Where We Hang Out, Do Laundry, Write Blogs, Eat…Rinse and Repeat
We didn’t have a whole lot more that we wanted to see in Auckland, and this afternoon is the included city tour. So this morning the plan was: breakfast, exercise (Andy), laundry (Amy), lunch, and the afternoon tour.
A fun new little problem with the room – the shower drain seemed to be a bit clogged. Yay! Another visit to Guest Services! Oh boy!
At breakfast we met the ship’s expert meteorologist. Fun conversation about weather, volcanoes, and earthquakes. We’ll need to find his scheduled presentations and check it out.
We stopped by Guest Services to report the shower problem – this time the rep reported it immediately and was very pleasant about it.
Next up: Andy schlepped the laundry bag to the launderette around the corner.
We found our friend the astronomer in there ironing his shirts. I’m really glad he was there – he walked me through the arcane process of getting a laundry started. The washer is no problem. The dryer is above my head. I will need help with that.
The whole process took a couple of hours. I spent the time catching up on blogs and posting them. Luckily someone came in just as I needed to empty the dryer, and she helped me out.
We needed to be at the dock by 2:40 to meet the bus for the included Auckland city tour. We left a bit early – it was the same long walk as the day before when we boarded, only in reverse.
Amazingly enough, Guest Relations had reserved the front seat for me – something worked! How about that.
This excursion consisted of driving around Auckland. Our first stop was the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. Michael Joseph Savage was a much beloved NZ Prime Minister from 1935 to 1940. The gardens were beautiful.
We drove through many nice looking neighborhoods – the driver’s running commentary included many references to how expensive housing was, which was pushing the younger generation away from Auckland.
Our next stop was at one of the harbors. Best thing to see here was this:
Andy was able to grab some photos of the Auckland skyline as we made our way back to the downtown area.
As we drove past the Sky Tower, the driver pointed out two little orange dots at the top. Apparently a fun thing to do is tether yourself to the building and lean out over the rim.
And that was the end of the tour. Just in time for our appointment with te Excursion Director.
That was an interesting conversation. I repeated to him what Viking had promised to me on at least 3 occasions – that there would be a ”leisure” version of the “moderate” level excursions. In a very kindly way, he said, “Absolutely not”. While his reasons sounded a bit fuzzy to me, it did sound like the actual challenge was (1) the sheer volume of people, and (2) identifying who they are. Though IMHO those are issues that could be overcome if they really wanted to.
He did say that his “moderate” rating was targeted for the demographics of the clientele (i.e. us old farts), and that “moderate” wasn’t all relative. He said that he saw me walking up to our meeting and he thought I’d do just fine on anything labeled “moderate”.
He also said he would do his best to get me reserved front-of-the-bus seats, to make it easier for me to get off the bus and not be immediately far behind the tour group as it moves forward.
So while this was not the answer I was looking for, I felt better about being able to do the “moderate” excursions and actually enjoying them.
After that, we went to the “self hosted” Hanukkah celebration. We had a couple of more people! Since it was Friday night, we added the Shabbat blessings.
After dinner, we went to the “welcome on board” show in the theater. It was very well done.
Tomorrow: Tauranga
Maryland Meshugas 
We did a day tour in Tuscany and had a tour guide, Sarah, who was very very fast, not talking, walking. So I know what you were talking about.
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