Not the best of night’s sleep. The ship was steady but Mark still had a restless sleep getting asleep after 1am and waking up at 7am. Pamela had a very deep sleep with night sweats for some reason.
The morning news was that a lot of damage had happened overnight but mainly in other parts of the North Island and Auckland was relatively unscathed. Pam called home when she woke at 8:30 and Mark fell back to sleep for an hour which meant we got off the ship just after 10am.
It was a very dry day with only the odd spot of rain and the sun tried to pop out a few times. However, the wind definitely picked up today and was enough to cause damage to trees and blow over small things (including little dogs).
We walked to the Wynyard quarter first which again was mostly shut but there was 1 cafe open where we had a late breakfast. This is the same area I popped out to on my own on Day 1 so it was nice to show Pam the boats as well as the closed shops.
We then attempted, yet again, to go to Parnell. This time we caught the bus going in the correct direction and we made it to this pretty little suburb. Again, most of the shops were closed but the buildings had a lot of character and, as well as their shops on the Main Street, there was a little area of small shops down nooks and alleyways.
One shop that was open was a chocolate shop so Mark popped in and popped out with a love heart on a stick. We are being very careful what foodstuffs we buy now because you cannot take food off ship and we’ve already got a few bars of chocs and some crisps we must munch thru before Australia.
Another thing that has happened recently is that Pamela seems to have been bitten in numerous places over the last couple of days including a nasty bite on the face. We already have bite cream but found an open chemist to pick up insect repellent.
There were a few restaurants and cafes open and although they smelt gorgeous we weren’t hungry after our late breakfast. We thought of going to the large museum but like everything else it was closed so we didn’t bother with the walk over there.
So back on the bus to the town centre for one final look round and for Pam to add to her substantial key ring collection. We feel that we definitely haven’t seen the best of Auckland which is a big shame as we are unlikely to be back. After a final look around we headed back to the ship and grabbed a slice of pizza on the way. Travelling around today has been easier as it was dry and we somehow seemed to often have the wind on our backs so we were blown in the direction we wanted to go - very helpful.
Back onboard we downloaded a few tv shows and caught up with all of our emails and other similar notifications whilst sipping drinks on our balcony - Pamela has been slowly drinking her winning quiz wine from what seems like ages ago now.
We were unsure when were we due to depart as the daily horizon paper said all aboard for 7:30 but the ship’s disembarkation point said 6:30. As it was 7pm, and we hadn’t moved, we decided on a buffet dinner and to watch the departure from there. The food was OK, but tiredness and the frustrations of the past few days had taken away our appetite. After dinner, we hadn’t moved so decided to go up to the Crow’s Nest bar to witness our departure from there with the Arcadia orchestra playing in the background. It was a lovely mixture from jazz, rock/pop and even the Star Wars Cantina bar tune.
At 8pm we were informed that it was too windy to depart so instead we would try again around 1am. This meant the stop tomorrow in Tauranga would be delayed and the earliest we would arrive would be 4:30pm and we could only stay for 4-5 hours. The 2 shore excursions the ship had been scrambling to arrange and fill have now been scrapped and refunds were occurring - we hadn’t bothered as we guessed this would happen. The funny thing was the laughter in the bar as he announced all the announcements. Pam summed it up when she said that you had to laugh otherwise you’d cry and you couldn’t make this up which was also why it was funny. The Arcadia orchestra also had a sense of humour because straight after the announcement they said “well after that announcement this song is apt” - they played Madness.
In desperate need of a laugh we went to the rising sun pub for pop party bingo. It was fun last time and was again tonight. Pam also had a couple of glasses of wine in there (to drown her sorrows) and our quiz partners were introduced to tipsy Pam which they found quite amusing. We finished the evening with the theatre show which was New Zealand’s number 1 comedy impressionist Simon McKinney. Except it wasn’t. He hadn’t made it on board (like many of the others that were due to join the ship) due the general emergency closing everything down. Instead the new guest speaker onboard was going to sing soul and Motown songs otherwise it would have been another film in the theatre again. Immediately some got up and left. We stayed more in disbelief than anything and, as Mark said, we wanted to see an impressionist and this was a guest speaker pretending to be a singer so it probably counts on P&O terms and conditions. Do you know what? He wasn’t the best or strongest singer but it was very, very enjoyable. He delivered it lecture style giving information about each artist and some background and all the songs were popular easy listening songs like Stand By Me. We will definitely go to his lectures but once again comms is shocking as no signs of any changes.
We have a daily Horizon paper for tomorrow but have already been told it is not worth the paper it is written on as it was based on a full port day which is no longer happening. This are trying to address it.
We finished the day with some chicken bits, sausage rolls and large crispy chips in the midnight buffet. The chips were excellent so we ended the day on a high.
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