Australia and New Zealand Cruise– Day 8-11 or something.

 

Note: We’ve had this post ready for a couple of days now but no internet connection at all aside from 30 mins last night.  On the positive side we’ve also lost Fox News channel as well and gained BBC World News!

Before we arrived in Hawaii Misty had been taking part in the ships Ukulele lessons – She played on stage with the band.

We arrived in Lahaina after 4 days of sailing across the Pacific from LA. Due to the storm on leaving Seattle Holland America re-arranged our itinerary so we went to Lahaina instead of Hilo and then we only had one day in Honolulu instead of the originally planned 2 days. The online Hawaiian team that did the hula lessons, ukulele classes and Hawaiian history talks did a program and the captain opened the bow of the ship so we could listen to the chants and songs while Lahaina came into view. It was a gorgeous morning and made for a really scenic and memorable sail-in. The boys spent the ENTIRE day swimming in the sea. We stayed to watch the sunset and then made our way back with salty skin and sandy, sandy clothes, bags, shoes, everything. The amount of sand that we tracked into our room was an embarrassment and it never seemed to end. You’d rinse out Henry’s tiny swim trunks only to turn them over and pockets full of sand would empty. Our poor room stewards. We got an early night with not one single peep from the boys at bedtime.

The next day we arrived in Oahu. We rented a car in Honolulu and spent the first part of the morning at Walmart picking things up we’d forgotten along with a waterproof camera. The boys have been so happy playing in the surf and sand that it seemed a shame not to capture some of it because we worried about our nicer camera. We headed out to turtle beach in hopes of seeing some sea turtles and ended up seeing tons. The boys loved it and again loved jumping around in the sea and the rolling waves. Because of the large amount of tourists they have some turtle preservation people on the beach keeping people away from them doing their own thing. Mr. Pete the oblivious stood in waist deep water while the largest turtle I’ve ever seen swam right up to him. The preservationist woman was yelling and flapping around like crazy to stay away from the turtle while Peter didn’t take any notice of the 5 ft moving lump next to him. I posted a a pic of him to Facebook the other day just as the lightbulb went on.

After turtle beach we stopped so Pete could get some of the local garlic buttered shrimp and then we headed to the dole plantation. I have to admit in my ignorance I had no idea pineapples grew so close to the ground. We took a little train ride around and then got some of the famed Dole Whip. I think this is only available in Oahu at the dole plantation and at Disneyland/world. I love it.. Peter hates it. Grant and Henry of course saw the huge souvenir cup and decided they both needed that. 2 sips into his huge $7.50 Dole whip float Henry declared.. “actually, this is kinda gross” and that was that. I attempted to finish his and have since decided that while I love it, there is some truth to “too much of a good thing”.

Henry “surfing in Maui” – Sunset in Maui and Turtle Beach in Oahu.

Dole Plantation, Oahu – 5,000 miles to Sydney and 4,394 to New Zealand still to go!

When we got back on the ship from Oahu, HAL was throwing a Polynesian BBQ. Really great food and dancers – unfortunately our camera was back in the room for the whole thing! That evening HAL  also hosted a sort of “we’re sorry your itinerary was screwed up” Party with complimentary drinks. We showed up ready to get our 1-2 drinks and were totally surprised that it was an entire night of open bar. Peter was not feeling too well the next morning. It’s a good thing he’s got 5 full sea days til we get to Samoa to recover.  Looking forward to crossing the equator and dateline with the “King Neptune” ceremony.

With this cruise there seems to be a huge amount of formal nights. Even if we didn’t have the kids with us 8 nights is just annoying and excessive. I have no idea how people have traveled and flew with 8 nights of formal wear, beach wear, casual resort wear – whatever the hell that is and normal clothes. Seriously, it’s the only thing that’s starting to get annoying on this cruise. The annoying thing is on those nights they tend to have better dinner menus. Formal nights are the nights the lobster, and escargot and higher ticket items come out. As an alternative you can have the items all delivered to your room. We have tried this but the amount of trays delivered to the room was epic. Henry’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he said “What?! We don’t have 6… 11… 12 people in our room?! Why are there so many trays!?” They delivered all the courses at once. The next formal night we decided that we should get dressed up again and head into the dining room as some of the food just doesn’t travel as well. You’ll all be happy to know that Peter did pass on wearing socks and crocs with his suit but he was tempted. J

A few notable things here and there: The boys have continued to behave incredibly well. People everywhere know who we are on the ship because we’re “the ones with the two little boys”. They kids are like celebrities with some of the staff which Henry is eating up but makes Grant really uncomfortable a lot of the time. It’s good practice for both of them. The wait staff have been SO nice and a few favorites have made them some fun origami and entertained them both with magic tricks. All this time I’ve been worried about our boys misbehaving but honestly, I’ve seen worse behavior from some of our fellow passengers. From the woman who threw a packet of butter down and stomped off because they didn’t have SALTED butter, to the woman who took the ENTIRE crackling portion of the roasted pig... THE ENTIRE PIG, to the odd person (or 5) who seem to scowl at the kids for just walking by. At least a lot of these things are teaching moments for the boys that there are even adults who need to work on their manners.

I’ve been playing uke during the day and knitting at night while we’re waiting for the shows to start. I now seem to have screwed up a part of my knitting and need to go looking for some knitting guru. I hear there’s a gang of them that hang out in the library during the day. I keep telling Peter I reallllly want to walk into the room and go “WHAT UP MY KNITTAAAHHHS”. Seriously? Wouldn’t that be the funniest?

I also attended a Dancing with the Stars at Sea class.. only I didn’t know it was a competition. I did the thing with a pretend partner because Peter was attending a lecture. I was all sweaty and having fun with my samba bounce but was horrified to find myself selected in this gameshow where I had to compete. I got second place to a woman who has a ballroom background. If I’d known I would have tried a little harder and maybe not have showed up with a t-shirt, yoga pants, and sneakers. Loads of ladies showed up in dancing shoes. The entire thing was done as a partnership with the Dancing with the Stars show on ABC. It was good fun but it went pretty fast and a lot of people were really lost after the first couple of steps. I took Peter by the room today to check out the Waltz. Peter watched for 30 seconds, and before his be-croc’d footwear hit the dancefloor he had decided it was too hard and he gave up.

Boys swimming in the ships pool as we sail to Samoa….