Day Ten – 31st December 2010 – Port Day – Christchurch

Weather – partly cloudy light breeze 18 °C

Arrival into port happened so quickly, once we rounded Banks Peninsula.  We had ordered room service for breakfast to make getting ready to go ashore less hectic.  We have just ordered off the menu each time, juice, cereal, fruit, Danishes, croissants, and pot of nice hot coffee.  More than enough, and much easier than the rush at the Horizon.

Julie and Dave had planned to go and visit family for the morning, so Pete and I went with them into town on the bus.   As with Dunedin NZD$15 return, so quite reasonable and easy.   All the buses were accessible with drop down floors and ramps – much better than in Dunedin.  The ride in took about 20 minutes.

Driving in we saw a lot of the houses and other buildings damaged in the 4^th September Earthquake and in the centre of town there was even more damage from the Boxing Day quake, which caused even more damage as its epicenter was the city and it was very shallow.   Our first stop was to ‘Fazazz’ to have a look at the classic cars and memorabilia they had.  Access was a bit tricky as there are only steps, but the side entrance had less so Pete helped me up and then lifted up the chair.  We spent about ¾ hr looking at all they had.

We wandered back into the city centre.  Had trouble finding a café for a coffee, as not everything was open.  In fact the place was very quiet and would have been even more so, if it hadn’t been for the 2 Cruise Ships in town – the Silver Shadow was still with us, but from Christchurch they would leave us as their next port was Wellington.

After a coffee, we returned to the Square and watched some teenagers doing Irish Dancing (they were raising money to go overseas to an International Competition) then watched a grandfather and grandson playing Chess on the large set.    There was a Maori group going to perform, but they couldn’t seem to settle on a place to set up, that we got fed up and left.

As the buses were doing return trips to the ship we decided we might as well go back and have lunch on the ship.    We went down to the International Dining Room, and for a change managed to tell the staff we were happy to share.  For some reason they kept putting us at a table for four and clearing off the other settings.    We ended up enjoying our lunch with a couple from the Gold Coast, who were doing a Back to Back (Sydney – Auckland – Sydney) and they had not got off at any ports on the way over as they had friends joining the ship in Auckland.  They had organised a rental car for Tauranga, but had no idea what to do and how to get to Rotorua.  As we were heading there the next day, we offered to pick up maps and brochures for them. 

Julie and Dave came back not long after we finished lunch having had morning tea and lunch with family.  

Tonight being New Years Eve was the second of our Formal Nights.  We thought we might try the Vivaldi’s Dining Room (One of the Anytime Dining Rooms, but it didn’t open until 8.15pm) – no luck at all as they had closed off bookings and could only take ‘walk-in’s’.     So we decided to ‘wing it’ and see where we could get in.  Our favourite being Pacific Moon, we decided to try our luck there.   Manuel – the Restaurant Manager asked if we had a booking, which of course we didn’t, and after a bit of checking around he assigned us to a table which had been set for 3 and had the extra setting made up.   I found that in all the restaurants the Managers always went out of there way to find us a suitable table, and without any delay.   It appeared by now that a lot of people were pre-booking each, which made a bit of a mockery of Anytime Dining, but with many traveling in big family groups, it was understandable they needed to book.

After dinner we went back to our stateroom, and onto the balcony to see it we might catch a glimpse of a whale, as they are very prevalent on the coast off Kaikoura.   No such luck besides it was getting dark and pretty chilly on the balcony.     So we headed downstairs to relax in the Explorers Lounge until going to the Princess Theatre Show “Piano Man” at 10.30pm.   We were trying to stay up late to see the New Year in, so figured going to a show would help.      It was a very good show and it was surprising that the second show was not full.   The previous 8.15pm shows were packed to bursting, with people standing at the back.

The show finished about 11.25pm, so when the crowd has dispersed we headed for the Wheelhouse Bar, to have a drink and wait for midnight.  There was no point going to the Atrium for the ‘Balloon Drop’ and the place was about 8 people deep, and many had been holding their spots for the last 2-3 hours!   Coupled with the Photographers taking Formal photos, it was the one night it was not worth trying to get anywhere else.   We settled in there, and had Kim and Rich join us for a glass of bubbles to herald in the New Year!!!    Once done, we were off to bed.