2011 Cruise, Days 24-26

Tuesday, October 11, 2011, At Sea, Day 24


Ship's position S38 °54'94' E178°26.16'. The sea is rough and was a cloudy rainy day.

We had a late lunch after spending most of our morning in the cabin. We went to the library for computer access but it was still very slow.

Gerri went to a show, British Invasion, in the theater. We had a late supper in the Horizon Court.

I didn't get the ships position before going to bed.



Wednesday, October 12, Day, Akaroa, NZ, Day 25

S43°49.32' E172°55.30'

We didn't sign up for any shore activities. Our plan today was to go ashore and wonder around. From our balcony the harbor entrance looked small. The surrounding hills are green with scattered trees. I couldn't see the town, only a few scattered groups of buildings. We should see more as the ship turns on anchor.

We met Tim and Beth at 10 and went ashore for a day of shopping. Akaroa is about 85 miles from Christchurch. Christchurch was our original port of call, but it was switched after a large earthquake caused a lot of damage to tourist spots there. Akaroa is on a peninsula and the harbor has a very narrow entrance, and is well protected.

The town itself is very well groomed and clean, the surrounding hills are covered with very green grass. We had read about some thing called hokey pokey ice cream. I ask Luke, the Jr. Assistant Cruise Director, what it was. He is originally from New Zealand, He told me it was a vanilla ice cream with honey nougats in it, a must try. We tried it. It was good ice cream but I could have done without the extra sweetness that the honey balls gave it. After walking around the main street for awhile we went up a street to a cache named Cache Much? I was located on a street named Rue Cachalot. An easy find. The street is named after a ship that brought some early French settlers to the area. The rest of the group headed back down the hill, I went along a side street toward another cache at the French Cemetery. It was quite a climb and then a down hill to the cache. I did two here at Akaroa, my 3rd and 4th caches in New Zealand.

We had a lunch of fish and chips in the downtown area. Gerri and Beth did some more shopping, Tim and I headed back to the ship.

It started to cloud up so the sail away wasn't very scenic. We did stay on deck for the sail away and then went to get ready for supper.

The ship's position at bedtime was S44°30.20' E172°14.75'. This was another very beautiful port of call.

I called Dana to see what was going on with my Mom. She took my Mom to a couple of doctors, nothing definitive yet. Dr. Wirtz thinks she may have congestive heart failure and possibly lung cancer. Dana had recalled the doctor today and no results were in. Todd and Jeannette want Glenna to come visit them this coming weekend, they are celebrating both Emma and Wyatt's birthdays. My first reaction was no, since if she had any problems it would involve a new set of doctors. After considering that Dr. Wirtz thought she was up to the trip, some conflict between Barbara and Dana over care, and the fear that there may not be too many more opportunities or Glenna to visit them, I agreed to the trip. Todd is going to meet Dana halfway on Friday and then do the same thing on the 19th to get Glenna back to Las Vegas for a doctor appointment. We can only pray that all this works out for the best.



Thursday, October 13, 2011, Dunedin, NZ, Day 26

S45°48.75' E170°37.58.'.

We actually docked at Port Chalmers, about a 6 mile 30 minute bus ride from Dunedin.

Before leaving home I had downloaded caches near our ports of call. As with Auckland and others, I had only information from maps to determine the Lat Lons of my search. In Auckland I was about 5 miles off, with Dunedin I was about six miles off from where the ship docked.

We took a shuttle to town. We walked around the Octagon, like a town plaza, and visited a few shops. I forgot to put the SD card back in Gerri's camera when I downloaded pictures this morning. I stopped at a camera shop and bought a new card. About half an hour later it occurred to me that I could have taken the one out of my GPS and save the money. Gerri bought some souvenirs and a Wool and Possum vest. I found two geocaches in the downtown area. Easy peasy mini caches.

We had lunch and then caught the shuttle back to the ship. We had a delicious meat pie with fries.

Chores pile up, so Gerri did some laundry. She figured it wouldn't be as busy today as when we are at sea.

Since Port Chalmers was so close, I went to the library to see if there were any nearby caches. I downloaded four and headed back out. I picked the tough one first. The name should have been a hint, Resting on a hill. It took some time to walk up the hill. I tried another on the way back to the ship but didn't find it.

I took some pictures from our balcony during the sail away, it had turned cloudy, cool and breezy. After that we got ready for supper. Today was Beth's birthday, so there was a special cake and of course singing.

After supper we listened to Sammy Goldstein until he took a break.

Ship's position S46°28.05' E170°14.04'.