Dan and I love sea days and looked forward to these two. Although home is east, we sailed 1,474 nautical miles west to Sydney necessitating turning our clocks back an hour each night. We slept through breakfast and were first in line to be seated at lunch. One noon Hettie, Cleone, and I declared it Ladies’ Lunch Day, a perfect time to enjoy a kiwi cocktail. Yum.

We intended to pack day one and get organized to disembark but kept finding reasons …tea at 3:30, enjoying the sun from a deck chair, reading, shopping… to put it off. Dan continued his winning streak in the casino and added $150 to what he’d already stashed in the safe.

Our farewell dinner, which started like all the others with an amuse bouche, was just as delicious as anticipated with Dan and Cleone continuing to eat their weight in warm, skinny bread sticks. The meal ended with hugs and handshakes for the waitstaff who had taken such good care of us and been delightful company to boot.

We enjoyed the evening’s entertainment and then hustled back to the room to toss our dinner clothes in the suitcases that had to be outside our door by 10:00.

Conversation questions: What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? Which celebrity would you most like to see in person?

FUN NZ MOVIE LOCATION FACT

2005’s remake of King Kong was filmed here as were The Last Samurai,
Chronicles of Narnia, and The Piano.