Love this time to depart. Pick up at 8.30 pm and flight at 11.00 pm. Gives you a whole day to get ready. We leave on the night of the 29th and arrive on New Years Eve at around 9.00 am. No partying for me after this long flight. We are staying in Takapuna one of the nicest areas in Auckland and has one of the best beaches. A highrise hotel and we are on the top floor and will be looking at the sea.

Never been gone for 2 months and in reality it is just 3 regular cruise put together, but lots of extra toiletries and weather changes. Plus a ton of paper work and 600 pins!
People do it all the time but I am a novice at a longer cruise. Longest up to this point was 30 days, circle Australia one of the best cruises ever.

Always nice to "return home". June and Ralph have us all set up with relatives and NZ clients/friends. Have 5 days in Auckland and it looks like it is going to be sunny for majority of the days and that makes it nice. NZ is good in the sunshine.

Will post as we travel as always. Lots of new people to meet and lots we know well.

Looking forward to picking you up in the morning. House is all ready for you. June has the menu's planned. I picked up the Lamb Chops from the close by butcher this morning for the family dinner on Tuesday night. The butcher was kind and vacuum packed them for me as I will not prepare until Tuesday. Also picked up the Eye Filets for Monday night diner from same butcher. For those in the USA Eye Filet is the Filet Mignon equivalent in NZ.

The wine cooler is full so all will not perish from thirst.

Been nice and sunny and warm today although it rained the day before.
See you in the AM.

You all have a wonderful time together and a very happy new year! Looking forward
to seeing you in New York in April!

Sue (& Ray)

We’re just cruising into Lyttelton on the beautiful Explorer. The sun is shining and the seas are calm. It’s been a fantastic Christmas cruise with our family and tonight we’re all looking forward to the NY Gala dinner and festivities.

In a few days we’ll be catching up with June and Ralph in Auckland for a lovely long lunch before we say hello to Ngaire and Ken on their hosted cruise back to Sydney. Life is good!

Been busy with family and friends. Should have posted earlier. Auckland keeps changing. The waterfront area now is more developed. Nice to see all JUnes family. Shelley my niece flew in from Australia. Lots of scrabble of course and a new game that Bert, Kim and Alice taught me rummikub. Like rummy with cards but this tiles.

Last night we went out with two couples who are our clients. They live in a stunning condo in a corner unit with two fantastic views. One of downtown Auckland and one of the famous Rangitoto. Pictures below. Have not taken a picture of June and Ralph yet they are very happy campers.

So happy to get on board. Two of my absolute senior favorite staff are on board. Andreas (GM ) and Vlado (F&B). Amazingly Vlado remembered by breakfast order each morning and it turned up complete with "sweet and lo" and that is in short supply on the ship so I bring my own. Abraham we know from the Song of Flower is here. One of my other favorites has been promoted to a Maitre D' position. All if good on the Explorer.

Only know two couples well on this cruise, Simpsons and Turners. But the cocktail party last night was loud and I left before everyone else to go the Captains Welcome Reception and almost everyone stayed and talked some more. Looks like a wonderful group of people.

Missed my tour yesterday as I had a meeting with Andreas. Happy I did that as I love going into town. Traditional coffee break in town with Simpsons and Turners. Then we went to buy a few things we needed and had a great time. Lots of little alleys with wonderful stores. Purchased a necklace that will go with the majority of my clothes. Just a delightful first day.

Bon voyage! Hi to the Simpson and Turners.

I am going to Disneyland club 33 for dinner tonight with Julie and Marvin before they board Grandeur which is sailing from Los Angeles and meeting up with Taylor B tomorrow who is here to check out the ship.
———————
Helen

So not been back to report on our trip.

NAPIER
Had coffee with the Simpson and the Turners in Napier at a lovely but very busy coffee shop. Beautiful day and the gardens were lovely.

Jim, Pam, Ngaire, Sheila & Ken



WELLINGTON
In Wellington I had my closest friend all through school come onboard. Not see her for about 50 years. We had fun catching up but I think the husbands were a little tired of our fun memories.

CHRISTCHURCH

Christchurch was VERY windy, But we had a great sheep dog demonstration. The dog went right up a high and very steep hill so quickly. He obeyed all the whistle blows. left, right and stop. Got the sheep all the way down right to the group. Excellent experience. Then into a lovely farm cottage built in the 1800's for sausage rolls, shortbread and tea or coffee. They opened up the house for everyone to see including the bedroom. THen a tour of Christchurch. We did not stay in town the wind was very strong, and we have been there many times.

A new puppy.


Sheep dog and sheep


Sheep shearing

So we are now on our way to Tasmania on the "exciting" Tasman Sea. First day a little rough, but today big swells. Today is Sunday and they are having the Sunday at sea buffet. 9.30 am to 1.30 am. May not be well attended a shame as it takes so long for them to get that all set up. We will take some pictures of the highlights of the brunch.

Final NZ pictures from Milford Sounds. Stunning day.





In Geelong, Australia. Very impressed a lovely town and lots of activity near the port. Beautiful day but going to be 85 degrees today.

Below some pictures of the botanic gardens. Mostly huge trees from all over the world.

Did not want to remove this post as it could possibly remove previous posts so please ignore this post

How come no updates??

Unfortunately cannot access LCT on my phone right now and I have to post my pictures via my phone. Tried everything I could just not co-operating. Have Tmobile but we are way out a 30 minute tender ride I think the signal is not strong enough.

In Melbourne we did the shuttle bus into town. This seems to be our favourite option on the trip as we have been to all these ports many times before. Tempted to go to the Australian Tennis Open that is happening right now. But it is always SO crowded and we did go to see a match on the Regent Circle Australia cruise. Have been watching matches on TV on the ship. Did a lot of walking that we enjoyed and then back to the bus.

Sydney we changed suites so that took most of the day,

Newcastle we took the shuttle bus. Enjoyed seeing the town. We needed a few supplies and found the "Chemist Warehouse" a HUGE store with almost everything you can think of in that store. We had a list and got everything we needed. While waiting for the bus we spoke to a local and she had a big bottle of chocolate milk. Her husband was the bus driver and she waiting for the bus to give him the chocolate milk thought he might be thirsty. Lovely lady told us her family history and she loves shopping at the second hand stores. She said a lot of people from the ship were in the second hand store. We were the only ship in town!

The arrival lounge had many vendors selling their wares. They also had super strong internet so I was able to update my shows on my Ipad. Ken looked at all the stalls while I was on my Ipad and said nothing I would like. That night at dinner the lady had on a stuning necklace, hand made it was gorgeous. I asked her where she got it and she said today in the arrival lounge. DARN, wish I had gone and looked myself. Ken is usually a good shopper for me often pointing out things i missed and ended up buying. I had full confidence in him but I should also look myself.

There was a strong cyclone heading towards Australia. It hit NewCastle two days after we left.

Cairns[/b] We did the city on our we have spent time on land in Cairns so very familiar with the city but this went further out. BUT it has changed, growth like so many other places have done. It covered a lot of Cairns. We saw the hospital where we spent many hours with one of our clients who was in a lot of pain. That was a real experience of the emergency department. Lots of unusual things happened! Best not described here.

Now in Townsville, a 30 minute tender ride and we have been here before. Very small town far north Queensland. Decided to stay on the ship.

FINALLY have internet to post some pictures, very slow!

In Geelong we visited a house built in 1840 and refurbished in 1939.

A family home for three generations. Also beautiful gardens. I was amazed at the large closet for that time.




The closet in a house built in the 1800's in Geelong.





Small bottles from around the world.

Long history of the family that owned it and now belongs to the historical society. So hard to show how large this house was for the times. Lovely grounds.

I asked how he got this picture as we were on the ship.
Someone who lives in Sydney took the picture.

Top Tier event is a cooking competition by senior staff at 11.00 am. I love this type of thing over the traditional cocktail party. Really looking forward to this as the last one was fantastic.

Will try later to post more picture just not working this afternoon.

Thank you for posting! Looks like a fun time.

Glad you finally were able to post! I was getting worried.

CAIRNS

We did a tour in Caines as I discussed in a previous post. The trees were so tall. We were in a small town called Palm Cove it was a lovely little spot. They had area with netting so the crocodiles and jelly fish could not get in and that was where people were swimming.


One of the large trees


The sail out from Cairns was fantastic.

DARWIN

We have done the jumping crocodiles and other tours in Darwin so we decided to take the shuttle bus and pick up a few things we needed in town. Well it was SUNDAY and nothing was open. We were told about a large mall where everything would be open and we could get there on the number 10 bus. The bus terminal was close and we waited about 10 minutes for the bus and it was about a 30 minute bus ride. The welcome person at the shuttle bus advised us not to take the bus. One of the ladies you will be fine.

Well it was to say the least an incredible local experience. Very expensive $1 each on the way out and the way home the bus driver just waved us past. The mixture of people getting on and off included mostly aborigines and young white kids. Most were friendly and looked us as if to say "who are those people" We have always enjoyed little adventures on our own, using local buses and trains. This was really fun. The mall could have been anywhere in the US. 400 shops, lot of places to eat actually a great mall. We found everything we needed and then things we did not need but wanted. We did not take pictures in the bus, oid not think it was the right thing to do.

KOMODO ISLAND
Waiting for a picture one of our guests took. Will post that when he sends it to me.

BALI - most tours were very long. We must have been to Bali 5 or 6 times. It was about 86 degrees but felt much hotter. We did get off the ship and wander around until we decided it was too hot and came back to the ship.On arrival back to the ship we went up to the Observaton Lounge where I had a GOLD MEDAL. A non alcoholic drink of Banana, Strawberry, Pina Colada and ice. SO YUMMY. Ken tried one yesterday he loved it as well.









I gave the Balinese dancers the traditional greeting and they all giggled and did the same greeting to me.

Tonight we have one of the famous night time buffet.

The buffet was excellent. Perfect weather, warm but not hot. We went early as many were still on tours and we would beat the crowds but there were more people there than I expected.

LOTS OF LOBSTER, two giant containers of lobster on each side of the buffet. It was excellent. Suckling Pig, Baramundi (a great Australia fish) and tons of side dishes. For dessert they had fresh crepes made to order with numerous yummy things to make the crepe just as you like it. Exotic fruits were a treat for me they had it all even Leeches which I love. Just missing passion fruit.

Just a couple of pictures. It is not just the food but all the work they put into presenting it. Lots of carved watermelons and other beautiful decorative items at every statioin.

SURABAYA
Great welcome on the dock. Dancers and unique costumes. Picture below.





The tours were all long and we decided to take the shuttle into town. It took about 30 minutes and what impressed me was for a LONG way there were lovely gardens between the two sides of the road. Flowers, shrubs, trees all nice landscaped. However if you looked down the side street you saw shack homes. The shuttle bus took us to a mall. So disappointing just like being in large American mall with all the familiar brand names.

SEMARANG (JAVA)
Again tours were mostly 6 hours and a 9 hour tour to Borabodur. Did that and loved it but did not need to do it again. So back to the shuttle bus but it was great this time. We went to a malll but a "local" mall. They were selling puppies, kittens, snakes and lizard. May racks of clothes just out in the middle of the mall. Kids were on a stage playing "simon says" They also had regular stores but only a few with a familiar brand name. I bought a sweater for 180,000 of their money that transfered into $10 USA. Soft, machine washable and dryable. No fitting rooms but it fit perfectly. Should have bought more!!



The kids playing “Simon says”


One of the puppies.


One of the statures in the mall.

Checking