4-7 March 2023 - Sea. Literally forever. En route to New Zealand
It was only 4 days but it gave me a chance to recover from snorkelling my sick self all over the reefs, fishies and turtles of the Cook Islands. Well start to recover anyway. Funnily enough, the antibiotics had almost knocked the horrendous sore throat out - but I developed a diabolical cough in the relapse staage after Papeete - Luckily flinging up a lung is situation normal on the Magnifican't. There was a lot of resting and James hit the gym a couple of times a day to combat the mortal perils of too much lovely food and wine. The time did not however just fly by. It dragged on, rocking and rolling, with the access to the outside decks cut off and seemingly no fresh air to be found anywhere. The unpleasant conditions were caused by Cyclones Kevin and Judy and whilst we were safely away from the main events, we still had huge 8 metre (24 foot plus) seas for far too long.

8 March 2023 - Auckland
We diverted a fair way off course to avoid the worst of Cyclones Kevin and Judy and far from arriving in Auckland at around 8am on the 8th, we rolled in about 5 pm. Many people were disappointed as all the excursions booked out of Auckland were cancelled. We, on the other hand, were not unduly unhappy… the 'included in the fare' excursion which we hadn't planned to do anyway was credited to our account to the tune of €120. All going well we'll be leaving the ship with a bit of cash, which is a rarity in the world of cruising. (The Auckland excursion money will join the €120 from the cancelled excursion in Lima - happy days). We were in no great hurry to rush ashore with the hordes at 5 pm and fling dosh at the local restaurants and bars. Instead we enjoyed our dinner on board which was one of the most enjoyable of the trip - and due to the lack of guests, one of the most efficiently and swiftly served. We rugged up slightly for the cooler NZ evening - a chance to wear the vintage leather jacket I found in Santiago, and trundled ashore about 7.30 pm for a walk up and down Queen Street. We bought some postcards from one of only 3 souvenir shops who bothered to stay open - we saw one small shop that was packed to the gunwales and the shoppers were all off the ship - the two owners were run off their feet - but well done them for flexibility and staying open for the eager hordes and their wallets - it was probably their most profitable couple of hours in business, ever. We wandered back down Queen Street and took a gentle stroll around the Viaduct entertainment precinct - chock full of locals and ship folk - hard to believe it was a Wednesday night. I still looked like death gently warmed over, but happy to be out and about and on firm ground once more.