Wednesday, February 26
The sun was blazing into my stateroom when I awoke around 7 am and I felt like I was baking so I closed the curtains and slept for another two and a half hours. My original plan was not to get off the ship today (I did not have a tour booked) but it looked so pretty I decided to go.
This is a tender port so first I had to go get a tender number on deck 3. Since most people had already gone ashore for the tours, I only had to wait a few minutes before we were called. Then made my way to deck A and then down a small flight of stairs to the tender. The ride took less than ten minutes.
From what we had been told, I had gotten the impression we would go into town so I was very surprised when we tied up at a dock near a hotel and nothing else. I was thinking this was going to be a short outing and I'd be going straight back to the ship when a tourism volunteer welcomed us with maps and pointed us to the free shuttle bus. One lady said, "Free?" and we all laughed. It took about five minutes to get into the town of Paihia. It is a cute little resort town - lots of cafés and restaurants, souvenir shops, and boutiques. They also had a craft fair set up selling locally made products. Since I hadn't planned on getting off the ship today, I spent my New Zealand money in Auckland and resisted buying anything.
The public library supposedly had free wi-fi but only a few people were able to get on. I gave up after about 15 minutes.
Took the shuttle back to the tender (which was less than half full and ready to sail) so I was having lunch in the Lido by 1:30. I sat next to the area where the servers hand out trays and silverware and they were discussing the number of Japanese getting on in Sydney. One thought it was 1000 and another 900. We have heard rumors of the number getting on in Sydney. If either amount is correct, it means half of those on board now are disembarking in Sydney.
After lunch I decided to read on my balcony but only made it through a few pages when I started to drift off. Slept for about 45 minutes before it was time for another sail-away party. For some reason we were almost an hour late sailing (never heard any rumors as to why).
The show tonight was before dinner at 7 pm. The performer was a New Zealand singer, Russell Harrison. I was about 15 minutes late but it was a long show, lasting over an hour.
Decided to not do anything after dinner but catch up on the blog.
Craft fair
Main Street in Paihia
Harbourside
Public library (and those who were able to get free internet)
Views of the Bay of Islands
Someone on deck 4 did their washing and hung it out to dry
Smooth sailing until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment