4 days till sail

Only 4 more sleeps till we set sail.

Finished up work for the last week although need to go back to work Tuesday afternoon.

I started to pack and my suite case was filling quickly, so Tammy came over to help me transfer everything to space saver bags.

 have a Jumbo an two large bags filled up.

I still need to pack some things and still need to go and buy some stuff.

Outstanding list is:

• Shorts
• Drink bottles
• undies
• picnic cooler bag
• sandwich bags
• hat
• documents
• phone charger
• Camera and charger
• Neck pillow
• make up
• hair brush and hair ties

I'm thinking I need to take an extra empty suite case lol.

11 more sleeps

Only 11 sleeps to go.  I have printed out our bus tickets and also completed our on-line check in and printed our boarding passes.

I have brought some currency. I got USD $300 @ $1.005 per  Aussie dollar, so it cost me AUD $298.510.

I chose a mixture of $20, $10, $5, $1.

And I also brought some French Polynesian Francs or XPF as they are known in the currency world.. They will take a little getting used too. I got $25,000 Francs @ 83.00 Francs per Aussie dollar.

It seems that this currency come  in 500 and 1000 notes. So with my bad maths skills that makes them worth about $6 and $12 respectively.

Here is a pretty picture.

The Francs don't fit into my wallet so will have to come up with some where else to store them. The exchange place gave me a nice little baggy, so they may just stay in there.



I have borrowed a bag of dresses from Tammy and have given them all a refresh wash today, so they are all hanging up drying around the house.

I only have 4 more work days although that has slowly creped up to 4 and a bit days as there is an important meeting that I have to go to the day before we sail out. So I will head in for a 1/2 day.

I still need to sort out all my work stuff and do a bit of a hand over.

Off to get ready for for a friends wedding now

13 more sleeps till South Pacific girls get away

So thirteen more sleeps until we board our cruise.

Only 5 more days of work.. YAY!!!!

I have booked our drinks package. We have gone with the ultimate drink package USD $55 per person per night and completed our online check in and printed all our paper work.

After trawling around for parking in Sydney city, we have decided to catch the bus up. We scored a good deal with Greyhound bus leaving Canberra at 8am, with WiFi  power and USB $115 return for both of us. Get into Central grab a bite for lunch then make our way to Circular Quay.

I have packed my diving gear, power board, power converter, TSA locks and I have riffled through Tammy's wardrobe and picked out some of her dresses.

I have to make an appointment with my Dr to get my scripts filled. I still have to get my waxing and hair done but that's all booked in.

I'm going into change over money for some USD for tipping and some Francs for Vanuatu.

my tablet is loaded with lots of books to read.

Things I still need to pack:

•  The rest of my clothes
•  my crocks
• big drink bottles
•  little freezer bag for our day trips
• Sunscreen
• Beach Towel
• Laptop

4 weeks till South Pacific Cruise

Having a dinner get together with the other women who are coming on Tammy's birthday cruise, so that we can discuss what tours and what things we want to do for the shore days.

Tammy and I have logged into the ship website and have found that there are now other drink packages available  (Previously there was only the Soft drink and wine package, neither of us are big wine drinkers, so glass by glass it will have to be). They are now offering USD$55 per person per day for premium drink package so soft drinks, beer, wine, cocktails, mock tails  and normal "hard" alcohol. We sat down and worked out that the USD$495 each will be worth it as when we go out to dinner we will have 3 cocktails each during the meal, and then a soft drink or two  and that is about $53 right there just with one meal, add in lunch and breakfast we are set.

Reading up on the forums about the cruises, we are pretty well set on booking our own tours and not with the boat and just make sure we are back on the boat in time for sail. Looking from what people say they advise to jut have a look at what tours are on offer when you get off the ship and book there and then.

I am going to take my diving gear with me. I don't have much just goggles, snorkel, gloves and boots and thinking of buying some fins here to add to my scuba kit. No one else dives but Tam said she would try snorkelling so she can snorkel while I dive, and I can also snorkel with her.

Other things we have put on the must do list, is eat lobster on the beach, some jet skiing and seeing some local cultural things and the French bakery.

We have worked out that the ship will give us a running tab that we settle at the end of the cruise, so will need minimal in USD, but will need French Polynesian Francs for the Islands.

Other challenge is where to leave the car for the trip as we are leaving from Sydney City there is no parking near the dock from what I can see. So options are that we park out in the middle of nowhere and train it into Circular quay or get someone to drop us off and keep the car and pick us up.

Another dilemma that I need to work out is that there are supposed to be formal dinner nights as well on the cruise  I went to go to my fav outlet that does the discount formal wear, only to find that it has shut down. So now I'm going to have to find somewhere else to find some cheap cocktail dresses that won't cost the earth.

I'm also thinking of going to get some tanning done before the cruise so I'm not so white.

My hair and waxing are all booked in for 2 days before we set sail and I need to also get my infills done sometime in there as well.

With the cruise 4 weeks away I finally decided to get back to the gym to work off my Christmas muffin that is looking yuk. I need to keep on top of it and keep going. I have the incentive to keep working for our kiddie free trip in November YAY bring it on