2 - 7 Tasman Sea, Volcanoes, unlucky at lunch.

 We are halfway to New Zealand, 'crossing the ditch',  that's how Kiwis and Aussies refer to the crossing of the Tasman Sea.  Similarly Americans refer to the trans-Atlantic crossing as 'hopping the pond'.  Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand, overtime the people of New Zealand became known as Kiwis too.  There are several talks today, the first was on the volcanoes of New Zealand's North Island.

                                        

Once we arrive in New Zealand, we'll have port stops everyday, traveling from south to north along the coast.  It'll be busy then, now is the time to learn a bit more about the sights we'll see. Originally the itinerary had us stopping in Tasmania on January 1.  We were looking forward to that particular stop as were many other passangers.  However a few weeks before we sailed the stop was removed.  They said January 1 was a bad time - no tour guides, so Viking removed Tasmania.  We could see it as we sailed by yesterday. The above map shows just how close we came.

There is a scale to rate volcanic activity, it is VEI, Volcano Explosive Index 0 - 8.   Taupo Volcano in New Zealand was a 7,  as a reference Mount. St. Helen was a 5.  There was a deadly eruption of Whakaari on White Island in 2019 with no prior warning, tour groups continued as normal.  Many tourists and guides were injured or died. It was initially believed that there were about 100 tourists on or near to the island when the eruption took place; later, this figure was revised to 47 people who were on the island at the time. Of these people, 38 were passengers on a shore excursion from the cruise ship Ovation of the Seas, which was on a 12-day voyage around New Zealand and had berthed at the Port of Tauranga that morning.

        

Almost five years ago, Eric organized a trip to New Zealand for Kate, Mark and Ashley.  They played tourist but had a goal to run in a Taupo run on the North Island in New Zealand.  I remember that they HAD (required by race officials) to have gloves for the run as the weather can be quite cold.  I ended up with this t-shirt commemorating the race.  I had no idea Taupo was an active volcano region of the country.  Sometimes it is better not to know.  I am glad have this shirt and also that I brought the shirt on this trip.

Lunch was poolside (deck 7) with Alan at the guitar, an extra sea day perk that we were looking forward to.  Phil decided he wanted a reuben, I wanted chicken wings from the pool bar.  The reuben is only available on deck 2 Restaurant Phil headed down there to place a special order.  He came up empty handed.  They are running short of some food items, in this case saurkraut.  Saurkraut is considered a good luck food at the new year by the Germans.   No reuben today.  He ordered a burger and fries from the pool bar.  He pumped the ketchup onto his plate for the fries.  The ketchup spurt out, spotting the front of his new Australia shirt. A little bad luck.

The shirt cleaned up nicely.  You can't tell where the red ketchup landed.

After 45 minutes of light jazz with Alan, we went for a walk around the deck.  Deck 2 is the usual walking deck (clockwise direction for walkers).  Four laps = one mile.  But Deck 2  was getting over spray and one side of the decking was wet.  Some of the exterior doors were blocked off where the spray was the worst.  So instead we went up to deck 8 (short track) and 9, (the sports deck).  Its a little rockier the higher up with some wind gusts.  Within a couple of seconds Phil yelled.  His hat was blown off, high up onto high levels of the ship we've never seen (staff levels).  He found help to look for the hat.  No luck. You can barely see the staff head looking over the edge talking to Phil (no hat). 

We walked  the deck for 14.5 miles (according to my  Apple watch) and it only took us 43 minutes. I should probably say we walked for 43 minutes and leave out the distance.  The distance is never right, but always impressive.

Plans for the rest of the day:  Lecture on 'Aboriginal Art - Elders who became famous', laundry, Phil will try to turn his luck around.