Blogging fail

I don't think I am really meant to be a blogger.

With so many problems with loosing all my blogs and data from the USA and South American trip, I thought I would be smart and just write everything up in work on my  tablet and upload it all when I got home. How wrong was I. I was diligently writing my blog every day until my tablet decided to  fail at encryption and require a factory reset,  no worries it will restore when I get back into internet range at home.

Nope... All gone. So I will have to upload my pics and do my best to remember everything.

But in a nutshell, I got sick and needed the maxalon. got sunburnt but had a ball and left the cruise in a wheel chair and plaster.

More details to come

Sail day T-1

So we sail out tomorrow.

I have packed most things my suitcase is at about 25kg then I have my little tote bag full of shoes and my backpack. Tammy and I will be taking a medium suitcase empty to bring back goodies...

I have to be up at 6 am to get to Tammy by 6:45 and to the bus by 7:30.

Internet is a funny at 35c per minute, so wil be brief check ins to let friends and family know we are still alive.

• Hair done
• Waxing and tinting done
• I pod has tunes
• transformer has books loaded
• Brought new undies
• moved Tammy's changed over cash into my bag from the glove box as I kept forgetting to give it to her.
• Put credit cards in my wallet as nearly left without them
• Have chickos for the bus ride up although think I will be sleeping as it's now midnight. I will take lots of pics.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.. but doesn't matter cause I'm going on a boat....... A big BOAT....

Now I should really be going to bed

Night all and see you on the other side

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

South Pacific Cruise

Time to update my blog again.

I will be doing my updates in word and will cut them cross in the right order, that way I will have a backup if the same thing happens again.

My Next trip is a girls only cruise to the South Pacific, it is 9 nights sailing out of Sydney and visiting:

Nouméa, New Caledonia
Lifou, Loyalty Island
Mystery Island, Vanuatu
Isle of Pines, New Caledonia

This is for my friend Tammy's 40th birthday. We have a sea view room with a window on deck 2.


We have not picked our shore visits or anything yet, so need to sit down and nut this all out.


I am also simultaneously booking my holiday with hubby to Mexico, Caribbean USA for 5 weeks without kiddies. This will be another post.


I have taken out a multi trip policy for travel insurance with American Express Travel Insurance again. They were great to deal with and very quick in processing our claim for our lost and stolen items on our last trip. it cost $450 for family of 4 for multi trips, so I can use it on the cruise and we can use it for later on in the year.


This is the first time that any of us are going on a cruise and we are travelling on the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Sea's.


This is an American ship and it was refurbished last year.


Need to do some reading up on what to pack for a cruise I did go and buy a new pair of swimmers, but apart from that I'm flying blind.


Here is to the next adventure