Sunday - Christmas Day - At Sea

So, Christmas Day, and we are just off the coast treading water.

I would think it is too hard to be ashore on Christmas day as everything would be shut.

Captain Marek announced that there was a UFO heading directly for the ship, but we were not to panic until he could ascertain the nature of this phenomenon.  It eventuated that it was a friendly UFO consisting of a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and Santa arrived onboard with gifts for the children. 

Our cabin Stewards, Gede (G'day) and Alim, left us a surprise with a towel elephant wearing my spare reading glasses which I'd left on my bedside table. Cheeky pair!  The elephants name is apparently Alim (according to G'day)!

Then we discovered we were absolutely hopeless at Christmas trivia, despite my bonus points for knowing the names of all of Santa's Reindeer (a special skill learnt for various quiz's at Car Club Christmas parties, everyone forgets Cupid).

 

So I commiserated with a Hemingway Daiquiri.

This below, is tonight's Christmas dinner menu, it would be nice to have the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay,

 but not for $17.00 US per glass, yikes!

 

My entree was the  the Coconut Crusted Scallops.

Tonight s show was dancing, and I can't remember what this troupe was called, but it was pretty good.

 

 

We were back in the cabin to see the sunset, this far south sunset is a lot later than at home as the daylight is longer.

 

Tomorrow its Napier, the art deco city.

Saturday - Christmas Eve - Picton & Malbourgh Wine Region

Christmas Eve, and today we back on the south island to the port of Picton.

 

We went on a hop on hop off tour that took us out to the winery's and other spots.

The first stop was the Classic Car museum.

You know your getting old when your first car is in a museum.

(its the Honda Civic, not the Jaguar)!

Grahams favourite, a Lotus Cortina in what I thought was a very fetching colour.

Below is the 'Thought for the day',

Also a wine orientated version of a disabled parking space...

Then we went to Cloudy Bay for a tasting.

Then because it was Christmas Eve everything else closed early.

So we paid $160.00 NZ for the 2 tickets on the hop on hop off bus

$20.00 each for 45 minutes the car museum.

$15.00 for the wine tasting,

and spent longer waiting for the bus than we did in any of the attractions and one bus driver took a wrong turn so we had to drive around for awhile to get back on track. 18+ stops (apparently) of which we only got off at 3.

We didn't get lunch, because everything was full unless you had a booking, and we don't have a NZ sim card so how do you book?.....

We don't mind paying  when we feel like its value for money but this wasn't value for money..,  I might be leaving them an review on trip advisor.

In the middle of all that there was a thunder storm, but that wasn't anyone's fault but the weather!

But on a positive note, I did buy a nice birdie art print to add to my collection of avian art. 

However WINE is not New Zealand's biggest export.

Their biggest export is 

PINE
 

This is the view from our verandah of our cabin at the Picton dock side.

Thousands upon thousands of pine logs, all with a QR code stuck to their ends. I want to know what the QR code says, length , weight, age, origin, destination or all of the above?

 There have been logs at every port we have stopped so far. Apparently for every tree they harvest they plant a new one which then takes 25 to 30 years to be large enough to cut down. So they have a constant supply of trees.

For the first time we has seats at the aft windows in the dining room!

The meals have mostly been really good, and I'll share some menus before the end of the voyage.

Tonight it was Carol singing in the World Stage.

 

 The wonderfully talented crew sang for us in large choirs, and they were fantastic.

 

The crew on this ship are such a happy lot, always singing and dancing around  while they serve everyone in the bars. A very charming and friendly lot they are, despite each spending several months working 12 hour days and I can't work out if they get any days off in that time.

 

 There are 700 crew and 1700 passengers on this cruise.

Note for the Clark Centre: Apparently, when I questioned somebody, the crew from the Philippines do really put their Christmas decorations up in September!

Please excuse some of the mismatched time stamps on my posts, my computer is as confused as I am about the time changes!

Friday 23rd December - Wellington

 

Have a very Welly Christmas!

Today in New Zealand's capital city , Wellington. 

We decided to do our own thing today, they had shuttle buses from the ship to the city.

First stop was the NZ parliament, and the Beehive.

We would have like the tour but they were fully booked for the day.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give woman the vote, which was obviously not to the liking of Mr Wright, as documented below in my interesting 'thought for the day'.

Then we took the cable car to the top of the hill.

We had a quick visit to the cable car museum.

Then, as we were near the botanic gardens we decided to visit the rose garden, thinking it wasn't that far and on top of the hill.

Wrong! Its at the bottom of the very steep hill, so much for our return ticket on the Cable Car. I said I would happily give up the cost of the ticket NOT to walk up the hill again. 

Its a lot warmer today, we ended up stripping off layers then having to carry them.

We stopped for lunch at the cafe, where I was bitten by a duck.

 

Well, it really was only a gentle nibble on my ankle in a request for a bit of my croissant.

What is it about wildlife wanting to bite my ankles?

Then to get back to the city the path took us on a stroll through the old Bolton street cemetery.

This dates from 1840, but was cut in half by a controversial motorway in the 1970's.

Poor Mrs Church,

'SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD'

All this downhill walking was playing havoc with my legs and ankles, I wish I'd brought my proper hiking boots...

Back in the Wellington lanes ways we came across this lovely bronze statue of a Mr Plimmer and his dog Fritz.

Also we saw an interesting walk sign in the lgbtq area.

 

Back to the ship, and we cross the Cook Straight back to the south island tomorrow.