Sails of the South Pacific

The more you travel - and the older you get - the more you change the way you do things. This trip is the longest we will have ever been away from home but it was also the one where I did the least preparation. In part this was because LK took on the very arduous task of checking out and booking hotels, leaving me with only a very few things to do to get ready.

Basically all I had to do was get three months worth of prescriptions, get a cortisone injection in my hip and have my prostate checked.

I did mention that I am getting older, didn't I?

Anyhow, the good news is that the scripts are doing their job and my numerous lifestyle diseases are under control, the injection worked for awhile but not as completely as I was hoping, and the prostate is not a problem.

That has allowed us to relax completely on this trip. Well, that and the fact that there is just about nothing to do. It is a re-positioning cruise from Sydney to Hawaii and on to Ensenada Mexico, lasting almost a month.

The first 2 1/2 weeks are being spent chugging through the South Pacific with only a couple of stops - first in New Caledonia, and right now in Tahiti for three days first at Papeete, then Moorea and today at Bora Bora. There really isn't a lot to do here - well, I should say that there really isn't anything to do here except look at the beautiful scenery.  And the islands are very hot and very humid so it was easy to stay on the ship today and avoid one more set of stands selling t-shirts, seashells and black pearls.

Not that we're getting jaded but several of the group we have drinks with during the cocktail party each night agreed when LK noted that we were looking at "just another lush volcanic island in the South Pacific".  OK, we are getting jaded, but you cannot force yourself to get excited about seeing one more place pretty much like the last one.  (And yes, the more observant will have noticed how I casually slipped in about having a nightly cocktail party.)

Then again, we will probably wish we had walked on land today even if it was hot and steamy, for tonight we head
northwest (yep, a little bit of backtracking) to Maui and Honolulu. That will take more than 5 days - by which time we will have either developed great sea legs or be covered in bruises from falling against the walls whenever we walk around on the ship as it rocks across the waves.

Of course, I've noticed that even when the ship is docked, I've knocked against the walls a few times. Usually, soon after the cocktail party.  But I doubt that there's any connection.

Really bad internet connection here on the ship so no pictures with the blogs until we get to Hawaii and can catch some good links.