The Captain awoke us with a cabin announcement at 9am. His good news was that we were at sea and were currently on track to dock at 4:30pm. His bad news was that he was making mask wearing mandatory again in order to help protect the future itinerary - in other words if cases are too high we will be denied entry again. We had discussed the option of jumping ship in Auckland and flying 3 hours to Sydney but with the general emergency in place we knew there was a lack of availability on both flights for the foreseeable future and a shortage of hotel rooms so we agreed we just had to pray we make it to Australia.
We surfaced at 10am with no sign of any updated Horizon paper - apparently they made an open decks (not rooms) announcement listing the added events. Maybe you were meant to remember them (or write them down fast) and that was a quiz later. As we went to breakfast we could see everyone was complying and was masked but there is an awful lot of coughing about - though you do notice it more when you are looking for it. After breakfast it was more reading, writing and time spent on the balcony. Haven’t seen any sealife for over a week so even that is deserting us though it is very windy so why mess around in those conditions. If they could talk they would probably say “didn’t you get the north island state of emergency message not to travel!”
We had a light late lunch of sandwiches plus a dessert during which….. a pod of dolphins appeared - a good omen. Pam even spotted them first! We then returned to the cabin and our balcony and watched the wonderful scenery as we docked in Tauranga for 4:30pm. We found out that we were not actually in Tauranga but a nearby seaside town but that was very pretty and had all we needed with a couple of beaches (on which baywatch training was occurring) and a picturesque mountain in the background.
We strolled around the town and there were lots of eateries that were open so we started with a delicious ice cream each - we are in a seaside town after all.
It was a small town and popular with the locals so unfortunately 2000 of us getting off flooded the place and many of the bars and restaurants were soon full. After enjoying the sights we wanted to eat in a lovely Italian restaurant but it was fully booked for the next few hours. Therefore, we ended up at a seaside fish and chip shop with outside seating. So obviously NZ fish is different from UK’s cod, haddock, plaice etc.. and we were greeted with 3 or 4 fish we hadn’t heard of. The lady behind the counter said she would give us a few minutes. In the end we plumped for something called Tarakihi but when we ordered it was told they only had snapper left - that was the only one we had heard of anyway. Well worth the few minutes deliberating though they didn’t know we wanted fish as we could have wanted pie or sausage etc…
The food was very good and made even better by meeting this chap outside the chip shop.
The England cricket team are on tour in NZ and they are playing a warm up match locally. These fast bowlers are very tall. The barmy army (England cricket supporters club) are also in town so that is another reason it is packed.
We strolled back onboard to catch the 8:30 show of the cirque du soleil duo. This is a favourite of Pam’s and they were amazing. The flexibility and power in their bodies made the acrobatics even more spectacular. Some parts were very hard to watch when you saw the lady acrobat move her body in ways we did not think bodies could move. Pam will see them again when they perform in a few days time. Mark may pass as their next show is with classical music.
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