Land and Fog: Skipping Christchurch to be fogged in down in Dunedin

Can we all please pause and have moment of silence for my liver, which died last night during the Judgement of Paris wine pairing dinner---- thank you/

As I type, we are leaving Port Chalmers through a somewhat thinned out veil of fog that detained us so long we will have to forego our stop in Akaroa (Christ Church)/ I’m pretty bummed to miss that stop, but life goes on/

Getting to step foot onto land in New Zealand was another huge moment! Sailing in, we were just blown away by how incredibly gorgeous it was—the blue of the ocean against the royal green, rolling hillside – dotted with sheep and little else/ Jason was the most excited he’s been so far – just smiling ear to ear/ We were coming in hours late because of the morning fog and some tours were cancelled/ We didn’t have a tour planned so it was easy for us – but we did wish we would have had more time in Dunedin – what a lovely little town!

We had to take a shuttle bus from the ship in Port Chalmers to Dunedin, which took about 20 minutes/ Getting off the boat and onto the shuttle took about an hour! Sheesh! I think this was mostly just that everything was out of whack from being late/ The shuttle bus cost us $15 New Zealand dollars each/ Thankfully, I’d snuck down to the front desk early and exchanged some money so we were ready to rock/

The drive was lovely – except that it was an abnormally hot day for early spring and the bus windows didn’t open/ Jason was pretty miserable/ we hopped off in “the octagon”, which was the city center – perfect for grabbing lunch and exploring/ Dunedin is named after Edinburgh, Scotland and looks quite a lot like it! Loved the castles and the fish and chips! We found a table in an open air style pub right by the window—which was open and didn’t even have a screen – it was a beautiful spot to people watch and enjoy the meal/

Afterwards, we walked awhile and checked out some of the local shops/ Lots and lots of things made from merino wool, sheepskin (including Uggs everywhere you look), and even possum! This was our first day figuring out new zealand money and prices so I couldn’t quite get my bearings/ Another instance to miss Google and constant wifi!  

 
Because we were late into port, the ship adjusted the all aboard time to 9 PM – but we still had to be back to the ship no later than 5 because we were signed up for the Judgement of Paris wine pairing dinner/ We wanted to have a little time to walk around the tiny but charming town of Port Chalmers, too/ So, we hopped the shuttle back over and then started walking the main street in Port Chalmers – what a great little place/

There is a public library with good, free wifi right by the cruise port/ We stepped inside for a moment and saw our awesome room steward!So glad to see him getting a break off the boat/ We asked the librarian where we could find a post office box and she directed us up the street to the pharmacy – off we went, stopping in a few interesting little shops along the way/ There is an awesome used book store – what a perfect idea right near a cruise port! Up the hill behind the main street is an incredible old church with a large steeple and bell tower/ I only took about 78 pictures of it

Anyway, before long it was time to head on ship to get ready for our dinner/We were looking forward to seeing Rod and Louise and finding out about their day/ In addition, we’d invited Karen to join the 4 of us and Jason and I were looking forward to getting to know her better/ Rod and Louise had met her on one of their earlier excursions/ 

JoJo and the team had everything all set when we got there/ I saw wine glasses galore! Now, if you haven’t kept up on the wine world in, ever, you might not be familiar with the Judgement of Paris/ Years ago, someone tasted California wines and decided they were good enough to stand up to the best wines in the world – at that time, California wines weren’t considered in the wine world at all/ And so, an interesting competition was proposed – a blind tasting – one on one – a Californian v a French wine/ The outcome surely helped change wine history in California/

Here was our chance to do something similar. What we thought would happen is that we would get a taste of a French wine and a Californian wine for each course, decide which we preferred and get to drink more of that one to complete the course. Instead, what happened was we got a solid pour of both, each course. 6 courses. If your math is rusty – I’ll tell you that is 12 glasses of wine. Did I mentioned we got started with a glass of sparkling while we waited to be seated? Oh liver, forgive me.

The menu was fabulous – they did a wonderful job creating a delightful set of courses with which to pair. Ahead of time, I was most excited to have some of my favorite Chardonnay (Ferrari Carano) and to get to try Chateauneuf du Pape. I was surprised that I often preferred the French wine, especially when pairing with it the food. Karen and I were very similar in our tastes – often liking the French best with food but the Californian best on its own. JoJo would come around between courses and take everyone’s vote. At the end of the night, California won!

In the meantime, we had a wonderful time getting to know Karen better and, as always, enjoying time with Rod and Louise. We were starting to worry they weren’t going to make it but they showed up and caught up in the 2nd course after their tour went a bit longer with the rescheduling of things from the morning fog.

Karen lived in California for about 15 years and had a lot of fun escaping into wine country on the weekends, just like I used to/ She told us about some of her favorite places off the Silverado Trail/ We shared a few fun stories of our own/ As we kept swapping stories, we heard she was traveling with an older couple and they were collectively sharing the Pinnacle Suite, which is the largest suite on the boat! What fun! We had just been talking with Rod about when we were planning the trip, we went back and forth on whether a suite would be worth the extra cost/ So, we had plenty of questions to ask her about it/ Next thing you know, she’s invited us to come up to see it! What fun is that? During the course of the meal, the captain announced we were stuck in the fog and so we decided we might as well get together in the morning up in the suite for a light breakfast and mimosas/

Karen headed up to the suite after the meal, but we got crazy and stayed another hour or so/ And that’s when it got hilarious – it’s always those after hours moments, right? So much laughter and outrageousness. The staff, as ALWAYS, we champs and didn’t seem to mind us sitting there, came and chatted, played along and even brought out another bottle of Decoy, because, who knows why. I was laughing so hard on the way back to the cabin that I couldn’t take the stairs and I thought I’d have to sit down and rest. It’s about a 2 minute walk. So fun.

When we woke up this morning, it was 8, which is shocking to begin with, because that’s some super late sleeping for me/ I was extremely glad that I wasn’t hung over/ I was trying hard to pay attention and not drink all 12 glasses but you know somewhere in all that mess things get weird/ Anyway – whew! Jason was also doing fine – he’d made an effort to watch it, too/ Next, we were trying to remember what we’d decided – was Karen to call everyone when she cleared us coming up with her roommates? Were we to call her? Was no one calling anyone? We didn’t know/ What we did know was if she was waiting up there for us, we didn’t want to not show up, so I called her right before 9 and asked, “so, are you expecting us right now?” hahahaha/ Indeed, she was/

The Pinnacle suite is just incredible/ It’s something like 1500 square feet – which isn’t much smaller than our house!!! There’s a kitchen that they keep stocked/ A huge full master suite with a jetted tub/ a second bathroom/ the best balcony ever – with another jetted tub outside on it!! Plus, a dining room table, real crystal and silver, actual fine art hanging on the walls, large binoculars on a tripod, windows everywhere/ It was pretty darn awesome/

Another treat was getting to meet Bill and Pat, the sweet couple Karen was traveling and rooming with/ They were both English professors back in the day – they met in Chaucer class  While talking, someone mentioned November 3/ Pat looked and Bill and said, “Do you know what November 3 is?”
“I do,” he replied
“Good—then you shall live another day!” she replied with spunk! 

They told us November 3 would be the 61st anniversary of their first date, and they celebrate it just as much as their actual wedding anniversary/ I love it!

Another fun thing – they’ve been all over the world cruising and this is the very first time they’ve had a balcony! Whoa! What a way to go for it!! They are a lovely couple and it was a delight to get to spend a little time with them.

We did a time check – it was about 10 am/ We’d readjusted the all aboard for 11:30 and we were wanting to walk back to Port Chalmers so we had to get going/ Rod and Karen both wanted to go, too – last chance for free wifi! We agreed to meet down at the gangway and walk to town/ Off we went!

While I was waiting at the gangway, the chefs were presenting their pumpkin carving – man!! They rocked it! I told Jason he should consider doing something like that next year as a fundraiser in the farm—the chefs decorated their pumpkins only with veggies! Imagine button mushrooms for ears, cucumber strips for tongues/ So clever/

We were finally able to leave Port Chalmers around 1PM/ There was still some fog so a pilot boat helped us out/ We’ve got a lot of water to cross to make it to Picton – I’m hoping we are able to get there and get docked in time to make our Tour of Marlborough Wine Country in the morning/

Until then, we’ve got a Halloween party and much more laughter on the books. Oh wow – the period key just worked. Hallelujah!

Australia - worth the wait! Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania!

Oh, how to begin to tell you about our first 3 days in Australia?

Note -- the period key is not working ever, at all, not one single time now. Sorry! (editor note: I'm going back through now and trying to correct all the punctuation!)

Sydney was first – when I woke up in the morning, I was still excited and I ran to the curtains, threw them back and saw land! I sat on the deck watching as we came into port. At some point, it occurred to me to stand up and look out the front – and there it was! The Sydney Opera House! I ran into get Jason up, knowing he wouldn’t want to miss sailing past it. What an incredible view – Sydney harbor at sunrise. Wow. I remembered the captain said we would sail under the bridge and I thought I recalled him saying we could clear it by 2 meters!! Um, hello, that’s a whopping 6 feet! In other words – good grief we were going to scrape the bottom of the bridge as we slide silently underneath.

I love the ports at morning. The ship and the waters are so quiet – it’s almost eerie. One lone pilot boat came out to help guide us to the back of the white bay port. We’d been bummed to learn we weren’t going into the main port – that would have been so much easier for us. But, whatever.

Australia required that we all complete a special passenger information card and appear before their immigration officers in person prior to being allowed to roam about. This, of course, means a lot of waiting before being about to go ashore. The boat was awesome about it though and it was exceptionally well organized. We ate a good breakfast – our new fave, the Pan Asian breakfast. Miso soup, grilled salmon with rice and we throw a couple of eggs over medium on top. YUM! Fueled up, we were ready to step foot in Australia!

We had to take a ferry over to Darling Harbor – it was a super short ride and cost about $9 AUS each. From there, our plans were to walk the city. We began this well by immediately having no idea where we were or how to get anywhere:)  The map the ship gave us was utter crap. But alas, Sydney was kind enough to provide lovely maps and signs all over the city streets and in just a few minutes, we were ready to rock.

The central business district was lovely – clean, modern, totally walkable. Enjoyed it. We made our way to the botanical gardens and walked alongside it until we were face to face with the opera house again. No kangaroos hopped but it was pretty fabulous nonetheless.

We decided to grab some lunch and sit outside at the main harbor near Circle Quay. Oh, the people watching! We saw the Celebrity cruise ship which bumped us out of the main port and we gave it a good stink eye. I’ve been craving pizza so we shared a veggie pizza and the beer – a great lunch. The awesome hostess directed us to a local “bottle shop” where we were hoping to pick up a bottle of Shiraz. We’re trying to get over the harshness of the ‘a’ in the way the Aussies pronounce it. I’m sure they feel the same way about us with our long ‘a’. We find the adorable but oh-so-small bottle shop. We quickly realize we still have no idea whatsoever what might be good, so we decide to skip buying something. The prices are good, though. So far, we’re not experiencing the whole “Australia is so expensive” thing. Likely, my years in California cured me of that.

After that, we generally meandered back to Darling Harbor, admiring the mixed architecture of the city – old, gorgeous buildings intermingled with shiny, new metal and glass towers. We could tell a storm was building so we made our way to the ferry and stopped into a little wine shop for a glass of Shiraz while waiting for one of the last ferries before all aboard time. Interestingly, the ferry let us on without tickets and then walked around mid trip and asked if anyone needed to buy a ticket. We easily could have scored a free trip, but my sweet husband raised his hand and paid for our fare.

That night,  the ship had an awesome sail away party. The incredible Sydney harbor by sunset was just as impressive as by sunrise! We found Rod and Louise up on deck 10—they had a bottle of Skip Jack Merlot with them, which Rod promptly told us was awful. Louise immediately told Rod to go into the crow’s nest and score 2 more glasses so they could share with us. We died laughing – why did we want bad wine? Well, he did and we tried it and it’s been the joke ever since, because shortly thereafter, we accidentally lost them in the crowd. Jason said, “they’ll probably think we ditched them because they gave us bad wine!” Hilariously, the next day when we saw them again, Rod said, “ We figured you guys took off when we gave you the bad wine!” HA!

So, after we got split off, we went to the front of the boat and Jason ended up standing next to the sweetest old man.  He told Jason he was last in Sydney in 1931, when they were constructing the bridge. He was thrilled to be there again and see it completed. He reminded Jason so much of his papa. A sweet moment, for sure! We hope to see him again and hear more – in particular, we’d like to know why he was here then.

We had a day at sea after Sydney. We are starting to really love our sea days. They are super busy generally, but in a different way from port days. Shockingly, we’ve gotten really into art! I feel shocked again just typing that. We’ve gone to every auction and every talk. We love the art staff on board and cannot believe how much we’re learning. We also frequently have a wine tasting or something similar. We walk every day. We nap every day. Long days of exercise, fresh air, reading, writing, wine, good conversation, art – the best of days.

In Melbourne, we had our 2nd official excursion. It was an interesting combination of steam train ride, mountain crossing, and wine tasting – and we loved it. Our guides, two older gents named Geoff and Colin, were great fun and highly intelligent. The mountains were gorgeous – we saw plenty of sheep and cows. The steam train (Puffing Billy) was great fun – so glad we got to do that. We rode through eucalyptus forests – ah, the smell!

And then, we cruised into Yarra Valley where we visited 3 wineries. So, now, here’s the thing – going to a winery in a large group with people who may not even like wine is really not ideal if you really do like wine/ That said, we made the best of it. At the first stop, Rochford Winery, we did a group tasting with a sommelier and then had lunch. We didn’t care much for the wines we had during the tasting BUT they were serving us 2016 and even a 2017 vintage! Whoa! Way too young to yet be delicious. At lunch (which was lovely) we skipped out of dessert so we could go to the tasting bar by ourselves and beg to taste a Shiraz and something older. They complied and we enjoyed that tasting!  

The next 2 wineries went by quickly – we only really had about 25 minutes at each, and we were a group of 28! Worse, each winery only dedicated one employee to our group, so you really couldn’t ask questions or try something different. At the second winery, we just stayed at the tasting bar longer than everyone else and at the third one, we ditched our group and went to another side of the tasting bar! Finally!

As we headed home, Collin decided to change our route slightly so that we could drive past an area called Kangaroo Flats in the hopes of seeing some roos.   Sure enough – there they were! They were laying down in the fields so we couldn’t see them hop or anything but it was still awesome.

Once we got back to the wharf, we decided to look at a couple of the restaurants nearby and eat dinner off ship for a treat. We picked one nearest the boat and were able to sit outside, eat fresh oysters and drink some local wine! BAM! Overall, we really loved Melbourne – a beautiful city.

Some things we learned from Geoff, the tour guide – if you make over 130K a year, you are taxed at 42%== good heavens!! The average house costs more than $600,000 – WHOA! The basic apartment still costs around $500,000. Oh, and if that isn’t bad enough, real estate tax is 12%! So, that’s where they get you—we changed our minds and are no longer trying to move here:)  Hahaha

We enjoyed another awesome day at sea and then woke up to Hobart, Tasmania! I was super looking forward to hiking and seeing more wildlife. This was our first excursion booked with American Airlines rather than with the boat, so we really weren’t sure what to expect. We had walking instructions for meeting up with our guide and we were able to quickly figure that out and find the corner of Elizabeth and Davey – the city center was adorable and the wharf clean and full of little seafood joints – started looking forward to dining there at the tour end;)

We found Nick and the van and got loaded up. There were 11 of us on the trip – all from the boat.  We talked with another couple who said they heard of it from Delta Airlines – perhaps the others found their way in a similar fashion.

Now, confession time. We’re not always perfect people;) Sometimes, we’re cranky or people just really annoy us. As we began our trip, one such person presented herself. And later, one more/ So we take off for Mount Field National Park for waterfall hiking to begin the day. Nick takes us to a little town to begin with to buy lunch for a picnic in the park later – great idea! We get to the park an Nick needs about 10 minutes to get all of us checked in. We agree to meet in 10 minutes outside the visitor center. Ok, so we aren’t great with doing things quickly, but we’re all there ish. Nick was a great combination of patient and able to move us along and maintain a semblance of timeliness. As we head out on the first trail, I noticed that one lady didn’t come out – I knew that she knew we were leaving, because I personally went to tell her when I noticed she was still standing at the counter looking at a platypus. That’s a funny sentence. Anyway, I yelled to Nick that she was missing and he ran back to get her – annoying;) We meandered up the trail to the falls, which were breath taking ! We were all impressed with Nick’s deep knowledge of pretty much everything along the way! He knew all the plants, trees, birds – later we found out he studied environmental science – aha! What a great bonus to end up with him as a guide.

As we left the main falls, Nick mentioned if we were up for it, there was another waterfall up a steep hike. To our surprise, our (much older) group all said yes! Woohoo! We started walking up stairs and almost immediately, the annoying lady slipped and fell right in front of me. Scared me to death because I saw the whole thing and couldn’t do a darn thing to stop it. It clearly hurt her as she stayed down awhile rubbing her leg. Thankfully, my compassion finally kicked in. This lady then stood up, brushed herself off and kept hiking – never mentioned her leg again.

 
After that hike, we drove over to another trail head which allowed us to see the oldest and tallest trees in Tasmania! It was a short, gorgeous hike. Not a rain forest like the first one, so just a very different experience, but wow! Pure delight.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch afterward and ended up sitting with Nick and a couple from South Carolina/ Jason’s urban farm became the conversation and, as always, everyone was all over it/ Our sandwiches were really delicious and we were ready to carry on/

As we waited to load up the van, the lady walks up to me and tells me she loves my necklace! Jason had just bought it for me on the ship because it reminded me of the purple star fish we saw in Fiji. During our conversation, she tells me that it will be her birthday in 2 days – and that she’ll be turning 82. Gulp! 82??? Holy cow!!! I immediately changed my mind – she wasn’t annoying, she was amazing! She hiked to a waterfall , took a spill, kept up trucking – she looked amazing (we had no idea she was that age). I hope I’m that awesome when I’m 82!

So, next we headed over to Bonorong Wildlife Center. I was crazy excited because I knew that I’d be able to pet a kangaroo. Nick gave us the scoop on the drive – this park specifically rescues injured or abandoned creatures, nurses them back to health and then tries to release them back into the wild. Not always possible, in which case, they create a wonderful life for them right in the nature center. All the creatures there would be local Tasmanian animals – it wasn’t a zoo;)

When we walk in, I am sure I audibly gasped. There were kangaroos – everywhere! Loose! Hopping around! There were free boxes of roo food all over. You could feed them anytime. Jason almost immediately was feeding the largest looking kangaroo ever. I decided that looked terrifying and looked for an itty bitty roo—and there she was! The sweetest little roo ever. I crouched low and stuck my hand out, holding it flat (following all the rules). She very, very cautiously inched closer. And then, I nearly died from joy when she took her tiny hands and held my hand steady as she ate. The larger roos don’t do that and it felt like the sweetest treat ever. They eat very cleanly – she didn’t lick my hand or do anything gross. I took approximately 9 million photos of that moment while trying to not cry from joy.

The rest of the time, we spent feeding and petting more roos – they like to have their necks and chests scratched, but not their heads. We saw Tasmanian devils, baby wombats, cool blue tongue lizards, snakes, lots of interesting birds. So awesome!!

An interesting thing I learned there – wildlife care givers aren’t paid a salary and given supplies and things, as we’d normally expect/ They spend their own money to buy whatever they need/ We met the care giver for three orphaned baby wombats/ She paid for their bottles, milk, blankets, etc/ I’m not sure why this is or if it is just this particular park/ But it’s pretty incredible that people would still dedicate their lives to this work and do so unpaid/ This care giver had a little fund raiser going – she hand sews little burrow bags out of soft materials for the baby wombats to snuggle into/ You could chip in $20 AUS to cover the expenses of the materials and therefore sponsor one of the babies/ The awesome 82 year old gal did this and then was allowed to hold the baby wombat and have her photo taken with it – so stinkin’ cute!

We finally headed back to port/ What a great day/ We decided to walk around a bit and find some fresh seafood and local Tasmanian wine or beer to try before getting back on the ship/ We found a good happy hour special with a table looking out at the harbor – perfect/ What we didn’t know was the process for getting your bill, tipping, etc We ended up sitting there quite a long time;) As it turned out, no tipping/

Once we left Tasmania, we had 2 days at sea before arriving at Milford Sound, New Zealand! This was another sea day (meaning we couldn’t get off the boat) but all day long we cruised through 3 different sounds (Milford, Doubtful, and Dusky) – it was incredibly beautiful Often, we saw waterfalls and we saw a good amount of wildlife—including a swimming penguin!!! Little baby dolphins learning to jump!

One interesting thing I learned about Milford Sound is that there is an underwater observatory there which was built because of the very unique environment in the sound – the large amount of fresh water that rushes into the sound from snow melt creates 2 layers – about 30 feet of fresh water on top of a very deep salt water bottom layer/ The vegetation tends to hang in the top layer, which makes the water very dark/ As such, the sea creatures that are generally found in very deep water come up almost to the surface-- You can see things you’d never be able to see!! I wish so badly I could have gone to that observatory! 

We had a premium Australian and New Zealand wine tasting that afternoon and also had lunch for the first time in the Pinnacle Grill/ We met up with Rod and Louise there, which was fun/ We ended up going to Sip and Savor so it was quite a winey day! My poor liver/ We were trying to not go to bed early (weve gotten good at this) so we just kept not going back to the room/ I had a salad up in the lido and we eventually also went to the casino, the main performance, and the sing along at the piano bar before calling it a night/

So, today is to be the first day we step foot on land here in New Zealand/ This is exciting after being “here” for a full day and spending a lot of time prepping to clear immigration/ These guys are really serious about this stuff! We had to thoroughly clean our shoes and show them to the officials! We have had many notes in the room about what we cannot bring onto land/ The boat is no longer able to serve whole fruit for the duration of the trip (lest someone take some and attempt to smuggle it onto land)—very interesting/

That said, as we woke this morning ready to explore Dunedin (the Kiwi Scotland), we are completely fogged in/ So much so that the captain isn’t able to see the channel markers to navigate us to port/ So, we sit and wait for clearing/ This gives me more time to write and Jason was thrilled to find the Cowboys game on TV (funny because it’s Monday morning here)—we’re cool/ Somewhere on the ship though, we anticipate that there are a lot of cranky people who are mad because their plans have been derailed and they have no way to communicate that with the various local tour groups/ My only hope is that it does eventually clear up enough that I can see Dunedin! Would hate to miss it all together/

Aside from that, tonight we have the “judgement of Paris” dinner in the Pinnacle Grill/ Very much looking forward to the French v Californian wine pairing dinner/ We know pretty much absolutely nothing at all about French wine, so it’ll be nice to compare them and learn more/

Much more to come! Glad I was finally able to catch up on the basics here/
             









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