January 31, 2024 Auckland, New Zealand, Day 42 of 138

 We get a second day in Auckland, and have no set plans. We are going to use the Hop on, Hop off tour bus to see what interesting things we can find. The weather is perfect blue sky and it will hit 80 degrees later today.

We learned that yesterdays tour did a great job of covering most of the major sites. We again find the Auckland people to be very clean, neat people. The city is quiet for a city of 1.2 million people. This is one third of the people who live in this country. When I say quiet there are no car horns honking, people are polite and give plenty of space between cars. I have only heard one siren during our two days here. On of our fellow travelers said what is there to get upset about, you go swimming at lunch time, and after work, you hit the bay in your boat. Life is good.

Here are some of the random pictures from today.

Above is a trolly car that was used to see the whole transportation Museum grounds.

Above is a part of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. We took this picture because this building was moved to this site. It is a large building, and they said it was quite the project to get it moved here. If you could see around the area, it is set on one of the only flat spots. Everything is downhill from here, so that meant they moved this up hill, all in one piece. It must have been something to see. The picture below the Cathedral building was some wood men built over the awning of a restaurant. Someone with a good sense of humor and talent must own this place. 

Tonight as we were leaving Auckland the sky was beautiful. One of the other passengers got a much better picture, so I will use it.

January 30, 2024 Auckland, New Zealand, Day 41 of 138

 Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day. I have this wonderful feeling, everything is going my way...We wake up to Auckland, New Zealand.

Today we have another early morning excursion the "Highlights of Auckland". We start out with a drive through downtown, along the coast and to a park like setting memorial to to Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. The site was once the site of a massive fortified village. Michael Joseph Savage was prime minister of New Zealand in the 1930's.

There is a volcano across the water. It last erupted 600 years ago.

Next stop was the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

This was the most surprising find. They had a wall with all who had died in the war from New Zealand. Forth from the bottom is listed H.W. Yeend. This is my Mom's family name. Her family immigrated from England around 1870's. We will have to see if we can track this member of the family. In England the family changed their name from I think Eend to Yeend in preparation to immigrate. 

Above is a spitfire. The museum was very well done. It also included Maori section to preserve their history.

This is an example of a Maori meeting house. The carving on every wood surface was interictally carved.

Below I am before two examples of beautiful dresses with feather shawls.

Above is the ceiling of the upper floor of the Museum. Below is a stain glass from the wall of the Museum.

January 29, 2024 Bay of Islands, New Zealand Day 40 of 138

 We woke up to land outside of our window. The first sighting is always exciting.  The ship anchored in Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, we anchored about 7:30 this morning and this is a tender port, so we have about a 10 min tender ride to arrive at the wharf.

Our first excursion is at 8 am, so we are off on Bay of Islands Panorama. It is a bus tour, our driver gave us a running commentary of the history of New Zealand, and especially Waitangi which means weeping waters. First impression of New Zealand is favorable. They seem to be people who take care of their island, and take pride in where they live. First stop was Rainbow falls.

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Next stop was the stone house built in 1822. It is located at Kerikeri Mission station and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in New Zealand. 

It is a beautiful setting. On the other side of the river is a replica Maori Waka or canoe. This canoe could be built to carry up to 120 Maori tribesmen. These were used to sail from island to island. We were supposed to go on an excursion to another waterfall in one of these canoes, but the excursion was cancelled due to rain and potential lightening.

Our next stop was not your usual tourist attraction. This was billed as a toilet stop to a most unusual public toilet. It was decorated with tile and bottles by a local artist, and has won the Golden Plunger Award. Fitting I think.

I can truthfully say it is the most unusual, beautiful bathroom I have ever used. It was worth the stop.

We took a shuttle bus to the town of Paihia. It is a cute waterfront town with shops, restaurants, and tours. The shuttle bus took us back to the wharf.  We headed back to the ship, and just as we arrived so did the Dolphins. They put on quite a show.

It has been a lovely day, but we have to say goodbye, and we are off to Auckland, New Zealand tomorrow. Sun set was at 8:34 pm tonight. It is great to be enjoying this much daylight. Highlight of our afternoon on the ship was talking to both of our families. It is great that we can keep in touch through a facebook video phone call from anywhere in the world if we have internet.

January 28, 2024 Ship Building Competition Day 39 of 138

Today is the day we have been anxiously waiting for. We have been gathering items for our ship, discussing shape, what items we can use that we can recycle from the ship or shore. Our ship is ready. I wrote the name of the ship on the back in calligraphy we are calling it Viking Travelers. Susan wrote a poem in the style of "The night before Christmas" to introduce our ship. Here is our ship, and the competition.

There was a tie for first place. The boat to the left was one of the first place winners. Just above the canoe on the right took third place. There were 15 boats entered. All but one boat floated. Out boat floated well, but unfortunately we did not place. We are pretty sure we took 4th place, but we have no documentation to back that claim. It was a fun day, and as you can tell from the pictures we had a picture perfect day. The competition was stiff.

This is our boat going into the hot tub for its float test.

This is the full team. We have been hanging with these three couples for trivia, and meals. They are a fun creative group.

The ship competition was the entertainment for a planned brunch. The staff out did themselves.

The Welcome to the Brunch was made of bread, and was on the bread, and donut table. The watermelon carvings were on most tables, the one above is of a Viking ship.

The picture on the right is part of the dessert table, below was the Sushi. They also had taco bars, Omelets, breakfast meats, pasta bar, fruit, smoothie options, you name it, they had it. The waiters were walking around with Mimosas, and other alcohol drinks. It was a feast for our eyes, as well as our stomachs.

The ocean when we woke up this morning was flat. We have not seen it this flat in the whole trip. Mike and I found time to lay out and work on our tans. We are preparing for the next three days where we will be in port.

We have 100 days left for our World cruise. Time flies when you are having fun.

January 26 & 27, 2024 Crossing the International Dateline Day 38 of 138

 Well over night we crossed the international date line. That means that we went to bed on Thursday evening, and woke up on Saturday morning. It all is very confusing. We have certificates to prove our accomplishment. They had an event tonight to celebrate and toast all of us.

This afternoon Mike was listening to his audiobook, and resting, I was reading my book when I heard thunder. The neighbors saw lightening and heard the thunder, so it was confirmed. We have had this predicted other days, but this is the first time I have heard it.

I played Canasta, and proved the first day was a fluke. We did ok, but today we lost. I am learning strategy every time I play. Lynda get ready, because we will have to play this when we get home.

Captain announced at noon today that we have 700 miles to go until we see land again on Monday.

Tonight was dinner at Manfredi's with 3 friends. The dinner was amazing, but we will have to do extra exercise tomorrow to make up for the extra calories. It was well worth it. Our dinner lasted from 7 pm to just after 9 pm. 

Tonight we set our clocks back one hour, so if you are keeping track of our time to Pacific Northwest time, we are three hours behind you and one day ahead of you. Figure that out. LOL

Our ship building competition is tomorrow, with sea or hot tub trials. Wish us luck.

January 25, 2024 Sea day , Day 37 of 138

We woke up to a beautiful day. Sunshine, blue sky, and smooth sailing.

Today we got what is called "back of the house tour". We saw a picture of the 4 engines, propellers, and thrusters. Most of the time they only need 2-3 of the 4 engines. One is for back up. Today we are using 3 engines, and we are making 16 knots.

The first picture is of the washing machines for the ship. On the left of the picture you will see two men putting sheets, or table cloths that require ironing and folding. The middle picture shows them coming out ironed and folded. We all agreed that it would be a handy machine to have. The bottom picture is of laundry ready to be delivered to the staterooms that utilize the ship to do their laundry.  On the back side of this rack, the staff was ironing the individual clothes. They get one day turn around service.

These are two room service trays ready to be delivered. Room service is available around the clock at no extra charge. 

They call the raceway that is down the full length of the ship I 95. The wall of Appreciation is in this hallway. Anytime a passenger mentions a staff member in our evaluations, it is put up for all to see. The yellow sticky notes are notes from staff to staff. Words of encouragement. We asked how they keep staff that are always smiling, and helpful. The say it is because of the training they receive on a regular basis, and the company treats them very well. We saw their mess hall.

Thirty four of the 134 chefs on staff work to feed the staff 24 hours a day. They plan special pizza parties, movie nights with popcorn, ice cream socials, and anything else they can think of to celebrate their staff. I am here to tell you it is working. You do not see frowns on this ship from the staff.

After lunch the ship building team did a successful trial run with our "Viking Traveler". It is pretty impressive. We have a few more tweaks, and we are ready for our Sunday unveiling and competition. Susan has written a poem to introduce the ship at the competition. Wish us luck. 

Tonight we were entertained by our Viking vocalists. They put on another fabulous show.