Radiance of the Seas - 18 Night Australia & New Zealand Cruise
We drove through part of Wellington, beginning with the financial district, to go to Lady Norwood Rose Garden, which also had a begonia house.  It was part of a larger botanical garden and right across the road from the Chinese Embassy.  One flower which caught my eye was Honky Tonk Blues, more for the name than anything else, though it wasn't that blue.  We had about half an hour here and once it started raining, I went straight back to the bus.  Only two people got off at the shuttle stop and as we were reversing so we could pass the shuttle, that decided to pull out anyway so we followed it back to the ship.   We had only a cruise card check, not passports, then were allowed through the gate at the port.  The rain was coming down a bit heavier and as I made my way up the gangway, I heard Carol's loud gob behind me.  They were returning with Joyce and Pete but I have no idea if they knew they were a couple of feet away from me.  All the while we went through security you could hear them.  While having lunch, I saw they were doing things with the lifeboats and Gokhan told me they'd had a drill that morning.  Afterwards, since it was a lovely day, I went on deck for some photos of our surroundings and suddenly a bird fell onto the deck as a couple were walking by.  Nothing unusual in that except this one appeared to be unable to fly away.  The man reported the bird in broken English and we waited ages for someone to come.  In the end it was but we don't know what happened to it.  I went in to rest my knee until sailaway then.
Our departure was supposed to be 4pm but due to two late passengers, it ended up being half an hour later.  I have no idea whether or not they turned up but by now Windy Wellington was living up to its nickname!  Our Captain said it was light winds and sunny yet outside his bridge window it was blowing a gale and cloudy.  I went back in afterwards to rest my knee so dozed until dinner.  Apparently it all kicked off after I'd left the previous night with Ann having a go at Joyce who walked off, saying she wouldn't return!  The one time those boring farts get interesting and I miss it.  Ann could be a bitch so it's not a shock something gave in each of their desires to be superior.  Ann and Howard didn't show their faces.  Carol was talking about her last booze tour and claimed they were dropped into town straight afterwards.  I would have believed them if it wasn't for he fact the tour started after mine, we were at Lady Norwood Rose Garden the same time and got back just after us.  What the hell possesses people to constantly lie or exaggerate to make themselves interesting?  And what the hell had I done in previous lives to get all four of them???  They plus Sue and Pete took so long turning up I hoped I would be the only one - damn!  Later, as I did the internet, I discovered Royal Caribbean UK had made me Fan of the Week on their Facebook page due to my blogs from the cruise - woooo!!!  No free cruise but a T-shirt, which is better than nothing.  Thank you again!
We gained an hour as daylight savings ended - wooo!  It was our penultimate sea day so a lovely and much-needed lie in.  My knee had taken so much strain the past four days it really hurt.  Unfortunately, we had Aussie Sky News and all that crap back again.  So rested my knee mainly around going to Diamond Club.  Fox Sports News actually showed something interesting - Southampton winning!!!!

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© Patricia Dempsey 22nd March-9th April 2013
Not to be reproduced without permission