lissie

had lobster tail on QE in Britannia in both August and October

I've seen them in NZ -but the best ones are actually a local one called Kurols

Wittakers are made in NZ - you can buy them here 🙂

Small piece in the travel section of the paper today saying that Fiji has dropped the requirement for covid insurance and vaccination - may or may not apply to cruises.

I understand probabilities fine - but when "windy wellington" is getting warnings because the wind may hit 80km/hr - it's a joke. 100km/hr is not uncommon here - and only causes damage if there has been a few calmer months prior so more branches come down. Nothing under 130km/hr deserves a warning in this town.

This weekend was supposed to be the first full-scale Art Deco weekend since 2020 - they've cancelled it obviously - and the restaurants who had extra supplies in for it have been cooking food up and giving it away given they have no power / refrigeration etc. It's a catastrophe for the local tourism industry. We were due to go to a vintage air show in Masterton next weekend. They've postponed - Masterton is not affected but the airforce is always heavily involved so are obviously no longer available. They haven't given a new date yet. The town is basically still isolated except for essential services. There is apparently an awful smell as sewerage and dead animals decompose. The dust is only going to get worse. My tax accountant is at Ahuriri - about 10 min drive from the cruise terminal - their offices are undamaged, but they can't work as they have no power - and of course staff are dealing with more important things. I rather think that the cruise season for Napier is finished for this year. Napier is only about 5 hours drive from here and we go up there for a long-weekend quite often - I doubt that we will be there before our next overseas trip in July

Sultana Pasties are really good too - you are making me hungry for all the bad biscuits I try not to buy LOL

When you are buying chocolate biscuits in the supermarket - buy some Kurols - best cough drop EVER - dirt cheap - like $3/bag - we travel with them because nothing else comes close Buy Kurols Lozenges Original Mentholated online at countdown.co.nz

We are covered for an emergency medivac. Just not if we're sick with covid. The question is how likely are we to need a medivac because of covid - answer zero as close as you can get. We've both had covid - neither of us needed medical attention beyond a couple of paracetamol (self-prescribed). We paid around A$1200 for insurance for 3 months including my partner's pre-existing issues but EXCLUDING Covid and rental car excesses and lost port insurance - none of those last things did we consider either likely, or worthwhile having (we only hired a car for 4 days in that trip) . Whether we'd go uninsured depends on where we're going - we woudlnt' go uninsured in the USA or cruise ships near the USA. We would do it in places where we have some coverage as NZ citizens (Australia, UK, Malta (!) ) Basically we'd prefer to be insured - we will pay thousands to be insured. But I'm not stopping travelling because insurance companies start saying no

surely there is soap in the bathroom? Or shampoo it's bar soap?

Its an interesting approach. I could do what I've done in the past - get a dirt cheap AA insurance policy for OZ - its cheaper than paying for the lower excess on rental cars. We declare none of my partner's extensive pre-existing conditions and they of course cover us excluding his conditions. It works for rental cars - because car excesses are largely not caused bypre-existing medical conditions. And I get a piece of paper that says we're insured - I could give that to a cruise line if required. Technically covered - but knowing full well if we had to claim for illness the underwriting would decline us. Its not even about the money - its about an insurance company telling me if and for how long we can travel for. We fully expect to at some point have to self-insure

There is zero damage of any kind in Wellington - I balance a tower of spare toilet roll at the top of my bathroom cabinet - its kinda of a test to see how much the house moves in a shake - didn't fall. I've heard nothing about damage in downtown Auckland including the port - the damage is out west - you wouldn't notice it unless you deliberately went there (which you shouldn't) There were mobs of cruise passengers in Wellington today -2 ships were in town.

They are using the Napier port as a temporary morgue among other things -I don't think they will be allowing cruise ships in!

I don't get the comment about Grills - all cruise lines have different classes of cabins - hows it any different from the suite class on Princess? The first cruise we did Sydney-PNG return - Princess had a vrey similar cruise - we chose Cunard because of the better dancing - and it was several $100 cheaper PP . Also although I think their drinks are more expensive - the fact that laundry is free and you can carry on as much booze as you want compensates for that a bit

Oops - sorry I just noticed your're Canadians, so I don't know if you have biscuits (US) usage there?

OK New Zild 101 bikkies = biscuits (UK usage) biscuits = cookies (US usage) except when they are soft and chewy and the coookies = cookies -so we have cookies and biscuits. Also biscuits (US) are scones (NZ) and are NOT eaten at breakfast NEVER with grits and preferably in the variety cheese scones (severed warm with butter) My favourite dark chocolate biscuits are Griffins Chocolate Wheaten (dark version there is also a milk chocolate variation - infinitely inferior). The big supermarkets are Countdown and New World -both very similar - use the one you find first. 4 Square is smaller but there are lots of them and although more expensive its marginal for the amount of shopping you'll doing. Also check out Whittakers Chocolate - locally made, no palm oil - its the best Whittaker's Chocolate New Zealand - Whittaker's (whittakers.co.nz) - found in any supermarket or convenience store

That was because you were in grills. In Sydney we stood for 2 hours to even get inside the terminal -everyone was given the same time (pre COvid). Last year in SF we turned up an hour after our time and even though only a few were boarding we still waited hours - US customs that time - so sometimes not in the cruise line's control to be fair

Curious -did they actually check? I don't think they can enforce that in Asutralia and NZ -certainly on Cunard - UK residents were being told that had to have Covid cover while we were "advised" to have insurance (any) . We had insurance but not for Covid cover. Both cruises had plenty of Covid on them exactly zero people were medivacced off because of Covid - its just not a thing anymore

We were very, very careful to not get sick before we got on our cruises - as we had to test negative - we masked - ate outside - avoided crowded bus tours and similar

Which class do you sail on Princess? I've run out of itineraries on Cunard so are looking at options and Princess does come up sometimes.

If they've had Covid - maybe just skip the coverage for that ? The chance of getting seriously ill if you've been vaccinated and had hte infection is vanishingly low as far as I can work out. Even less so for short 7 day cruise. If you get infected on board it won't show up until you're home

You can buy any number of "shortbread" biscuits in any supermarket or corner store here. Or you could buy decent shortbread in an actual bakery.

Are they OK through airport scanners (empty)? I have a light weight one which is nice as keeps water cool - but I've only carried plastic through airport scanners - and I don't like it enough to want to deal with airport holds because of it!

We are always dismissive of warnings here. The Metservice has got history on over forecasting events - and the whole country has become really risk adverse - I was the same I'd have not hesitated on travelling those days if I'd been scheduled to. Frankly it wasn't that much rain - it's the stuff that Singapore gets regularly. The issue was our 3rd world infrastructure - the Napier-Gisborne road (and services like water, power, telecoms) are basically 50 years old. That together with lots of forestry debris=destruction and deaths. Hopefully now we will actually have an infrastructure plan that involves more than cycleways. Cunard really needs to sort out their communications - they seem terrified of communicating anything -and don't realise that the less news they provide the more damaging specuation results. I still don't understand why you weren't immediately offered the alternative cruise (or part thereof) -rather than just being cancelled

Zero sympathy for the cruise line re the hull cleaning - that's been a requirement since 2019. Ironically, we've had the best summer in Wellington for many, many years, warm weather and a bit of rain to keep things green. Normally our summer only starts in early Feb - while we had fantastic weather in Dec/Jan and now its a bit wet but supposed to improve next week If they are due to go to Napier in the next few days I don't think that will happen.