Day 48: Sea Day (Tasman Sea)

The skies are gray this morning and the eyelids of many of the Neptune passengers are slow to open after five full days of ports stops and excursions in New Zealand. We have said it before “Cruising is tough work.”

I woke up a bit before 9:00 and headed off to the World Cafe for breakfast. Donna was still in bed, she headed to Mamsen’s we will connect later I am sure. On my way to breakfast, I saw Casper and asked him if many people are sleeping in this morning, he agreed.

We have spent Feb. 1 at the Bay of Islands, two days in Auckland, then Rororua (Tauranga), then Napier, and yesterday in Wellington. Six very busy days. New Zealand is beautiful - a cross between Hills of Ashland North Carolina & the lush green of Northern California. The people were all very friendly. The history and culture of the Māori people very enlightening.

People onboard I spoke with all seem to agree we need the sea days to catch up on laundry, blogging, gym, reading, art projects, et cetera. It is just nice to stop and catch your breath. The glass table deck 8 Explorer Lounge is full. They need another table up here. It’s high priced real estate onboard the Neptune. We all like to spread our stuff out a bit and work on our projects.

So today, I hope to get caught up on missing days of my blogging. I have 100’s of photos to go through and find just the few which are worth sharing - deleting the rest.

I did sign us up for the 7:30pm Cognac & Armagnac Tasting session this evening, it will be fun to learn a bit about Cognac.

We have four days at sea, the captain is taking us a different route than planned to avoid bad weather and high seas. We should be arriving Melbourne, Australia on Monday, February 12th.

On a personal note: Again, this morning two separate people came up to me - encouraging me said they enjoying reading this blog and to keep it up. I know I have a A-type personality, going 100-mph — I can easily get ahead of myself. This blog is a way for Donna and I to have a record of this amazing adventure, print a book of the 139 days around the world, and to capture these moments.

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement - they haven’t tossed me over-board yet. There’s still time.Read more