January 23 - At sea someplace

I think we’re sailing in the Tasman Sea southbound along the coast of North Island, NZ.  Overnight we must have sailed around the northern tip of the island and made our way from the Pacific Ocean.  Last night it was a little rough.  Dancing was interesting; you look like you’ve had a little too much liquid refreshment but it’s just the rocking and rolling.  During the night when I got up to use the loo I managed to scrape up my arm as the ship lurched when I stepped up into the bathroom.  I thought I’d packed everything, but lo and behold no Band-Aids.  I can tell you that toilet paper and a rubber band do a pretty good job.

We started our journey up in Auckland and went north around the top of New Zealand.  Now we're in the Tasman Sea sailing down the west coast.

Tomorrow we'll be right smack in the middle of this map in New Plymouth.

Today we have a couple of lectures – in the morning there’s one on Maori culture and this afternoon there’s a lecture on “Women in Sports” by a woman who was the manager of a men’s rugby team.  Despite the fact that women and sports are hot topics now I can’t imagine that she’ll be talking about the hot button issue.

I’m not sure of the demographics on the ship.  We seem to have quite a few Americans but there are many Aussies, Brits and Kiwis too.  I met one Austrian lady yesterday and her English seemed limited. She was supposed to join us at my hosted table last night but didn’t show.  I hope it wasn’t because of a language barrier.

In a little while I’ll be off to Trivia..  At the moment I’m hanging out at the Seabourn Square, kind of the Central Park of the ship, to give my suite attendants a chance to get me straightened out again.  

This is Seabourn Square, kind of the heart of the ship

Here's Danjel (pronounced Daniel), from Bosnia who makes wonderful capuccinos and mocha caramel lattes

It’s much later.  Trivia was fun; we have a US/UK team, which isn’t always as good as having one with several nationalities.  Despite that we did pretty well.  We picked our name and it’s “Ship for Brains.”

The lecture on Maori culture was quite interesting.  I didn’t make it to the one on Women in Sports, but I can watch that at some later date on the TV.  Tonight was a formal night with a captain’s welcome aboard cocktail party first followed by a special dinner.  I haven’t gone to the welcome parties recently but I did today.  I met a nice couple from New Jersey and saw some more old friend staff members from previous cruises.  Dinner was at the Staff Captain’s table. It was a small table which I like.  The Staff Captain is from Bulgaria and seemed kind of shy.  Or maybe it was that we three women at the table were dominating the conversation.  I was seated next to him and he did become more animated when I asked him about his family (he has two sons and a daughter) and when we talked about his time in the navy.

After dinner the show was a piano recital by a marvelous pianist names Panos Karan.  He's Greek but studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and has played in places like Carnegie Hall.  I liked him because before each piece he told us something about both the composer and what his intention was when he wrote the music.  That helps me to have a greater appreciation of what I’m listening to.  After the show, in keeping with my tradition, I went down to the club.  The band knows the songs I like and since there were few people there they played them.  I was the only one who got up and danced and I’ve found that with each cruise I’ve gotten less inhibited.   I don’t feel any trepidation at all now about being the only one on the floor. It got pretty rocky and around 11:45 I decided to call it a night.  Even in bed I could feel a lot of rocking and rolling.  I’m guessing there are probably some passengers not doing well.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for today.  Tomorrow we’ll be in New Plymouth, NZ.