I’ll start today off by mentioning that we completely missed karaoke last night. I laid down on the bed for a few minutes just to “rest” before the karaoke started, and next thing I knew, we had missed the whole thing. Oops. I asked Dan why he didn’t wake me up in time, but he didn’t feel that it was in his best interest to wake a sleeping pregnant lady. In hindsight, he was probably right, but I still felt bad about making him miss karaoke. If you know Dan, you know he LOVES karaoke.
This morning, we went to hear a speaker talk about our first two ports of call in New Zealand, Bay of Islands and Auckland. Normally when we travel, I’ll get a guidebook beforehand and read up on the area that we’ll be visiting, but on this trip there were so many different stops that I didn’t do that. The little presentation was pretty interesting, talking about some of the history of the area and some of the popular activities to do there. Apparently, New Zealand is the capital of the world for extreme sports, but don’t worry – bungee jumping is not in my future.
Next, it was time for our morning round of trivia. We are really getting into this, as the competitiveness of some of the other teams is contagious. At first, our goal was to just get one question right, but now our goal is to get more than half the questions right. This morning wasn’t one of our best outings at 10/20, but I figure any baseball player would be thrilled to bat .500, right?
Lunch today had an Italian theme, and I definitely ate more than one helping of the tomato and mozzarella Caprese salad. After our daily presentation from Captain Dale on his experiences flying private business jets, it was time for Dan to hit the gym while I opted for an afternoon nap. (Who’s surprised?) Next it was back for afternoon trivia. I tell you, one of these days we are going to win! You can have a team of up to six people, but Dan and I like to be on a team by ourselves so that we don’t get over-ruled by those who “know better.” To grade the answer sheets, you just trade with a team near you. We were being so nice, giving credit for misspelled answers and “Romaninoff” (correct answer: Romanov), but the other team didn’t give us credit for “multiple” instead of “many.” (Question: What does the prefix poly- mean?) I’m sorry, but multiple and many are essentially the same thing. We awarded ourselves a point back for that one.
After trivia, it was time to clean up for dinner with Robert and Mimi. They started off the cruise telling such charming stories, but last night ended up in a diatribe about terrorism that we’d probably all be better off without hearing. Thankfully, the ship was hosting another karaoke session right after dinner, so we had an excuse to bail quickly. Dan ended up singing the Pina Colada song (Escape), and despite not being a professional singer, ended up being somewhat of a sensation. We followed that up with the real professionals, the Ocean Princess Singers and Dancers, for a full-production show featuring the music of Cole Porter. Everyone did a great job, and I really enjoyed the show.
As we were leaving the theater, a lady and her husband stopped me and asked if Dan and I were having a good time, since we were so young. I guess she thought we wouldn’t have enjoyed the show because the music was older, but I grew up with old Broadway and Hollywood musicals, so I thought it all was great. It turns out, we were chatting with Captain Dale and his wife Laurel. They were SO nice, and Dan was even able to help out the captain with an iPhone problem. (Dan has been incredibly popular with the older crowd when they have technology questions.) Dale showed us underwater footage from his GoPro camera from when he went snorkeling in Bora Bora, and there was a creepy-looking moray eel in a cave that looked sort of like a Muppet. Also, it turns out that he lived in Mobile for a few years when he was a child, when his dad was temporarily stationed at Brookley Air Force Base. Such a small world! He said he’s never met anyone from Mobile since then, but since he lives in Canada, I figure that’s not surprising.
Tomorrow we have one more day at sea, and we’ll be crossing the International Date Line then. Friday, March 6th, will not exist for us, which is so weird to think about. Of course, when we fly back from Sydney, Sunday, March 15 will seem like it never ends, so we’ll be getting the time back then. I think I’d rather have a day of flying that doesn’t exist and an extra-long day of vacation in the middle of the trip!