And if it’s possible to do even less than the day before, this was it, lol. Apparently, we had a rough night, I did notice it once in the middle of the night, but Mum didn’t feel it and was fine this morning, so maybe she has her sea legs now! Another hour added to the clocks, so 5 hours ahead.

A very grey, blustery day. Not sure if it’s low cloud, fog, rain or sea mist out there lol. Sometimes even the horizon was blotted out and just a mass of grey! Lots of white caps on the waves and spray off them with the wind, but it has calmed down a lot now, not much white at all.

We have delayed going to dinner as neither of us is really hungry, but we will pop up there shortly to have a look at the spread.

First stop tomorrow, Bay of Islands, but as it’s a 20 minute tender, Mum would rather not do it, I’m still thinking about it.

A day of cruising so a day of doing nothing much, we put our clocks forward an hour so now 4 hours ahead of home time. Mum didn’t feel too good this morning, so after a quick visit to the Windjammer for breakfast (dry toast for Mum) we came back to our room where Mum had a good sleep and awoke feeling much better.

The clouds have become more white and largish blue patches are making the water blue as well, it’s all been rather grey until now. Sat around for a while amusing ourselves then time for a much more substantial lunch for Mum. Before dinner we had a wander around the 2 shopping decks and visited the Solarium at the front of the ship, way too hot and chlorine smelling for both of us. The ship is still rocking a little and it was quite noticeable up the front!! We have a meal time system now, I walk around the food stations with Mum and compile a plate of her choices, set her up at a table and then go and get mine. Mum however finds the dessert station herself, lol.

A few pictures, see if you can spot Mum with the cookie she collected on the way out! We had our first towel critter tonight!

Woke up early, still dark outside except for the flashes of lightning. As I couldn’t hear any thunder thought the room nicely sound proofed. Well as time went on the thunder got close enough to hear lol. Once the day greyed up to visibility we could see the low clouds obscuring the tops of the buildings across the way and the rain was just coming down!

We stayed in our room killing time until about 10.45 when we grabbed a taxi and headed for Circular Quay and the big ship awaiting us. Took around 15 minutes and rained all the way. Left our suitcases at the baggage drop all nicely labelled and even though our official check-in time was 13.00 we went though without a hitch. Short wait for the security scanning as usual, but shortly we found ourselves in Two70⁰ having lunch. The rain had stopped by the time we finished so we went up to the 15^th deck and had a walk around the running track and enjoyed the views of Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and the old buildings in The Rocks precinct.

Our room was available at 13.00 so we found it and sat on the balcony looking at the old buildings again with some internet surfing to discover their history.

Mandatory safety drill was at 17.00 so we wandered down to our muster point at 16.50 so we would be ready and also get a seat. That done and quick visit back to our room to see if our luggage had appeared yet (no it hadn’t), we ascended from deck 13 to 14 and dinner in the Windjammer. Back to our room and no luggage, so down to security (deck 2) but they didn’t have it, so being delivered they said. We then watched the ship move away from the wharf and then turn, so discovered we are near the end of the ship, not the front as we had thought, LOL.

Down to Two70⁰ again, but this time it had been transformed into a theatre complete with moving floors, holes in ceiling for trapezes and vanishing holes for performers. It started as an image show on 7 big screens manipulated by robotic arms, and were alight for lots of the singing/dancing that ensued. They must have changed costumes about 10 times!!! We also began to notice that the ship had left the harbour as a slight rocking had started.

Back at the stateroom, still no luggage, so went down to Guest Services where there were lots of bags, including ours that had lost our labels with the room numbers on them.

Mum’s asleep and I’m not going to be far behind her, might have to hang something on the hangers in the wardrobe though, they are banging together, LOL.

Helen picked me up just after 9 and then on to Mum’s. Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare which was just as well as the baggage drop conveyor wasn’t working so we had to wait for a long time to get our luggage off our hands. Boarded the flight on time and obviously had a tail wind as it only took 3.45 hours to get to Sydney.

I gave the greeter at the plane door my BOAC Junior Jetclub logbook for filling in during the flight. He found us half way through the flight to say the Captain would like to say hello at the end of the flight, so could we get off at the end. No probs as we were near the rear of the plane anyway, lol. Popped into the cockpit for a quick chat with the 2 pilots and Mum had a quick seat in the Captain’s chair, she was really happy with that experience!

Then we retrieved our cases and waited ages for a taxi, the system was quite bizarre, but finally we got a ride to our hotel in Darling Harbour. The lass upgraded us so we have a view overlooking the Harbour and all it’s lights. I tried taking a photo but it didn’t work well. (Remember it’s 3 hours later here than at home and it was getting dark especially as storms are expected.

We had a stroll through the Harbourside Mall, and then out onto the walk way around the harbour. Back inside for a bit of dinner. The gulls aren’t perturbed about it being an enclosed building, they have worked out the automatic doors and come and go as they like, lol.

Hoping it’s not too wet etc tomorrow, no fun getting ones self and luggage wet!

Mum and I are off on a 14 day cruise around New Zealand starting tomorrow with a flight to Sydney. We have a hotel room in Darling Harbour for the night and then onto the ship on Wednesday. Two days at sea sees us arriving in the Bay of Islands on the 1st December.

I haven’t started packing yet, but the babies went to the sitter yesterday and the house is just so quiet lol. Lucy will hopefully go clucky soon as it will make it easier for Phyl to feed her (she doesn’t eat much but sweetcorn dropped into her nest site.)

The photos will hopefully start tomorrow after our arrival in Sydney.
L 🙂 xo