Friday 13^th March 2015 – Day at Sea.

We put our clocks forward yet another hour so we are now at GMT+12. After no luck yesterday, Ian managed to skype Martin and Rebecca whilst it was still 12^th March in the UK.

Not quite so relaxing a day today – force six winds with a moderate swell. Evidently Cyclone Pam is causing chaos in the Pacific and heading our way. The Captain says it may alter our New Zealand plans. He also said “4 metre swells today – not significant for QM2” (Voyager, eat your heart out!)

The new lecturers’ topics aren’t doing it for us – neither, unfortunately, is the evening entertainment so all we did today was sign up for the choir again!

Yet another 175 Ball tonight – which we’ll probably give a miss. As it is a formal night, we dressed up and had our meal in the restaurant. The good news is that “Mullygrubber” is now back on board!!

 

Saturday 14^th March – Day at Sea.

Yet another hour forward – we are now at GMT+13!

The good news is that we’re still going to Milford Sound tomorrow – the bad news is we won’t be able to go to Akoroa (for Christchurch) on 17^th.

We’ve seen on the news the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and it is apparently heading for the north east of New Zealand. We understand that there is also a smaller cyclone coming up from the south - so as Akoroa is a “tender port” it has been decided that it will not be safe to go there. The Captain has said we need to stay on the western side of the country for the moment and is looking for somewhere big enough for us to get into.

It’s a bit cold to sit out because of the wind – but this means our sheltered balcony is coming into its own!

We decided to give astronomer John Maclean a go today. He was talking about “near earth objects” i.e. meteors etc. It was quite interesting, but we’ll probably not go to see him again. We went to choir and then after scones and jam went to see the film “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. We had read the previous day’s film synopsis so wasn’t expecting a sci-fi – still, it was quite fun to watch.

Time to scrub up again for yet another formal night and Captain’s reception. We didn’t find any of our waiter friends so had to make do with only two free drinks tonight – poor show!

Ian has spoken to Hazel (events manager) and booked the Boardroom for drinks and canapés tomorrow evening for Nesta’s birthday. We have invited Andrew, Linda, Colin, Vanessa and Lewanne to join us.

We gave the welsh comedian a miss and had an early night to prepare for whatever tomorrow brings!

 

Sunday 15^th March – Milford Sound, New Zealand.

Happy birthday Nesta!

As it was her birthday, Ian let Nesta go and get our early morning tea! (Or have a smoke as it’s also known)

The weather has changed a bit – it’s only 16 degrees today.

Milford Sound is part of the Fiordland National Park and we picked up a park ranger with the pilot. We went up to the observation deck on 11 but the wind was quite strong up there so we went inside to the Atlantic Lounge (for world voyagers only) and watched the scenery out of the window whilst drinking coffee! It was possible to stand on the low window sills and take photos over the heads of the freezing passengers outside. (At last a “real” perk!)

As we’re not going to Akoroa, the Captain decided to stay longer at Milford (the town at the end of the Sound) it was interesting as he just spun the ship around a full 360 degrees continually for about 45 minutes in the sunshine. We then headed 60 miles or so southwards and went into Thompson Sound, around Secretary Island and back out of Doubtful Sound. The Ranger, Ross Kerr, did a presentation during the time it took us to get there. He has worked for Fiordland for over forty years and his knowledge and enthusiasm was apparent. We feel he is a much better speaker than some of the lecturers!

There are no settlements further south, so not many people get to see this part of the world - the only way in is by sea. It is certainly not on the cruise ship or tourist route and is stunning; although it had started to rain by the time we got there. (It does rain for over 200 days a year here, so we suppose it is to be expected!

Not a bad place to cruise on your birthday!

The magnificent seven met up in the Board Room for drinks and canapés. We enjoyed it so much that we went back and forward from there to Churchill’s (the cigar lounge) all evening and didn’t bother with dinner. Vanessa had bought some small mild cigars, with filters, which smelt like vanilla ice cream (and didn’t taste too bad either). We didn’t, therefore, get thrown out by “Hitler” who still regularly checks to make sure no-one is smoking cigarettes. N.B. Ian was ok in there…non-smokers can go into the lounge, it’s just cigarette smokers who can’t!

Nesta had a birthday card signed by the Captain waiting when we returned to our cabin. As we are now GMT+13 her birthday will last for 37 hours (Ian only got 35 hours). We will speak to Dave, Ellie and Fiona in the morning – which will still be Sunday evening for them – it’s a funny world!