Weather just can't be controlled it seems. It’s Saturday, November 26th and we’ve run into a rocky ride, particularly during last night. We’re evidently in a low- pressure area that has caused 4.5 meter (15 foot) swells but funny enough sunny skies. As a result, we had to bypass our tendered port Akoroa (Christchurch) because of a potential safety hazards with the tenders. The Captain has just announced that because of worsening weather we’re going to have to miss our stops in Picton and Wellington. As my friend Jim said, make sure you have some wine in the Marlborough region around Picton, based on their world-class wine production reputation. Unfortunately our booked Wine Tour is now history. We’ve just passed the 12,000-mile mark on this ocean journey, and for the most part it’s been pretty easy sailing. It’s just a shame that you come so far to see New Zealand and we’re having to miss three stops along the way.

We we’re scheduled to arrive into Napier tomorrow morning but as the Captain sped (18.3 kts/hour) his way north through some pretty huge waves at around 11:00 p.m. plans changed. The port of Napier denied the Captain access to the pier because there was a freighter getting fumigated after unloaded it’s lumber load. So after several unsuccessful pleas, he’s turned the ship around and we’re heading back south again to Wellington. Not quite sure what this has done to his fuel budget, but we’re having to go a couple of hundred miles more than he planned for. For a small vessel with somewhat outdated stabilizers, the m.s. Maasdam has done a great job keeping things level on deck. The Captain says that we’ll be back on schedule, visiting the remaining three ports in their correct order, but we’ll have to see that when it happens.

Today marks our 37th day on-board, which means we only have 6 days left before we pull up to the pier in Auckland. Thankfully we have an additional four days there to explore – I’m just hoping that the large, cliff-side residence is still there with some of the recent earthquakes in the area. We have a rented a large, Hi-Ace van (seats 8) for the time we’re on the North Island so we can venture out and around the entire island. I think that both Deborah and I are in agreement, we’re looking forward to getting off this ship in Auckland, back onto dry land. I wanted to send out a special thanks to Cathy Smith for sending me all the details/recipe for my upcoming APFELPFANNKUCHEN breakfast plans on one of the morning when we’re at the house. I just have to remember to start hoarding some Maple syrup from the Lido deck, so that we’ll all have enough to drench these goodies.

At tonight’s dinner we had the formal "Picking of the Room" ceremony so that we could determine who gets first, second and third pick, etc. of the bedroom accommodations in our 5-bedroom Auckland rental home. The winner of the short-straw contest was Renetta followed by Deborah then Ian/Wendy with last choice going to Jean. I hope that Renetta will be happy in the Master Suite I suspect.