January 26 - Wellington, New Zealand

It’s Friday here in Wellington, New Zealand and I have a confession to make – I decided to take the day off.  There weren’t really any tours that turned me on and I thought about doing my thing and getting a taxi to drive me around for a while.  In the end though when I stepped outside it was chilly and very windy and I decided against it.  The Kiwis I spoke with yesterday told me Wellington, which is the capital, is mainly commercial, financial and governmental, so here I am having a sea day in port.  This gives me a chance to catch up on e-mails, my blog and photos.

Here's a little about Wellington to help me remember things. (I’m making a concerted effort to remember names and I’m doing pretty well for me.)  Anyway, Wellington is on the south-western tip of the North Island along the Cook Strait. It’s the capital, as I said, and is the third largest city in NZ with a metro population of around 450,000.  A kind of interesting fact is that it’s the southernmost capital of a sovereign nation in the world.  As with every place here it was originally settled by Maori and has a Maori name.  The English came along in the 1840’s and designed the city plan for the place as it is today and they named it after Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington of Waterloo fame.  Another interesting little factoid (maybe a trivia question one day!) is that it’s the world’s windiest city by average wind speed.  I can attest to that today.

Since I’m not going ashore and can’t show photos of places I’ve seen today, I thought I’d include some pictures of some of the lovely people I’ve met onboard.

First up is Swenja, the Guest Services manager.  This is my third time sailing with her; in fact, she was on the Encore with me in November-December 2023. Swenja is German from Berlin and has been sailing with Seabourn for quite a few years. She is a bubbly person with whom I’ve had the pleasure of dining  many times.  It’s always a happy day when I come aboard and see her.

Next up is Miss B, a South African who works in Guest Services in Seabourn Square.  Miss B was on my cruise around South America, Antarctica and the Amazon last year.  She is always smiling and ready to help solve any problem.

This is Julia (pronounced Yuliya) from Ukraine.  She is the Destination Services manager; in other words she is responsible for the shore excursions department on the Odyssey.  I met her the other day  after my not so good excursion and since have had the opportunity to talk with her more about other things.  She has been having a little bit of a rough time here because the last two ports were not ones Seabourn comes to except once in a blue moon.  The Shore Excursion Department in Seattle arranges for tours operators and writes the descriptions of the various excursions available.  They haven’t been doing a very good job on accurately describing them and poor Julia is getting the brunt of the complaints.  She has been so nice about dealing with complaints beyond her control and has been a great source of information for me to adjust my tours and expectations.  So here’s Julia and one with her and Miss B.

Here's Julia

Julia and Miss. B

Next up I give you Danjiel from Bosnia.  He is one of the baristas at the Seabourn Square coffee bar and he makes killer Mocha Lattes and even better Mocha Caramel Lattes!  Things get really busy in the early morning and in mid-afternoon when people get back from tours and he takes it all in stride.  The first day I met him and I asked where he was from we determined that while I’ve been to Bosnia I’ve never been to his town.  He’s another one who always has a smile.

And last for  today are Marcus, the Sandman, and his wife.  He was my host at dinner the other night and I went to his two shows.  They got off this morning but I had a chance to get a photo with them.  They’re both Maori and they have lots of tattoos which tell stories about their culture.  Marcus is a big man but I would have to call him a Gentle Giant.  He’s soft-spoken and very interested in history.  At dinner we were talking and he told me that there were wars between Maori and British in 1863-64 around the same time as our Civil War.  He knew a lot more about our war than many US students do nowadays.  He and his wife do a lot of work with children, especially ones who are having issues in their lives.

Tonight I’m dining with Jan, the Cruise Director.  Jan was the CD on the cruise to Antarctica last year and she’s a lot of fun.  She has been with Seabourn for 28 years!  I’m looking forward to catching up with her.  After dinner the pianist Panos is doing a last show before he disembarks and naturally I’ll head to the Club for dancing afterwards.  To my mind I’ve had a productive sea day in port.  Someone, who shall remain nameless, said I should do this or that because I “might never come here again.”  I say “not so fast!”  It’s a long way to come but now that I’ve conquered the fear of the long flight the sky’s the limit.