Feb 26 - At Sea

Thursday, February 26, 2015 - Day 22 - At Sea

Our last sea day before two days on the North island of New Zealand. It is grey when we wake, but clears off by late morning.

The order of business today is to get the bag packed and the paper work done to ship it home from Sydney. We brought much more dressy wear than we need so there is no sense lugging it the rest of the way around the world. Our next two cruises are much shorter than this one and even though Cunard is dressier than the other lines we have sailed, one suit and a couple of dress shirts for Dick and a couple of fancy tops for me is all we need.

Dick goes to trivia, but his team can’t seem to break out of the middle of the pack rut. Carolyn goes to hear the interview with the Master of the Queen Elizabeth, Captain Alister Clark. He is from England and has two daughters ages 14 and 16. He got his start on the P&O line then moved to Princess and was master of the Crown and the Dawn. We think he was the Captain when we were on the Dawn a number of years ago. 

At 12:1PM we go to hear Captain Rigby’s last talk, “On a Dark and Dirty Night,” about how weather effects aircraft. He also show some stunning footage of actual landings at the old Hong Kong airport...a curved landing path right over the roof tops of downtown. It looks like the planes are going to take the tops off the buildings and many make hard landing blowing tires as they do!

Carolyn meets with her sewing group and Dicks reads and works on the books then watches some TV.

We go to the main dinning room tonight since it is Asian night in the Lido. We order the plaice which comes lightly pan fried with roasted potatoes and mixed vegies. That with a bottle of white wine and dessert make for a good meal. The fish is very light, the waiter says it is a type of flounder.

Tomorrow will come early as we leave on our tour to Rotorua and the Thermal Valley at 7:30AM. It is a ship’s tour and is all day. Hopefully it will be interesting.

Feb 25 - At Sea

Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - Day 22 - At Sea

A slow, pleasant day at sea.  We are up at the usual time for breakfast then Dick heads to trivia and Carolyn goes to the port talk on Sydney. The tour person gives some history and talks about the options for touring Sydney, but nothing really useful to us. We have a 2PM flight from the domestic airport to Hobart and have to be there around noon for check in. So we will have some time before we need to leave for the airport if we can find place to store our luggage at the terminal. Guess we will just have to play it by ear.  

It is a beautiful sunny day. The temperatures and humidity are beginning to drop. The lectures don’t catch our attention today. There is one at 11AM on the Munich Massacre by the sports writer and one called Hot Air and Hydrogen by Captain Rigby at 12:15PM which, for some reason, we read right over. His programs have been good with lots of interesting footage and this one was on the hot air balloons. Too bad we missed it.

The galley tour is at 11AM and Carolyn goes to that. It is done very nicely. We are seated in the dining room and go to the galley in small groups while those still waiting have a question and answer session with the Head Chef. Once in the galley, there are people manning each section to explain what is going on and answer questions. The cooks are working on lunch!  We learn that all the staples are loaded in Southampton or shipped to ports of call for the longer cruises. That includes all meat, fish and chicken so as to maintain the quality. We picked up fresh produce in Honolulu and will load more in Auckland and Sydney. The chef explains that there is very little food waste and what there is (except the oils) is ground, compacted into pellets and fed to the fish as we sail. 

Dick spends the afternoon messing with the computer...loading pictures and writing the blog. Carolyn goes to the movie, “Divergent,” which she claims is good.

We read and go to an early dinner in the Lido as once again the dining room menu is not to our liking. We have grilled to order Frenched lamb chops, fish and roast beef along with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. The meal is simple and very good. We get a big cone of ice cream and head to bed....life is really rough!

Feb 24 - Tonga

Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - Day 21 - Tonga


TONGA - “BEEN THERE, DONE THAT AND BOUGHT A T-SHIRT!!”

We have been to many islands in the South Pacific and can truthfully say that we have not found one to which we would pay to make a return trip.  Add Tonga to that list.

Carolyn had agreed to participate in a privately organized tour.  One of her correspondents on Cruise Critic arranged it with Tony’s Tours.  We are to meet in the lobby on Deck 1 at 7:30AM.  So here is the first question of the day, why 7:30 when the ship does not dock until 8AM?  The answer: So we can be first off!  Tourists!!

So we get a room service breakfast and gather up some time before 8AM.  The ship docks on time and we are among the first people ashore where we are met by the traditional dancers, music, etc.  Also, as usual, vendor stalls are set up along the pier to the new wharf where we are docked.  By the way, the new wharf was a gift from The Peoples Republic of China along with numerous other buildings and facilities we see during the day.

Tony is waiting at the end of the pier and after some confusion about waiting for a separate third group we tell Tony we want to get started.  We are soon loaded into two very tired eight-passenger vans.  Tony drives one and a young Tongan man, Monet’, drives the other.  He is wearing the traditional woven mat wrap skirt and explains that a man (or woman) is not fully dressed without this apparel; sort of like a man in a suit without a tie.  With the windows open and Monet facing forward, it is very hard to hear his tour prattle and it has to be relayed from front to back in a three step process.

We have a drive-by look at the Royal Palace, near where the ship is docked, and of the royal tombs, just West of town.  Tonga is still a Kingdom with a King and royal family. We then drive for quite a long way (15 miles) and finally stop to see Ha’amonga Trilithon, an 800 year old gateway of two upright slabs of coral rock, 15 feet high, and a cross piece, slightly longer and morticed into the others; each weighing some 30-40 tons.  It is now believed that it was used to mark the Autumnal and Vernal Equinoxes.  Along the way here we got a passing view of the Terraced Tombs at Mu’s; Tonga’s answer to the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt.

We then stop at Captain James Cook’s landing place along with two bus loads of Japanese tourists off of a ship that pulled in after us.  There is nothing worse than flock of Japanese tourists!  They block all the good photo spots and must have there picture taken several times in front of anything that remotely looks interesting; including, in this case, the sign on the building containing the toilets.

In addition, we stop to see the blowholes on the coast near Houma (not Louisiana) and the site of the 1643 landing of the explorer, Abel Tasman.  The blow holes are blowing pretty well and some waterspouts can be as high as 50 feet on a really rough day.

There seem to be cemeteries everywhere and they are garishly decorated with colorful cloths that look like quilts, beer bottles stuck in the sand, things that look like Christmas decorations and anything else they can think of to make the grave standout.  Monet’ says this is traditionally done for the first year after a death and after five years it is legal to place an additional body in the grave.

During all this driving we are getting an agricultural tour of the island and its products, such as cassava, vanilla beans, taro, sweet potatoes and bananas.  Unfortunately, the bananas have contracted a blite that produces brown patches on the green bananas.  We are told it does not effect the edibility of the bananas but does prevent their export and thus has ruined that business and the banana plantations are going to seed.  In addition to plants, we see numerous pigs running wild and are told they know their way home and will come in the evening if called in the proper way by their owner.  They are a meat staple in the diet. There are hundreds of dogs roaming everywhere. We are told they are not pets, but are to guard the home and are roasted and eaten at a celebration once a year...yuck! We also see Flying Foxes (fruit bats) another yuck factor.

About 1:30PM, we finally arrive at Tony’s home for lunch.  Carolyn has told him from the beginning that we will not be staying for lunch and he agrees to take us back to the ship; a 20 minute drive.  He is not particularly amused as no one else wants to leave early, but he fulfills his agreement. It is a good call to go back as it is stiflingly hot and humid by now and they are serving hot food. This was also suppose to be a beach stop, but the beach is about 10 feet long and 3 feet deep in a tiny cove with a rocky shore line. To get to it one must climb down a washed out area about 150 feet from the patio area. There are no steps or prepared path down.

 We go onboard and grab a light lunch (another Panini and fries) down a coke and a bottle of ice water from room service and then go back onto the wharf area to look for a souvenir since we are reasonably certain that we will not be back to Tonga.  Dick buys his second T-Shirt of the trip, a record for him, and Carolyn buys some jewelry items made of shark’s teeth and south sea peals.  Just little collectibles.  Back on board, we wait for sail away at 4:30PM. They have to hunt for someone on deck 5 so we are away about 15 minutes late in a heavy rain shower.

We get cleaned up and Carolyn reads and that turns into a nap. Dick plays on the computer for a while then we go to the Lido and have two of the made to order pizzas and a salad for dinner. We are exhausted and barely manage to get in bed before falling asleep. Thank goodness for two seas days in a row!

Our impression of Tonga, along with most of the islands in the South Pacific is, if not actually negative, certainly not positive.  The climate is so hot and humid that it seems to sap any energy the people might have and just existing is an effort.  Tonga was trashier than Western Samoa and much worse that American Samoa.  We liked our day in American Samoa best...the people were very unaffected by the tourists and they were very eager to share their culture and the unique things about the island. They also have retained their culture better than the other two islands. But, you still have the problem of the climate, no economy to speak of and a general lack of opportunity in all these small island countries.  Tongans, more so than either of the Samoas, seems to have lost some of their cultural pride.  Lip service is paid to it but we did not see much evidence of it in practice.  Like the two Samoas, Tonga is 98% Christian.  Methodists comprise 31% and the other two large blocks are the Mormons and the Catholics. They make their presence known with churches on almost every corner and many schools.

Feb 23 - At Sea

Monday, February 23, 2015 - Day 20 - At Sea



Last night we ate supper for the second day in a row in the Lido.  Both nights we have gone about 8PM and the crowd has been sparse.  Last night they were cooking lamb chops to order and we both had two plus some side dishes, including stir fried quinoa and vegetables which was quite good; very much like couscous.

This morning broke cloudy with showers in the distance and no sun.  We slept in and Dick even passed on his mug of specialty coffee.  Breakfast was quite nice as we shared our table with an Aussie couple and a couple from near York in England.  The conversation was fun and informative.  This was followed by Dick’s morning trivia and the last of Denny Whitford’s nautical lectures, “Seafaring Lore and Legends.”

At noon, we are heading into a rainy area and soon it is coming down quite hard.  Dick had contacted the purser’s office about using the White Star Luggage Service to ship a suitcase home with clothes we are finding that we do not need.  He fills out the forms and returns them for processing.  The quote is $385 for a less than 50 pound bag delivered to the office of our attorney in Brenham.  That will reduce our load to two suitcases and two carry-on items plus we have a collapsed duffle bag that we can breakout if or needed.

We have discovered that room service makes a killer ham and cheese Panini so one order with French fries makes a nice lunch for the both of us. Then we go to see Kim Novak and James Stewart starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” voted Best Film Ever Made by the International Film Critics. It is introduced by Actress Kim Novak which is a nice touch. Neither of us had seen the movie and as Hitchcock always did it had an unexpected twist at the end.

We go to the dinning room for dinner and have rack of lamb with vegetables and rum raisin ice cream for dessert. Of course our waiters make a big fuss over us since we were among the missing for the last two nights.

Back in the room it is off to bed...we have another “hot” tour tomorrow in Tonga.

Feb. 22 - Apia, Samoa

Sunday, February 22, 2015 - Day 19 - Apia, Samoa

This is going to be a very confusing day as to the time and the date. We lost Saturday, February 21 when we crossed the International Dateline sometime during the night.  Not only that, Western Samoa is one hour behind American Samoa. But to add confusion to the mix, the ship will not adjust its clocks to Samoa time so when it is 6PM on land it will be 5PM on the ship and all onboard time will be calculated by ship time.  And, just for fun, we heard the cruise director saying it just backward this morning when talking to all the people leaving on organized tours! 

We step out on our balcony to watch and listen to the local serenade of welcome. That is nice but the air is smoky, it is 84o with no breeze and the humidity is oppressive! The smoke, we are told is coming from all the family, Sunday dinners being cooked in the traditional pit with heated stones and banana leaf covering.

Not having a planned tour, we head for breakfast at 8AM and are off the ship by 9AM and looking for an opportunity to see some of the island. We hook up with a local operator, sort of like we did yesterday in Pago Pago and wait until they find two Brits and two Canadians to join us. A price of $45pp is negotiated for the six of us. Getting started is something of a Chinese fire drill and the van has seen better days but there is something sort of like air conditioning and once they sort out who is going to drive and who is going to guide, we are off by 10AM. It is now an hour into first agreeing to take the tour and we have made it the length of the dock! We will have to remember during this tour that we are operating on SMT. More on this later! 

It is Sunday and mid-morning and we pass many people walking on the side of the road, most dressed in white. That is the traditional Sunday dress and services are normally at either 8AM or 9AM and last for about two hours so services are letting out. The churches are all open air and the people are dressed to the nines. Our guide says that the people are ringing wet when they get out of church. They then head home for a huge family gathering and heavy meals that have been cooking in the pits covered with hot stones and banana leaves. They gorge on the feast and then lay around and sleep and talk all afternoon in these open air gathering houses we see in front of many of the homes. Both the Samoas have a very family centric society...the land is pasted down through the generations and the family members are buried in the front yard in sometimes very elaborate tom

We are on the island of Upolu and we drive West along the coast road past numerous churches, schools, houses and businesses. This road is built up the whole way out to a pond area where there are large sea turtles and numerous large fish who come for the bread that our driver and guide stopped to buy on the way out. This is interesting, just not great, but the coastal scenery is beautiful and we get a great view of village family life on this Sunday. Soon we load up and head back the way we came.

Our next stop is “Vailima,” the home of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island and Kidnaped. He built the house and lived here for 4-5 years in the early 1890s. It was severely damaged in a cyclone and allowed to go to ruin but has now been restored along with the planting of a botanical garden. We pass on the $10 house tour (our guide said it isn’t too well done) and settle for walking around outside and listening to and watching the performance of a folkloric group performing for the paid ship’s tours. Always nice to tag along and get a freebie now and then.

 Leaving here, we head up South and plan to go over the mountain spine of the island and down to the shore on the South side of the island. About half way to the top of the climb, the van overheats and we pull to the side of the road and unload into a refreshing breeze. The guide, Matias, who is a German working on his PHD in Anthropology, heads for a house across the road to get water. He comes back with a liter bottle full; big help that is going to be!

They get the radiator cap off without burning themselves and pour water in only to have the overheated radiator spit it back out. This goes on until the liter of water is gone and then Matias heads out for more water. This time he comes back with a gallon jug full and they continue to pour as the radiator continues to spit. We passengers are standing under the shade of a tree on the far side of the road having a pleasant conversation and waving at the cars, trucks and vans that go by loaded with people, most in their Sunday best.

Suddenly, a truck comes back down the hill and pulls over. Out climbs a smallish man with a big grin. He has a jug of cold, filtered water and cups. We are all most grateful and it turns out he is a missionary who has lived on the island for the past nine years.  He is from the US. What a kind and generous act on his part! All the men get in the act on the radiator problem each with his own suggestion to help solve the problem. The head man has been called and is supposed to be on his way with a new van.

Finally, after getting another gallon of water from the house, they decide that we can proceed and we do, all of two miles or so before the van overheats again. We pull into a B’haia Temple and while we explore, our hosts call again for the replacement van that will be here is a maximum of ten minutes. 

 Mind you this is at least the third “just 10 minutes” since this all started!  We now really learn about SMT or “Samoan Maybe Time.”  Each time they call the man bringing the new van, we are told he will be here in a minute or two; that he is just down the hill.  Eventually, after Dick asks Matias to call for a taxi and after 45 minutes, the driver’s personal van shows up driven by his father-in-law.  We switch vans and drive another 15 minutes to a spectacular, waterfall overlook.

We then attempt to find an overview of the South Coast but fail to do so. We can see glimpses of the coast and the original plan was to go for a beach stop, but we are all hot, tired and getting hungry so vote to head back.  We turn around and head back to the ship making one final stop in front of the famous Aggie Grey Hotel. The hotel is in ruins and being rebuilt by the Sheraton group...we stop here to get a nice picture of the ship.

Our three hour tour has turned into the better part of four and a half hours.  We arrive back at the dock and have been told to pay whatever we think is fair, considering the problems.  We have agreed among ourselves on $35pp and once at the dock we pay up, plus a $5 tip each for the driver and guide and head for the cool of the ship with a fast stop at the little dock market for a pin for Jack.

A shower is definitely in order and we order sandwiches from room service. A trip to the ships laundry, working on the blog and reading round out the afternoon.

It is another early night with dinner in the Lido for us. The oppressive humidity is so draining we are glad for a quiet day at sea tomorrow before Tonga.