Sea day after Rarotonga

First of four days at sea on our way to New Zealand, Auckland is currently 1000 miles south west of us and we’re doing about 18 knots. Hot and sunny with a high of 30 degrees, we lay in the sun for a while and took our first dip in the pool, the water was positively warm, the pool is quite small about 20 feet by 12 feet, I’d guess. Dinner was excellent as usual, though my crispy skin chicken had limp skin, but we all have our cross to bear.

Matt, our waiter, is excellent at his job and his assistant, Uluo, is also very efficient, they’re both from Thailand and both are looking forward to going home when their contracts finish in August (they’re pictured left, Matt, Uluo and table captain, Andrea). Tonight we met Lorraine Arzt in the casino, she is quite a character. She lives permanently on board the ship and as godmother of the ship, she has her picture at the entry to the main dining lounge and receives the royal treatment wherever she goes. Her parents were both from Glasgow and she lived in Pollokshields, Glasgow, for 4 years on Herriot Road, at the time her parents had a sweety shop on Eglinton Street, so we had lots to talk about.

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Rarotonga-NOT

The sky was overcast and grey as we approached Rarotonga, we had been prepared by the weather forecast for a rainy day. As we went up to the top deck, we passed all the excited participants in the Princess organised shore excursions, waiting in line for the first tender ashore. Our plan was to relax with a coffee until the early morning rush had diminished, then head ashore for a wander around and maybe rent a car. Before renting you must first a visit the local police station to be photographed and apply for a Cook Islands driving licence, approximately $10, I was looking forward to the unique souvenir and process. As we enjoyed our coffee, I could see the rain approaching from off shore and shortly it was pouring down and the sea got very choppy. There were already two tenders in the water and they were bouncing about like corks when the announcement from the captain started. “Due to rough seas and expected increased wind and rain, all shore visits have been cancelled and we will be raising the anchor for an early departure to New Zealand” The next half hour was spent watching the lifeboat crews hook up and raise the tenders back on board, a perilous process as the seas heaved the smaller vessels around.

Fortunately I had taken some pictures of the island before the worst of the weather moved in so at least we got to see Rarotonga, if not set foot on it. It was a bit disappointing but as the captain said, safety is first priority, apparently it‘s not unusual for weather to prevent tenders going ashore. We were soon on our way with 5 days at sea ahead before we reach New Zealand as the entertainment staff made hurried announcements scheduling new events on board. The evening show featured the multi talented instrumentalists Duo Yalba, they were very entertaining, that’s 7 shows we’ve seen, a record for us.

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Day at sea before Rarotonga

Like most recent sea days, today was warm and balmy, it’s surprising that when you talk to people, most love the sea days. I used the time to get into my third book since we boarded, a murder mystery set in Maine, they have an excellent library on board (see left) and most of the morning was spent laying out on deck, reading while alternating between sun and shade. The afternoon followed our usual pattern, shooting the breeze with many of the nice people we’ve met. We lost both morning and afternoon trivia by one point, so I’m still waiting for that next coupon that will allow us a key chain in addition to a baseball cap, the excitement is under whelming. After dinner we had a quick minorly profitable visit to the casino, met Lucy & Jim and were happy to hear that Lucy had won the $250 blackjack tournament. We sat out under the stars and discussed how they should spend this vast amount of money, needless to say some unusual suggestions were ventured, much to our amusement.

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Tahiti

It was 86 degrees and humid as we sat on the upper deck having a coffee. It was 9am and the Saga Rose was just pulling into the next berth, this would be the last time we see her as she heads in a different direction from here. We went ashore soon after, before it got any hotter and walked the 2 or 3 minutes to the main shopping street. The ship was docked very conveniently within 200 yards of downtown Papeete (pronounced ‘Pappy ate eh‘) and we wandered up a few side streets making our way to the market we remembered from our previous visit. Once there we checked out both levels then decided most items were overpriced and the only thing we were interested in was the flowers which were more reasonably priced. On the subject of pricing we heard a few second hand stories, a hamburger for $9 from a street vendor and $24 for a beer and an orange juice in one of the cafes, can‘t comment on how accurate they were as our only purchase was the flowers.

The heat was unbearable and we were both drenched, so after some negotiations we settled on a nice arrangement (pictured left) for $17 and walked back to the air conditioning of the ship.

After lunch we relaxed on the promenade deck and I watched the crew going through their usual maintenance work, painting the ships’ hull, then since we’d just come through 5 days at sea I decided to have another half hour on land strolling around town.

By 3.30pm I was back and we were sitting in the ships’ main lounge watching a local Polynesian folkloric show which was very good. Capital of Tahiti, the town of Papeete is not altogether unattractive with a beautiful long ocean front main street, Boulevard Pomare, with nicely laid out public gardens, innumerable shops and street side cafes. There were some taxis available pierside and I’m told they accept US dollars, there were also a few banks within easy walking distance. We were back out on deck to watch the 5.00pm sail away, around 4.35pm they announced (this is for Lorraine) “Would Mr & Mrs Swanson kindly contact the pursers desk”. Apparently there were two passengers unaccounted for, the minutes ticked by then with only a few minutes to go, first Mr Swanson came running down the pier, followed by Mrs Swanson a hundred yards behind. The crowds on deck alternately cheered and boo’d them as they boarded, it must have been embarrassing, as soon as they were on, the gangway was withdrawn and we were underway.

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Two days at sea after Pitcairn

Mutiny on the Princess

Two hot days at sea, 30 degrees, sunny and humid and two lazy days doing nothing. I caught up on some reading and went up to the Royal Lounge for our afternoon trivia game. Our Sunday game was going well until she asked ‘where is Transylvania?’ and when she insisted it was in France, there was almost a mutiny. Some people take their trivia seriously. As the crowd cried out with calls like ‘keel haul her’ and ‘make her kiss the gunners daughter’ she remained firm and said it was her game and the correct answer was France. We didn’t win. We bypassed the main restaurant that night and had dinner in the Italian Bistro, it was delicious, lasagna for starters and then an excellent Margherita pizza, it was all excellent and I managed to finish the 18”pizza myself, Izzy had Chicken Kiev. After dinner we went to the production show (singers and dancers) with Rikki Jay the comedian.

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