The 30 days of this cruise have mostly sea days with about 8 days on land so many of our days are spent traveling at sea from place to place. We are now at sea in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia on day two of three sea days. The Tasman has the reputation of being rough but has been kind to us so far. On a typical day we are up and having coffee on pool deck by 6:00 am to 6:30 am but not today as the Casino kept us up late(we are now one day ahead of you and seven hours earlier). We follow up with breakfast which can be anything you can imagine but has been Raisin Bran or oatmeal with skim milk lately. Walking and lectures take us up to lunch either on deck or at La Terr

Early in the morning we approached the bay near Auckland for our first tie up to a dock on this trip. We have had very warm air and seas with water temperatures of 86 degrees but have now gone TOO far south so that the ocean temp is now 71 degrees and it made the air temp at sea about the same. On land in Auckland today it is to be 80 degrees for our scheduled wine tour out into the country outside of Auckland. Today's tour is (free) sponsored by Distinctive Vacations through our wonderful travel agent Rose at Pavlus Travel. We were met outside security and found out there were eight people signed up for the tour but only the three of us actually showed up. Young local Stu was the drive

Mango's Cafe on the water, Tonga Dog friend from Raratonga Tonga greeters Tonga local beers, Maka is the best Tonga lobster pizza & Red fish Thai curry with lobster Tonga resort Tonga Catholic Church No tourists except us here. This island in the Tonga group is pretty well shut down except for the locals. The resort we went to for a while had no food and was closing for the season after the group from the ship left them. Whale season is over and that means the tourists are gone. This is one of the few places in the world that has a ton of whales in season AND they let you go out and snorkel/swim with the whales and people come from all over the world to do this. Other than that it is ju

Bill made a new friend in Mr. Hunglo, a local guy The little bay on the island Sir Roy from England wins the unofficial portable Humidor contest Local Beer at lunch Our humidor room after dinner drinks, ties off. Yellowfin tuna for lunch Formal wear evening We caught the first tender in as there are few taxis on this little island that is associated with New Zealand. We paid $30 US for the three of us to go to Muri Lagoon beach. We talked to others with three that paid $60, we had the honest taxi driver. Muri Lagoon is large and shallow but didn't have much in the way of snorkeling. We walked down the beach to the pacific reef hotel and got beach chairs in return for a promise of having

Bora Bora is unique in that it has one of the largest lagoons surrounding the island and protected by the outer reef. We don't have much for pictures because we spent our day underwater on by far the best snorkel trip ever taken in many many years of going out on island snorkel trips. Researching the internet we found Pure Snorkel Company and booked three of us in advance. Their web site said they do a three hour trip that has three stops to snorkel and one of them may have Manta Rays. We took the first tender into the dock and were greeted by Pure Snorkel folk. We were to ride in a 28' South Wind boat with a new 300HP Mercury outboard. Our boat captain and guide for the day was Arthur

After Rangiroa we had a short overnight to Moorea and arrived on time at 8:00 am for the beautiful entrance to one of the most beautiful islands in the world. The ships schedule called for stopping in Moorea until 4:00 pm and then leaving for Papeete Tahiti for an overnight. We had other plans. The week before we decided to book overwater bungalows in Moorea at the Sofitel La Ora beach hotel. We tendered in and got a taxi over to the Sofitel and got some lawn chairs in the shade and proceeded to swim and have some lunch, all the usual stuff we must attend to. At about 1:00 pm we checked into our bungalows where Bill was on a separate wing (dock) from ours. After unpacking (two seconds)

Rangiroa is the largest Atoll in the Tuamotus and one of the largest in the whole world. It is home to about 2,500 people who all live around the small ring of land that comprises the atoll. We all watched as the ship entered the narrow cut of sea that allowed our entry to the inside of the atoll. The ship was joined by a pod of dolphins as we made our way in. The tide was going out at the time and it was fierce with large rolling waves as all the water in 27 miles across the inside tried to rush to the ocean at the same time. We anchored on the inside and tendered ashore to a tiny little village. The three of us and one of the gentlemen hosts walked down the only road towards the outs

Dawn selected to dance Polynesian (left red dress) Ancient Totem by the bay Mr. Bill relaxes on the bay Frito-Lay needs these snacks to go with Hinanno Beer. Ota Iki, Fresh raw Tuna that was swimming this morning. An appetizer at dinner. Main Street The Island of Nuku Hiva is the largest island in the Marquesas chain but it doesn't have many people, only around 3,000. We got off the Whisper on the second tender ashore and walked down the main road by the bay. It had rained in the morning and the sun was rather blazing hot. We walked about 1.5 miles down the road and then turned around and headed back. A little pizza joint called out to us with their Hinanno beer sign so we stopped and h

Kiss The Fish! Pool volleyball Mermaid on deck South 05 degrees 11.370' West 138 Degrees 03.283' at a speed of 18 knots with a heading of 202 degrees southwest we are now 212 Nautical Miles from Niku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands. We passed the Equator last night at 10:00 pm We pulled out of the port of San Francisco a week ago at about this time of day but had a rocky start by anchoring in the harbor to miss a storm and them having to return for a passenger who fell down and was hurt badly. Our seas have not been bad, about 3 meters the first day and then we had 17' swells as we tried to run from a storm that an app of mine showed to have up to 42 foot waves! We managed to stay south o

We finally pulled out of San Francisco Bay this morning at about 8:00 am. We were due to leave last night at 6:00 pm but is was raining sheets and blowing a full gale outside the bay so the captain decided to anchor for the night and spare us the grief of rough seas. We are just off the coast of California bearing 113 degrees, no wait, we just turned into the coast. Had a call for a stretcher a while ago in the show lounge after the morning lecture. Must be serious because we have 8 days at sea ahead of us. Now heading north again, must be back to San Francisco to drop off a passenger. Wine at the Ferry Terminal Farmers Mkt in San Fran Sea lions as we depart for a bay cruise Golden Gate