ANZ Day 10: Dunedin, NZ (12/30/2012)

We docked in a small town, Port Chalmers, outside of Dunedin today. When we woke up, C opened the curtains and said he saw a small boat right next to us with tires all over it. It was the tug! We were docking next to the shipping docks and got to see the cranes in action unloading a container ship. We've seen that on TV, so it was neat to see it in person.

We had our second shore excursion today. We visited Penguin Place, a wildlife sanctuary with seals, Yellow-Eyed penguins & Little Blue penguins. They had blinds set up throughout the sanctuary so we could get up close to the penguins on their level. We even got to see chicks! They were almost full grown, but it was still cool. Penguins only take about 3 months to reach full -grown. I had no idea!

Walking into one of the blinds.

Look carefully inside the little "house" and you'll see 2 brown Yellow-Eyed penguin chicks!

This little guy waited so patiently for us to leave the blind.  He was probably there for 5 to 10 minutes!  He was waiting to add that single feather to his already-built nest inside the blind.

Walking into another blind.

Seals!

A Little Blue penguin inside his little box house.

It was around 1pm when we left Penguin Place and we were getting hungry. I asked the driver what was next and through our conversation learned that there was no plan to stop for lunch until the tour ended at 4pm! As you can imagine, I was upset! New Zealand has fairly strict bio security, so we weren't allowed to bring food off the ship. I couldn't believe they would expect anyone to skip lunch, but they did. I knew it wasn't the drivers fault and told him as much. He must have felt sorry for us because he changed the itinerary up and drove us back into town to grab some lunch before continuing.

Some pictures of the scenery from the bus (lots of sheep!):

Our ship

The town of Dunedin

After a quick bite to eat (and a stop at a convenience store for some granola bars in case we get caught without lunch again), we stopped at the steepest street in the world. It was pretty wild - it went straight up the hill! No switchbacks! C thought it was really cool.

We stopped at a Botannic Garden next and were lucky enough to find a playground there!!

K took this gorgeous picture!

We then made our way over to an old train station with mosaic tiles all over the inside. It must have been a lot of work!

When we got back to the ship, we saw that there was a tent set up on the dock with free Internet! I was relieved to get to send out a few emails. We had planned to walk into Port Chalmers, but it was raining pretty hard, so we opted to get back on the ship. Dinner tonight included a delicious roast leg of lamb (sheep without any fur, according to M's explanation to the kids, K was very worried about the fur). We convinced C to have chicken instead of steak, but in the end we all wound up eating M's lamb! For dessert, K went back to creme brûlée. She also had cold pear & honey soup. It was seasoned, so she wasn't a fan.

The show was a piano player who played this wonderful movie song medley at the end that included songs from 42nd Street, Star Wars, Singing in the Rain, The Impossible dream, The Sound of Music, One, and the song that K identified (correctly) as being from "Sight Words 1" along with several others. It was really a great show! After the show, we would normally go straight to bed,but tonight there was a family dance party, so we went there for about 15 minutes before the kids were ready for bed.

Caution Germophobes

This may really gross you out.  It grosses me out.  Every time.  But I have to share it because it's part of the story.  (But seriously, this is really gross, and it just gets grosser - you have been warned.)

I was shopping at IKEA today and walked past a mirror display and couldn't believe my eyes:

Oh, you're not sure what that puddle on the floor in the middle of the IKEA showroom is?  How about a closer look?

Do you need me to put it into words?  Are you simply aghast that someone might do this IN A STORE????  It's hard for me to understand how one overcomes this kind of culture shock.  When this is no longer shocking to me, I think I'm in trouble!

Now, I don't want you to think this is my first encounter with something like this.  It happens all the time.  Taxis pull over on the side of the highway to use the wall.  I've seen a mom hold a bag for her son to use in a corner of a museum AND a mall!  Here is a picture of a common practice here:

I debated including this picture because of the content.  There are two adults, one is holding the child who needs to do her business.  I took this picture a long time ago and don't think I waited around to see what kind of business it was.  I've also seen this more times than I care to remember.

I showed these pictures to my dear neighbor, and she shared a story with me.  She's British, so make sure you think this in a British accent:

We were lined up in the queue at IKEA and it's taking a long time to check out.  The kids were hungry and they wanted hot dogs, so I had them line up for hot dogs while my husband was checking out.  So I'm standing between the checkout and the cafe place.  And about 10 meters away was a trash can.  So, if you can imagine the restaurant being about 10 meters away from me AND the trash can.  So my kids are standing there eating their hot dogs and this woman comes along with her child and hangs the child over the garbage can and the kid is POOPING!  INTO THE TRASH CAN!  Her back is to the checkout and she is facing the cafe (meaning so is the child's rear).  And the kid is pooping into the trash can.  And there's a security man standing between the woman and myself.  So I point at her to the security man and he turns the other way and pretends not to see me.  So I'm saying "Can you do something about that?  This is completely inappropriate!  There are people eating!  My children are eating!  Don't pretend like you can't see me!"  He won't do anything, so I walk over near the woman and point at the Toilet sign just over her head and say "This is NOT ok!" and I point to the toilet.  She keeps saying "Sorry, sorry."  So she finishes up with the kid (by this time, my kids are completely grossed out).  I'm like, "OK, I know I'm going completely over the top, but SERIOUSLY? And I know I've drawn a crowd, but SERIOUSLY?????"

Yes, seriously.

ANZ Day 9: Fiordland National Park, NZ (12/29/2012)

Today was absolutely breathtaking! I woke up early to try to catch the sunrise, but it was cloudy :(. Instead I worked on a new crossword puzzle and then brought breakfast to the room. C called it "mom-service." We sat on our balcony and ate breakfast while we cruised through Milford Sound.

Eating the "Mom-Service" Breakfast

It was stunning! We saw albatross flying low near the water, seals waving to us, plunging cliffs, waterfalls, and rainbows! What a great way to start our anniversary!

If you can see the white dots on the top left of the water, those are the albatross.  Their wingspan is 8-10 feet!  That certainly puts the land into perspective!

Rainbow!

I had to take a nap after Milford Sound - I wasn't really prepared for a 5:45am wake-up! We had lunch as we cruised through Doubtful Sound, then we went back to the room and built the 3-D cruises ship puzzle the kids gave M for Christmas.

Then it was back to the pool for more swimming!

By this time, we had made it into Dusky Sound and we got to see Dolphins! The on board naturalist said our wake would be like a floating amusement park for them, and sure enough, as soon as they got to the wake, they were all jumping and playing! What a treat for them and us!!

Gorgeous!

Can you see the snow-capped mountain the distant center?

We got to know a little more about Nikola, our assistant waiter, at dinner tonight. He is 22 and just finished going to school for electronics. He is from Serbia. He has wanted to see the world for some time and has thought that a job like this would be just the ticket, but in order to sign up for this job, he had to be 21. He is always so great with our kids, it was nice to learn a little more about him today.

Nikola with the kids

I haven't talked much about sea-sickness and I realize you may be wondering. We have had some rough seas, particularly on our way to Melbourne (when the hangers in the closet were swaying), then again on the way out. Tonight is no exception. I had heard that the Tasman Sea could be quite rough. We are doing fine though, for the most part. Sometimes we don't feel very good and we just have to change what we're doing - either our position, or the activity itself. Thankfully, none of us have actually gotten sick! I think we've all felt worse for eating too much than we have due to the movement of the ship!