is a new law of which I have no idea when it came into effect. We were sent a memo to this effect, Full Passengers Muster. "It is a requirement of law that after boarding any ship both newly embarking passengers and those passengers who have been on board for more than four weeks must be instructed in, or reminded of, actions to be taken in the event of an emergency. As the last drill took place on 5th February we are required to conduct a full passenger muster in order to achieve this requirement on Saturday 7 March at 5pm." Bizarrely though, during the announcement it was said those that have been on before today do not need to attend. We did anyway but I know others didn't and in the past we have not been to one during the world cruise except on our embarkation.
In the evening we had a meal at Beach House. Brian and Lorraine were also dining there for Brian's 71st Birthday. Others we knew, Jim & Marjorie were there too. It was a lovely evening and we do so like the Beach House. The staff are excellent and so is the food. Never had a bad one yet.

Day 59. At sea after a full & busy two days in Sydney.

8th March Smart, jacket required.

Partly cloudy and sunny & warm but much cooler in the shade.
Clocks went forward at midday, to +12 hours ahead of UK.

Slept right through the night for the first time in absolute ages. We both got up at 9am having had a bit of a lie in. Bill & I went to the Glass House for just a cup of tea & cranberry juice with no breakfast as we had quite a full day yesterday where we ate well. Lunch with the Clay family & dinner in the beach house on board.
At just before 10am I went up to the spa for their raffle at the beginning of another sector. Only when I got there they said it was to be held in Masquerades which is where it usually is, the daily Horizon said otherwise. So off I trotted there but there seemed to be no one there so I went back upstairs to the Spa to double check. she said Masquerades, so back down to deck 7 where Masquerades is. When I got there the Spa manager was there along with a couple of her colleagues. Also in there finishing up was one of the gym instructors and with him were a few ladies and it looked as though they had just finished a class. Where they came from I have no idea as they were not there when I looked in there just 5 minutes before. I think they were elsewhere and they had just been doing their stretches. Anyway 10 mins after the advertised time they began the raffle. There were only about 15 of us taking part. I did not win.
At some point I went to reception to drop off our questionnaire which was a day late. On my way back upstairs I went past the jewellers and I remembered they are holding another raffle/quiz, you have to guess which one of the Opals is a Black Opal. When I went in there another couple were also looking. I didn't realise it at the time but it seems the couple had asked to see the back of the Opals which makes it easier to know which Opals they are, having had a discussion with the Opal lady who was on before, I was 99% certain which one was the Black Opal. I said 'C' because the other two were clearly boulders of which I actually own one. The one I think is a black opal just happens to be the one of two that the other lady showed be last week. When the present lady turn them over to show the front of the opals I was convinced I am right but who knows.
In the evening I went to see Ben Makisi, Classical & Operatic New Zealand singer from Wellington, he was very good.

Day 60. At sea heading towards South Island of New Zealand.

9th March Black Tie

Clocks go forward at midday where we will be 13 hours ahead of UK.

Unbelievably it will be a busy day.
Breakfast 9.30
Commonwealth Day Commemoration 10am Riveria Pool. Didn't happen? well actually it did but it was so quick I missed it by minutes.
Opal Talk 11am
Midday turns into 1pm
Photography seminar, Night shots 1.15pm
Art Class 2.15pm, make my way usually at 1.45!
Somewhere along the line collect Passports and have lunch!! Who says sailing at sea is boring there really isn't enough time in the day especially at sea.

Day 61. At sea. Milford Sound, South Island New Zealand.

10th March Evening casual dress code.

Between 9am - 11am we sailed into the Milford Sound which today was much more cloudy than the last time we came through here which was in 2011. It rained a bit at first and later it cleared up briefly for us to take various photos before we left the area and the rains came.
Lunch was in the Medina, I didn't go to art class I did my own thing. At 2.25 I went to the Curzon theatre thinking that was when Diane Simpson was going to be interviewed. I got it wrong she was doing her last talk & her interview was to be at 3.45pm. So I went to the Crystal Pool area on the pool level and attempted to do a painting of the Milford Sound we saw this morning, it wasn't very good. When I finished I made my way to the theatre where the interview with Diane had already started. It was a good interview as you heard how she got into the work she does now and how she became an adviser on the Yorkshire Ripper case and if I remember rightly she said she wont be doing many more talks at sea as she has a lot of work to do shore side and she feels she can no longer commit to the talks. She will miss it but other challenges are there for her to do.
We didn't go to dinner tonight we stayed in and had room service instead.
Tomorrow would see the first of three ports in our second visit to New Zealand, beginning with Dunedin.

[GillD46]

Having been away for a while, I have just caught up with your reports. Sounds such a busy trip - I am in awe at your energy!

[emjay45]

In 2013 we were expected to do musters if we had not done one for about 4 weeks. So it must have become the law then. Your day in Sydney sounds lovely.

[Suekersh]

Your report brings back so many wonderful memories of our 2014 cruise on Arcadia. We just loved Sydney and looking forward to going back there in 2017. We had 2 full days there but didn't have to tender. I will always remember waking up and opening the curtains to see the Sydney Harbour bridge on our left and the Opera house on our right. It was still dark and they were all lit up.

[melsea]

Having been away for a while, I have just caught up with your reports. Sounds such a busy trip - I am in awe at your energy!

I'll let you into a secret. This time last year we were on a P&O cruise and on that one I was feeling quite fatigued and tired after being on shore but I was feeling it too early in the day. I remember saying to my self and Bill I can't be doing with this I must get fit. I got partly fit when I was a volunteer for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. When I got back I returned to my local leisure centre and restarted the fitness classes I had neglected in going to so right up until we set sail we had been doing 5 classes a week, two of which were spin classes and these pushed my fitness levels up hence why I was able to sustain my days on shore walking for miles. I'm lucky I can do this not a lot of people can. I was pleased I pushed myself to get fit.

[melsea]

Your report brings back so many wonderful memories of our 2014 cruise on Arcadia. We just loved Sydney and looking forward to going back there in 2017. We had 2 full days there but didn't have to tender. I will always remember waking up and opening the curtains to see the Sydney Harbour bridge on our left and the Opera house on our right. It was still dark and they were all lit up.

In 2010 we had a problem with cabin and so four weeks into our cruise we were given an upgrade to an outside cabin and we woke up to seeing the Opera House as our view. It is quite something.

[melsea]

In 2013 we were expected to do musters if we had not done one for about 4 weeks. So it must have become the law then. Your day in Sydney sounds lovely.

Think you are right it happened after our 2012 cruise.

[Suekersh]

We had an aft balcony on an deck. Will hopefully be booking that again for the next one.

In 2014 we only had to do the one muster on boarding. We announcement was thst if you wished to refresh your memory then you could attend but it was not compulsory for pax who had not just joined the ship.