I have a couple of rules about asking questions:
1. Never ask a question unless you already know the answer.
The other is a variation on that:
2. Never ask a question if you don’t want to know the answer.
That’s all that I’m saying, but I’ll leave it to you to connect the dots.
I didn’t sleep well last night. When I went to bed I was shivering uncontrollably, and when I woke in the middle of the night I was lying in a puddle of my own sweat.
By the time I’d taken a tinkle and got back into bed I was shivering again.
Hmmm. That doesn’t seem quite right.
We woke in Auckland today. Funny thing is that one of my work colleagues – herself a native NZ’er – is also in Auckland today on holidays, and it’s her birthday. Happy birthday CK!!
It is unlikely that I will see her though, as Auckland is a big place.
MBW and I completed the normal ablution tasks and headed down to the International Cafe for a light breakfast, ready for a day in Auckland.
Sadly, and likely associated with how I’d felt during the night, I neither felt like breakfast, and nor did I feel like wandering around Auckland. MBW went off to explore Auckland while I went back to bed.
We were only here for several hours – 7.30am to 2.30pm – so I expected that I would miss our last port stop on the trip before we headed back towards Melbourne.
Around 11.00am I awoke feeling (a little bit) better and messaged MBW to see if she was having fun without me, when she walked in the door.
I learned that everything in Auckland is very close … for context for Brisbanites, if you could imagine the cruise ship docking at the Treasury Casino, that’s how close it was to the Queen Street Mall and the centre of the city.
So MBW dumped off all of her purchases and we headed back out for a look-see. It was cool but not cold, and drizzling.
The weather improved enough by the time we got back from a short wander in the city to have a light lunch upstairs in Horizon Court outdoor seating area, then enjoy the fresh air while we sat outside and read our books.
It’s always interesting when we have an “all aboard” at 2.30pm, and at 2.31pm they start calling some passengers by name – I assume that they hadn’t come back on board are were at risk of being left behind.
We stood up on Level 15 and watched the departure from the dock, a 90 degree turn to port (that’s left) and then we sailed out of the harbour.
The Captain came on the PA system with his usual stumbling, “English isn’t my first language but I’ll try to make it funny anyway”, long-winded speech about nothing important, before finally getting to the point – COVID cases have been identified on-board. That is the worst kept secret ever!
So now we are required to wear face masks at all times indoors unless we are eating, drinking, or in our stateroom.
That’s about it. A nice relaxing day and – sadly – our last port of call which means that we are now officially heading home to Melbourne, with 3 sea days ahead of us.
That should be exciting with COVID onboard. On the bright side, we got to wind our clocks back an hour tonight as we prepare to touchdown in Melbourne later in the week, so that means that I will either get an extra hour sleep tonight, or tomorrow with be a 25 hour day.
Or both??
TTFN
#G&KDoNZ2022