G'Day mate!

G’Day from the Tasmanian Sea on Australia Day! I am currently on Day 3 of my Australian cruise with my father. Today just happens to be Australia’s equivalent of the US Independence Day, and since it seems the majority of the ship is Australian, it is being celebrating with rigor around here. The Australian Open is also currently taking place in Melbourne and is all that we have been watching the past few days. We also have wifi on the entire cruise, so I figured while my dad naps, I could take the opportunity to write a quick update from the sea!

We successfully arrived in Sydney Saturday morning (roughly 5:30pm EST Friday!!) after a very long flight (my ankles swelled again! NOT good) and spent the day exploring the city. It was in the 90s the entire day, which is quite the shock coming from the freezing temperatures of Michigan. We walked the Botanic Gardens, which are inhabited by thousands of bats, all waiting to poop on you as they sleep during the day in the trees. Luckily, I had no such incidents. We also took a harbor cruise around the city since it is almost all along the water to see the historic districts and the Sydney Opera house and harbor bridge. We’ll be back in Sydney for the last two days of our trip and will be visiting the Aquarium and Wildlife exhibits to see the ‘roos and koalas that I otherwise won’t have the opportunity to see this trip.

Sunday was boarding day for the cruise. We hopped on a plane to Melbourne and headed for the pier. Turned out the ship was 3 hours late getting back because of bad seas during its last sea day, which meant we had 3 hours to burn at the pier before they started loading. We walked the harbor and had fresh fish and chips at a small little restaurant. We also discovered that about 90% of the people on our cruise seem to be above the ripe age of 60. I have the feeling I am the only single twenty-something (outside of staff) on this cruise… and even honeymooners are scarce! This, however, means that there are certain times of the day when the ship seems deserted… before 9am, after 8pm, and the apparent naptime from 3-5pm. It also means that they can’t judge ages and keep thinking I’m much older and that my dad and I are married. CREEPY. That mistake has only been made twice, but that’s 2 too many times for me.
The last two days has also reminded me of a conversation Kelsey and I had before I left regarding how people feel rejuvenated…whether it be alone, or by being around other people. We discussed it from the standpoint of hanging out with friends and such, but I have now been regarding it from the standpoint of strangers. Being on a ship of 2000 passengers where you get sat with random people for every meal, it is easy to determine where you stand on the issue. My dad is the type to love sitting with new people each time, make small talk, tell the same stories over and over. I, however, have already grown tired of it, and although I prefer the seated meals, I have started thinking more and more that I’d prefer to do the buffet just to have a break from trying to keep up conversation with strangers. We have table assignments for dinners, and somehow we ended up at a table of 4 with two other women. After dinner with them for one night, I feel like the conversation has already dried up and have no idea how we will possibly be able to continue coming up with new topics for 10 more nights!! Thus, I’ve once again put myself into the loner category for rejuvenation regardless of the fact that I rejuvenate better in the presence of friends.

Despite my introverted tendencies with strangers, we have still found ourselves some companions in some of our activities. We both enjoy doing the daily trivia that is offered, and on the first day we teamed up with an older couple to better our odds. And wouldn’t you know it, we won! We beat somewhere around 30 other teams. We haven’t been as fortunate in the last two rounds of trivia, but we have decided to stick together and continue to be a team throughout the cruise on sea days. We also played carpet bowling today, and our team of approximately 10 people beat out 3 other teams , and we all won gold medals. I have won a gold medal for some competition on every cruise I have been on thus far… so either my family is overly competitive, or the old people are making it too easy on us J I think it is partly due to the fact that we enjoy the activities, so we participate in everything offered that we can fit in. My dad was 1 point away from winning a golf chipping –into-the-pool contest today.

Tonight is formal night, and tomorrow is cruising through the Fjordlands of New Zealand, the first contact we’ll have with New Zealand. If I knew how to easily load up pictures, I might show them here..but as it is, I don’t, so you don’t get any… so sorry!

And as one final note….it seems almost everyone on board is either Australian/New Zealander/British. So I am surrounded by a similar accent everywhere I go… I’m not going to be surprised if I start picking it up without noticing, I’ve already repeated random phrases I’d never otherwise use. Now I must sign off, good show ole chap!