The cyclone that we first went through earlier in the trip apparently hit American Samoa a couple days after we left and just the other day Tonga.  Seems we got out of Samoa with a few days to spare.  We are now crossing over to Sydney and we are once again encountering it but only the outer bands.  The captain says we have 18 more hours of 'rock and roll' to go.  I think it might be time to go play some roulette.  I  seem to do better when the boat is rocking.

We've been hanging out in the Golden Lion Pub in the evenings with our entertainer, Greg Sampson, and the hip older crowd.  This is an Irish pub and we have sing-a-longs every night followed by trivia or some other game.  These old people can be pretty funky but they sure are tough to beat with all those years of wisdom built up in the ol' noggin.  We've come in second place by 2, then 3 points twice in a row in our trivia 'golden ticket' pursuit. We were treated to a song and a piano routine by Kelly, who got on the ship in Auckland.  She must be about seventy five and had a voice as raspy as a 4-pack a day smoker but she could belt it out.  She told Greg that she use to be in a rock and roll band 40 years ago and asked if she could sing for us while Greg played the electric guitar.  He said it was a gamble but he let her have a go at it and we liked her a lot and I loved her spunk.  I hope I'm as spunky and as hip as she is at 75!!!!  I think Greg is enjoying his job more and more every night!  

Hope you saw the picture of all the kegs of beer we took on in Auckland that we posted.  We also saw large pallets of toilet paper and paper towels being put on.  Now two of those items are important and I'll let you figure out which two but let's just say that you can't let the Irish pub run dry.  It's a hot spot day and night.  Although they did run out of Candice's lemonade upstairs on the Lido and looks like we didn't get any put on the ship during all three ports in NZ.  It will be another three days before we hit Sydney.  Let's hope Candice can hold out.  I understand she wants to talk to the logistics person a-stat.

We docked in Lyttelton the other day which is connected by a tunnel through the mountain to Christchuch a few miles away.  Lyttelton reminded me of an Alaskan port town with buildings like a small Colorado town up in the mountains.  Christchurch had two universities, a large town square, and the river Avon running through it.  We visited the museum, the cathedral, and the botanical gardens before we meet our transfer out to Waimakariri River, Y-Mac for short, for our Alpine Jet boating experience.  Candice decided she couldn't do another city and needed some adventure.  It was an hour ride out to the base of the Alpine Mountains.  Very pretty ride out there and we were the only ones on the van for the transfer from Christchurch so, we kind of had our own little private tour.  When we got out to the jet boats, we discovered that we had the whole boat to ourselves but it's not like we could get up and move around.  Our driver would give us the 360 degree turn signal and rule was to hang on.  Very tricky when you are taking movies and pictures too.  The boat only needed 3 inches of water to operate and we went through some very shallow areas skipping over rock beds and skimming the edge of the rock jut-outs right and left.  Very thrilling, a little cold, but we got use to it in no time.  An hour's ride might have been a little too long for me but we definitely got our adventure in for the day.  There was absolutely no soul to be found on the entire river.  We did see a couple of boat trailers on the shoreline throughout the 15 mile trip up the river but never a soul.  We had a pristine paradise all to ourselves.  How glorious is God's handiwork?  VERY!

Funniest thing we saw in Christchurch was an airport transfer company running around with $5 bus on its side but in small print it said, "now $7."  This lady and I were on the bus and neither one of us could get our cameras up and running in time before it pulled away.

Wellington was another awesome port and I'm sure Candice will tell you all about our Lord of the Rings all day tour.  We drove over 150 km and got to see plenty of NZ's nature beauty along with all the filming locations.  We went to a tempered rainforest, only three exists in the world; Washington state, Wellington and Tasmania.  They also have a North Shore and it was just beautiful but we didn't stop for pictures down where the surf was really good but we didn't book a 'coastline' tour, so no stops.  The big rocks where the waves were breaking would have been a great photo op -boo who.  I thought we'd be coming back that way but we didn't so we missed some great beach shots but as we sailed out of port we tried to get some pictures as we wound around that side of the North Island.  We did stop at the 'Scorch O' Rama' for coffee and ice cream.  This is where the cast and crew from the Lord of the Rings hung out and right down the road from Peter Jackson's house.  Soon the cast of The Hobbit will be hanging out there too when they start filming. 

Two ports back to back have taken their toll on me.  Today has been some down time and since it's Ash Wednesday, no meat and fasting, it's best just to stay off the Lido deck.  Although our resident priest gave us dispensation, they always seem to have quite a bit of fish on the menus.  We'll see how it goes but I did refrain from my BaconFest 2010 this morning. 

One last thing - I entered my whale picture in the photo contest on board and I was first runner up!  The passengers got to vote and I must tell you that I did NOT vote for my own photo but I did move it to a more prominent spot with good lighting, hee, hee.  The winner got a 16 x 20 enlarged photo and a certificate but me and the third place person only got a certificate and our entry photo!  Can you believe that?  I'm about all certificated-out.  But I'll take the title.  This lady asked me if I was a photographer.  I told her no and as a matter of fact that picture was taken with our crappy camera.  It's a new Nikon but the pictures are more often out of focus than in.  We don't know what gives but we've decided if we lose it, no big deal!  The winning photo was snapped by someone who apparently went on a whale watch tour and they caught the entire whale jumping up out of the water.  How can you beat that photo?

Sandy