Last days on Celebrity Solstice

We had a rather quiet day on our next to the last day at sea. It was the last formal night and as we were outrunning the cyclone storm it was cloudy with periods of rain and some wind. We went to hear the naturalist talk on marsupials. I thought they had originated in Australia, but found out differently. The show last night was similar to a Circus de Sol Celebrity Solstice version on December 21st for summer solstice. We have not been able to see The Southern Cross star formation in the night sky.

We woke to a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky. The waves were calm and many people were out and about. The pool was the busiest of the cruise. This cruise had many cooking demonstrations, but today they are having a Star Chef Cooking Competition. The competition was between the head sous chef and the Cruise Director with assistants and judges. It was a fun interaction.
Bill is going to a program about the workings of the ship and a Science Cafe with the Naturalist hosting the science discussion. The women are going to the staff talent show. We have glass blowing studio on board that uses electric furnaces that were built especially for this and two other Celebrity ships and in partnership with Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

The cruise ship is one of the monster cruise ships with 3200 guests and about 1250 staff. It is 127,000 tons. They have many casual seating areas both inside and outside and a good size real grass area on the top deck.The buffet has many stations with huge food selections. On this cruise we are on a select dining, but eat at the same time each with the same waiter and assistant. Our waiter is from Honduras and our assistant is from the Philippines. There are also several specialty food restaurants as well.


- Marilyn
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Our last New Zealand Port Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands was a beautiful port. This was another port where we were tendered in. This is the area that the treaty was signed between the Maori tribes and England. There are still many issues between the two. This seems to be the case all across New Zealand. We took the tender in and were shuttled to the town where we looked around, took in a craft faire and listened to some children sing Christmas Carols. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting on our balcony and watching all the sailboats, jet boats and seadoos out on the bay. We now have two sea days and the Captain gets to try to stay in front of the cyclone.


- Marilyn
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Auckland, New Zealand

Greetings from Auckland
We arrived in Auckland about 7am. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and the harbor is very busy. There are ferry boats going everywhere! We took a bus trip to see the main highlights of the city. We got a quick view of the Winter Gardens and the Auckland Museum. As most of you know Bill enjoys museums and the hour given for this museum definitely was not enough. We enjoyed seeing all the sights! It is said that in Auckland there is a sailboat for every two people. The Crystal Symphony ship was also in port. it arrived a day early due to a cyclone in the Samoa-Fiji area, It was a beautiful sunny day which made leaving Auckland a beautiful sight!
- Marilyn
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Lillypads @ Wintergarden and the Hilton Hotel, Auckland

Our day in Tauranga, New Zealand

We spent our day in Tauranga, New Zealand looking around and visiting shops, checking our email at Starbucks, enjoying the outrigger canoes, kayaks and other sailboats in the harbor. Tauranga is a very busy port city. It is also a resort city and since it is a six week vacation time, the city is busy with many different kinds of tourists and the caravan park was full. In the afternoon, a troop of Maori Dancers came aboard the ship and gave a performance that shared some of their culture with us. Bill and I had visited this port 8 years ago and it was a small beach town now it is a big thriving area.
Tomorrow we will be in Auckland, New Zealand.


- Marilyn
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Hello from Dunedin, New Zealand

Hello,
We are in the Scottish Heritage town of Dunedin. The town is mainly on the flat parts at the bottom of the hillsides, but the houses are up the hillsides. They are reported to have the steepest street in the Southern Hemisphere. They also have a Cadbury Chocolate Factory which we visited. It is quite a shipping port. The town was started in 1848 and grew very fast after gold was discovered in 1861. Today about 123,000 live here. They have a wildlife preserves, a castle and The University of Otago which was started in 1869. Today we enjoyed watching a group of bagpipers lead the graduates and families in the walk down the Main Street that had been closed off for the celebration! Very exciting. Bill, Harry Finch and Jay Coyne went in a local bar and help toast the new grads. When we first arrived in the town, it was very quiet. But the town came to life with the graduation, the farmers market, a crafts and gifts outdoor market and all sorts of people moving about. We enjoyed our Dunedin visit!


Dunedin train station


Bagpipers leading grads


Cadbury Chocolate Factory Candy Mountain



Bar Bill,et al toasted the grads


-Marilyn
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Greetings from the Celebrity Solstice

We spent one night at the Sofitel Hotel in Sydney. We walked around and had Japanese food for dinner with the Coynes, Finchs and the Battaglias. Next morning we had breakfast at a food court across the street. We left the hotel and went to the ship to get checked in. It turned out to be a process, but finally succeeded! The rooms are nice and the food has been very good. The ship did not leave Sydney until the next day so we could come and go off the ship. We did some walk-abouts. We left the dock about 4pm. We have been at sea and tomorrow we will be in Southern New Zealand and will see some fiords--Millford Sound. We do not get off the ship until the day after and we have put our clocks ahead 2 hours.
We'll post our next blog after our port day.





Marilyn and Bill


- Marilyn
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Milford Sound, New Zealand

We woke early sailing by the high peaks of the South Island of New Zealand. It was cloudy and a bit drizzly. We walked out on deck to see beautiful waterfalls and a few sea birds flying about. We picked up a pilot to help the captain drive the ship through three passages. The second one was Doubtful Sound. This one was named by Captain Cook because he thought it was doubtful that you could get out of it without turning around. By the time we got through this sound, it was raining hard, the winds were up to 30-35 miles per hour with very high waves. The Captain and pilot decided to have us forego the last sound (Dusky Sound) and visibility was almost zero.
Tomorrow we are in the port of Dunedin.
We'll let you know about this port the next time.


- Marilyn


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G'Day from Sydney

After we left Kerang we have been making our way across the middle of this part of Australia. We have seen many signs to watch for kangaroos and in my usual style we didn't see ant after the first day. No koalas either. Our roads wound through the countryside and much of the way we were in the foothills. Then we entered the Blue Mountains which are a little higher. Last night we stayed in Lithgow which is a former coal mining town. There is a zigzag train through the Blue Mountains. Today we drove to Blackheath and drove out to see a rock formation called the Anvil. You are suppose to be able to see Sydney from there, but it was too hazy. There were many people out and around at farmer markets and craft fairs. We drove on down the road to Katoomba and there is a famous rock formation called the Three Sisters. It was very crowded so we chose a little scenic drive instead and got a great back view!
We headed back to Sydney to turn in the car and go to our hotel. All this is now accomplished. We are sitting amidst many tall hotels. We will check in with the others.
We enjoyed our little cross country adventure!








- Marilyn
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We sadly said goodbye!

We had a wonderful stay in Kerang visiting with our friends,
Shirlee, Merrill and Tim. They pampered us and fed us well! Today Merrill had to give a final exam and turn in her reports for the end of the school year. Tim was leaving after work on one of his adventures! Shirlee fixed us a great lunch and Tim joined us before we sadly said goodbye until our next visit to Kerang!
We ventured out and will take in the
Blue mountains on our way back to Sydney.


- Marilyn


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G-day from Kerang

G-day from Kerang. We are at the Scrivens.
We had a nice ride from Gundagi through many small towns and at first rolling hills and then flat flood plains under a cloudy sky! It is cooler than we thought so my clothes for this part of the trip are not quite warm enough so much for planning!
We say kangaroos hopping across the road, 2 Imus in the field and a ringed neck pheasant beside the road. We stopped for lunch at a bakery in Jerilderie before the last leg into Kerang,
Bill was able to drive right to the Scrivens house even though it has been 8 years since we were here before. Shirlee was outside chasing the birds off her fruit trees. We had a most enjoyable afternoon and evening catching up!

- Marilyn


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We are in Australia

G-day!
Loni took Bill and I to LAX on Sat. evening and it was raining.
We landed in Sydney in drizzly rain. Customs moved along, but after
Picking up our luggage the line to exit was long but moved quickly. It seems many flights come in at the same time. We rented our car, but another huge line of cars were all leaving at the same time and there was a truck stuck in the tunnel. We decided to get something to drink before joining those on the road. Bill has driven in Australia before, but it still takes a bit for everything to come back. He did well and we got onto M5 heading for Kerang to visit our friends the Scrivens. The sky cleared to sunshine and billowy clouds.

Wayne had suggested we stop in Berrima for lunch at the oldest inn in Australia that had been in continuous operation. We left Hume highway for the old Hume highway at Mittagong and got some travel info and on to Berrima. These are very picturesque little towns with shops, homes and fields of cows and mainly sheep. The terrain is much like driving in Central California's rolling hills with trees similar to live oaks.
After lunch at The Souvreign we headed for Gundagi where we spent the night in another quaint little town in a comfortable motel.





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By Marilyn