Day 99

Day 99 – Pago Pago to Auckland – Thursday 23/8/2012

Weather – Mostly cloudy 20C – 24C

Sunrise – 6.06am

Sunset – 5.36pm

Time difference – plus 2 hours ex Sydney, ( back 1 hour last night, then forward 24 hours)

During the course of the day Sun Princess followed a south-westerly course which is roughly parallel to the Kermadec Trench , about 50 to 100 miles to port.

So we went to bed Tuesday night, and woke up Thursday morning, with the crossing of the International Dateline yesterday. So all those 22 hours we wound back as we circled the globe all came back in one hit, with interest!! :)

The weather noticeably cooled today. The sun was out for most of the day, but the breeze was up a bit, and it had a noticeable bite to it. As we head further south, I guess our balmy days are behind us now, and we will need to pull out the jackets and jumpers again brrrrr.

We had a rather full day today, given it was a sea day. After Trivia, a fellow passenger, architect, did a presentation of his proposal for a Gold Coast Cruise Terminal. Now I recall that not long before we left on this cruise, the new Mayor of the Gold Coast Council, who was elected on a platform of a new cruise terminal, announced that it was not going to go ahead due to lack of funding. I guess something must have changed whilst we have been away ??

We introduced Ian and Mary to the wonderful world of shuffleboard, then watched the first f the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Donna was the only one left watching after about a half hour as the cold drove the rest of us in. Donna is a LOTR disciple, having watched her box set many many times, but she endured the cold for one more :)

Formal night again tonight, which we passed on. Tonight is the farewell formal for those getting off in Auckland on Saturday. All of our dinner table are on until Saturday, so it does not have that significance for us, besides we had one of our couples dining with the Captain, one couple who avoid formal nights, and the two remaining couples thought nahhh. We got a group of friends together for a pizza night...yummmm :)

After a little flutter in the Casino, it was out to the Atrium, for the Kiwi's farewell party, much dancing and merriment, and included a balloon drop.

We we returned to our cabin, we had a Princess gift waiting for us. Recently I mentioned that we had a very large group photo taken of all the people who are on board for the full world cruise. Well the photo was delivered, in a leather like bound frame. It also had a photo of the Sun Princess sailing out from Sydney under the bridge, very nice. In addition we received plaque memento, with individual engraving, which is also very nice.