Part 4 – Papeete to Auckland

After five days at sea, it was great to get off the ship and put our feet on land for a few hours. Dave, Amanda and I wandered around the shops and markets for a while before heading to the Hilton Hotel for a swim… it was so hot there that day. The Hilton was previously the Sheraton when I was last there nearly six years ago on the Pacific Princess.

Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti and is not the most ideal beach island. Hard to believe I know seeing as its Tahiti and all, but the other islands of Moorea and Bora Bora are my favourites which are true tropical clear blue water beach island.

Shortly before we sailed out of Papeete a fire at a local car yard broke out which made for an impressive sight. I’ve put a couple of photos I took of it from the ship.

Two days later we arrived in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. I loved this island and had a wonderful day. The water as you can see from the photos is gorgeous!

That night we had an Island Night Party up on deck. I love island night and every island night is certainly not complete without a ‘long island iced tea’ or two. As usual it was a fun night which you can probable tell from some of my photos.

We have a celebrity guest speaker on at the moment. You may recognise her from my photo with her. Her name is Estelle Harris, better known as George Costanza’s mother in Seinfeld. Her and her husband are lovely. It’s been wonderful to meet her and hear her stories, she’s a real riot.

In the last four sea days we crossed the dateline. For us we went straight from Monday to Wednesday, skipping Tuesday, 10th February all together.

One of the guest entertainers fell sick a couple of nights ago and Dave and I literally had 15 minutes to put a show together and rehearse. Thankfully we had a show we do each contract together ready to go. We just had to shorten it a little as we shared a split bill with another guest ent. Dave and I have done our show many times before but for some reason it was extra enjoyable and fun performing it the other night.

Today we are in Auckland and I am very excited as Mum and Dad are joining the ship today. They’ll be sailing 12 days from Auckland to Cairns, via Burnie, Sydney and Brisbane.

I am so looking forward to seeing Chris in Sydney like you wouldn’t believe!!!!

Lots of love to everyone.
Jess x