Ida & Nikki Down Under

“Words of the Day” – Saturday, December 18th

Ida: “I could live here!” Alright, alright already!!

Ida: “I have to pee now. I’ve laughed myself into a peeing place.”

Tuck Shop = Cafeteria or sweet shop

Lolli = sweets = candy

Get that down your neck = finish your drink or an invitation to receive drink or food

Nikki: regarding her champagne cocktail: “It has been a long time since I have had a cherry”

Night Life – Just another night… Saturday, December 18th

Later that night at the bar that we tended to end every night at (Jammers) Ida did some dancing with one of our favorite bartenders, Simon.

We had had a bottle of champagne that night with dinner and so Nikki decided it was best to stay with champagne based drinks and ordered a champagne cocktail, which she swears was the worst drink she ever had. (See picture of sour face.) Then she switched to Champagne Lush cocktails for the rest of the night, which earned a much higher approval rating. Aptly named!

Ship Life – Saturday December 18th

Later on that day, Nikki was out making the rounds of the pubs to see who was out and about and ran into some people who had made some kind of floating device with little engines on the back of it. Asked about it and found out it was for a boating contest in a couple of days. There are pictures of the test boat and the final boat (which won the contest). They called their little boat ‘The Good Ship Lollipop’. The actual contest was supposed to take place in the big pool, but because “the ditch” (Tasmanian Sea) was so rough, the big pool was closed due to the water jumping out of it in waves and soaking all the innocent passers-by. Saw it happen, swear! So the same little pool was used that they tested in as it is very small and protected.

The view from one of the best bars on the ship called The Oasis later renamed Hank’s Bar.

Newlyweds – Milford Sound, Saturday December 18th

There were a couple sets of newlyweds on the ship. This was one that we hung out with a little bit and the day that we were at Milford Sound their camera was having technical difficulties, so we took some pics for them.

Milford Sound – Saturday, December 18th

At 3 pm we were supposed to attend a pilates class, to help prevent the effects of alcowol from settling in for the winter on hips and thighs and such, so we got gym dressed early to go walk on the promenade deck before class. Just then the weather changed and when we entered Milford sound it was quite spectacular what we were greeted with; majestic mountains, sheer walls of rock and dazzling white waterfalls. We did not quite make it to pilates, I think the pictures will explain why though. One thing the pictures will not really show is the whole scale of the thing, you just had to be there. Sorry and all…

At Milford sound it was still plenty cold but not nearly as cold as it had been earlier in the day. Don’t let the shorts and hoody on Nikki fool ya; she was a smidge nutty for shorts but did not want to take the time to go back to the room and change.

There was one particularly tall peak there that we did not get to see as the clouds did not open far enough. Darn – have to go back later.

There are pictures on the deck all wrapped in heavy clothes with hot tea and chocolate and yes it was really that cold!!

There were amazing waterfalls in Milford Sound and there is a hotel right down the end as well.

Fiordland National Park – Saturday, December 18th

The first picture is what it looked like sitting at the computer checking emails this morning. That is a view that we could get used to every morning, especially if we have to do computer work.

This was a scenic cruise day, which means we took the ship on excursion around fiords. The morning started off super cloudy, foggy and rainy. It was still beautiful out but we really had a hard time getting the full effect of what we were surrounded by; the tops of all the mountains were shrouded in low cloud. Shrouded and wreathed. I’ve always wanted to say that….

It was very cold and windy, so there were much needed warm clothes and trolleys of steaming hot chocolate with Bailey’s (or any other alchowol you wanted for that matter). We just had one… no two…because of still recovering from the ti many martoonis of the night before. Mmmmm – favorite new discovery; boozy hot chocolate. Much replication forthcoming in LA…