Back to Reality

We made it home safety. After we left Auckland, we flew to Fiji for our first layover. It was a four-hour flight and it was okay. We did not even try to sleep. We figured we would get ourselves as tired as possible for the longer flight home. In Fiji, it was really hot and humid again. I had pants on and was miserable but knew that I was going to colder weather.

Then be boarded our flight to Los Angles. That flight was 11 hours long. It was a very long flight! We had dinner on the plane then tried to sleep. The plane was basically full and there was someone next to the window in our row so we had little room. We took our sleeping pills and hoped for the best. I could not get comfortable. Sleeping sitting up is basically impossible. The plane was hot and there were no air vents for us to adjust. It was bad. I maybe slept and hour or two on and off. Brian was about the same. I would keep looking at my watch. Time seemed to stand still. I just wanted to be home at that point.

When we finally arrived to LA we had to go through customs. It was fairly easy. Since we bought food in New Zealand for the plane and layovers, we had to declare it. None of the food was fresh, so it was okay to bring into the country. We got our luggage. (The garment bag was very difficult to carry since it no longer had a handle). We had to switch terminals but we found a luggage cart which made things a little easier to mange.

When we got to the Continental ticket counter, we asked for an earlier flight but none were available. So we tried to check our luggage and found out you can only check bags four hours prior to a flight. We were there at 2:30pm and our flight was at 11:30pm. We did not know exactly what to do but were definitely tired at this point. I thought a hotel room sounded really nice.

We called different hotels from the hotel on the courtesy phone and found a Days Inn for $50. We explained our situation; only wanted a room for a few hours. They had a shuttle bus to pick us up from the airport to the hotel. The room was adequate and served its purpose for sleeping. After a four-hour nap, we got up and showered. It was nice to have our luggage for that. Then went next door to Arby’s for dinner.

Our hotel provided a shuttle back to the airport but we needed to let them know in advance. We told them when we checked in and right after dinner that we wanted shuttle at 8:30pm. The hotel was not in the best area of town since the hotel reception office was locked even during the day. They needed to let you in. The shuttle bus was not there when we were hoping to leave so we had to wait a while. Actually we waited 30 minutes. I was a little nervous and just wanted to get to the airport without being robbed. Finally the shuttle bus came.

Our flight to Cleveland was delayed. Our plane was arriving from New York and it was late. Overall we were a little over an hour late. While on that flight, we were not tired at all since we had just had a nap. So Brian worked on the computer and I watched the movie, “Nights in Rodanthe”. It was a good movie but the book was better. It was funny to look at our computer clock and it said 3am at home and we were wide-awake. We knew we were in trouble with the time change.

In Cleveland, we were for a shock. There was snow on the ground and it was cold. Actually it was only 6 degrees. What happened to summer?

Mom met us by running up to us ready for hugs. I think she may have missed us. We got our luggage. It was nice to have Mom and Dad there because they helped with the luggage. We were happy that all of our luggage made it including the garment bag. That bag really did not have place for luggage tags since the handles had been torn off.

We were so lucky with this trip. We really did not have any travel problems like flight delays or lost of luggage. We did not loose anything. (My biggest fear while traveling is the lost of credit cards or our passports. I am very careful with those things but still one never knows). The weather was perfect throughout the trip. I don’t know how we got so lucky with everything but we were truly blessed.


When we got home, we quickly got into reality. There was a lot of snow and the weather was COLD! There was snow everywhere. When we got home I unpacked and Brian went through all the mail. Then we ran to the grocery stores. After we got home from our errands, we were really tired. We took a nap for a few hours so we could stay up for the Cavs vs Lakers game. We watched the game last night and were disappointed that they lost.

Our sleep schedules are really messed up right now. We are trying to get back into our regular routines but it is difficult. (The Cavs game did not help with our sleep schedules). Even at work today, I felt funny and really could have used a nap. I am hoping to go to bed early tonight for the first full night of sleep since Friday night.

Auckland, NZ - Sky Tower Walk

Our last night of the cruise was really busy as expected. We went to dinner for the last time on the cruise. It was sad to know that everyone we had met, we will probably never see again. We got back into our room around 10:30pm and needed to have our luggage out by 11:00pm. (That did not leave much time). So I finished up packing.

As crazy as we are, we decided to take our luggage up to the workout room to weigh it. Not many people do that but I think it is rather a clever idea. I would like to say, all three suitcase were less than 50lb on the first try! Once we got back into our room, we put our luggage out and went for hot chocolate. We enjoyed our cookies and hot coca on our balcony.

We got around 7 hours of sleep. We knew that this would be our last good night sleep for at least 2 days due to all of our traveling. When the alarm went off, I was not ready to get up for this very long day but I had to. We went up to the upper deck for breakfast and realized it was raining. It has not rained a single drop during our entire trip and today it is going to rain. Oh this was not good. All umbrellas and raincoats were packed away in the suitcases. Brian checked the forecast online and Auckland was showing a 50% chance of rain until the evening when we needed to be at the airport.

We got out of our stateroom at 8am like we were supposed to and went to a public location until it was our turn to get off the ship. We were supposed to get off at 9am and that is exactly when we did. Once we got our luggage (and realized our garment bag handle is now broken – the metal bent and fabric ripped by abuse by a machine somewhere), we went to find a place for me to wait with all of the luggage while Brian walked a few blocks to retrieve the rental car. We found a nice place a block away from the ship. There was a covering on the building so I would not get wet. Off Brian went to find the rental car place.

We don’t like splitting up when we don’t have cell phones but sometimes it just has to be done. Carrying all of our luggage through the streets of downtown so we could be together is not worth it. I will gladly wait behind watching all of our things. Lucky for me, there was a security guard near by and he came over and talked with me while I waited. Brian was gone for almost an hour so I would have been very bored if I did not have someone to talk to (plus I felt safe although I think Auckland is a pretty safe city in general, or so it seemed).

Finally Brian came back in the rental car. This time we got a new Mazda 3. We liked this car the best. We drove around the streets of downtown trying to find a place to park. When we found a place, it started pouring down rain. The plan for the day was sky tower. Since it was raining, the view would not be so great so we looked at the map to find a plan B. Then after a few minutes (literally) it cleared up and the sky was blue as can be. We were amazingly lucky this entire trip when it came to weather, and today would be no exception after all. That was the last of the rain.

We walked to Sky Tower and decided to do the skywalk. The skywalk is a supported sidewalk that circles the outside of sky tower. You are attached via a harness to a metal bar about 15 feet above the walking platform. I did not realize what I was getting myself into when I suggested we do this. Brian and I were the only ones in our group, which was really nice. We were placed in suits (like spacesuits) and taken up the elevator to the platform. We were 192 meters (630 feet) above the ground. When I got there, I realized there are no handrails or anything to hold on to. It is literally like walking on a circular sidewalk except that it just ends on both sides and there is nothing but the city below. You are just walking freely around the tower (yes I know about the safety harnesses, but the support cable hangs loosely and it offers little reassurance since you don’t feel it). I was quite scared. The wind was blowing and you had to work to keep your feet in place.

While on the walk, our guide David told us about the city and pointed out landmarks. This was nice and helped us figure out what we could do while we were there. We would highly recommend the skywalk in general and would suggest doing it first to familiarize you with the city.

http://www.skywalk.co.nz/

Our guide also told us some tricks we could try if we wanted. After explaining the safety harnesses, he opened a gate and let us walk out on the platform. Unlike the gated area there were no longer any barriers: no railings, nothing. It is just you, the walkway, and the ground below with nothing there to cling to. The only consolation was that you could hold onto the dangling rope securing you from above… and oh did I hold on tight! Of course Brian did not hold on to anything and was more comfortable although even he said it was intimidating.



As soon as we walked through the gate, our guide offered up his first challenge. Walk to the edge. He told us to get as close as we wanted to. He demonstrated as he walked to the side with his toes dangling over the edge. There were no limitations put on how far we could go. He knew that survival instincts would prevent us from stepping off the side. The cable does secure you, but remember that there is slack in it. It would be possible to step off and fall slightly below the platform if you really tried. Our guide knew that we wouldn’t go that far. Brian slowly inched towards the edge until his toes barely extended over the city. He said he was quite apprehensive about the whole proposal given the complete lack of a railing on either side or anything to hold you back. He looked at me like are you going to try? The answer was no! This was scarier than skydiving. I know this may be hard to believe but really true. While he did this, I remained firmly planted in the middle of the platform, generally terrified by what I had gotten myself into. I was still coping with the lack of a railing. How was I going to walk all the way around this crazy thing? Again this involves walking 630 feet in the air on a platform about the size of a sidewalk with nothing to hold on to. Try it and you will see that it is truly an experience not to be forgotten.

If the height is not enough, we also had to contend with strong winds. The winds were about 40 km/hr (25 MPH). This is not enough to blow you over, but enough to make you work a little. Remember there’s no railing to grab onto if you start to lose your balance. This raises the stakes considerably. I could feel the tendons in the ankles working overtime to fight the wind.

The Skywalk walkway goes around the Observatory Restaurant. Periodically we would look back in the building and see people taking our picture. Several times we smiled and waved for photos. The photo bellows shows the view from the restaurant as the guide explains how to do some of the tricks.

Brian continued to do different tricks with David like walking while looking straight up and other things. Brian convinced me to do one for our picture which I did. I had to walk backwards until only my toes were on the edge and then lean back so that the cable supported me. Brian said doing this backwards was the biggest challenge. You had to walk to the edge and then lean forward out into the space waiting for the rope to pick up the slack and support you. It was a lot of fun! We were so happy that we did that.


After Sky Tower, we drove to Mt Eden. We drove up the mountain to the top. When we got there, I was amazed there was a crater with cows in the middle. For whatever reason the cows seemed to amaze me. We walked the crater trail and I got to get near the cows. The cows were not bothered by people much at all. The view was neat especially with Sky Tower in the background.

After Mt Eden it was time to start heading to the airport. The plan was to find a grocery store to buy some snacks for our long layover back at LAX. Airport food is too expensive. We found a grocery and got some cereal bars, muffins, and kiwi. Near the grocery store was a Wendy’s go we decided to have lunch/dinner there. We had our kiwis then too. They were really good. We were shocked that Wendy’s did not take credit cards. Neither did McDonalds which we checked too. In Australia all of the McDonalds and Burger Kings (Hungry Jacks – see my earlier posts for an explanation) we encountered took credit cards. It seems fast food in New Zealand does not. Fortunately we still had $10, but it was our last $10 so we had to limit our choices. Brian walked to a gas station and got us a drink from their using a credit card.

We drove to the airport sad that this trip was coming to an end although happy we got to experience it. We listened to our “down under” music and had fun. When we were pulling into the rental car return gate, Brian asked, “So is it all downhill from here?” I responded “Yes.” He clarified, “No, I mean the rest of our lives”. I said, “Yeah I know, that’s what I meant.” Ok, even though it probably is not really all downhill from here, our lives will definitely be different. The last five years has been great traveling to all the places we have been but nothing can beat this amazing trip. It’s hard to imagine anything better than Australia and New Zealand has been for us.

New Years Eve in Sydney, skydiving, zorbing, the great barrier reef, climbing Sydney harbour bridge, kayaking within reach of wildlife, walking around sky tower, summer in January... Wow, wow, wow!

Time to fly home! Downhill begins.

Tauranga, NZ - Zorbing

Happy Birthday Melissa. When we were leaving port today, there was a band playing for us as the ship left. They actually played Happy Birthday as one of their songs too! We assume that it was intended for you.

Today we docked in Tauranga, New Zealand. We got in around 7am however did not get off the ship until 8:30am. (But the cruise ship starting making announcements in the staterooms at 7am, which was really annoying, to again remind people that they cannot take food ashore as they get off the ship).

I booked a rental car from Pegasus. It was an older car but it worked fine. The car was right at the port for us with our name in the window. It was really nice. The reason we rented a car is because we wanted to go zorbing today. The zorb is in Rotorua, New Zealand, which is about an hour away form Tauranga. (Our friends were not able to come with us due to illness).

We drove there without any difficulties except I took Brian the scenic route (the long way). At first I could not find us on the map, but I finally did and I did get us there. It worked out since we took a different route home so we saw different scenery. New Zealand is an interesting country. Its population is relatively small and the scenery reflects that. There is usually only one road to another major city. Those roads are only two lanes. It is definitely a more rural area. It is not like the cities that we are use to in America.

We arrived to the zorb place around 10:30am. A zorb is an 11 foot high inflatable transparent sphere which you ride inside. You get into the zorb at the top of the hill then you run in it like a hamster wheel to get it going. Despite best efforts, eventually you fall down and roll all around in the zorb as water splashes everywhere. It was not crowded when we first got there but soon it got really crowded. We watched a few people go down the hill first to make sure we really wanted to do it. We were a little nervous, but we later learned that this was unfounded.

We decided to give it a try. We went down the straight hill first together. We were both in the same zorb with water in it. It was a lot of fun! After that, I did the wet zigzag zorb twice. Instead of going straight down the hill, you take a zigzag path down which tosses you from side to side in the zorb. It is fun. Brian did the wet zigzag then tried the dry zorbing with him harnessed in which caused him to go upside down inside the zorb all the way down the hill. He said that the zorb bounced a little more down the hill due to the different way the weight was distributed.

It was another great weather day. It was around 80 degrees and sunny. Actually I have a little sunburn on my shoulders. On this trip, we have been so fortune with regards to weather. We really need to count our blessing because usually in New Zealand it is rainy. Plus the seas have been amazing clam. It has been wonderful. We have been gone for 3 weeks and have not had any rain (knock on wood – one more day to go in Auckland).

On our drive home, I took landscape pictures while Brian was driving. It was fun driving around New Zealand. It is neat to see something other than just the port city. Especially since we were on our own and could do whatever we wanted to do instead of being on a cruise tour.

Once we got back into the city, we returned the rental car at the port. Then went to a quick lunch. We also realized that our ESPN station did not show the Cavs and New Orleans game. The computer taped it, but it was boxing. So much for watching the game at the airport. We were sad although we know they won so it is okay. ESPN showed the second game of the double header and we watched highlights of the Cavs in the halftime report. We are sad to learn that Delonte is hurt!

We went back out in the city. There was a nearby mountain that we considered hiking up but decided against it. I was happy about that. We walked in the city and looked into a few stores instead.

On our way back to the ship, Brian saw a kite surfer and we watched him for a while. Then we overheard someone say that a shark was caught and it was on the pier. Brian actually touched the shark. However I was not that brave. (When I first saw the blood from his mouth, I almost started to cry). We learned that the shark was 197.2kg (434 pounds) and roughly 2 meters long. It was a Mako Shark. It was really something to see. The photo with Brian gives you some perspective. Brian is 6’ 3” tall. The shark teeth are really interesting to see up close – they looked razor sharp!

It was then time to get on the ship for the last time. It was kind of sad. We are ready to return home, but we are not looking forward to all of the flights and layovers that go with getting there. We have had an amazing trip. This has been everything we have expected and more. I know for me, this has been the best trip we have ever taken. Although we know we will not be able to return for a long time, I really hope someday we will be back.

This will be my last blog post for a while (unsure when I will get internet access again). Tonight will be my last night of sleep until Monday night. (Traveling this far definitely has some disadvantages). We hope to sleep some on the planes but we really cannot do that well. Then maybe we will sleep on LAX airport floor for a while. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

I am working on packing now. We need to post this blog message, go to dinner, get our luggage out for the cruise to collect tonight, fill out our cruise review questionnaire, and get cookies and hot chocolate for the last time on this trip. It is going to be a busy night.

I am looking forward to coming home and getting into our regular routine. It will be nice to see our family and friends. It has been great spending so much time with Brian. He will soon get back to his very busy life and our time together will be limited but at least we will have all these memories to treasure. (Plus I am sure I will come up with another vacation for us soon).

I will update when I can but cannot guarantee when. Let’s hope for a safe and uneventful trip home. We will call our family once we arrive in LAX.


Above is a Kiwi plantation we drove past today.

Volcanic White Island, N.Z

Today we were at sea all day. We cruised around Volcanic White Island from 5:30-7pm. It was beautiful to see. It remained us of the Stromboli volcano in Italy. Again the weather was great. Today it was in the low 80’s and mostly sunny.

For some reason our stateroom has been quite warm. We have the thermostat set to the lowest setting, but it doe not seem to help. To compensate we have been sleeping with the balcony door open. That seems to fix things and we can hear the ocean at night, which is an added bonus.

We slept in until 9am then went to breakfast. After breakfast, we read our onboard US and Australian newspaper (the top stories were both weather related, but at opposite extremes). When we got back to our stateroom, we turned on CNN and learned of the plane crash in New York. It was amazing how well that turned out. Then we went to play basketball. After that I was ready for a nap so that is what I did. Brian worked on something (he is always working on something, no naps for him). Then Brian convinced me, I needed to get up and do something. So then we went to the gym.

Because we are at port all day tomorrow, I started to pack today. Our garment bag is packed and our dirty laundry is in the other suitcase. It should be interesting to see if we are over the weight limit for our suitcases. Let’s hope not.

We have two more days of vacation left. Tomorrow (Saturday) we are zorbing. Our friends that we met while beaching dunning (and now sit at their dinner table) are going zorbing with us. So that should be fun. I scheduled a rental car to meet us at the port so we can drive ourselves there.
We arrive in Auckland on Sunday. We will explore the city on our own then go to the airport for our very long sequence of flights home.

While we are gone tomorrow, we are going to setup our laptop to tape the Cavs game (by pointing its web camera at the TV and leaving it recording ESPN all day – of course this was Brian’s idea. He said today’s test run was successful, so we are going through with it tomorrow). So please don’t tell us the results of the Friday night New Orleans game. We hope to watch it at the airport.

Sorry this blog post is a little short but I am in a lazy mood today (hence wanting to nap all day). I am enjoying my last relaxing day of vacation and cannot think of anything to write about for today. Hopefully I will be more talkative tomorrow.

Wellington, NZ - Botanical Gardens

Today we visited the capital of New Zealand: Wellington. It was our first stop on the North island of New Zealand. It was nice today since we were docked instead of tendering. Tendering is always a pain, although we were docked away from the city.

The ship offered day passes for busing from the port into downtown for $8 per person. Brian thought that was too expensive so he convinced me to walk into the city. I put on my pedometer today to figure out our distance of walking. It was about a 15-minute walk to the city and the bus was supposed to take 10 minutes. It was not bad.

The one thing I wanted to do today was ride the Wellington cable car. I showed Brian where it was on the map (it was a map with pictures on it so I pointed to the cable car). We went walking towards it. As we continued up hill for a while, I realized the picture on the map showed the cable car at the top of the hill (where you get off at the top and not where you are supposed to get on). Oh, I was not very happy.

Walking up a really big hill is not what I had in mind for the day. The plan was to ride the cable car up the hill then walk down through the Botanical Gardens. Once we realized the mistake, we were almost to the top. (Side note: While stopping to read the map on the street, two different New Zealanders asked us if we needed help. Everyone in New Zealand that we have met has been very helpful).

As we continued up the hill, I got over the fact we would not be riding the cable car. We walked through the large Botanic Gardens. It was pretty and again another great weather day. When we finally got to the top, we saw the cable car. It was neat to see but there were many people in it. It did not look like that much fun to ride it so it made me feel a little better.

We took pictures of the cable car while it headed down the hill. Setting up our camera timer was a bit of a challenge but Brian set it up perfectly and caught the car in motion as it passed us. Then we decided to walk back down through the Botanical Garden on a different path. Again it was very beautiful and we enjoyed our scenic walk.

The plan for the day was to see everything in the morning then go get our laptop, find internet and call home. So we could have done the cable car, but I did not want to miss out on calling home. We got back on the ship and had lunch then walked back into the city to find internet around 1pm which was 7pm at home the day prior (we are 18 hours ahead now).

We found a wireless internet package (cafe net) and purchased unlimited 24-hour downtown wifi access for $10 NZD. Then we called our family back home via Skype. Those on the computers could see video of us on the streets of Wellington in downtown. Since the weather was warm, people were wearing shorts and T-shirts. (Again, sorry for everyone back home in the freezing cold temperatures. Try and stay warm. I guess as least you have heat unlike much of Europe with their gas crisis). It was nice to talk to everyone back home that we do miss!

Today we walked 6.2 miles (10km) which is 16,000 steps. We are a little tried due to all the activities we have been doing the last few days.


We got back on the ship and now are sailing to Whakaari (the White Island volcano). You can view a live camera on the island here:

http://www.geonet.org.nz/whiteisland.html

We will be seeing it via our cruise ship tomorrow, as we will be at sea all day. We are looking forward to our sea day. We will be able to sleep in for the last night on this trip. We better enjoy it. The flights home will be rough!

Local Food

From talking to locals we have learned several things about Australian food and tastes. In particular, we were told that Australians do not like combining chocolate with anything salty. Chocolate covered pretzels are off limits. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is also considered disgusting. No Reeses peanut butter cups down under. We were also told that Australians find pop tarts quite fascinating (although not on the food topic, when visiting the U.S. we hear they really like squirrels since they don’t have them here).

One Australian desert we heard about was fairy bread. It is basically just white bread with butter and sprinkles (colored cake sprinkles) on top. It is cut up and served at parties. At cookouts hotdogs are usually served wrapped in a piece of bread, and not on hot dog buns.

Earlier in the trip we tried vegemite. We did not know how to describe it. One accurate description we were given was “salty yuck.” It has a yeasty and salty taste that you can grow to love, but is not too appealing the first time you try it. I thought it was really disgusting. It was so bad we threw it out instead of bringing it home for others to try.

Akaroa, NZ - Biking

Let’s just say, today did not go as planned. We arrived in Akaroa, New Zealand at 7am this morning. We got up and went to breakfast then went to the theatre on board to wait for a tender boat to take us ashore. We were in the theatre by 8am however did not get to shore until a little after 9am. (The cruise ship’s tender service in this port was not very good and I think they could have done better. They only had three tender boats operating and it was a 20 minute commute to shore which made for a long wait for a tender boat).

We were supposed to be ashore by 9am for a Pohatu sea kayaking safari tour. Once again I have been communicating with this company for months about this tour. Two days ago, she emailed me to confirm everything was as planned for today and we would have good kayaking conditions.

When we arrived to the dock, it was difficult for us to find her. This was because she had a sign that said penguin nature tour - Pohatu. We were not going on a penguin tour. We were to go kayaking. After a few minutes, I realized that she was from the same company. We talked to her and she knew me from all the emails, but she said we cannot go kayaking today. We can do on a bushwalk (hiking) instead. What!?! We are dressed for kayaking (I’m in flip flops, water pants and water long sleeve shirt with my swimsuit under everything. Brian is in swim trunks and t-shirt). This is not what we had in mind.

Then she started recruiting other people for the brushwalking tour (which conveniently cost more than kayaking). We did not like how this was going. It seemed like she was using a bait and switch technique to get us to go on this tour. She seemed completely unprepared to offer any type of kayaking. The harbour was crystal smooth and the waters on the way in were noticeable calm, so it did not make sense as to why we could not kayak. She kept downplaying the possibility of kayaking. Disturbed by the experience, we decided not to do any tour with her. We were a little bummed that we could not kayak, but at least we did it yesterday.

Guess what we ended up doing? A biking tour. (Carol, I really should have learned from Cape Cod not to bike but now I am doing it two days in a row). 12km yesterday and 18km planned today. We went on a biking tour with On2Wheels. It was great (except that I was a little tired of biking). We had to make a pit stop at a store to buy me shorts since I was wearing pants for our kayaking tour and it was warm today in the 70s (the cruise ship was tendered 20 minutes from shore so we could not get back on to get my own shorts). We biked 18km this morning however it was mostly downhill although there were a few up hill stretches that were a bit of a challenge. It was very scenic. We saw an alpaca on the way down as well as fields of bassica which they grow to feed the sheep.

They drove us to the top of a mountain and then biked down it. We biked with another nice couple from Holland. They were avid bikers. My butt was sore from yesterday. Now it is really sore! The bikes seats are not very comfortable. At the end of the mountain, we ended at a beautiful beach. We had some wine and cheese at the beach. We still have not really acquired a taste for wine, but we at least tried. We are still not fans.

It was a lot of fun and we would recommend it to anyone that wants to bike in Akaroa. It is very scenic and the weather was sunny and 70 degrees. (Sorry for everyone back home in the blizzard – we saw clips from Cleveland on CNN today and in the abridged USA Times newspaper we get onboard featured a story from Cleveland on all of the snow and airport delays earlier in the week).

We walked around Akaroa for a while. Then we saw a jet boat ride with harbour tour. We decided we needed an adrenaline rush so we booked it. It was a 50 minute jet boat ride around the harbour. We went into sea caves (once again we were saddened by getting to kayak them). It was fun. When the driver would spin the boat 360 degrees, it was really fun.

Overall it was a good day. We were frustrated this morning with Pohatu kayaking tour company, but it all worked out.

Dunedin, NZ - Kayaking and Biking

Today we were in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was an awesome day! As you know, I love planning out vacations and today was a perfect example of why. We love cruising but usually do not care for the cruise ships excursions. The main reason is they are ridiculously expensive. Plus you are usually with a large group of people and are herded around like cattle. So I have learned to seek out independent tours. Not all cruise excursions are this bad, but most of them are from what we experienced. They are better than nothing, but they certain leave something to be desired.

I found a bike and kayak day trip online several months ago. I emailed the person who runs the tour and made reservation for today. It was not a guarantee that we could kayak today because of weather but once again the weather was great. We exchanged emails yesterday to confirm all plans for today.

http://www.bike-kayak.com

Pat (the tour operator) picked us up at the pier this morning at 8am. We docked about 30 minutes away from Dunedin. There was a Princess cruise in port with us today too. Another couple from Australia also booked the kayak excursion so we had to wait for their cruise to dock at 9am. Then the four of us were ready to go kayaking.

We drove about 40 minutes to Otago Peninsula where we started our kayak tour. It was a nice personal kayaking adventure. We kayaked about 4km today. We saw wildlife that was amazing. It is not even possible to get this close to these animals in zoos, let alone have an opportunity to see them this close in the wild.

My favorite animal of the day was a fur seal. They were so cute. We got close to them in the water and on land. We also saw Albatross, rare yellow eyed penguins, and shags (birds that swim under water and go fishing). It was truly amazing.

It took Brian and I awhile to get use to kayaking again. It has been at least a year since we kayaked. But once we figured it out we were kayaking away (since Brian had to steer us, it worked better if I kept the waterproof camera and handled taking pictures). Also we did not tip the kayak over, which was good since it was only 60 degrees today and the water was pretty cold (maybe we should not complain, it was not like it was Lake Erie in January cold). The sun was out and the seas were a little rough but nothing too bad.

After kayaking, we went biking for two hours. In those two hours, we biked 12 km. The biking was a bit of a challenge since it was extremely hilly. The landscape reminded us a lot of Scotland. It was beautiful. There were many sheep, cows, horses and goats. We biked passed all of them on mostly dirt roads.

While biking it was weird because one minute we were hot from pedaling up these very difficult hills. Then the next minute we would round a turn and a cool wind would blow and we would be really cold. The weather changes a lot in Dunedin. But overall we had a good weather day.

I highly recommend a Bike and Kayak tour on Otago Peninsula. It was much more than we would of got on the cruise arranged excursion and much better. It was a great day.


I want to thank Brian for all of his hard work that goes into these blog pictures. Everyday he goes through all of our pictures and he gets some ready to upload to the blog. If it were not for Brian, you would not get to enjoy all these pictures. For those interested, we have taken 1,834 pictures so far on our trip. (I have my work cut out for me with making my scrapbook).

Brian wanted me to add this. I wish to disassociate myself from this for the record.

"We saw many sheep. I realized that Gemi looks a lot like a sheep. Not the cute and cuddly furry sheeps, but one of the sheered sheep. If I had a Christmas sweater, I would have tried to put it on the sheep for this photo. Then you would not be able to tell which was Gemi [Gemi is Brian's sister's dog]."


For those who miss us at home, we will be home in one week. Dawn that means I will be back to work soon!

Also Brian has not incurred any more injuries as of now except maybe a little sunburn on his face.

Future Travel Plans

Someone asked about our future travel plans. The answer is we really do not know. Part of me is content with everywhere we have been and plans to start traveling closer to home (USA and Caribbean). Another part of me wants to continue to see the world like Asia, Egypt, Antarctica, and the Panama Canal. I believe Brian feels the same way. We think if we don’t see these places now, we may never. That is why we did this big Australia/New Zealand trip. This was our big dream vacation; everything else is an added bonus for us. So I guess time will determine our future travel plans. Once we get settled back home, I will start looking into trips and see what I come up with. Then of course I will update my blog. Thanks for asking.

Cruising the New Zealand Sounds

Yesterday while at sea all day, we went to the on board cinema and saw two movies. Yes, two! (For those that don’t know me, this is significant since I probably only see 4 movies a year). The first movie was March of the Penguins. It was good movie to see due to our penguin parade excursion at Phillip Island. The other movie was Heartbreak Kid. It was a good comedy. We really liked the cinema on board.

Last night was our second formal night. We once again got dressed up and had a good time a dinner. The sunset last night was beautiful. Brian got some great pictures.

Today we are cruising New Zealand’s Sounds. This morning we arrived at Milford Sound at 7am. We got up early to eat breakfast to find out it does not open until 7am. (This ship really needs to start serving breakfast before 7am. At home I am on my way to work by 7am). But because we were up so early, we saw the sun rise over the mountains in the Sound a little after 6am.


The scenery is beautiful. It reminds us a lot of Alaska. We have seen many waterfalls throughout our travels of theses sounds (which technically are fjords since they have been formed by glaciers as we have been told). We also have seen a few seals and birds. The weather once again has been spectacular. It has been party cloudy and around 60. However we have not had any rain, which is very common on the west coast of New Zealand. The trip over to New Zealand was also fantastic. Usually the seas are rough however most of the time we felt like we were in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has some of the smoothest seas we have been on.


While cruising through the seas the rest of the day, we hope to get some reading done. I am enjoying my Nicholas Sparks book. Tomorrow we are planning on possibly kayaking (again highs only around 60, so I am unsure how that is going to go) and biking. Here is some info we wanted to share as well.



Foreign Currency

Despite this being our longest vacation ever, we brought less cash than every before. We have found that you generally lose out on currency exchange no matter where you get them. Some places are better than others, but all are trying to make a profit off of exchanging your money.

The one slight exception is credit cards. They offer exchange rates that are very competitive. Therefore you are much better off charging purchases and letting the credit card do the conversion for you. We found out that even taxis in Sydney take credit cards now! Later this month you won’t even be able to pay cash for tolls on the motorways, so cash is becoming less and less essential. We spent a week and a half in Australia and used less than $150 cash (mainly used for taxis and tolls). Some credit cards will charge you fees for currency conversions (many charge 3%). Capital one does not charge any fees though, so consider call your credit card companies and ask in advance of your trip.

If you are traveling abroad, consider charging purchases and exchanging a minimum amount of cash. Doing so will save you some money. Just make sure you call your credit card company before you leave so they know where and when you will be traveling. Otherwise they will probably quickly begin declining your purchases as fraudulent because of the unusual overseas activity. If you find out you need more cash, you can always withdraw it from an ATM from your checking account too (fees usually apply though).

Internet

If you can bring a laptop, it helps you make the most of your internet time. On the ship, internet costs as much as $0.65 a minute. You may think that blogging gets very expensive. By writing the posts offline and only going online to post them and upload pictures, we can create a new blog post and check our email within 5-8 minutes. If I had to use the ship’s computers, it would cost a fortunate to type all of this out at these ridiculous prices.

On a side note, we have been impressed at the speed of the internet access aboard Celebrity. It has by far been the fastest we have experienced at sea.

American Tourists

We commented earlier about how sparse American tourists were in Australia. Until we got on the cruise, we had only met 1 American visiting Australia (several others we met had relocated though). Once on the ship, we began to find more Americans. The cruise critic group facilitated this. About half of the members were from the United States.

Even after meeting more American tourists, we are surprised by the relatively few numbers that we saw in Australia. Apparently not many make the long flight to the land down under. In all, we have talked to fewer than a dozen American tourists. In contrast we have easily talked to at least three to four dozen visitors from other parts of the world.

Medical Update

Brian has gotten injured several times this trip. The first occurred back on the Great Barrier Reef when one of his flippers cut into his skin. He has had an open area on his foot ever since. (I am a nurse and been taking care of it but it still has not healed completely). Then next injury occurred on his same foot just below his first injury. This happened while sand dunning when his foot hit the board wrong after crashing at the bottom of the hill. Once again he still has an open area on his foot. The last injury (at least so far -lets hope it is the last one) was while working out. One of the free weights fell and landed on his finger. Now his finger is completely purple (both sides). Keeping Brian from getting any more injuries has turned into my full time job.

Thanks everyone for your comments. We enjoy reading them!

Trip So Far - Sea Day

I am writing some thoughts about our trip. I am mostly writing this for us (we plan to print our blog out to have a permanent copy of our adventures) but you may find it insightful too.

Australia as a Destination

We have traveled many places for being fairly young (Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Alaska, Hawaii, throughout USA). But if one would of asked us, if you could go anywhere in the world, were would it be? We would of both answered Australia. Australia seems like such an interesting place to visit. It is the Land of Oz, the land down under but it is so far away.

Brian and I talked about it. There are many places we still want to see: Asia, Egyptian Pyramids, Panama Canal but we really wanted to see Australia. So we decided we had to make this happen. It was going to be expensive. It was going to be a lot of work planning everything out. But we knew this was a once in a lifetime experience that we wanted to do more than any other trip.

It was surprising how everything fell into place. I was able to get off work. Brian would only miss a class or two and got off work too. Airfare was somewhat reasonable. They had cruises with the itinerary we wanted when we wanted it. We could spend New Eve’s in Sydney Harbour. (A few years ago we went to Times Square in New York City for New Year’s and it was awesome, but now Sydney Harbour-wow).

Our dream was really going to happen. People who know me, know that I was nervous about this trip. Why? I have been many foreign places, planned and packed for many trips but for some reason this was different. I was going across the world. I was going to be gone a long time, it was going to be a long flight, and my biggest fear: I was skydiving (which no one really knew about).

Our travels to and around Australia were uneventful. All of our flights were good. No airline lost our luggage. No flights got cancelled. We were so lucky (trust me I know about all the horror stories and was afraid we would be involved in one of them). The worst part was driving in Sydney on the opposite side of the road with a GPS that could not tell us where we were. But all and all that worked out too.

I am over half way done with this trip. In about a week, I will be packing to come home. I am not looking forward to the flight home and the 12 hour layover in LAX. (We are going to try and fly back from LAX on stand by somehow. Mom and Dad we will call you once we are in LAX to let you know how that is going).

What do I think about this trip? I think it is amazing on so many levels. If anyone can travel to Australia, I highly recommend it. First going to true summer while it is freezing back home is always a bonus. Sydney is a great city. The sights are amazing. The Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are just something to see. You can easily walk around downtown which is something we love to do. I loved Sydney and hope someday to come back.

Cairns is another fantastic city in Australia. It was really hot and humid but a nice tourist city with many things to do (rain forest, great barrier reef, etc.). Skydiving is something in itself. Not only did I skydive, I did it in one of the most beautiful places in the world. The scenery features green rainforests with the ocean coast and great barrier reef in a distance. It was great.

Cruising has it pros and cons. The week prior to the cruise was a bit stressful as we had to rent cars, find and check into new hotels, find food to eat, and live out of suitcases. On the flip side, in Cairns we had a nice apartment with internet that we were able to call home using Skype, a washer and dryer, and a kitchen were I could cook. We could spend as much time as we wanted in the city and could do what we wanted. No time worries about being back on board the ship.

The reason we like cruising so much is it takes us to many places in a short amount of time. Usually the cruise ship is moving at night and we are in a new city in the morning. We are doing a cruise here because all the flights that would be involved would cost too much and require a lot of time at the airport. Because of the state of our economy, the cruise was really reasonably priced.

Once we get on the ship, things become predictable. We know what time dinner is, where we are going and when, where to get food, where to get internet access, etc. We have everything figured out within a day. The ship is nice. It is a little older ship (almost 10 years old) but it has everything you would need on a cruise ship. We have enjoyed it.

Review of the Cruise

This is our first time sailing Celebrity and so far I have been happy with it. Some nice things that Celebrity does that we have not found on other cruise companies include: ice and water pitchers in your stateroom, a free cruise newspaper from your home country (you have to pick up if you want it), ice cream bar open daily with fresh ice cream (not soft serve from the machines). They have a great food selection from pizza, salad, sandwiches, sushi, pasta, meats, fruits, and desserts.

The most disappointing thing we have found with Celebrity is there lack of shows on board. Usually there are comedians or singing performances nightly and that really had not been the case. The singers and dancers show that we saw on board one night was not very good and we left. The love and marriage game show was a bit boring (nothing like Melissa and Jonathan’s appearance on the show). At sea days, there really is not much to do. Our highlight has been the Cavs game. We are thankful to ESPN for showing that game. The ship also has a cinema with movies, which can be a fun way to pass the time on a sea day.


The service has been good. We have heard people with minor complaints, but nothing of much significance. You can’t please everyone. Overall we have been happy and found the service quite acceptable and on par with the some of the best cruises we have been on. We will add Celebrity to our list of preferred cruise companies along with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

Coming Up Next

The weather has been getting chiller. The highs are in the 60’s and it has been a bit windy. The seas are very smooth right now – no white caps (waves) at all. We are interested to see what New Zealand is like. We hear it is beautiful and many people like it so hopefully it will be as great as Australia. Today (Sunday) we will still be at sea. On Monday we will cruise the sounds of New Zealand and then make our first port of call in New Zealand on Tuesday.

Our Top Seeded Cavaliers

Today we are at sea all day. This is our first sea day on our way to New Zealand. The waves can be a little rough but all and all it has not been too bad (medication helps with this). According to the crew, the seas have not been as rough as in the past. There really is not much to do on the ship though.

Our highlight of the day was watching the Cavs versus Celtics game live. ESPN had been advertising it would be on today and it was! We were so excited. We got up to the extreme sports bar about an hour early to ensure we would get good seats. There was only one other person there but he was only reading. As we waited for the game to come on, we got very nervous. Will they really show the most important Cavs game that we will miss? They did. ESPN only carries NBA games on Wednesday and Friday nights. Although it is Saturday afternoon here, it is Friday night back home.

Before the video started, we got sound. We heard the Cavs introduction music (O Fortuna from Carmina Burana – the pregame classical song that everyone claps to). That’s when we knew this was really going to air for us. They showed clips outside the Q and we saw that it is snowing back at home in Cleveland. We feel bad for everyone at home. Although we think it is a little chilly here, it is definitely far from snowing (it is in the sixties as we are crossing the ocean from Australia to New Zealand).

The game was great especially since we won. GO CAVS! We showed everyone that we can beat Boston, even without Z! Oh we are so excited right now. While watching the game, we would run downstairs for snacks to bring up to eat. We were the only ones really there. The crew at the bar even got into the game with us. We were not afraid to cheer for the Cavs when they did something good.


Not much going on here with us. Just sailing away to New Zealand. Tomorrow I plan on writing my blog post on a review of the cruise. Today I had to give the Cavs all my attention and they deserve their own blog post for the day. According to the Plain Dealer, this is the first time the Cavs have had the best record in the league since March of 1989 (nearly 20 years)! GO CAVS – KEEP IT UP!

Melbourne, AU - Downtown

Today we were docked in Melbourne, Australia. The ship was supposed to arrive at 8 am however they did not allow people off the ship until after 8:30am. (A little annoying if you got up early to get off at 8am then had to wait. We were planning to get off around 8:30am so it worked fine for us).

They had a free bus from the pier into Melbourne from 8:30am until 11:00am. After 11:00am, you had to take a public tram to and from the port (at a cost of $3.60 AUD per person for a 2 hour tram pass, which is all we needed since we only went back to the ship at the end of the day). The bus dropped us off at the art museum. We walked into downtown (about a 5 minutes walk from there).


The first thing we did was the Melbourne Observation Deck from the Rialto Building. The Rialto Building is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. It was neat to go up in it. Once on top, you had a 360-degree view of the city. There were large glass windows you could look out. There were two outside observation decks that you could view the city from too. Also there they showed a 20 minutes video of Melbourne. There was no commentary and were not that impressed with the video. The observation tower was very good though and offered excellent views of the city.

Afterwards we started walking to the royal botanic gardens. On our way we went through three other parks: Alexandra Gardens, Queen Victoria Gardens and King’s Domain. Once we had visited those parks, we decided not to do the botanic gardens. Then we walked back into the city.

We had lunch at Hungry Jacks (which is just like Burger King back home with the whopper on the menu and everything). Apparently the Burger King name was already taken in Australia when the U.S. company moved over here, so they had to use a different name. Then we walked the streets of downtown looking at shops and sights. It was interesting. After walking around the city for 6 hours we decided it was time to head back to the cruise ship. We bought our tram tickets. We got on the tram which was extremely crowded.

We also learned about some interesting driving rules. To avoid the trams, some intersections require that right hand turns are made from the far left lane! After the light turns red, cars cut across all lanes of traffic to turn. It is something to see and even more terrifying to do from what our Melbourne native friends told us. The locals refer to this turn as a hooky. Imagine doing this on top of driving on the opposite side of the road! Yikes!

Melbourne was not what we were expecting. We did not think there was that much to do there. It was a nice city, but not great. Maybe we are biased having just visited Sydney which set such a high standard. Sydney was definitely one of our favorite cities in the world. Along with London and Venice, these cities are in a class of their own.

The weather was also much cooler here today. We were only in shorts and t-shirts. In hindsight we should have brought a light jacket too. It was sunny though so that helped us keep warm as it eventually warmed up near 70 degrees.

We made it back to the cruise. Now we are relaxing in our stateroom. We will be going to dinner in a few hours. We will now be at sea for the next 3 days on our way to New Zealand. Two days are pure sea days and then the third is spent cruising some specific inlets of the New Zealand cost (the sounds). Bye-bye Australia, we will miss you!

We are out to sea now and the boat is really starting to sway. The crew said it is going to get much worse tomorrow. It should be interesting. Go Cavs!

Penguins Parade

Last night we got off the ship at 6pm with the cruise critic group for the bus to take us to Phillip Island’s penguin parade. Mark from cruise critic arranged this bus and it worked out great. Thank you Mark for all the work you did for it. We had to be on the bus at 7 pm and it took about 15-20 minutes to get to the penguin parade. Since there were 77 people on Mark’s two buses, Celebrity even arranged a dedicated tender to take us all to shore. It all worked out well.

I had bought tickets for the Penguin Plus. Those tickets allowed to you to be closer to the penguins. They only sell about 130 tickets a night to that spot. There is also the option for the grandstand seating where hundreds of people can sit (including everyone who did the shore excursion through the cruise ship). In my opinion, those seats were not as good especially if you got there a little later. Since we got there early, we were able to get front row seats at a perfect location. We sat 3-5 feet from the penguins.

It was phenomenal! It was absolutely amazing to see those little penguins (literally several hundreds of them) come in from the ocean. These penguins are the world’s smallest penguins. They walked up the beach together just like a parade. Once they got to the boardwalks, they began to split up and take different routes to get to their separate homes. People could watch them from their seats facing the beach or even follow the penguins on foot by walking the boardwalk. The penguins go to their sand dune burrows for the night then in the morning they go back to sea all day. They came ashore in groups about 50 or so. It takes about 50 minutes for all of them to come ashore. At times I was within an arms length of some of the penguins. They were so cute, almost as cute as my koala. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures there, so we don’t have any photos of the little critters

After the parade, we took the bus back to the ship. We got back on board around 11pm. We went to the café for a snack then went to bed in preparation for our long day tomorrow in Melbourne.

Last night we got off the ship at 6pm with the cruise critic group for the bus to take us to Phillip Island’s penguin parade. Mark from cruise critic arranged this bus and it worked out great. Thank you Mark for all the work you did for it. We had to be on the bus at 7 pm and it took about 15-20 minutes to get to the penguin parade. Since there were 77 people on Mark’s two buses, Celebrity even arranged a dedicated tender to take us all to shore. It all worked out well.

I had bought tickets for the Penguin Plus. Those tickets allowed to you to be closer to the penguins. They only sell about 130 tickets a night to that spot. There is also the option for the grandstand seating where hundreds of people can sit (including everyone who did the shore excursion through the cruise ship). In my opinion, those seats were not as good especially if you got there a little later. Since we got there early, we were able to get front row seats at a perfect location. We sat 3-5 feet from the penguins.

It was phenomenal! It was absolutely amazing to see those little penguins (literally several hundreds of them) come in from the ocean. These penguins are the world’s smallest penguins. They walked up the beach together just like a parade. Once they got to the boardwalks, they began to split up and take different routes to get to their separate homes. People could watch them from their seats facing the beach or even follow the penguins on foot by walking the boardwalk. The penguins go to their sand dune burrows for the night then in the morning they go back to sea all day. They came ashore in groups about 50 or so. It takes about 50 minutes for all of them to come ashore. At times I was within an arms length of some of the penguins. They were so cute, almost as cute as my koala. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures there, so we don’t have any photos of the little critters

After the parade, we took the bus back to the ship. We got back on board around 11pm. We went to the café for a snack then went to bed in preparation for our long day tomorrow in Melbourne.