At Sea enroute to Auckland February 18-19

After leaving Fiji, the ship heads south towards New Zealand.  The time is pushed forward one hour in order to be on New Zealand time because they don’t have a daylight savings time concept.  We leave the tropics behind when the ship sails past the Tropic of Capricorn and the temperatures are now in the 70’s.  This doesn’t stop the people on the decks by the pool from sun-bathing until they are crisp.

The ship is sailing near the Kermadec Ridge and Trench in the Pacific Ocean.  The Ridge is tips of mountains that can barely be seen under the water – so basically at sea level.  The Trench is 10,000 meters deep.  Guess we want to be sailing over the trench, not the ridge!

With the time change, some of the cruise contingent are becoming cruise zombies.  Laying the sun all day, partying at the events at night and then up to start all over.  Lots of people around the ship are napping.  Certainly the gym is more sedate:  Steve mentions that there were five working out this morning, vis-à-vis the usual twenty to thirty.  My cruise zombie moment comes when I realize that I ‘can’t find anything to wear.’  Oh, its time for the laundry room again!  Today’s launderette stories are all about two women competing about how much they saved on their cruise, airfare, shopping bargains, etc.

Several of the lectures have been about WW2 in the Pacific.  Regretfully, I can’t tell you much about these because I didn’t attend.

There was an interesting lecture about the Maori people, the original inhabitants of New Zealand prior to the Europeans.  The British fought with and against the various Maori tribes during the 1800’s for their land on the North island of New Zealand.  Basically, the story sounded a lot like the US and the Native Americans. With the audience including a number of British and Australians, they mostly know about this subject but it was all new to me.

The Maori are the people who wear elaborate tattoos all over their face and body, looking mighty fierce with their wooden ‘killing’ clubs called Patu.  It is believed they arrived in New Zealand around 1000 C.E. from the Fiji islands.

The lecturer’s presentation included a brief history about where in the south pacific, when and how many atomic bombs were exploded as testing went on until 1996.  An interesting bit of history that had faded from my cold-war memory.

The entertainment changed out in Fiji.  The classical music in the afternoon is a classical guitarist and a flutist, Sam Piha and Louise Garner.  They play an interesting mix of music from Bach Prelude to Spanish Dance No. 5 by Enrique Granados.  Today only the classical guitarist will play, as he said, to mix it up.

Yesterday evening was Carnival Night, a formal night.  We find our most colorful clothes to wear and have our pictures taken by the onboard photographers.  The evening’s entertainment is an Australian, Glenn Amer who is described as ‘combining the fingers of Liberace with the voice of Mario Lanzal.’  He definitely is quite the showman, funny and amazingly talented.  Tonight’s entertainer is Pete Matthews, UK’s premier comedy juggler. Possibly keeping with the carnival theme?!

This morning the International Maritime Service is led by Captain Wells.  The hymns are rousing, from “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” to the last hymn “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer.”   We can’t believe it will be Ash Wednesday this coming week.

Auckland is the largest New Zealand city with around 1 million people, making it the largest Polynesian city in our world.  It is the fastest growing city in New Zealand.  However, New Zealand has been losing 1000 people a week to Australia over the past few years due to the earthquakes and economic downturn.

Walking around the deck of the ship with the cooler temperatures, deep blue Pacific Ocean and blue skies filled with puffy clouds this afternoon is awesome.  Thank you, God.