Nov 28 - 30, 2009 - Travel Day from USA to Australia - It all begins.....

HI Everyone... Well here we start again. Embarking on a new adventure this time We left Tampa on Sat, Nov 28 flying from there to NYC, to LAX, to Sydney. Well, just so you know, that's 29 and 1/2 hours. Wow... We it was really interesting. From LAX to Sydney it was exactly 14 hours fly time and LOTS of turbulence. We flew overnight, and arrived in Sydney at 9:30 in the morning. Crossed the international date line, so we arrived on Nov 30. We are way ahead of you all. Sydney is a multi-cultural mecca of people. All speaking English, of course, but with a nice accent. We got to our hotel, the Marriot at Circular Quay down by the Sydney Harbor but our room wasn't ready yet. We had them hold our bags while we walked around town and got something to eat. It's a bit over cast today and slightly sprinkling, but nice overall. Light jacket. We found out that today is the last day of spring, tomorrow is the first day of summer. Our room was finally ready in the afternoon and we are on the 29th floor overlooking the harbor and the bridge. You can see people walking on it. My adventure on the bridge is scheduled for Friday. Its very expensive here, so don't bother looking for a bargain. We are going on an excursion tomorrow to the Blue Mountains to see the countryside and some of the wildlife. Then Wed we will hit the Big Markets. I'm really tired, but I wanted to get this out to everyone since we are so ahead of you in the timeline. I think I'll just crash soon. Tomorrow should be interesting and a lot of things to talk about.

Dec 1, 2009 - Sydney, Australia - Blue Mountain Tour

It's Tuesday, the first day of Summer here in Sydney. We headed out today to the Blue Mountains on a tour. We took the 4WD Adventure Tour. What fun. Turned out there were only 6 of us plus the driver - Jed - what a cutie...

We headed out at 7:15 am in the morning. Pick up from our hotel. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park. This was really nice. We actually got to see pretty much most of the Australian animals. Multiple species of Kangaroos and Wallabys, millions of beautiful birds with such beautiful plumage, Emu's, Tasmanian devils, snakes, crocodiles, lizards, and of course Koala bears. All sooo cute. The little wallabys were all hopping around free. We got to pet and feed them. We really didn't want to leave. It was fun. The other couples on the bus were a couple from Bristol, England - the honeymooners and the other couple was from Germany. Nice people. We headed out again this time to the base of the Blue Mountains to ride down some of the fire trail roads. There was tons of Eucalyptus trees everywhere and red gum trees. We took a walk just to listen to the birds and just enjoy the quiet, peaceful forest. We stopped to have the guide show us the Didgeridoo which is a type of Aboriginal musical instrument. They guys tried it.

It was interesting. Then we went over to a clearing to practice throwing the boomerang. This was tons of fun. It's really neat how it comes back to you. We then went to Mt. Tomah to the visitors center for lunch. All day it was really cool and rainy. We expected warm summer weather here, but it's averaging in the low 60's. we are dragging out several clothes so we can layer to keep warm. May have to break down and buy another jacket or hoodie. Well, we continued to Govets Leap where it looked like the Grand Canyon. Beautiful waterfall and cliffs. At Katoomba we saw the 3 sisters (a triple mountain formation). We took a cable car down into the canyon, walked around to see the tree ferns, blue gum trees and more, then took the Scenic Railway Train back up the mountain. A 52 degree incline. Very wild.

Well, finally back to Sydney to catch the Ferry back to the harbor. Very nice, we went down the river, under the famous bridge, and right in front of the Opera House. Snapped a million pics!!! Yes... crashed again in the evening. What a day. Tomorrow is for relaxing.. I'm sure it's a Peggy shopping day.... LOL.... Night..

Dec 2, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

It was a shopping day today... Peggy is in her glory. We got up early, had breakfast in the executive room, then headed out. We walked all day.  Headed down Pitt street, then down George Street toward Chinatown. We finally got to Paddy's Market. It's a large 3 story building with outlet stores throughout and a large food court. Very high class.
We finally went down to the basement and we found all the Vendor Booths were with the discount items and clothing. This was an all day affair. We grabbed a quick dinner at one of the food courts - pasta this time. I couldn't eat anymore oriental food.

Snacks and wine for the evening at the Marriott executive room then early to bed. Big day tomorrow.....

Dec 3, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

Today we decided to do the Hop on Hop off bus and see more of the city. We started early and decided on taking the full tour first to listen to the commentary before we got off to see something. The bus hit everywhere.


Since it was a double decker, we sat on the Open Top bus to view everything and grab some photos. We finally stopped at Hyde Park, got off and walked over to the Sky Tower. The tallest building in Sydney. At the top is an observation area, rotating bar, and rotating restaurant. We did the observation area and grabbed some pics. I was amazed at the size and expansion of Sydney. They actually call this "Little New York". From a City perspective, the size and expanse, and the amount of people that walk the streets daily, I would believe it. We walked from the Sky tower to Darling Harbor. There we visited the Aquarium saw some amazing fish that you would never see in our part of the world. Back to the bus to continue on our journey. This time we switched buses to head out to Bondi Beach.

This is on the East side of Sydney where all the Surfers go. It was beautiful. A huge bay, with nice sand, lots of shops, and many surfers.

Now we head back on the last bus of the day, back to Circular Quay to our Hotel. It was a long day. We turned in early tonight.  Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge tomorrow.

Dec 4, 2009 - Sydney, Australia - Bridge Climb

We are up early again today... Peggy headed out to do some more shopping at the markets down the street. I headed over to the Bridge Climb. This was fantastic. I got in a little early than my appointment, but that was fine.  It takes about an hour to go through orientation to prepare you for the climb. You remove all jewelry, jeans, etc. They give you a jumpsuit to wear with attachments all over it. Your sunglasses are attached to the suit with connectors, handkerchiefs are attached to your wrists, a waist harness is added to hold your radio and the cable that keeps you connected to the steel cable that runs the complete length of the bridge climb. Along the tour we were given commentary by our guide about the building of the bridge and the surrounding area and islands. It was really very good. Once we got to the top we were experiencing 35 knot winds, but the cable kept us attached. A couple of helicopters flew directly over head as well as a couple of Sea Planes coming in for a landing. It was exhilarating. It takes about 3 to 3.5 hours to do it all. At the end you get a Climbing Certificate and a group picture. Well worth the money. In the afternoon we took the train out of town to see some of the surrounding suburbs of Sydney and back. Since it is Friday, there are all kinds of festivals going on down George street by the Rocks. The Rocks is the old part of town.  There were vendor tents everywhere selling tons of stuff, lots of the local food, and some of the bars in the area were packed with people. All drinking. From what we could tell, it looked like many were having their Company Christmas parties. At the Museum of Contemporary art there was a large company Christmas party and they were all dressed like the roaring 20's. And I do mean dressed to the hilt.... really neat. Well back to the room, again everything is way past our pricing budget, so back to the hotel to read and relax. Not sure what to do tomorrow yet... we'll see. Night...

Dec 5, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

Saturday was relaxing. Lots of walking all around Sydney. Down to Circular Quay to see the ships & Ferries, then over to the Opera House. Walked the complete length, then through the Botanical Gardens. Can you believe there was an area just loaded with the Fox bats? They were hanging in all the trees and flying about. It was weird. And smelled even worse! More walking downtown and around. We picnicked on park bench with crackers, fruit, and cookies. It was really nice just watching all the people going by. Later in the afternoon we just packed and repacked getting ready for leaving Sunday. Just stayed in and watched a moving on the TV. I think we are ready for our departure from Sydney.

Dec 6, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Sydney, Australia

We got up this morning and decided to do some walking before we checked out of the hotel and got on the cruise ship. We walked down to Paddy's Market in Chinatown again and got in a good 2 hours of walking. Back to the Hotel to finish our packing and head on over to the cruise ship. We were first told our ship was going to be docked at Darling Harbor, but it ended up docking at Circular Quay which was a 10 min drive from the hotel. Perfect. Well we loaded up all of our luggage and headed over about noonish. The ship is only 63,000 tons but beautiful none the less. Got to work as soon as we got settled in our stateroom. We pulled our documents together and visited each of the staterooms where our clients are staying. Some we met, some we didn't. Tomorrow morning we have a desk in the Atrium for our guests, then we have a nice cocktail party for them tomorrow night. I think we'll hit the hay early tonight. It's been a long, hot day. So far we are 12 nautical miles out to sea and the boats a rock'n. I hope it doesn't mean storms ahead.

Dec 7, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Sea Day

At Sea Day.... Well not much happening during our day at sea. I sat at the desk this morning for a couple of hours to be available for my cruise guests. No questions, no visits. Attended the Tour Talk for Melbourne, Australia, our next port of call. Walked the ship. Watched the Slot Machine Tournament. Won a free session with a trainer in the fitness center - whoo hoo...Did the line dancing in the afternoon. Attended the Show in the evening. It was OK, not overly great. Tomorrow is Melbourne and we meet up with a friend we met in the Gallapagos. Supposed to be a rainy day... We'll see....Till tomorrow..

Dec 8, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Melbourne, Australia

Well we were right... as of midnight last night the sea swells were pretty big and the boat was really swaying. We just went to bed. Woke up in the morning to Melbourne, Australia and a nasty, rainy day.... Our plans to day was to meet up with Vickie, a friend we met while we were traveling in the Gallapagos Islands. She picked us up around 9:30 am and took us for a tour of the whole city including the outer suburbs in her car. It wasn't bad. It's a smaller and more manageable city than Sydney, but still expensive. We parked in the middle of town at a large entertainment complex. It had shopping, restaurants, casino, movies, and a hotel. We walked around and looked at the christmas decorations, then took Vickie to a nice lunch. The temperature is running about the low 60's, so it's a bit cool. We headed back to the ship and took the afternoon to prepare for our private cocktail party for the guests we are hosting. Several of our couples showed up for the cocktail party, but many didn't.  I think some got confused because we had to change the location due to AC problems in the original meeting point.  Overall everthing went well. Early night.

Dec 9, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Bernie, Tazmania

Boy oh boy.... another cold, wet and rainy day. Temperature is the low 60's, high 50's. I can't believe this is the beginning of Summer!  Should have brought more clothes. I may have to break down and buy a couple of long sleeve shirts and a jacket. We had an excursion today. We boarded the bus just after 8:30 am this morning and toured the coast of the island, then we turned inward. Really rocky and hilly, not really mountainous, just lots of hills. Beautifuls homes on the tops of the hills over looking the beautiful views of the beaches and water. So it rained off and on most of the day. We stopped at a wildlife park where they take in hurt or orphaned animals. So lots of Tazmanian Devils, Wallabys, Kangaroos, Emu's, bunny's, indiginous birds, monkeys, wombats, and more. There was a Cockatiel that (I think) fell in love with Peggy and was trying his mating dance on her... You'll see in the pics... He was beautifully flaired out with all his feathers... Well, back to the ship for lunch and an afternoon of some exercise. Tonight is a magician, so we'll probably go see him. Anyway.. next is 2 days at sea as we head out to New Zealand. I'm REALLY hoping the waves stay calm..... but I think there are some storms out there... POO... Till later. Anna

Dec 10, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - At Sea

Well here we are on our day at sea again. Leaving Australia behind and heading toward New Zealand. Not a bad day. A few things to do on the ship, but not like other cruise lines. Big Slot machine tournament today... Peggy is in her glory. She got top leader (over 9000 points) for the qualifier, so she made it to the finals. In the finals she got last place.... LOL... it was a funny sight. Went dancing in the Crows Nest in the evening. Danced until 1 am. We had to tell the DJ what to play because he was only playing music from the 50, 60 and 70 era.... Blech....I'm so sick of Michael Jackson. What is actually funny, is that one of the clients (way older than the DJ) had to tell him what music to play.  It was so funny that she knew more hit music and groups than he did.  Tonight we move our clocks ahead 1 hour. So that's about it. Nothing new...

Dec 11, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - At Sea

Our second day at sea while still on our way to New Zealand . Today winds are high, rain is pretty consistent so you can't go outside. Still very cold and whipping through the halls when people open doors. Peggy pretty much stayed in the room most of the day. I worked the desk for the clients, then grabbed a light lunch, then just watched a movie for a while. 3:00pm I met with the Fitness Trainer for the free 45 min training that I won on the first day. Florin (hummm nice, sexy, cute) worked with me for over an hour and we just chatted. He loves to dance salsa, so wants to work with me when he is off in the evenings. Since he is not an officer, he is not allowed to go to any of the bars to dance with the clients, nor are we allowed in the crews quarters, so we figured we'd work on the wood floor where the Pilates classes are taught. Later that evening, Peggy and I went to dinner in the Specialty restaurant, The Pinnacle grill, and had our Steak & Lobster. Humm good. Then went to see the show. The dancers and singers on this cruise are NOT very good at all.... Both shows so far have been very disappointing. One of the female singers is terrible.... some of the older guests were complaining in the halls that they sang better than she did... LOL... I had to laugh. We saw some of them at the Volendam Idol karaokee show.... They need to keep their day job. LOL... Well, back to the room as Peggy needs to pack for her overnight trip from Milford Sound to Dunedin . I'm staying on board. We'll see what tomorrow brings..

Dec 12, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Milford Sound, NZ

What a day !!!! After the 2 days at sea crossing from Tasmania to New Zealand, we pulled into Milford Sound. IT’s like a waterway bay with lots of Fiords (cliffs of mountains on each side of the ship). It was still raining, so it was so amazing to see soooo many waterfalls just streaming down the cliffs. They were way taller than the top of the ship. Beautiful. The winds were howling too !! Strong gusts to the point that in some cases where the waterfall was supposed to drop into the sea, the winds just caught the water and blew it away into nothingness. I tried to get a picture, but I had to get it from the window, so not sure if it came out. But, wow, what a site. The captain turned the ship around and stopped for just a brief moment to allow the people going on the overnight shore excursion to get off the ship. Well, this is where Peggy got off. She and 5 other singles, and 85 other couples left. We continued on cruising leaving Milford Sound and headed back out to the open sea. We headed south following the coastline, but our weather was horrendous!! The winds were just short of Gale Force, the seas were really, really high! I’m on deck 1 forward, so as the waves were breaking over the bow of the ship, it was sometimes covering my window completely !!! I heard a couple was on the forward bow sticking their coffee cups over the railing and collecting the water as it broke over the bow! The ship was a rocking and a reeling.. Many people were nauseated and sick, others were fine. I spent most of the day working on my clients paperwork, then just relaxed in the room for the rest of the night. Read a book. I’m so boring.

Peggy and her group continued on by bus out of the rain forest, toured the countryside and spent the night in a beautiful 5 star resort overlooking the mountains called the Hotel St. Moritz. Once they settled in, they took a paddle wheel boat across the lake to a beautiful cottage for dinner. She said the food was fantastic, then they hit a couple of the bars around the local town that evening before retiring for the night. Another very early morning for them as they are traveling over 1600km in order to meet up with the ship again in Dunedin.

Dec 13, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Dunedin, NZ

Yahoo, today we docked in Dunedin and it’s SUNNY !!!! It’s finally nice…Peggy is still on her tour, so I headed into town this morning to see the city and just get off the ship for a while and walk… I was getting buggy after 3 days on the ship. It is Sunday, so not many things are open until about 10:30 or 11:00 am. Dunedin is called the Edinburgh of the south. It’s very Scottish here. The central district is a neat eight-sided Octagon designed in the mid-19th century. Towering above the historic buildings are the twin spires of St. Paul’s Cathedral. There are many museums that focus on the Polynesian culture and history and an early settlers museum. The railway station was the most impressive. It’s massive structure was beautiful and colorful. Definitely the highlight of the whole town. About 11 I took the bus back to the boat to have lunch. The bus ride was about 20 min one way. I had to return because I had an excursion in the afternoon visiting another one of Dunedin’s well known sites. Our ship was docked in Port Chalmers and we headed out on our bus to the tip of the Otago Peninsula which was clear on the other side of the bay. Gee, if there was a ferry and we could have gone straight across it would have saved tons of time, but not being the case, we had to drive ALL the way around the whole inlet to the other side to the tip of the Peninsula. Here we met up with the keepers of the Otago Reserve. They gave us a lecture all about the world’s rarest penguin – Hoiho – the Yellow-eyed Penguin. Then we were taken out to see them, since they do NOT allow humans anywhere near the area, they built several “hides” to allow us an opportunity to view the penguins in their natural habitat. Since many had just had pup’s 4-6 weeks ago, they were busy guarding their pups and the other parent was out to see for food. An interesting note is these penguins will build their burrow (hole) over 800 meters from the beach front. There were sheep everywhere (so we had to watch where we stepped) and a few Fur Seals lying on the rocks of the beach. Naturally as we were out doing this, the weather turned crappy again, started to rain, and turned cold again. By the time we got back to the ship it was coming down. Peggy and her group finally go back to the ship right before we departed Dunedin.

Dec 14, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Christchurch, NZ

Woke up to our arrival today in Christchurch, NZ. What a beautiful day !! Sunny, Warm, exactly what we expected the weather to be for this whole trip. We didn’t have anything planned regarding excursions today, so we headed into town. As we came down the gangplank, we saw the line for the free shuttle to town had a LONG line. As we walked up, a taxi driver came up to us and said… $5.00 pp if you get 8 people to fill a van and we’ll take you to town… Well, you know Peggy and I, that’s a deal.. we kept yelling at the other folks until we got 8 people to go with us. The Taxi driver we got was wonderful. She was so nice. We started off with her and as she got down the road, she said, “for $2 pp more, I’ll take you all the long way over the mountain (rather than through the tunnel), stop at the overlooks, give you commentary, and take you to where you want to go in town. We all said…. YES !!! Well, we all ended up giving her $10 pp, but she gave us an hour and a half tour, including a short trek on a walkway up a mountain in order to get the best pictures of the views of the countryside and the city. IT was amazing. So absolutely beautiful! I can see now why they chose this country for all the Lord of the Rings movies. It is breathtaking…. Well,  we finally got to town, dropped off some of the people, and she took Peggy and I to the Salvation Army store. YES… we are shopping !! WE left there with several long sleeve shirts, down vests, rain coat, and down jackets, scarves, etc. And, we didn’t have to break the bank… we barely spent any money at all. Christchurch is the kick off point for people going to Antarctica and here is the key location for polar research and data analysis at the International Center for Antarctic Information and Research (ICAIR) which was originally set up in 1992. This was a joint venture between New Zealand, the United States and Italy. We wanted to go there, but it would have been a 4 hour trip and we didn’t have the time. We started walking back to the center of town with all our goodies and found many vendors there. The center of town in Christchurch is the Cathedral Square. This is where all the local activity is centered. There was a young man playing bagpipes, another showing a crowd what he could do with a bullwhip, and more. There was also a small market with vendors selling sweaters, scarves, handmade jewelry, handmade wooden items, etc. Lots of stuff, but I still felt it was a bit overpriced. Well, all of a sudden a wind kicked up and within 20 min the temperature dropped over 20 degrees. Well Peggy and I pulled our vests out of our bags and put them on. Absolutely amazing. Well, we quickly tried to find where the shuttle bus was and decided to head back to the ship. We found out that a hail storm was coming. Needless to say, yes it did… Small pellets pelted the town, along with the rain and the freezing temperatures. We just stayed on the ship for the rest of the day. The doors to the gangway were one floor up from us so the winds were whipping down the hallways, so it was freezing…. Thank God we bought the clothes we did. Hope it’s nicer tomorrow. We head out to Picton, NZ.

Dec 15, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Picton, NZ

Today was another great day…we had to spend most of the morning preparing our reminder notices to our clients for the private excursion and the guest comment cards. It was not as warm as yesterday, but sunny and at least now we are prepared. Picton is a very small city, it’s the northern most city in the South Island. There are some beautiful gardens, a few small museums with Maori artifacts and explanations of the earliest settlers. Very hilly everywhere and hiking trails all over the place. An amazing place for trout fishing and in the Marlborough county many, many wineries. The excursion we went on in the afternoon toured the Picton countryside, the valley, and we visited 3 wineries and taste tests. It was interesting, some were very good, some were very bad. All depends on your taste. Many bought bottles and brought it back to the ship. At least today we didn’t have much rain at all. Barely a sprinkling every now and then while we were on the bus, but that’s about it. Tonight was the Chef’s Master Dinner with the singers and dancing waiters. Fair… not great. We are only 56 miles from our next Port of call, Wellington, so we are not going very far out into the waters. Not much going on tonight. Working in the room. Hoping for another great day tomorrow in Wellington.......

Dec 16, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Wellington, NZ

Wellington is another beautiful city surrounded by a magnificent harbor. We didn’t have any excursions scheduled to today so we took our time heading out to the city. Again a very cool day. Peggy and I decided this was a good day to walk. We left the ship and followed all along the harbor and headed toward where the market was supposed to be. Well, come to find out they had torn down the market, so we talked with a taxi driver and found that we were right there on Cuba street where the “alternative” all hung out. Hummm, what did this mean??? Well, it’s not what you think. It’s just a street full of shops with recycle clothing, tattoo shops, small oriental stores, $2 shops, and many small eateries. We just walked and looked in all the stores. Didn’t really find much. I’m kinda shopped out, but Peggy is like the energizer bunny… keeps going, and going, and going…. We then walked over to the street where the luxury shops were and walked down there. I think we walked for over 4 hours that day without sitting down once. We headed back to the ship for lunch, then chilled the rest of the afternoon in the room relaxing. That evening on the ship was Latin night, so we had gone up to the Fitness Center to see if Florin (the fitness trainer) could join us to dance. He Salsa dances… Well, he did, and we had a GREAT time. Well, at least I did. Peggy didn’t dance, only I did. And let me tell you… Dancing salsa with a young, strong, built, six-pack, sexy fitness trainer… I was in heaven. He was great. We got a standing ovation and were asked on multiple occasions if we were the dancers on the ship. LOL…. So funny… well… I was on the list for the blackjack tournament, so Peggy ran down to see where I was. I gave her my free pass to enter if she wanted….. Guess what.. she did…. Made the finals for the tournament…. AND…… WON…… !!!!! She won $500 ….. So we both had a great night….. LOL….. Well, it’s after midnight, so we need to get to bed…. Tomorrow is Napier and we have our private excursion with our group.


Later…

Dec 17, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Napier, NZ

Up early today to start getting ready to get the group together…. Early breakfast, then up to the Ocean Bar to meet the group. As they arrived we checked them all in and gave them their sticker for the bus. We started out with 33 people and ended up with a total of 21 actually going on the private excursion. We were picked up by a nice older gentleman named Gray who took us first on a city tour. Napier is a small, quaint city which was rebuilt after 1931 earthquake where the whole city was rebuilt into a classic Art Deco Architecture. It’s all mixed in between different buildings throughout the whole city. Right near Napier is where Cape Kidnappers is located which is one of the most famous places for golf. Very expensive location, but absolutely beautiful. Another very nice area is Hawkes Bay where award winning wines are corked. As we toured the city looking at everything, we were slowly heading out of town toward Hastings. Just outside of the city we stopped at a local farmhouse which was the homestead of Tom and Joann Lowery. Called the Okawa Station.  We visited their private home, and acres and acres of gardens, trees, cows, horses, sheep, and more… as they walked us around the property and told us about their family history and explained the gardens. As we stopped in a little hothouse and were able to pick some raspberries and strawberries, humm, delicious. Sweet and tasty. We then walked up to the house and Joann had breakfast sandwiches, coffee cake, lemon cakes, fruit cakes and more along with coffee, tea and homemade lemonade. It was delicious. Well, it was time to move on to our next destination. Well, needless to say, it was nearly impossible to get the group rounded up and back on the bus. No one wanted to leave… I had to push…. Finally we headed to the Alpha Domus Winery. This is a very, very small winery in Hastings. They do send some of their wines to the US under the name of Pilot. Their desert wine (sweet) was very good. We were welcomed with open arms and given 4 wines to taste, then we got an opportunity to tour the vineyards, and the collecting vats. Some bought wine, and then we headed back to the ship because we had to debark from Napier at 2:00 pm today. Too early… we really wanted more time in this beautiful little town to walk around, but, it didn’t happen. Another weird thing happened that evening while on the ship… Apparently we are now having engine problems, because as we depart out of Napier we only have 1 prop now instead of 2. Therefore we have to go extra slow as we head out to Tauranga (Rotorua). As we went to dinner we also found out that there is a problem with the air conditioner too… And guess what.. it’s formal night… What a pain, but we’ll just relax and enjoy dinner. After that we found out it was the last Slot tournament on the ship too. Peggy just had to try it again to see if she could make the finals. Well, it didn’t work out. She didn’t win anything….. We headed out to bed…. Another day bites the dust….. In the end all my clients LOVED the private excursion and had a wonderful time.

Dec 18, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Tauranga (Rotorua), NZ

Late arrival in Tauranga today. Arrived at 10 am rather than 8am. Took us a long time to get to Tauranga from Napier due to the loss of one of the ships propellers. We limped along with 1 and they also had to cut off the AC to save energy. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow before we set sail again.


That's about it. Most of the groups went on one of the 9 hour trips. Exhausted.

Dec 19, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Day at Sea - New Zealand

Our last day before we debark the ship. A full day at sea. I had to work in the Atrium lobby from 9am – 11 am for my group today. Several of the clients came by to talk and drop off their guest comment cards. Peggy went to the Debarkation talk and it’s where they brought most of the crew up on stage to say good bye. We had lunch on the lido deck and they were doing 50% off on the ships t-shirts. People were buying like crazy.. The problem was…. I really didn’t see a discount… not for me I guess. Peggy spent time repacking while I did some work. I went up to the Fitness center to say good bye to Florin the fitness trainer, then came back to the room to pack. Later Peggy and I went to the LAST BINGO of the cruise… Nope…. Didn’t win here either…. We then watched the singing competition then just did some casino games. Dinner was with friends at 8:00pm. That is it… cruise is pretty much over… just finish packing, get our bags out by midnight for collection, then off the ship in the morning. Till then we’ll try to get a good nights sleep.

Dec 20, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Auckland, New Zealand

Well… Here it is…. After 14 days traveling from Sydney to Auckland, visiting all our ports of call, and seeing so many wonderful places it’s over. We had a fabulous time. Australia… well, there is still so much more to see of that country. New Zealand… wow…. Such a beautiful country with landscaping that will keep you mesmerized. As we disembark the ship in Auckland, it’s raining. We are getting soaked as we try to get a taxi to get us to our hotel. Our hotel is right downtown on the main street. Not the greatest, but cheap enough and has a cooktop, with microwave and refridge. We got there too early as many had not yet checked out, so we had them lock up our luggage and we spent the rest of the day walking around the town. Walked around town from about 10am – 1:pm. Finally got checked in, luggage to the room, and I just crashed for the rest of the afternoon. Peggy wanted to walk some more, so she went out and did just that.


We did get to the grocery store and bought some groceries to hopefully save some money. You should see the prices at some of these restaurants. Subway… 6 inch sub costs $6.00. Big Mac costs $5.00… Lunches are advertised for $10-15 and Dinners are advertised for $15 – 20. And that’s at the CHEAP places…. Tomorrow I think we’ll try the Hop-on/Hop-off bus. Night.

Dec 22, 2009 - Auckland, New Zealand

Today we got up early and tried to get down to the Ferry. We had planned to take the Ferry at 9:30 am, but I couldn’t find my pass showing we had already paid for the ticket, so we missed the ferry and had to wait for the 10:30 one. Once we got on, it was a short tour of the Auckland Harbor giving commentary as we headed over to Rangatoto Island. Upon arrival to Rangatoto island (volcano) we started walking and ended up on a hiking trail. Peggy started, but turned back because the path was getting really treacherous. I continued on trying to get to the summit before the ferry returned. Well, time was running out, so I headed back to catch the ferry. I didn’t want to wait around until the last one at 3:30 pm. We headed back on the Ferry and finished listening to the commentary on the return. Again to save money we headed back to the hotel to make a sandwich for lunch. Fueled up we headed out again to walk the streets and look around. This time back at the hotel we made grilled cheese sandwiches then watched a movie. We did try to go to the movies to see Avatar, but they were all sold out. So we tried to buy it for the night of the 23rd. Well, that was almost sold out too., but get this… movies… $18.50 pp and they assigned your seats…. IF you want to sit in the comfortable seats, then you have to pay more…. IF you want the comfortable seats, and be served with a menu, the price per ticket is $30 pp. AND you STILL have to buy your drink and food. Small popcorn and a small drink is $6.50… and when I say small… I do mean small….. LOL…..

Dec 23, 2009, Auckland, New Zealand

Today we got up early again, had breakfast in the hotel and headed out to catch the Intercity bus. It looks like rain today, but we certainly hope that it does hold off. Today we are heading out to Rainbow’s End. This is an amusement park way on the outskirts of the city, so should be interesting. We jumped on the bus and took a good 45 min bus ride to Manakau City. It was like another bus tour this time without the commentary. Sure hope we find the right bus back home. The bus dropped us off at the Westfield shopping mall and we had to walk about a block over to the park. It opened at 10:00 am and we got there at about 5 min till. Once inside we quickly got around to all the rides. There was hardly anyone there so it was pretty easy. Of course, it was Peggy, me, and about 150 kids. We held our own though… The 3D Dinosaur Motion Master, the swinging pirate ship, 18 story fear fall, roller coaster, log flume, the Invader, go karts, and finally 12 hole golf. We walked back over to the mall and walked around for a while. All the stores, malls, and more are jammed packed. Everyone with their last minute Christmas buys. Crazy. Either way we still can’t afford anything so it doesn’t matter. We grabbed some food at the food court, then tried to figure out which bus to get back to the city center. Finally we just ended up grabbing any old bus and it took us about an hour and a half to get back. We look at it as another tour of the country side. LOL…Got back, finally, and found a little place for pizza. Then back to the hotel. Tomorrow is our last day, so we’ll probably use up our bus pass, and do the sky tower. I think we might even head out of town again to the big outlet mall. WE’ll see. We need time to pack and figure out how to get to the airport. Guess I’ll work on that a little tonight.


. HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Dec 24, 2009 - Auckland, New Zealand

Well today is our last full day in Auckland, NZ. We decided to head out to the Outlet Mall in Onehunga, a small suburb just outside of the City. We found they had a FREE bus so we walked up to the Sky Tower to catch it. Took about 30 min to get there. We walked around and looked in the shops, really not seeing much. Everyone was having last minute sales, but still, 30% off of their prices was still up there. More than my budget, so we passed. We did find one store that was doing 50% off the already marked down price, so I found a couple of nice long sleeve shirts for $10NZ which was a really good price. I can always use these for future travel. We grabbed a quick lunch too then took the free bus back to the city. While we were there we met a nice girl going to the University, her name was Hope. Since we were leaving we told her we would give her all of our left over clothes and stuff so she could use it or sell it what ever she wanted to do. We told her to come by on 12/25 about 10am in the morning to pick it up since we had to repack in the evening. I ended up buying a large duffle suitcase to bring everything back. We wanted to go out and have a nice dinner in a restaurant for Christmas eve, but as we walked around and checked out the prices we eventually gave up. We had potatoes in the fridge in the hotel, so I made mashed potatoes. What a great Christmas eve meal!!! and we watched TV. We kept tabs on SkyLink News for the weather to see how it was going to impact our trip back home tomorrow since we were connecting in Chicago. Hummm.... storms over the midwest... crap... Keep our fingers crossed.... Merry Christmas all.....

Dec 25, 2009 - Christmas & back home

Well, today is the Day !!! Merry Christmas to all. We will have 2 Christmas days this year... Neat !!!


Well, we met up with Hope (the college student) this morning and gave her all of our clothes and stuff that we weren't bringing back to the states. She was very happy. At about 11 the shuttle bus picked us up to take us to the airport. Our bags were packed to the max. We tried to meet the 50 pounds for the checked bags, but knew very well we were already over that amount. We packed a bunch in our carry on too. HA ....Guess what.... we get to the airport and try to check in..., Turned out we could ONLY have 7 kilograms for our carryon luggage... both of ours was about 15 kg...we had to step over to the side and take everything out of our carryon and put it in our checked luggage... which was ALREADY over the limit.... We thought for sure we would get charged the over limit fee... Thank the lord they allowed our baggage to go through without additional fees.... It was crazy... Then we had to get through the security line.. no problem there... Auckland to Los Angeles was about 11 hours flight time... Since it was overnight and the flight was not full we were able to lay down and try to get some sleep. Once we got to LAX we had to collect our luggage, go through customs, immigration and recheck back in. Well, wasn't a problem with the luggage, but sure was a problem with our tickets... we had to walk over to a different terminal, try to get checked in ... the crowds were freaking amazing... Where in the world were all these people traveling on christmas day ??? We finally got our boarding passes to get us from LAX to Chicago and got in line for security. Well it was 8:00 am and our flight was 9:30am... well guess how long it took us to get through security??? Almost an hour and a half... as soon as we got through we were boarding our plane... ridiculous....Chicago wasn't bad. Our biggest fear was ice and snow. It wa 32 degrees and raining, storm was coming in fast. We finally boarded there at 6:00 pm for our 6:30 pm departure.. Ice was forming on the ground and they ended up De-Icing our plane right before we took off. Yeahhh... made it out before the big storm hit. Finally got to Tampa at 10:30 pm, got our bags, Peggy's friend picked us up and we grabbed a quick bite at Denny's, into bed at her house at about 1:00 am..... What a trip !!!! Amazing, tiring, interesting, cultural, and so happy we did it. We met so many great people, visited some old friends, saw wildlife we will probably never see again..... Can't wait to go back again.....

Merry Christmas again... Thanks for reading my blogs and all your great comments. Until the next trip !!!