"Our Ship" The Dawn Princess, leaves Auckland for Sydney

We opted to see the ship leave Auckland rather than arrive - a good choice. The weather was a bit erratic (as usual) with sun and showers, but mainly sun – thank goodness. The first photograph was taken from Auckland’s North Shore, brunch time, just across the road from our usual cafe, in Birkenhead. Birkenhead is known as the “City of Views” this is looking back towards downtown Auckland and you can just see the tip of the stern of the ship in the centre of the photograph, tucked behind the hotel that looks like a ship! This street in Birkenhead goes down to the ferry.

If you want to find this on the map, it is Hinemoa St and the sandwich board bottom right is pointing to Palm Cafe – where I get my (LARGE) daily fix of coffee and usually a fairly full breakfast. Highly recommended if you are ever over this way.

Mid afternoon, Paula and I headed over to Devonport, to the top of Mount Victoria, ready to watch the Dawn Princess head off on the last leg of this year’s Round the World Cruise, bound for Sydney. We sat in the car (fortunately) as the temperature slipped down to about 14 degrees, staring at the ship which was scheduled to leave at 4pm – that is 1600hours nautically speaking. Gee I am getting the hang of this cruising jargon! We waited patiently and at 16:15, it moved. The clouds were gathering and the sun was somewhat hidden for most of the area but fortunately, the camera did a pretty good job of recording the departure.

The ship passes Devonport Wharf (just visible in the foreground) - and I was waving, flashing the car headlights and generally being a total embarrassment to Paula! Judging by a couple of flashes from the ship, someone was taking a picture or two from the ship, probably wondering who the loony was on land...

After Devonport, the ship turns 180 degrees to port (I think that is left...) and passes in front of Rangitoto Island. The 'toadstools' in the foreground are air vents for the network of tunnels in the mount, a defence post for Auckland when invaders were expected.  Rangitoto is an extinct volcano and can be seen from many different places around Auckland. 

A matter of minutes after this shot, the ship slowed - presumably to let the pilot off, did another turn - to starboard this time and headed off for Sydney.

I hopped back in the car as it was rather chilly and we headed back home.  Now it is time to see what is on the video camera...  The pictures above are all reduced in size from the original 3 or 4mb to about 355kb so if anyone wants any full sized images, just let me know.

A strange feeling watching the ship, knowing that about this time next year, we'll probably be there again waving to the 2011 cruisers probably with a degree of sadness as we won't be there right at the very end of the adventure with them, but also next year, we'll no doubt be catching up with a few passengers first...  We'll probably also be looking forward to 2012 by then.

Farewell Dawn Princess, see you again in about 265 days...

Under 300 days to go now.

The Dawn Princess continues its 2010 round the world journey and the on board bloggers continue to inform and entertain us.  Every day, both Paula and I dive into the various blogs for our ‘fix’.

What I had overlooked was that when we went to Sydney for a few days last year (round about Melbourne cup day) the Dawn Princess was in. Not for one minute did we think that a few months later we would have booked a cruise on it!  Had we realised, we would have taken more pics.

The fascinating thing about the various blogs is that each puts a different perspective on the cruise, which is brilliant.  “Packetau” is taken with Philip’s daily quotes and may well continue with that next year.

We have had several enjoyable international trips to the Australian Masters Games and the World Masters games, with the Kiwi contingent.  A lesson I picked up from the Jaycees, was recording the misdemeanours of the other members, usually to create a laugh and resulting in a small fine.  This seemed to make sense for the badminton players so I avidly recorded all such ‘incidents’ whilst we were away.  With  a bit of embroidery and massaging of the truth, our reunions were generally hilarious as these ‘incidents’ were given a wider airing.  Maybe my mission whilst on board will be to record the things that made us laugh.

We will certainly leave the historical info on each port to the others and as someone who prefers to be behind the camera or video camera, don’t expect a heap of personal pics! 

  We have enjoyed some of the stunning food creations that bloggers have posted so far and maybe we’ll make a point of taking lots of pics of the food!   Editing the movies and stills down into a reasonably sized package might take some time too as the critical thing is making sure you are brutal with the editing.  A 53 day cruise for us is quite a long one, so the resulting DVD may have to be broken down into segments otherwise the computer might struggle to cope.   If others are going to produce their own movies of the cruise, maybe we should make sure we swap addresses and post each other our finished DVDs!

FAMILY STUFF...

The new grandson arrived 6 days later than expected (July 26^th) and at this stage looks to be a chip off the old block(s), with a remarkable likeness to his dad at the same age.  Bearing in mind that Stewart also looked  a lot like me when he was young, we’ll just have to wait and see how junior progresses.  As Stewart’s wife is Brazilian, the normal convention there is to carry over mum’s maiden surname so Manu became a Santos-Green when she married Stewart.

It  took several days after the birth to confirm the baby’s name and we expected he might carry over the double barrelled surname.  But it was not to be.  The proud parents have opted for Noah Samuel Santos Green, thus retaining the ‘Santos’ as a Christian name.   Although there are Samuel’s in our Green family history, this is the first Noah and I can’t help thinking that rather than a Scalextric set, maybe granddad should buy him a carpentry set and show him a picture of the Dawn Princess...  

Second thoughts.  I’ll stick to the Scalextric set as at least I’ll enjoy it!

More holiday - but closer to home

Well, 315 days to go and the 2010 cruise is only a couple of days away from
the UK. Every day, we have been checking the blogs from the current cruisers and four of them seem to manage to update daily - most impressive!
Having different viewpoints has been invaluable and helps with deciding what
we'll be putting in this blog next year as well as what we intend doing at
each port. No doubt by then, there will be several 2011 bloggers and each

will be deciding what they think is important either for their friends or

the 2012 travellers. As my interest in history is just about zero, others
will no doubt be keen to put the history in their blogs, so easier for me to

just put in their links.

ON BOARD

From all accounts, the time on the ship for the first half of the current cruise has been most enjoyable, with several looking forward to a day or two at sea as a time to relax and recover. Whilst most see a cruise as a holiday (which of course, it is) it doesn't mean that it isn't tiring, so
conserving energy on port days will be a key consideration for us.

Days at sea learning a new dance each day will be one of our more enjoyable forms of exercise and will be part of our fitness regime. So far, they have been learning a real mix of Ballroom, Latin, Rock and Roll - plus Australia's own contribution to dance - New Vogue. Paula has been learning NV here in NZ but I opted out when the class was moving just a bit too fast for a total beginner with two left feet. Teachers (particularly dance teachers) need to understand that when you are old and tall, it takes a long time for messages to reach the feet... Even longer to learn the routines.

On the current cruise, it sounds as though there is a bit of traditional (Dixieland) jazz being played, so hopefully, we'll get to enjoy that too.  Several of the current bloggers have posted pics of the most amazing cakes but as my tastes are generally more savoury, maybe my mission will be to post a normal menu a day! Correction, my menu... NZ followers and family

will be well aware that thoughts of food are usually uppermost in my tiny mind, so the blog may as well reflect that. May need a panoramic camera - not just for the food either, as no doubt the waistline may go through a period of adjustment.

LAND IN NZ

Not even as far as the airport this time... A winter weekend away at Mount Maunganui was bright, but rather cold!  Mt Maunganui next to Tauranga could well be a future stop off for the round the world cruises, as it is a growth area and Tauranga docks are as busy as Auckland's. Several NZ travellers head straight to the wonderful thermal area of Rotorua - Tauranga is closer than Auckland.

Somewhat surprising that the Princess round the world cruises only have a short day in Auckland. Probably as the majority of passengers are Australian anyway and many will have been before. Auckland's advantage over many overseas ports is that you can stagger straight out of the terminal into downtown Auckland.

Currently the dock area is earmarked as 'Party Central' for the October 2011 Rugby World Cup, but as usual, Auckland is being short sighted with its plans. What a great place for a decent cruise terminal that doubles as Party Central for large events, rather than the two shapeless old fashioned sheds that are on the site now.

Checked out flight costs to Sydney for May 24th 2011. Looks like now is a good time to purchase flights - and to lower the final bill for the next financial year.

AND IN THE UK...

With my (Ray's) first grandchild due in just over a week, Manu is ready, with Stewart by her side, and we say a big thank you to the developers of Skype that we will see the new arrival not long after it comes home. Exciting times ahead.

Isn't technology just wonderful.

First test - an email blog post with picture! Wow - it worked...

Our "test" cruise was on the “Unforgettable 9” (houseboat) on the Murray River, for four days in April 2010. Maybe four days of self catering with three other couples, wasn’t exactly a true taster for a cruise that will take us to the other side of the world with all food provided! However, one of the tests was to see if Paula could cope with a 5 hour flight. We had already managed two flights to Brisbane and one to Sydney without problems since her op and treatment, but lifting a shopping bag with her ‘bad’ arm just before we left wasn’t a very sensible thing to do, so she was struggling a bit before we left Auckland for Adelaide, a city we hadn’t been to before.

  The locals we met were friendly enough, but this one (centre of the pic) didn't have too much to say.

Fortunately, Paula's arm didn’t really get any worse, so we are now confident that a 7 hour flight should be OK. Unfortunately, a flight to or from the UK means 24 hours of flying so cruising in 2011 at least eliminates all but a short hop to Sydney. 

 Getting home again from the UK?  We'll worry about that later...  Probably via Canada and we'll be back in Auckland in time to meet the Dawn Princess and have a mini reunion.  Maybe I should hire a mini bus and do our own tour, seeing as I am set up with MONZA as a tourism company! 

           

Not exactly a cruise liner, but this was a very impressive boat with all facilities on board, including a spa pool on the top deck and we loved it. The company were great to deal with and we'd highly recommend it.  Self catering was fine as all on board were used to "Pot Luck" dinners and four nights was ideal as each couple cooked a main evening meal.  Dave and I wanted a decent cooked breakfast daily and the smell of our really nice bacon, poached eggs and sweet grilled tomatoes and toast, partially converted all those who prefer to eat cereal (or the cardboard box - not sure which is better for the system) and gradually found our (eating and cooking) style irresistible.  They were soon tucking in to bacon butties or eggs or tomatoes on toast. The mushrooms with sour cream and a slug of brandy weren't wasted either...  Such decadence.

  Most took a turn at being Captain, but as I prefer a steering wheel that is connected to fast road wheels, Paula took my place, as she is far more of a water baby than I am, both in and on the water.  A relaxing meander from Mannum, heading north for two days before doing a U-turn and heading back.    Shuttle back to town for a couple of nights at Glenelg, on the coast near Adelaide. 

The Glenelg accommodation wasn't up to our usual standard as Paula and I had to sleep in a glass doored wardrobe - no windows...  We did enjoy Glenelg however. It was only a matter of a few weeks later that we opted to do the 2011 cruise.  A great opportunity to not only celebrate our Silver wedding, but also reaching seniors age and and an opportunity to see my first grandchild, expected about July 20th this year. (Paula already has several - all boys.)