Nearly home

3^rd Sept 2015 - Nearly home

After leaving Pago Pago we had a three day steam to New Zealand, once again the Pacific was anything but friendly and wind and rain seemed to be par for the course especially as we got closer to NZ. One afternoon taking advantage of a sunny break in the weather a group of us had a quiet cheese and wine session on a back deck that was reasonably sheltered from the cold wind. Everyone contributed something and it turned out to be a nice little session.

Once in the lee of NZ land mass sea conditions started to abate and by the time we got close to Auckland Harbour it was quite flat however fog patches were now an issue so we entered the place blowing our fog horn in the early dawn.

Rain – all it ever does in Auckland is rain, fortunately it wasn’t as cold as we had expected. Once ashore I hailed a cab to take me to the car rental depot that turned out to be about half a kilometre away $16.60, daylight robbery.

Our rental was a virtually new Mazda 3 (with some fancy name), it was a pleasure to drive, comfortable and quiet other than the hiss of tyres on wet bitumen.

It took one and a half hours to reach John and Gayle’s house driving legal all the way. Countryside was the emerald green I remembered of the place from years ago. The last couple of times I visited was around March time and the countryside was very dry and parched looking.

We were not only greeted at J&G’s with hugs all round there was also a nice warm fire so it was really cosy and shortly after we arrived sister Judith and Dennis turned up Nancy hadn’t seen them for quite a few years so we all had a great old chinwag and how the time flew all too soon we were on the return road to Auckland in heavy rain.

On returning the rental car I asked the young Fijian Indian lad how far was it to walk to the cruise terminal and his response was to say it was raining and a cab would be too expensive and simply said hop in the car I’ll run you there. Now how nice was that. I have a suspicion his father may have been the franchisee and he was clearly well educated but you couldn’t find a more polite and friendly person, we were very impressed it restored our faith in young people.

Underway 2200 wet, cold and windy – Auckland.

For the next three days we flogged across the Tasman in strong winds and very rough seas. The captain warned us conditions were going to get worse over Thursday night as we got closer to Sydney but we must have slept through it as when we woke up Friday morning we were tying up at Whites Bay Terminal. Low and behold it was cold and windy and pelting down with rain, I thought we had gone back to Auckland.

We were now back in Australia and having to comply with somewhat bazar ‘Australian Border Force’ immigration requirements. In a nut shell it meant everybody had to leave the ship and go through customs handing in our cards that showed we were declaring certain items even though they were still on the ship. Then we had to sit in a large cold and drafty building as no-one was allowed back on board until everybody had left the ship and been processed. We left the ship at about 0830 and were told we would get back on by 1000. We finally got on board around 1230. To top it off we had to change cabins for the two days Sydney to Brisbane – what a pain. However the convenience of getting off in Brisbane far out weighed the inconvenience of changing cabins.

Today we are heading up the NSW coast in pretty good conditions, the old girl has a bit of a roll on (so has the ship) and in the distance we can see the blue outline of coastal ranges so it’s getting exciting now we are frustratingly close to home.

Tomorrow morning we are being met by family at the grain terminal Fisherman’s Island amongst the shipping containers !!!!

This will probably be my last posting until we are organised back home and in due course I will review the blog and up-date photos etc from earlier in the cruise.  

We had a beautiful run up the NSW coast, flat conditions with a nice rolling swell, warm and sunny the best day we’ve had for ages. I have just put our suitcases out into the corridor for collection for the disembarkation tomorrow morning and looking to the west we can see the lights of Coolangatta. Getting close.