Where In the World Are Tom and Jet

[bay guy]

January 31, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Hard to believe that we’ve been aboard 27 days now. Time has flown by quickly.

One thing that I’ve become aware of is that, somehow, I’ve been knighted since boarding the ship. Almost all the staff calls me Sir Tom or Sir Thomas when they see me. Apparently, Jeanette has not risen to the status of Lady yet since they just call her Miss Jeanette. Who knew that I would attain this status?

Today’s been a busy day at sea. It was pretty rough for most of the day with seas of 10-12 feet but the seas and wind are definitely calmer this evening which allowed us to make a lap around the Promenade Deck before we came to the cabin for the evening.

The ship’s dancers and singers did an interview session this morning and told the passengers about themselves, including their training and other personal details. It was very interesting. They work on a six month contract and, for our voyage, they have a total of ten different shows that they will perform for us.

Tonight, their show was titled “Midnight Hour” and it included many popular songs. Jeanette especially enjoyed it when one of the female singers did her favorite, “At Last.” The singers and dancers are very talented and really work hard to do a great job performing for us.

We received another gift this evening when we returned to the cabin. Each of us got a very nice international electric plug adaptor set.

Our room stewards, Deden and Ipa continue to take excellent care of us. Our room is always spotless and, with Jeanette still moving slowly, they seem to try to set up our cabin as soon as they see us leave for a while.

We had dinner with the representative of one of the large travel organizations, The Signature Collection, tonight. The travel agency I used to book the trip is a member, which I wasn’t aware of until after we boarded and he contacted us.

One more sea day tomorrow and then we reach Auckland, New Zealand, as our first stop in that country. I’ve contacted four of our shore excursion companies for New Zealand to be sure that Jet will still be able to participate using a wheelchair and all have indicated that it isn’t a problem.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad to hear you had another busy day, Sir Tom.

[bay guy]

February 1, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today was our last day at sea before 3 days in a row of ports in New Zealand. Tomorrow, we will arrive in Auckland.

We have a tour planned for the morning and will see what Jet can handle later in the day since we don’t leave until 8 p.m. tomorrow night.

Today was busy with getting things organized for tomorrow and with shows and other activities.

We saw an excellent Maori cultural show with some very pretty native songs and dancing. What was interesting to me is that some of the melodies of their songs sounded a lot like those of some old standard songs.

Tonight, we saw the pianist and Irish flute player in a variety show. They were both excellent and well received by the audience.

We found out that a couple of our favorite staff members in the Lido will be leaving the ship tomorrow. They were excited to go home to their families after being away for several months.

Well, have to get to bed early tonight. We have an early start and long day ahead of us.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Enjoy your tour today.

Hope Jet makes out alright on it and doesn't get too tired so that you can do something later in the day.

[bennybear]

Hope the seas calm and you are able to enjoy New Zealand.

[kftw]

Looking forward to hearing about your tour & how well Jet did.

[bay guy]

February 2, 2018

Auckland, New Zealand

Hello, from sunny warm Auckland where our ship is docked today until early evening.

We had a great tour this morning with Keith from Top Tours. It was just Jet and myself with him so it was easy to do things at our pace and load and unload the wheelchair from his van as needed.

The city is very clean and there’s lots of new construction all over. We toured through several neighborhoods and this definitely is not an inexpensive place to live. Even a small bungalow type house in the city area is about $800K. Keith said he lives about 26 KM from town and his 3 bedroom house cost him $869K in 1999!!!

Taxes are pretty high. The sales tax on everything is about 15%. They call it the GST (Goods and Services Tax). Keith said the locals call it the Grab, Snatch and Take tax.

Auckland is on a beautiful harbor and the city has developed a very extensive waterfront area with lots of shops and restaurants and made it very easy to walk around in that area of the city. There are several dormant volcanoes in the city which you can see as you look around and suddenly see a large hill in the terrain. Some of the volcanoes have actually been excavated and essentially demolished over time.

We went by the war museum and visited a very pretty “winter” greenhouse complex which had several varieties of flowering plants and palms. Very pretty area for a wedding.

There is actually a park in the city that has lots of sheep and cattle grazing on the park land which surrounds one of the dormant volcano mounds which was fortified during WW II and still has a couple of the gun emplacements, which you can visit, and affords you a great 360 degree view of the area. Auckland is actually built on a peninsula and, from the top of the hill we could wee the Auckland harbor on one side and the harbor on the other side of the peninsula as well.

Tomorrow, we are in a port where we will visit the area where they filmed the Lord of the Rings movies plus visit some geysers and other areas.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

How lovely that you had the tour to yourselves.

Did Jet and you get to do anything in the afternoon or was she too tired?

[erewhon]

Pleased that you were both able to take the Auckland tour, and that the weather improved for your visit.

[bay guy]

February 3, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today was a very busy but great day. We were in the port of Tauranga, New Zealand, and our guide, Jim Arc her of Archer Tours, met us shortly after 8 a.m. We were a group of 6 plus Jim.

We headed off to Hobbiton where the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies were filmed. Apparently, Peter Jackson had originally planned to film the movies in Wales but was afraid that the weather would be too rainy so they started looking in areas with similar geography. A location person happened to fly over a sheep farm and spotted a large tree by a lake, which would be a central part of the film, and realized that would be the perfect spot for the movie.

The 1250 acre farm is owned by the Alexander family. According to our guide, Jim, who knows the family, the agent knocked on the farm house door to discuss using their land for the outdoor scenes for the film. However, the family was watching a rugby game and told the guy to come back another day. He did and the family agreed to allow The Lord of the Rings film to be done there. After that film was finished, they tore down all the sets. Years later, when Jackson wanted to do the Hobbit trilogy, he approached the family again to use their land and they agreed but said that the sets would have to be built from permanent construction materials and left in place after the movies were finished. One son was an accountant and he realized the potential of the site for tourism.

After the films were finished, the family asked Jim Archer to bring some tourists to the farm, which still has 35,000 sheep and 20,000 cattle on it, to see if the tourists would be interested in coming there for tours. It took off from there and they now have about 2600 people per day who come during the summer season.

Jet and I had our own guide since Jim had made arrangements for us to ride in a golf cart while the rest of our group walked with another guide. Our guide, Hayden, had worked there for a few years and told us a lot of the background on the farm and the filming.

After we left Hobbiton, we went to an area where there were several geysers as well as boiling mud baths. The geysers are formed by molten lava which is close to the earth’s surface where there is also a supply of water. As the water is heated by the heat from the lava, it erupts through holes in the surface.

After we left the geyser area, we went next door to the Maori Cultural and Art Center where several structures typical of a Maori village were located plus a native art center. After viewing a greeting ceremony, we went to the art center. The art center only accepts a few students per year who then spend 3 years learning either how to carve stone implements, do wood carving or do weaving using materials that would have been used hundreds of years ago. We met some of the students and it was obvious that they were very proud of what they were learning and doing.

After that, it was a quick drive back to the ship. Needless to say, we’re exhausted.

 

Until tomorrow.

[bennybear]

It sounds amazing, I really appreciate your detailed descriptions!

[bay guy]

February 4, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today, we were in beautiful Napier, New Zealand and we were lucky to be able to spend the day with John from Absolute De Tours, who took us all over the area. His wife Yvonne owns the company and, as John says, he works for her. She started the company about 14 years ago. John started working full time with her last year after he retired from teaching engineering at a technical school in the area.

Napier is located along Hawkes Bay which curves around to Cape Kidnappers where a huge gannett colony with about 85,000 gannets is located.

The Napier area is a large agricultural area with growers producing everything from apples to lemons and limes, olives, strawberries, kiwi fruit and lots of grapes used for making wine. There is also a large lumber industry here which ships huge logs to China for finishing into lumber used for construction and other industries.

The town of Napier, along with the nearby town of Hastings, was destroyed by a 7.5 earthquake in 1931. When they rebuilt, most of the downtown area buildings were rebuilt in the Art Deco mode of architecture which makes the city very attractive. Even though though the city is located along the shore of the ocean, and has a large beach, it isn’t safe to swim here due to the effect of three rivers that empty into the ocean nearby which causes the sea bottom to get deep very quickly. There is a very pretty walkway along the ocean that stretches for several miles and has various recreational sites which have been built for families to enjoy.

The 1931 earthquake also added a great deal of land to the area because it caused the seabed to rise about 9 feet by the shore ending up adding about 8000 acres of seaside land to the area.

We visited the Craggy Range winery for a while and, while we didn’t sample their products, we did enjoy walking around their grounds. Its a beautiful facility with a nice restaurant along with the wine tasting room.

Since we had absolutely perfect weather with clear blue skies, John took us to the top of a hill called Te Mata, which is about 1400 feet high. The views from there were breathtaking and you could see for several miles. There were a couple of people paragliding from the top.

After a full day of sightseeing, John brought us back to the shuttle bus stop so we could return to the ship. If you get a chance to visit New Zealand, definitely put Napier on your list and make sure you contact Absolute De Tours to show you the area. If John takes you, you’ll be in for a treat. You couldn’t ask for a nicer more accommodating person to show you the sights.

Tomorrow is a day at sea before we visit our last stop in New Zealand, Port Chalmers.

 

Until tomorrow.

[bay guy]

February 5, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

After 3 busy port days with tours, we have a sea day today to recover and get ready for the next port tomorrow.

We woke early this morning, after collapsing in bed around 9 p.m. last night, and I told Jet, “This would be the perfect time for us to do laundry. It’s early and no one will be there yet.” Silly me! Everyone else had the same idea and we had to wash one load at a time, instead of the normal two loads, but it still got done because everyone in the passenger laundry area, which is right next door to our cabin, was cooperating and helping each other. If anyone forgot to come get their clothes out of a washer or dryer, there was no hesitation by anyone to empty the machines and put the clothes on one of the folding counters and put their own clothes in. One person started to fuss about their stuff being removed from a machine but realized very quickly that they weren’t going to get any sympathy from anyone.

Even though it’s Monday here, it’s Super Bowl Sunday and the ship’s crew has gone all out to make it quite an event. The main show theatre, Queens Lounge, has been fully decorated with football pennants and one side of the room has blue lights for the Patriots fans and the other side has green lights for the Eagles fans.

The servers are wearing goofy fun hats. Some like animals and others that look like footballs. They’ve also set up a buffet with such foods as Philadelphia cheese steaks and New England lobster rolls plus popcorn and other snacks. The theatre was packed.

During commercials, the cruise director staff is doing goofy games for passengers to win prizes and they even have a trivia contest with prizes.

Tomorrow, we have our last stop in New Zealand, Port Chalmers, and have a full day tour. Jet won't be able to fully visit some of the things we’re going to see because there are lots of steps and its not wheelchair accessible but the tour operator assures me that there will be plenty for her to do to keep herself occupied while we climb about 225 steps in one location.

I think my legs are going to be worn out after tomorrow. Not that I would ever wish for it, pushing Jet in the wheelchair has definitely helped build top my upper body and leg strength but I’m kind of dreading all of those steps.

Until tomorrow.

 

[erewhon]

Thank you for your reports.

Hope the Dunedin weather improves for your visit tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Just got caught up with your wonderful reports.

Glad that Jet is able to some tours.

[mame42]

I have booked cabin 3332 on the Amsterdam for the 2018 Grand Asia, near the self serve laundry. Could you tell me if congestion, conversation, and noise from those using the laundry will be a problem in that location? Frankly, the thought of numerous passengers doing laundry across the hall from me at 9:00 PM disturbs me.

[mame42]

Or worse, early in the morning!

[bay guy]

February 6, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

It’s been a long but fun day. We are just leaving Port Chalmers, New Zealand. It’s been very chilly, at about 53 degrees, and windy today with intermittent cold rain.

We spent the day on a tour with Good Company, lead by our driver Chris. The majority of the day was spent touring the town of Dunedin which is the first city settled in New Zealand by a group of presbyterians from Scotland. The city is modeled after Edinburgh, Scotland with many of the same street names as that city.

Shortly after Dunedin was founded, they found gold about 100 km away which turned it into a boom town. Today was a national holiday commemorating the signing of a treaty between the British and several Maori tribes, so things were very quiet which allowed us to travel around and not have to worry about much traffic.

Our first stop was Larnach castle which was built between 1871 and 1874. It was built as a private residence and has a commanding view over the land and ocean sounds of the area. There were also beautiful gardens which Jet and I wandered through since she couldn’t go into the house due to there being over 200 steps to climb. My knees appreciated not climbing all those steps!

The next stop was Speight’s Brewery where we sampled a few of their beers as well as their soft drinks. Their brewery gets its water from an underground stream that runs through the city. More about that later. Anyhow, they brew several varieties of beer which were very tasty. There is also a public tap on the outside of their building which allows people to fill bottles with water from the brewery spring. (I’ll bet you thought I was going to say they could get beer from the tap didn’t you?) Anyhow, over 1 million liters of water are collected by the public per year and I saw several people bring 5 -10 bottles to be filled.

After we left Speight’s, we went to the railroad station in town. There are only a few tour related trains that leave from the station daily. No commuter trains run through this part of New Zealand due to lack of use by the public. The building is very ornate and there is a mosaic floor in the main lobby made up of over 775,000 pieces of tile. There is also a clock tower on the station that only has a clock on three sides. The reason for this is that, when the station was built, there weren’t any people living on one side of the station, thus no one to worry about what time it was. Leave it to those frugal Scottish people to think of that.

Back to the water. The city is very hilly and, in fact, has the steepest street in the world. For every 2.5 meters you travel, you go up 1 meter in height! Therefore, Lombard Street in San Francisco is now the windiest street in the world and no longer the steepest street. Anyhow, the underground stream that provided most of the water to the city comes from the top of the hills overlooking the city. There was a cemetery in the city located on one of the hills and the city hospital was below where the cemetery was located. They started noticing that people in the hospital were getting sicker after drinking the water and realized the stream was being contaminated by the bodies buried in the cemetery. They then decided to disinter the bodies and move the cemetery to a different location.

Chris, our driver, said he thought that this was where the term “stiff drink” came from. I know, he was corny but lots of fun.

One of the last places in the city we visited was Otani University. It has about 25,000 students and has one of the two medical schools in New Zealand on the campus. It was a beautiful campus. The government here pays the first year of tuition for freshmen students!

After seeing a few other areas of the city, it was time to get back to the ship. The wind was very brisk with a slight rain drizzle as the guys pushed Jet up the very steep gangway. She did more walking today than she has over the last few weeks but there is no way she could have climbed the gangway and several other passengers were having difficulty.

Tomorrow, we cruise through Fiordland (that’s actually the way they spell it here) National Park where we will go through 3 different fjords. The captain said we’re headed for some high seas tonight with 13 foot waves but that should be during the night. We’ll be rocked to sleep.

After tomorrow, we have 2 more sea days before we arrive in Sydney, our first stop in Australia.

We’ve really fallen in love with New Zealand. It is truly a beautiful country with very nice people. Maybe we’ll be able to come back again in the future.

 

Until tomorrow.

[bay guy]

mame42, I wouldn't worry about the noise from the passenger laundry. As I said, our cabin is right next to it and we haven't heard any noise from there, day or night. It's very convenient being next to it so you can check on availability of machines before dragging all your stuff there and checking on your clothes once you have a machine.

 

Word aboard is that they are removing the laundry areas when the ship goes into dry dock after the world cruise. Not confirmed.

[mame42]

mame42, I wouldn't worry about the noise from the passenger laundry. As I said, our cabin is right next to it and we haven't heard any noise from there, day or night. It's very convenient being next to it so you can check on availability of machines before dragging all your stuff there and checking on your clothes once you have a machine.

 

Word aboard is that they are removing the laundry areas when the ship goes into dry dock after the world cruise. Not confirmed.

 

Thank you. Good to hear, either way.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Great report.

Hope Jet tire herself out from touring and walking all day.

Sorry to hear that the self service laundry will be removed. I used it on our Alaskan cruises for delicate items.

[Psycho and Barb]

What a trip of a life time

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[bay guy]

February 7, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

Today was our day to see the fjords of New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park which covers 10 percent of the country and is inaccessible in most areas other than by boat or plane.

We visited 3 different fjords but the most beautiful one was Milford Sound. The mountains there are up to 3600 feet in height and several of them still had snow on their peaks as we cruised through today. Looking at the mountains coming down into the 900 foot deep water, it would have been impossible to scale many areas without the help of climbing lines and hooks. I was trying to figure out how the trees clung to the sides of the mountains with them being so steep.

Milford Sound goes inland from the ocean about 7 miles and is actually accessible by road through a tunnel cut through the mountains. At the end of the sound, there is a hotel and other guest facilities and there were several tour boats taking people out into the sound as well as small planes and helicopters that were doing flight seeing tours.

Although it was supposed to be 77 degrees today, due to the brisk wind, it didn’t feel much warmer than our 57 degree weather yesterday and we went around the deck with jackets on and Jet had a blanket on her legs while in the wheelchair.

We turn our clocks back another hour tonight, which now makes a total of 7 hours we’ve “gained” in spite of “losing” a day when we crossed the International Dateline.

We have two days at sea ahead of us and then we reach Sydney. We retrieved our passports from the guest services office today since we will need a visa to enter the country. I already obtained ours on line before we left home so we’re ready to go through inspection by the immigration folks when they board the ship.

 

Until tomorrow.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Your sounds wonderful and beautiful.

[bay guy]

February 9, 2018

Aboard MS Amsterdam

This is our last day at sea before arriving in Sydney, Australia, tomorrow morning. We’ll be staying here for 2 days.

Our weather has been cloudy and a little cool today but has warmed up this evening. The captain said the weather in Sydney is supposed to be be nice with a low of 71 and high of 84 and clear skies. Let’s hope the Australian National Weather Service is accurate. We’re actually pretty lucky to have cooler temperatures here. It’s not unusual for it to be 100 degrees this time of year, which it was 2 weeks ago.

We all have to go through immigration tomorrow morning. Australia requires US citizens to have a visa to enter the country. I obtained ours on line before we left at about half the price the ship visa service charges. We’ve all been given entry cards to fill out and the ship gave us our passports back, which we hadn’t seen since boarding in Ft. Lauderdale, and will take them back from us after we clear immigration. Australia is requiring a “zero count” for the ship before anyone may get back on the ship, which means that every passenger and crew member has to be checked by the customs people at the pier.

Jet and I plan to use the “hop on-hop off” bus while we’re here to get around. They’ll allow us to take the wheelchair aboard the buses. We plan to ride for the entire bus circuit, which takes about 90 minutes, and decide where we’d like to get off and explore more. I’m hoping most areas will be wheelchair friendly.

I’ve contacted all of the tour operators we’re scheduled to travel with at our ports in Australia to be sure that the wheelchair is OK. Only 1 said it wouldn’t be possible, which I kind of knew since it was a heavy duty nature walk and ride on Kangaroo Island where I’d hoped we would see both wild kangaroos and koala bears. All the other tour guides said the chair wouldn’t be a problem and one is even going to the trouble to bring a trailer to keep the chair on while we tour!

I can’t emphasize enough how friendly and helpful the tour operators in New Zealand and Australia have been so far. They all want to make sure that Jet has the best tour possible.

I had my hair cut today and was surprised to find out that they only charged $25 on the ship. I was expecting at least $40, considering how pricey most of the spa services are.

Looking forward to telling you about our Sydney adventures.

 

Until tomorrow.