Every day, every minute, every activity, I swear I'm thinking, "I'll put that in the blog." then I wake up and it's the next day and there is something else on our agenda. Hmmm... cruise life is a busy life!
Let's see, we went to Dunedin (doo-need-in), New Zealand's Scotland. The town is a shuttle ride away from the port, through the equally quaint Port Chalmers. Low slung, bungalow-style homes dot the hills, and acrrross the bay and verrry blue shipping channel (I'm rolling my Scotish Rs for you), are serene, sheep-dotted pastures, outlined by hedges and low trees.
You know how Scots find sheep in high grass? Verrry satisfyin'!
Anyway, Dunedin's town square is actually an octagon, all the streets radiating out from a beautiful little park, which today, has a tent market set up on it. Joe and I visit a couple of the shops close to, then decide to settle in a cafe and have a quick bite. We've got a tour later, and probably won't have much time to eat lunch. The beer we try is Montieth's: Joe has "Red" on tap, and I have Summer Ale in the bottle...delish! We buy some New Zealand kitsch and head back to the ship to catch our tour: the Cadbury Chocolate Factory and the Speight's Brewery. It's going to be a good day!
The Cadbury tour is good, and so is their chocolate, even though I'm more of a dark chocolate girl, myself. We get free samples and everyone on the tour is happy from breathing in the smells of chocolate...that is until we realize that we're late for the brewery tour! Now the real character of this bunch surfaces...no time for shopping...let's go sample some beer!
Speights has been around since the mid-1800s, and their beer is a testament to how practice makes perfect. I've never even heard of Speights (although they distribute Steinlager in the states). Their Gold Medal Ale is wonderful! And Keith, our tour guide is very proud of it...he should be. Please, sir, may I have another?
NZ is much like Australia in that everyone is friendly, open-armed and heading to the pub. These folks can't wait to share their heritage, their culture and their friendship and laughter with you. It's like the whole lot of them has good sense and a good sense of humor. Gotta love 'em!
Back at the ship we get ready to sail for Timaru. Tonight's festivities are particularly fun...Joe Jon and I play a game of Team Trivia with a few other folks (and win!), then we go to a show: The Ultimate Game Show, in which one of our Team Trivia teammates plays a round or two of Trivia against three other people in front of the crowd gathered in the Theater (and she wins), then we head up to the Crow's Nest where I am entered in the Statendam Superstar Singing Competition, an American Idol-style contest, (and I win)! All in all...a winning day!
The spoils of war are sweet! For all our efforts, we now have a complete collection of ship souvenirs we've won as prizes, including a bottle of champagne, which we'll crack some evening soon!
Tomorrow: Mount Cook
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