Australia Edition - Day 7

 Day 7: 2/18 - Tasman Sea Day 2

Good morning from New Zealand! It’s hard to believe that we left home a week ago! So much has happened in that time and we still have 2 weeks left! We are currently cruising Fiordland National Park, the wettest part of New Zealand. It is cold, foggy, rainy, and breathtakingly beautiful. This is the third fiord (fjord) we have visited and they always impress. But that is for tomorrow’s update. 

Yesterday was our second “Fun Day at Sea”. We had another slow morning (anyone seeing a pattern?), got cleaned up and headed to lunch. I grabbed some broccoli, Thai green curry with vegetables, and some chipotle grilled chicken. Valerie hit up Guy’s Burger Joint for a burger and fries. I got really jealous and grabbed one myself. I’m not sure if I was jealous of the burger or the tomato sauce she was having with her fries. Probably the tomato sauce.

After we ate, I grabbed a cup of coffee and we played some Bananagrams. Our games have been so incredibly close, but I keep losing by a half second. I did win the second game of the day but that was because Valerie had rearranged some tiles and had broken a word in her puzzle, so I won by default. It doesn’t feel great winning like that, so I’m only taking half a win. For those of you keeping track of the Banagrams score: Valerie 2, Bill .5.

We decided to head up to the sports deck to get our walk in. This is when I made my first mistake of the trip. Valerie did 2.5km and I did 5km on the track. It was a beautiful day to be on the ocean. The sun was high in the cloudless sky and the ocean waters were calm and incredibly blue. Valerie headed back to the cabin after her laps and I continued with mine. It got a little frustrating when I approached the end of my laps as more and more drunk folks were coming up to the sports deck to look at the view, walking in the wrong direction, stumbling across the path. The last 10 or so laps I had to master the 5 D’s of dodgeball; dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

I finished my laps and met back up with Valerie in the cabin. I was in need of some water and chugged one of the 1.5 liter bottles of water, and we spent some time relaxing in the cabin. I had been sending these updates out via email, but after talking some with Valerie, we decided to start posting to an online blog and send people a link. I signed up for Blogspot, copied all my previous updates to the new Blogspot site and sent off the link. 

After I had finished setting up the new blog, my neck and arms were itchy. I decided to take a shower to wash off the walk and get ready for dinner. Last night was formal night, so we had to get dressed up for dinner. I wore black slacks and a dress shirt, and Valerie was looking fantastic in her burgundy dress. Once we were looking dapper, we headed down to dinner. 

For dinner, we had duck pot stickers, rib eye roast with twice cooked potatoes and roasted veggies. For dessert I had Black Forest cake, and Valerie had cheesecake with strawberry sauce. The duck pot stickers were fantastic as always, but the main was disappointing. We were expecting the normal slab of prime rib, but this was a 1/8” thick slice of 60% fat, 40% lean steak. The twice cooked potatoes were a half of a plain potato, no sour cream, cheese, onion, or bacon. The roasted veggies were corn, raw onion, raw bell pepper, and carrots. It was fine, but I left 60% of the steak on my plate since it was all fat. I like some fat on my steak, but that was too much.

Dessert was fantastic though. My Black Forest cake had layers of chocolate sponge with whipped cream, and pieces of cherry. Not super sweet, but delicious. The no sugar added desserts on this cruise have been fantastic. Valerie really enjoyed her cheesecake as well. We also had coffee with dessert and I think we’ve finally tamed the coffee. 80% coffee, 20% milk, 3 Splenda packets. I had 3 cups yesterday between lunch and dinner. I’ve been really enjoying it.

During dinner, my neck and arms were getting itchier and itchier. The collar on my dress was becoming more and more uncomfortable as it rubbed against my neck.

After dinner we headed to the Red Frog to listen to Music Motion play an Eagles tribute set. It was fantastic. The pub was standing room only (our “diamond in the rough” had been discovered by the entire ship apparently) and the place was rocking! They played “Take It Easy”, “Desperado”, “Life in the Fast Lane”, “Hotel California”, “Seven Bridges Road”, “Take It To The Limit”, and “Best of My Love”. We are really enjoying their sets.

Once the set was done, we headed to the piano bar to wait for Genevieve. She was playing in the Showtime show, 88 Keys. We’ve seen that show more times than we can count at this point, but after the show, the performers would be heading to the piano bar to do a sing-a-long with Genevieve so we would get an opportunity to hear the performers in a more intimate setting. At 10:30 the set started and it wasn’t great. There were some drunk folks next to us yelling loudly trying to talk over the music and the song selection wasn’t anything you could consider a sing-a-long. Disappointing after the incredible performance in the Red Frog. We listened to 3 or 4 songs and decided to head to bed. 

When we got to the cabin, I looked in the mirror and saw I had become “Lobster Man”. I was repping 49ers’ colors on my arms, face, and neck. Apparently walking on the open deck in the middle of the open ocean with the sun at its peak for an hour without sunscreen is a really bad idea. I took some Advil, had Valerie lube me up with lotion and then noticed my legs were itching. Ever since I took off the devil socks on Tuesday, my calves where the sock ended had been irritated. I originally thought it was just swelling and bruising from the compression sock. Apparently there was something I’m sensitive to on the socks and that combined with the sun from yesterday gave me a rash. Valerie shoved some Benadryl down my throat and lubed up my legs with more lotion. We may have to buy stock in CeraVe if I continue being stupid about sunscreen. I won’t be making the mistake of going out without sunscreen again.

After I was well lubed up, we turned out the lights and hit the hay.

This has been the most difficult recap to write as I write two sentences, look up and need to go outside to take a picture of the beautiful landscape. We’ll be spending the day cruising around the fjords in Fiordland National Park. We just left Milford Sound and are out on the open waters again heading towards our next location. Tomorrow is our first day in port, Port Chalmers/Dunedin. We’re not sure what we are doing, but we’ll figure it out.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and are able to enjoy your first football free Sunday in 6 months. Just a couple more months until the draft, and 6 more months until the season starts!

Love you all and we’ll check in tomorrow!