Friday, February 1, 2013

Thursday, January 31st .....

We were looking forward to arriving in Port Chalmers because we had arranged to visit an old friend from our time at Chakola, the Outdoor Education in Kangaroo Valley. In fact, we worked out that we had last seen Carolyne when she visited us in Hobart around 1977. Since then, she had moved to Scotland, re-married and finally moved back to New Zealand a few years ago.

It is always good to talk over old times and we were pleased to see her again and to meet her husband, Duncan.

We were back on board in time for Afternoon Trivia, which our team won, again. Earlier, we had been talking to one of the crew and commented that we hoped to win the trivia; he said, Oh, you won’t win. Mr and Mrs King always win. Hmmm! We went anyway but have decided that will be the last time. We found out that the Trivia Queen keeps copies of all the questions and studies them. For goodness sake, it’s called trivia for a reason.

Sailing out this evening we passed the famous Royal Albatross rookery. There were several birds nesting and lots more hovering about the foot of the cliff and diving for fish. We noticed a couple of black and white birds around the wake of the ship and identified them as Cape Petrels, our first sighting of this species.

The evening’s entertainment in the Princess Theatre was Piano Man. We’ve seen the show before but the troupe on the Diamond Princess seems to lack the spark we’ve noted on other ships. The two female singers are ‘belters’ and have an unpleasant edge to their voices. The men are better but have to stretch to keep a balance with the women. The late-night game show was much better fun. It was called The Liar Club. Three panelists were given a word to define; one was correct, the other two were lying, but very effectively.

One of the crew members taking part is called Melvin, from the Philippines. He’s as camp as a row of tents, and everyone loves him. The assistant cruise director is called the King of One-Liners and peppers everything he says with ‘witty comments’. It’s great to have a hearty laugh before bed-time.

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