February 7, 2013 Auckland, New Zealand

The sheep of New Zealand are more plentiful than the people. New Zealand has a population of 4.3 million people but they boast a sheep population of 45 million. In the 1850’s the first large-scale wool producing operations was established on the North Island. With the invention of refrigerated shipping in 1882, the first ship called the Dunedin sailed from New Zealand to England filled with meat. This was the beginning of a booming meat industry, which began to replace wool as the major export industry. Today, breeds of sheep have been developed to produce a variety of wool and meat types.

We took a bus to the Auckland War Memorial Museum today, which is a short bus ride from downtown. The museum is located on a hilltop, which was the site of great battles and includes nice views out over the city. This is called a war memorial museum but it is a very comprehensive museum with a much greater collection than just the war history of New Zealand. There is a large Maori antique collection, a section on natural history, volcanoes, oceans, a children’s museum, special exhibits, and so much more. We took a guided tour of the highlights of the museum and then explored on our own.

We then walked back to the ship through the Parnell area of town with antique shops, gift shops and many small cafes and restaurants. Auckland is a very well kept city that feels safe and fairly easy to navigate.  The city is full of young people, many of whom are Asian students sent here by families to study and learn English.  It is apparently closer to home and less expensive than studying in the USA.  Many other European young people are here as well.  You might think the average age of people in Auckland was 25 if you judged by the age of the people on the streets.  Some hotties!

We set sail this afternoon for Tauranga. Our friends Patrick and Stephen had disembarked a day earlier to continue their vacation on land and had come to the port to see us off. We miss their laughter and friendship already.

The entertainment on this night was a singer, songwriter and recording artist by the name of Patrick McMahon who is from Australia. He had more energy than anyone I know and bounced around the stage. He sang songs from Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and more.

Maori Folkloric Show

February 6, 2013 Auckland, New Zealand

To New Zealanders, Auckland is known as Queen City or City of Sails. Auckland is the largest and most modern city in New Zealand and is located on the north island. Within an hour drive from the city, you will find 102 beaches for swimming, surfing, waterskiing or sail boarding. There are over 70,000 powerboats and sailing craft or one per every four households.

Our ship is docked at the foot of the main shopping street called Queens Street in the heart of the commercial district, which is very convenient. Auckland has a sky tower very similar to the space needle you find in Seattle.

We explored the beautiful wharf area that has many restaurants, a fish market, boat docks, outdoor art and children’s play areas along the waters edge. This area was once much more industrial but today it is being converted to a wonderful public space. We also picked up a heritage walking tour book with several architectural tours of the downtown area. Many of the historic downtown buildings date back to the late 1800’s and it is easy to walk right past them with out stopping to appreciate the unique architecture. Many of these buildings were originally built for successful local businesses that ranged from banks and insurance companies to confectioners and drapery shops.

Back onboard the ship this evening we enjoyed a Haka Legend Maori Folkloric Show. The Maori people are believed to have come to the islands of New Zealand in canoes from other parts of Polynesia about 800 years ago. They lived on fish, shellfish and edible plants until centuries passed when agriculture was brought to the islands. When the European settlers arrived in 1839, tribal warfare, disease and destruction of the area through hunting and forest clearance depleted the Maori population. The British took the islands from the Maori people shortly after arriving and forbid them from speaking their native language. Today the Maori people are once again celebrating their culture, speaking their native language and mixing with the locals.

Auckland Skyline

February 5, 2013 Sea Day

Bruce Linder lectured today on Matthew Fontaine Maury and Nathaniel Bowditch, two American navigators who changed the world of navigation. Bowditch had an incredible mind for mathematics and took existing books on navigational data at the time and made thousands of corrections from his own experiences at sea thus creating his own book on navigation, which is still used today. Maury was a naval officer who combined data about sea currents, wind currents and other data to create the most efficient ways of traversing the oceans. Many times these directions were a much longer distance but provided a quicker and safer journey for ships. This reduced not only time but also the cost of insurance and loss of life.

Pianist Naki Ataman gave an afternoon concert, which was an hour-long performance of popular tunes from the twentieth century. He is an excellent pianist and provided an enjoyable afternoon.

Since we missed our stop at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands due to rough seas we arrived in Auckland this evening around 6:00PM. This is also the end of the journey for about 80 of the passengers onboard, as well as the embarkation point for a new group of passengers. We have had 1,102 guests onboard although the ship can hold over 1,300 guests. During our trip thus far the ship has traveled 9,728 nautical miles and consumed 39,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day. A nautical mile is equal to 1.15 statute miles for those of you who may be asking. The ship has produced 370,000 gallons of potable water per day not to mention the 160,000 gallons of potable water we have consumed.

We had a casual dinner in the Lido cafeteria before we ventured out this evening with our friend Tom from Lake Como, Italy to find an Internet location. McDonald’s has free Internet Wi-Fi for only 30 minutes. Those with Apple computers have better luck logging onto the Internet but those with other models do not have any luck connecting. We ended up at a Starbucks coffee shop where you get an access code good for thirty minutes with a purchase. Luckily we were each able to log on to our computers with the same passcode.

There is no scheduled entertainment this evening except for a showing of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is shown in the main lounge.

February 4, 2013 Sea Day

Towel Animal

We attended the Good Morning Amsterdam show and a guided meditation class with Danube, the staff Lifestylist. It was a class where Danube talked you through the breathing and guided your mind with a soft voice. Kent thought that it was weird and silly and had a hard time to get into it. Mark thought that it was interesting although kept thinking of other things and had a hard time concentrating on the guides’ message. It seemed too slow moving for me to keep my attention.

Otherwise, today was a very quiet day onboard the ship with the exception of the Super Bowl party and game. It is Monday on the ship since we passed the International Date Line so we had a Super Bowl Monday party in the main lounge. They had it decorated with from top to bottom with flags, posters, lights and festive party favors and noise-makers. They showed the game on a large screen and had ballpark food like popcorn, potato chips, tortilla chips with salsa, hamburgers and hot dogs, pizza and plenty of beer and other drinks. Being uninterested in football we only stayed long enough for Kent to have a bite to eat. We did miss the drama of the power outage, but quickly caught up once we turned on CNN.   We headed out to walk for 45 minutes as we do as often as possible. On deck three you can walk completely around the ship and every 3.5 laps around the deck is equal to one mile.  It takes us about 5 minutes to do a lap.

Tonight’s entertainment was another concert by the Celtic Tenors from Ireland.

February 3, 2013 International Date Line Crossing

Today we crossed the International Date Line and lost an entire day. Yesterday was Friday and Today is Sunday. The International Date Line follows the meridian of the 180-degree longitude roughly down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, although it deviates to pass around the far east of Russia and various island groups in the Pacific. The International Date Line mostly corresponds to the time zone boundary separating +/- 12 hours Greenich Mean Time.

Bruce Linder’s lecture today was on: The Cruise of the Great White Fleet during the beginning of the twentieth century under the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. It was the first time that the U.S. had built a fleet of naval ships and paraded them around the world in a show of power. It was also a time when the navy gained incredible knowledge about how to manage a fleet of ships that needed coal to propel them and how to re-supply the ships on a regular basis. We began to have agents in ports around the world to negotiate and procure supplies, which is still done today.

In the afternoon we went to see the movie: 2016 Obama’s America in the movie theater. This was the propaganda movie that was released during the 2012 presidential campaign to discredit Obama. It does everything to make you believe that Obama is a communist with an agenda to overtax and support the Muslim extremist agenda. Several people walked out during the film and many were outraged after it was over. In particular Canadians and Germans told us that they thought it was outrageous and that in their countries people thought that we were crazy if we elected Romney. They seemed happy and pleased that we had re-elected President Obama.

Tonight was Classic formal night in the dining room. The tables and chairs are decked out in Black and White and everyone was dressed up. The entertainer tonight was a gentleman by the name of Andy Bunger. Andy is a multi-instrumentalist from Germany who plays the panpipes, marimba, steel guitar, drums, saxophone and trumpet. He was an excellent musician.

February 1, 2013  Sea Day

We are sailing towards New Zealand now but will not arrive in Auckland for several more days. Jonathan Mercer, the Captain of the ship was the featured guest at the Good Morning Amsterdam show today. He is from England although he is married to an American woman and has resided in Florida for the past 17 years. He had a great sense of humor and was a delightful guest.

Charlie Urbanowicz lectured on “World War II in the Pacific” today. He discussed some of the important battles between 1941 and 1945, including Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the bombing of Japan.

Bruce Linder’s lecture today was on: The Intriguing Voyage of the U.S. Frigate Essex during the War of 1812.

Tonight twelve of us went to dinner in the specialty restaurant onboard called the Pinnacle. We were seated at a large table in a private dining room at the rear of the restaurant, which was beautifully decorated. The walls were lined with gorgeous oil paintings; the chairs are painted gold and are upholstered in a red velvet fabric. The service was exceptional with several waiters tending to our table. The menu is a step up from the main dining room and the food is prepared by a chef that only services the Pinnacle restaurant. The portions of filet mignon, lobster, pork and steak Diane were very large. After dinner they brought us trays of homemade chocolates of which we needed just a few more and they were happy to bring us.

The entertainment on this night was a couple of International Ballroom Dancers by the name of Natalia and Michael. He is from Wisconsin and she is from Moscow. They live in LA where they have a dance studio and entertainment company. The show was a variety of Latin dances.

January 31, 2013  Rarotonga, Cook Islands Cruising

We were scheduled to stop at Rarotonga on this day to take a tour of the island however the seas were too rough for us to stop. Here is what we missed. Rarotonga is the most populated island of the Cook Islands. Although Cook Islanders are referred to as Rarotongan, they may in fact come from any of the 15 islands in the group, such as Aitutaki or Mangaia. The island of Rarotonga stands over 14,750 feet above the ocean floor and is 20 miles in circumference. At a depth of 13,000 feet, the volcano is nearly 31 miles in diameter. Te Manga, at 2,140 feet above sea level is the highest peak on the island. The island contains many resorts and hotels for tourists who enjoy swimming, diving and boating. The perimeter of the island has beautiful white sandy beaches while the interior of the island is mostly unpopulated with forbidding terrain, dense green vegetation and lacks dependable roads. No roads cross the island and there are only two bus routes: Clockwise and Counter Clockwise.

The ships crew quickly changed the day’s agenda to accommodate our early departure after a quick cruise around the island. Unfortunately the skies were gray and rainy and the seas were rough so there was not much that we could see of the island.

Bruce Linder lectured on: How the West was Won…..by Sea. He discussed how ships played an important role in the Pacific during the nineteenth century when the northwest was largely unexplored and uninhabited. At the same time Americans were traveling west by wagon train, ships were busy exploring the coast and even trading furs in the Oregon Territory.

Charlie Urbanowicz lectured on: Gauguin, as well as other Europeans, and the Pacific. He discussed how Gauguin was one of the most romantic observers of island life in the Pacific and how he drew inspiration from Easter Island, New Zealand and Tahiti. Gauguin was only one of several artists at this time that all shared ideas and painted very similar themes but each with a unique perspective.

The evening’s entertainment was a group of three Celtic Tenors from Ireland who performed a variety of music from traditional Irish songs to opera. They put on an excellent show and were well received by the audience, especially the one who sang the whole show with his zipper open.

January 30, 2013  (Sea Day)

Today was another busy sea day with a couple of new lecturers. The first lecture we attended was by a man named Charlie Urbanowicz who is a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the California State University at Chico where he has taught since 1973. His lecture on this day gave insight into how the islanders arrived at their locations and how they have dealt with changes since contacted by Europeans. He also gave us some information about what to expect tomorrow at our stop in Avarua, Rarotonga.

The next speaker was a Maritime Historian named Bruce Linder who lives in Coronado, California. He gave a lecture on the Spanish Galleon named San Salvador, which was used to explore the west coast and discovered San Diego in 1542. In San Diego the maritime museum is building a replica of the San Salvador, which they hope to have finished and ready to launch by year’s end.

The afternoon included a Polynesian tea with treats from Polynesia. Every afternoon tea is served at 3:00 but some days there is a special theme or a high tea is served. When the high tea is served they have a much more elaborate assortment of treats and it is served as a buffet rather than the usual silver trays brought to each table by the wait staff.  We had a bunch of treats at tea with some of our friends.  Life onboard a ship is so hard to get used to.

Tonight’s Vive La France dinner is formal so we bring out the tuxedos and get all dressed up for dinner. Nearly every evening we meet friends in the Crow’s Nest bar for drinks with other gay travelers at 7:00PM prior to our 8:00PM dinnertime. The dinner menus on formal nights are generally a bit grander with items like lobster and filet mignon. The entertainment this evening is a concert pianist who accompanied a slide video with photos of different countries from around the world as he played songs from each of the featured countries. He played non-stop for the entire 45-minute show and was accompanied by the Amsterdam Orchestra’s drummer and horn players. It was a very nice evening.

When we returned to our cabin we had another gift awaiting us. Tonight’s gift was a pair of binoculars for each of us to use on our trips.

Motu at Bora Bora

Bloody Mary’s on Bora Bora

January 29, 2013  Bora Bora-French Polynesia

Bora Bora is an island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia and is an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island was settled by Tongan people about the 4^th Century. While the island was sighted by earlier explorers, James Cook led the first group of Europeans to visit the island in 1777. In 1842, Bora Bora was officially made a protectorate of France. The island is located about 162 miles northwest of Papeete and is surrounded by a lagoon and a fringed reef. Remnants of the island’s extinct volcano rises to two peaks, Mount Pahia, and the highest point, Mount Otemanu which reaches 2,385 feet.

Today the more desirable part of the island is the fringed reef at the outer edge of the lagoon. The reef has many small islands, which are called motu’s. Over the last several years, seven high-end resorts have been built on the small islands surrounding the lagoon. Most of these resorts are built on stilts with small individual thatched cottage rooms, each with direct access to the lagoon where the water is calm and beautifully colored.

We took an open-air trolley like bus here, which took us on a tour around the island with a guide. We visited a roadside shop where they make the local pareo, which is a piece of cotton fabric which has been beautifully dyed in beautiful colors and is used similarly to a sarong. They look something like a cross between a batik material and a tie-dye. The island is filled with small tupa crabs, which live in the ground in the mud. The locals hate them because they eat most anything that their mouths come in contact with.

We stopped at Matira Point where you find the most beautiful white sand beach on the island. This is the largest sand beach that we have seen on any of the islands. The sand leads into the lagoon with its gorgeous multi-colored waters. Our next stop was the famous restaurant and bar called “Bloody Mary’s”. The restaurant has been visited by many a famous person, many of them listed on a sign out in front of the restaurant. Inside you find the floor is covered in sand and a very casual restaurant and bar with a Polynesian theme. They sell tons of t-shirts like you might find at a Hard Rock Cafe around the world.  The men’s bathroom has an unusual urinal flush device—a 10 inch wooden penis…..very interesting.  Many women were in the men’s room photographing it.  We did too!

The island was lush and green but the water was what makes it so spectacular. Otherwise the island looks a bit run down and dirty. It appears as though its time has passed and it is ready for a makeover. Hopefully when the world’s economy improves more tourists will once again visit and things will get spritzed up.

The entertainment on this might was another show by the Amsterdam cast called “Supergroups” which was a celebration of the music of some of the biggest groups and hits of all time. The music included groups like The Commodores, The Monkeys, Bee Gees, The Carpenters, etc.

Death at Sea—We have been told by the experienced cruisers that it is customary for there to be at least 3 deaths on board a ship this size during the cruise.  We understand one has happened already as a casket was offloaded some time ago.  There have also been several people sent home due to injuries from falls or some other illness, which might be best treated at home.  It is always good to have that travel and med evacuation insurance!  One of the entertainers who plays the violin in the Explorer’s Lounge was sent home.  The Explorer’s Lounge is one of our favorite places on the ship.  Classical music in the form of piano and violin duets, or string quartets play while liquors and home made chocolates are served.  Kent volunteered to replace the entertainer sent home.  He is perfecting his talents, which compare to the Great Pugol, an early French entertainer.  (Google it).

Wait Staff—Our dining room wait staff are mostly from Bali.  Some are from other Indonesian islands or the Philippines.  They have been well trained to great us with smiles and warm greetings and to always say “Enjoy your meal or Enjoy your day.”  Most are men with 4 letter names like Jaya, Asep, Tiro, Gede, Tiya, etc.  Some are a little more complex like Prass or Usman.  Our cabin attendants are similarly friendly. They all try to learn our names quickly and seem eager to please.  We try to learn and remember their names, but it is difficult for us.

Bali Hai-Moorea

Hotel Resort in Moorea

Gauguin Copy at Tiki Village-Moorea

January 28, 2013 Moorea-French Polynesia

Moorea is located only about six miles from Papeete so we spent the night drifting at sea until morning when we headed to the island of Moorea. There is no dock large enough for our ship so we need to tender ashore today on the smaller lifeboats while the ship is moored nearby. Moorea is one of the South Pacific Islands that is part of the Society Islands, one of the five major island groups that form French Polynesia. The island was formed as a volcano 1.5 to 2.5 million years ago, the result of a geologic hotspot in the mantle under the oceanic plate that formed the whole of the Society Archipeligo. The weather is in the high 80’s and the humidity is some of the worst that I have ever experienced.

We took a tour around the 38-mile perimeter of the island. We were taken to an observation point called Belvedere, high above the sea where we could get a birds-eye view of both Cook’s Bay and Opunohu Bay where our ship was anchored. The island is lush with tropical vegetation as well as a large number of wild chickens and roosters with beautiful colored tail feathers. We saw several villages along the way with a few small shops or markets and a number of hotels. Unfortunately many of the hotels have closed due to the lack of business from the world’s poor economy. Being a volcanic island the islands perimeter road is very near the waters edge as there is not much level ground before the terrain begins to climb to the 1,500 foot peak of Mt. Rotui.

We stopped at a replica of a pre-European Tahitian Village where we found a cluster of small shops selling local handicrafts, a gallery of Gauguin reproductions (the Gauguin reproductions were far superior to those we saw in the Gauguin museum yesterday) and a gallery of A. Sylvains famous black and white photos of the local women—bare tits to the wind. (They say the local women used to line up outside his house so they could be photographed). The village also has an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the water where they have a traditional Polynesian feast and folkloric show. No doubt more hip shaking!

Many of the guests onboard the ship chose to take a snorkeling tour, which included swimming with the stingrays. They all seemed to love the beauty of the velvety creatures and the warm beautifully colored water.  Some also swam with the local harmless sharks.  Kent wasn’t allowed in the water, or on that tour,  as he would have scared off the creatures.

One of our fellow passengers and her husband spent $300 each to take an hour’s dive in a submarine to see the local sea creatures.  Once they got in the sub, another passenger decided she was claustrophobic and puked all over the place soon after they departed.  No doubt a lovely ride for our friends.

The entertainment onboard the ship this evening was an award-winning comedian named Ian McLaren from the UK. He was extremely talented although some of the British humor and vocabulary escaped us.

Report from the Bridge—Every day at 12:45 PM, the captain reports sailing info from the bridge:  how deep and warm the water is, how many miles we have traveled and how many miles to our next port, ship speed, etc.  We were surprised to learn that the ship travels only about 14 to 18 miles per hour on average.  It can go up to 24 miles per hour.  No wonder it takes 4 months to travel around the world…the ship has a heavy load….more as the days pass and meals are eaten!