Downunder Coming Up

I hate evening flights!  Slept in a little late this Saturday morning but it is going to be a very long day.  Karen is picking me up for the airport at 3:00 this afternoon for my 6:00 flight to LAX.  There I have an hour and a half to change terminals and meet up with my friend Madeline for Air New Zealand's fifteen hour flight to Auckland!  Maybe it is even longer.  Can't do the math with the time and date changes, sorry.  Because of datelines we arrive at 8:00 am Monday morning!  Why do I do this to myself. 

I sort of wish that we had booked our own air.  Then we could have flown out a couple of days early to Los Angeles or even Hawaii and recovered from the first leg of the flight.  Of course our thirty nine day cruise would have been even longer.  But we would have had a chance to see my friends Carol and Michael and also to just get adjusted.

I will be adding to this blog as internet connections permit.  I will not pay for internet service on board a cruise ship as it is very expensive and extremely slow.  For 75 cents a minute you can't even send off one email.  So you can imagine what blogging would cost. 

The day we arrive we will be escorted to our ship.  I hope that goes quickly and smoothly as we would like the time to see a little of Auckland before beginning our voyage on the Celebrity Century. Of course we also need recovery time.  Our first all day tour begins early Tuesday morning to the geothermal fields outside of Tauranga, NZ.

If you are interested in seeing where I am you can use this link to follow our ship's position.  I must now go dry my hair, get into my travel clothes, turn off water and unplug things and finally make sure all my last minute things are in my suitcase jacket (more about that later.)  Enjoy!  See you all soon.

January 2012

Going to continue to 'blog' as Intentional Traveler.  I haven't found a way to create a 'new book' under this pseudonym so thing may blend together.  Last November Karen, Christine and her family and I all cruised on the Carnival Dream.  Didn't blog it but am going to try to get back in the swim of things starting now.  On this coming Wednesday Karen, Katie and I set out on one of our 'throw away' cruises.  Three nights on the Carnival Sensation out of Port Canaveral to Nassau.  We need some sun, sea, and sand.  More importantly our rum supplies are getting low.

Today is a momentous day to begin again as the Costa Concordia sank last night.  It looked like a beautiful ship and was one of the new mega ships.  I am sure discussion will continue about the safety common sense of having almost 5000 passengers and crew on one little floating vessel!