DAY 73 NAPIER & DAY 65 CRYSTAL SERENITY

These are a some additional photos taken by the Ship's Photographer's.

Before dinner last evening, we had a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Cove.  The attire for the evening was Black Tie Optional.  We sat with dear friends John and Linda.

We then dined at the Crystal Dining Room.

We started with Salads.  Keith had his standing order salad and Anne Marie had a Bouquet of Fresh Garden Lettuce salad.

We each had the Broiled Fresh Main Lobster Entree which is Anne Marie's favorite.

For dessert, it was blueberries for Anne Marie and mixed berries for Keith.

The evening also included the Captain's Reception as well as a special show created for everyone on this voyage that featured song and dance from Hollywood.  It also included songs from one of the previous Crystal Cruises Production Shows.  Bravo.

We slept very well as we sailed to our next port of call in Napier.  The seas were relatively calm.

We began the morning as we always do with Keith waking up first and exercising in the Fitness Center and then going to the Lido Cafe for coffee and to read and write.   Anne Marie walked for awhile before we had breakfast.

We arrived to Napier at around 8:00 AM.  

We did not book a tour as the last time we were here we took a tour that took us around one hour from Napier to a beautiful farm and along the magnificent coast line of this area.  We didn't have time to visit the city of Napier so we thought we would do this today and we did.  Many people we know went to wine vineyards.

Napier has a population of around 60,000 residents.

It is known for its art deco which came about after the town was pretty much leveled from an earthquake that struck in 1931 and measure 7.8 on the Richter scale and last a little less than three minutes.

In the last 24 hours we had a couple of small calamities one yesterday and one today and we ended up spending sometime related to the one from yesterday at town today.  Today also reenforced how much we like the Kiwis (Kiwis as in New Zealander's).  They are very kind and considerate and we all could learn a lot from them.

So, let's start with yesterday.  Keith was playing Paddle Tennis with Food & Beverage Manager Tayfun against two guests.  Keith and Tayfun were leading 2 to 0.  It was also a windy day.  As Keith was running towards the net, one of the other players hit the ball and it hit Keith's cap and then hit him directly in the left eye. Caryn, if you are reading this, Keith remembers the mishap with Stan but like Stan was not wearing sun glasses.  Anyway, as soon as Keith was hit he kneeled on the court for a couple of minutes.  He continued with the game and he and Tayfun lost the next five sets as Keith was pretty distracted but when they got down five to two they won the next three and then all agreed to just make six the final set and Keith and Tayfun won that.  The injury basically felt as if someone punched Keith and also felt like something was scratched.  We put some drops in Keith's eye and this morning when he woke he felt better but after putting drops in his eyes he thought it made them feel more scratchy.  OK, we'll be back to this story in a moment.

We took the shuttle into the city.  We walked for a while.  

We continued to walking heading to a Park and as we were crossing the street with the park straight ahead on the right side, Anne Marie said that the map showed a Church on the left side and she turned to look for it as she was walking.  Keith always reminds Anne Marie not to do this and many others do this.  Well sure enough she didn't see the curb and went flying up the curb landing forward.  Thankfully, she only had a cut on her knew and scrape her hand and didn't break anything.  This is just a reminder that accidents happen.

Anne Marie sat on a bench at the park and she always carries a little first aid kit with her and she wiped the cut off with alcohol and put an antibiotic ointment on the cut and two bandaids.

Afterwards, we walked across the street to the church but it really was not very impressive to take a photo of it.

We then walked to a clothing store that is a chain in New Zealand and Australia that has outdoor clothing called Mac Pac.  Dear friend Bob had told us about it the other day and Keith liked the shirt that Bob got there.  We ended up doing quite a bit of shopping including purchasing some items that will be useful on our 2016 Northwest Passage Cruise. The woman who helped us spent over an hour with us. If this was the USA we would be lucky just to find someone to help.  They gave us an additional discount on everything since we were cruise ship passengers.  On top of this because we bought similar long pants for the cold she said let me see if we can double the discount on this and if the system allows it she would.  Sure enough she did.  

Before we went to the store, we had noticed an optometrist across the street and thought we would go over there to see what they would recommend for Keith in terms of drops for his eye.  This building was along the way.

When we walked in, it was recommended that we have an optometrist look at Keith's eye.  We checked and one could see Keith in 75 minutes which was quite good but we asked if it was possible to see him earlier.  The technician checked with the optometrist and that was not possible but she was kind enough to check with two other optometrist's and one could see Keith immediately given the situation of us not staying over and being on a cruise ship.  We walked about five minutes to the other optometrist and only had to wait five minutes and then the optometrist spent 30 minutes with us.  She checked everything thoroughly and verified that Keith had an abrasion.  We purchased drops at the office, and she gave us a prescription for an antibiotic ointment to be on the safe side and they told us how to get to the pharmacy.  The optometrist and the women who helped us at the front desk were so very kind and thorough and the cost of the exam was the equivalent of $30.00 in USA currency.

We then went over to the Pharmacy and once again we had a very helpful person at the pharmacy desk and a very helpful pharmacist and we only had to wait five minutes and on other person at the pharmacy helped Anne Marie with a couple of other items.

We then took the shuttle back to the ship.  As was the case when we previously took tours in New Zealand where buses were involved the drivers of the bus spoke to all of us by microphone and pointed out many interesting buildings on our short drive back to the cruise ship pier and was as kind and informative as one could be.  Someone from port security boarded the bus to check each of our shipboard cards and she was so very friendly as well.

We continue to be amazed with the friendliness and kindness of the Kiwi's.

Once back on Serenity we had lunch at the Lido Cafe.  This is a reminder about what happened yesterday.

In the majority of ports we are calling on during this world cruise there are very few if any ships in port.  Today, the Oceania Marina was in port with us.

Yesterday, we met a nice elderly couple from China who sat at a table next to where we are sitting and we all got a good laugh.  The husband returned from the Buffet first and he had only dessert on his plate.  He looked up at us and said dessert.  The wife returned to the table with some salad and some hot items.  She looked at his plate with the dessert and we all laughed.  We said, at least he is happy.  The were around age 80 and both looked to be in good shape and this is also a reminder that even as we age we can still have favorite items similar to what a child might have.  LOL, but so very true.

In the afternoon, Keith read and wrote and took a day off from Paddle Tennis to late his eye rest and Anne Marie walked for an hour and then worked on one of her knitting projects.

This evening we will be returning to the Crystal Dining Room and will post about that tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.......

"Whatever you are be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln

Keith & Anne Marie