The Eight Sea Days Have Gone by so Fast - The blog I lost I have found!!!!

Well Singapore tomorrow.
We are having breakfast with the orangutans at the Zoo - surprised? I hope we wont be!
We crossed the Equator about 4.30 this afternoon and as usual we had the "pollywog" ceremony. What a mess. Hop has it on video. We've seen it before so I stayed in the deckchair and watched from a safe distance. Oh yes, if you are wondering what a pollywog is, it's some one who hasn't crossed the equator before. King Neptune and his Queen were here for the ceremony, with his court attendants; the biggest splash was made as the Captain ( the actual Captain of the Sea Princess) was thrown into the swimming pool, clothes and all - although he doesn't like to get his hat wet so that was respected - so kiss my fish!
I've had a little sun and obediently wore sunscreen (conforming with strict instructions from a certain daughter; she'll be pleased to know) and have a healthy blush to my cheeks; also did 10 lengths of the main pool for exercise.
Those of you of my vintage will be interested to know Pimms is the drink of the day - so I had to have one. It's about the only alcohol I've had so far, unlike one couple overheard deciding they'd better restrict their drinks to $100 a day since the cruise is 104 days long!!!!!$$$$$$$$$$

We're back! Hey dont you just love my bamboo?

What a laugh – the Champagne Sail Away Party from Singapore!!!!! Well it did poor. It came down in buckets. We’d just had a swim and were lying on the deckchairs for some sun before retreating to sheltered loungers for a read - then the lightning, the thunder, the rain yahooooooooooo.

We have some pictures of todays activities  - we had breakfast with the orang-utans at the Zoo -  BUT Hoppy’s had four free French champers and I don’t like your chances!! I have learned to “save” as well, on the blog. His last attempt at photos cost me yesterday’s blog!!

AND WE STILL HAVEN’T SAILED AWAY!!!!!!!Maybe the rain was a good thing – temps in the early 30s and fairly humid. It certainly was hilarious. Waiters carefully stacked  glasses and lovely red table cloths. The drops were so big the boys were soaked in no time and the wind wasn’t too kind either. But we enjoyed our free drinks – I had 2 mimosas (or is that mimosae?)

In brief – the eight days at sea have slipped away nicely including a celebration to initiate some pollywogs – no not wrong spelling. That’s the term for some one who hasn’t crossed the Equator before. A very noisy and messy affair including getting covered in raw eggs, cooked noodles and flour; kissing dead fish and throwing the Captain in the pool. You may well think the eight days at sea has had an effect, however when there’s sights to be seen and shopping to be done a different insanity prevails.   

Well we’re away now a couple of hours behind schedule, through the busy shipping lanes of the second biggest container port in the world. You wouldn’t believe the numbers of ships just lying around the place; we apparently have to do a bit of weaving and dodging to clear the port.

For the last couple of days the traffic has been quite constant and at night dozens of squid boats light up the night horizons.

Loving life, especially after my mimosae; hope you all are too. Dont chill too much.........

WITH ALL OUR LOVE XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Busy, busy. Missed todays port lecture - too busy sleeping in.

Quite surreal – rolling lazily on a calm (well 2 ft wavelets) sea at 21. + a little knots, doing 18 metres to the gallon.We enter  the Banda sea between East Timor and Palau Leti then head  west between Palau Liran and Palau Atauro then on to the Lesser Sunda Islands; 27.4C for the air and the sea 29C with virtually no wind. The cloud is starting to clear and we should have some sun from here til we get to Singapore in three days.

Yes, it’s an area we discovered on the Orion in 2011 – the Indonesian Spice Islands – extremely poor peoples, living at a subsistent level, that was just a 100m long ship, and now we’re on another floating blob of decadence passing nearby.

Well that was yesterday; today - noon - its 30.2C, sea at 30C, wind almost non-existant, a few clouds in a blue sky. We're lounging in the shade by the pool with a duo playing the Beatles, and you're freezing!! Sorry - couldn't resist. Sailing just off a volcanoe that errupted last December - great - and into the Flores Sea.

Today I was going to do the washing BUT we just happened to have a special of $20 for a whole bag - it's amazing how much you can cram into one delicate paper bag when you have to. The downside is I miss out on some gossip. Yep, the laundry's the place you NEED to be for the latest and juiciest.

Yeah Lynda - good try. No the answer to the green brown yellow ? was ....... a banana!

What about " I have rivers, no water; cities no buildings; roads, no pavement; forrests no trees."?

Yes - I am a map - no I didn't get the answer. My closest was Mars......................

Thanks for the comments. I'm starting to wonder how things are back there.

Photos - at last...

Hi, this is Lynda again. I won't say that De and Hoppy are not able to put photos on their blog because they didn't follow my instructions. Oh, sorry, see I've just said that! De and Hops, have put these pics up for you and will send you some more instructions. And I am totally impressed by your blogging! ..love to you from us! XX

Wet night on deck.

Tug turning ship in Brisbane River

Hoppy striking a pose. :-)

Sleeping, eating, talking, taking spas, doing a little swimming and playing silly games!

Sea day 4 of 8 - sailing through the Arafura Sea. Cloudy, occcassoinal rain. 30 C - delicious.
Hello there - lovely to hear from you. We dont mind your vicarious cruising. Would be fun to have you all with us but we'll just suffer on alone and hopefully keep in touch on our free wifi and try to have fun so you too can enjoy.
The answer to the riddle was - "our name." We own it but use it little; everyone elses uses it a lot!!
One I haven't got the answer to yet - What is mined, put in a box and never comes out. I thought "coal" but ?????????
Todays one - It's green at the beginning and brown at the end but is beautifully yelow for a short time in the middle. I'm stumped there.
You'll be surprised to know, Lynda, that we weren't reading all the instructions. Will try again when we feel brave - meantime - no photos folks - oops!
Love you all.

Photos from Brisbane and another sea day - day 3 of eight!

So another sea day. A surprising lot of islands and reefs as we meander past Cape York, up the Prince of Wales Channel (!) and the Torres Strait on to the Gulf of Carpentaria later today. Its warmed up – 30deg outside. Suddenly the pool is full and the deck chairs scarce.

The photos at the top............

Delyse at meke night at Paradise Taveuni, waiting for her kava;
Hoppy in Paradise, as chief, after quite a lot of kava;
Middle photo - kissing as the sun went down in a bar at Santorini, Greek Islands.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Brisbane yesterday - At sea today

Yes Brisbane – 15 degC, drizzling with full on rain by the pm! We docked by some lovely new “Portside Apartments” $545.000 for 2 bedder. Nice shopping mall and coffee shops – food – just what we needed!! Our table of ten for dinner, is a nice group of people including 2 Naparians.

We had a brief walk beside the river and discovered the ferry so paid $5-60 each which took us though the city to the Uni and back. All of 2hrs 40. What a good trip. The walkways, cycleways  and bespoke bridges beside and across the river are gorgeous. Imagine what they’d be like on a sunny day! From the ferry you see lots of the old architectural gems tucked amongst the glitzy newcomers. The hostess spent 5 weeks of her summer at the Mount, I think she is a kiwi. There are 146 of us on the boat. She was freezing and predicting snow any minute! She was also very helpful with commentaries and pointing out the points of interest as we zig-zagged our way there and back.

Today is the first of our 8 sea-days (the longest stretch) on our way Singapore. I see tomorrow we are expecting 20deg; the seas are calm and the wind is light – hurray.

Hoppy’s at pilates and I’ve walked around the deck once, yes a token I know. I’ll build it up eventually.

I won a bottle of champagne today answering the morning show riddle. What do we all own that we use little but others use all the time?

So great to hear from you guys with comments and emails. Very exciting. Yes we are doing “it” in word and transferring it over although you will have noticed the dearth of photos to date – hey, we’ll get there. As platinum members of the Princess family we get 2000 minutes each free internet - $600 worth. We should become Elite members about half way round – then we get our laundry done. Yahoo.

On the Other Hand...........

I have rediscovered a huge new wardrobe!!!!!!!!! Everything finally stowed relaxation overtook us. Hoppy had a good sleep last night but I woke quite early.
Hoppy has our sounds set up and it all works very well - a great idea. He down loaded every CD in reach and with some speakers Teresa gave us we have our own little enclave in our tiny cabin.
Our house has been quite steady since we cleared Sydney harbour entrance. All is well.
The lecture today was on Australia - land of promise. Econmics mainly - quite interesting depending on your level of sleep deprevation. Quiet a different situation from NZ. Oz has been a lot more China phobic.
We had a second lecture on the next port - Brisbane tomorrow. We don't plan any trips. The cruise centre has shops, restaurants, movie theatre and free wifi - we may just camp there a while.
Off to lunch in the dining room shortly - the dieting continues. Yeah, I could write a few Tui adds.
See you soon. XX Hop'n D

So we are off to the new cruise centre - White Bay

We've had our night at Wyndham in Sydney, endured the sales speel for 1000 credits and now, just before noon, we've ordered the porter and a VERY LARGE TAXI. Never again!!!
It's actually quite cold here and I've boosted the room temperature to 23.
Had dinner at a very old pub across the road last night and just had my last chai for a while I suspect.
Catch up again soon with heaps of love to all....XXX

Are you moving house? Or just going on holiday?

This is Lynda  -having a little 'blog' because I can...!
The Hopkins' departed yesterday safe and sound burdened beneath the amount of luggage most of us would move house with. I dropped them off at Tauranga Airport and Wil and Cherie arrived to have a coffee with them before they departed, only to find them frantically trying to move the 88kg of luggage between bags to try and reduce the pain of the fact they were only supposed to have one bag each, not two for the flight to Auckland.
Well, they made it. I have had a text just now from Mum saying they she is 'NEVER going to take 3 bags again!' Famous last words....
I'm sure it will all be forgotten once they have boarded the boat and settled into their cabin this afternoon in anticipation of the journey ahead.....

Hoppy and De - morning coffee

De and Wil

Bye Bye..XX

PS: I guess they are moving house for three months....XX Have fun!

On holiday again!!

So our holidays started 7th Oct 2001 when we met!! Sure we worked a while longer then retirement overtook us. But retirement is very exhausting and we need regular other holidays. Anyway now we have the "holidays to beat all holidays" and are doing a world cruise - 104 days of not cooking dinner, (with associated sight seeing thrown in of course. We'll keep you in touch if you want to check into our blog sight  as you have you clever things. I hope we'll be as clever and up date something relatively sane occasionally. We are sailing on the Sea Princess and they have a bridge cam if you want to see what we're seeing. Most interesting when we're in a port, otherwise we will be seeing, along with you, heaps of sea!!

Here is the bridge cam link - check it out.