Saturday, January 26th .....

It’s odd to be on an American ship, sailing out of New Zealand and to be aware that it’s Australia Day. We’re told that there are just over 300 Australians on board, out of a total passenger list of 2700, but Australia Day is still acknowledged by a display of decorated cakes and platters. The cakes are large and clumsy with amateurish decoration but the thought is appreciated. I particularly liked the platter which left out Bass Strait, effectively incorporating the rest of Australia into Tasmania.

We went to our first trivia competition. Just before it started, we were having coffee and were being ‘entertained’ by a loudmouth passenger behind us who was big-noting himself because of his frequent voyages and his supposed special relationship with the captain (Captain Bob!). The loudmouth turned up again at the trivia. There were only two teams. We roped in another couple to assist us and the loudmouth had five others. He was certainly well-known because the staff member running the show sat down with his team to read out the questions. Corruption? No, I don’t think so.

Anyway, we came second but the odd thing was, of the 10 passengers taking part, five were from Tasmania, including the loudmouth! As Michael Veitch used to say, ‘There’s a message there for us all.’

Dinner tonight was at the Savoy. Again, very acceptable but the most boring couple in the world were sitting at the table next to us and bashed our ears all night. Marilyn switched off early and left it to me to keep up our end of the conversation but, in reality, the woman, Liz, was quite happy to talk about her operations and the bloke, Kevin, was desperate to tell anyone who would listen how he has worked out a way that Princess just about pays them to travel. If it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?

It’s uncanny that the two most significant conversations we’ve had on board have been with boring Australians, and there are only 300 of us. Maybe, there’s some kind of magnetic attraction that throws people of the same nationality together. If so, I’d like to take something to disable it.

We were in Tauranga today. We didn’t bother to get off; we’ve been here before and we weren’t in the mood for touristy things. With over 1300 Americans on board, there are plenty of people to fill the buses and add to the local economy, so we stayed on board and enjoyed the more relaxed program of activities. Afternoon Tea in the Savoy Dining Room was a hit but I’m glad it’s not on every day as I’d be waddling off the boat in Sydney. A local maori group also performed in the afternoon and there was not an empty seat in the theatre.

The performer at tonight’s entertainment was a singer from Perth and she was terrific. She had a nice stage patter and sang a lot of the classics. The audience loved her but, when she stopped in the middle of her act to offer to sing a verse of Waltzing Matilda to mark Australia Day, there was a chorus of groans from the kiwis. The resentment of Australia is pretty intense. I was surprised to find that there were just about the same number of kiwis as aussies on board, even though we sailed out of Auckland.

Our plan was to go on to other things after the main show, but common sense kicked in and we had a quick supper in the buffet and took a cup of tea to bed, to sleep and, perchance to dream.