Day 36: Waitangi, New Zealand
After breakfast, a longer tender ride, and a short shuttle ride, we were able to walk through the little town. The shops weren’t too great, but we did stop for a drink in a local (far less touristy) sports bar. It was a beautiful day, weather wise, so we had a great time.
On the way back, our shuttle got stuck in “traffic” at the one-way bridge. On the boat, we just made lunch, had a drink, and headed back to the cabin for naps. Life is rough!
We popped into The Club for a quick drink, and ran into R&N. We had the lovely honor of having dinner with them.
We went to the (lame) deck party, but we didn’t dance because the music was not inspiring.
As an experiment, I looked up the year of each song played. Here is that list:
- 1955
- 1954
- 1954
- 1974
- 1999
- 1982
- 1963
- 1979
- 1957
- ?? (No year per Google)
- 1969 – line dancing
- 1997 – country
- 1979
- (Intentionally avoiding the 80s?)
- 1971
- 2014
- 1964 (James’* song; popularized in the 80s)
- 1982 – and Latino
- 1981 – Finally! Journey
When the *Entertainment Director tried to get me to dance, I said no but that I would show him why and showed him my list. He said he’d be singing an 80s song. The song he picked was popular in the 80s but was from the 60s.
When L came over and mused about the old music (and also about how many “old people” cruises she’s been on), I showed her my list. She said she knew it was bad but didn’t know it was that bad. I told her it was a whole month of this bad.
Day 37: Matiatia Bay, New Zealand
We could see Auckland…and it’s funny that it’s so close to this port of call on Waiheke Island. It’s only a 35 minute ferry between the two.
The town near port is cute. We walked around, sat on a bench to enjoy the pretty day, and got a couple of tshirts. We then went to a bar for lunch and drinks where E&C also joined us for a drink.
Once back on board, our room was a bit sad. They pulled out our suitcases and the luggage mat. We’ve already packed about 2/3 of our stuff, but we had to get our checked cases to their spot by 11pm on this night. Even though we had packed some already, seeing it was still a bit sad. And it is of course, going to be sad to say goodbye to so many new friends.
We’re both a little nervous about being on our own. We are afraid we’ll forget to pay tabs. We’re apprehensive of moving every 2-4 days and driving on the left side of the road. At the same time, we’re looking forward to being on our own. It will be nice to just have our own schedule for sleeping in and eating brunch instead of both breakfast and an early lunch. It will be nice to have a hotel room to ourselves instead of needing to be away for the late morning and for the evening. (Certainly, you can stay in the room and just put up the DND tag, but that’s also when they resupply the all-important fridge.) And it will be nice to not hear weekly drills. Mostly, though, it will be nice to really get to explore. We haven’t been able to do much of that from these ports of call.
I didn’t want to say this when it happened, but we learned something these last few days. Turns out, the snobby lady with the satellite phone was rude to a lot of people. She is another epitome of another story line in South Park as she is from San Francisco.
After packing some more, we had a last dinner/show (with a lovely classical guitar performance). Our last night at The Club included many teary goodbyes with new friends. Some were leaving; others were staying on the boat until Sydney.
We were set to debark at 8am the next morning.
