The Pacific

Okay I'm so completely baffled by what day it might be today that I'm just going to ignore that topic altogether. Where does a lost day go, anyway? huh? Lots of people on the ship have been trying to explain it to us, including Noel who reckons it's completely simple and what on earth are Gemma and I so confused about? *sigh*

So, well, Noel got pretty sick but luckily he just prefers to be left alone to sleep when he's sick so I didn't have to fret too much over him. The girls didn't get all that sick, just enough to not sleep very well and be a bit grumpy for a few days. That is, just enough to make me a bit grumpy too!

Hawaii was really great. I was so glad we decided to go out to the island rather than stay in the more cityish areas because they looked, to be honest, pretty dull. The blowhole thingy was awesome. Tali's seen a blowhole before, in Kiama in NSW, but Bea hasn't and she was pretty scared! She jumped out of her skin. But when she saw that everyone else was laughing and that Tali was having fun she decided it was alright. I really loved seeing the crater; there's something about craters that really excites me - they're like signs or messages or evidence of, I don't know what, something! I just like them. The rest of Hawaii was lots of beautiful stuff and some pretty good food.

Tahiti was a bit of a let down actually. Maybe it was because the girls and I were tired and grumpy, but I was a bit disappointed with Papeete. I kind of expected for there to be more to do in such a major tourist place; but I guess people don't really go there to do anything, they go there to sit in the sun and relax.

Moorea was a bit better yesterday. The girls and I spent the morning with Susan and her kiddos while Noel and David went on some kind of little jetboat thing. Susan's kids were snorkelling so I tried to teach Tali but she got so freaked out by the concept of trying to breathe while her head was underwater that she just couldn't do it. But Susan and I took turns having a bit of a snorkel round the shallow reef while the kids played and paddled. Bea's really starting to love the ocean and she's taken to just copying pretty much everything Tali does - even when it means getting tripped up in a foot of water! The boys came back with armfuls of yummy local food for lunch and we all just relaxed for the afternoon.

I tried some very interesting tropical cocktails with Meridith, and the girls had some very red-looking juice concoctions so we were all pretty tired and giggly when we reboarded the ship. Thankfully the girls crashed out pretty quickly so Noel took them to bed and Meridith and I continued the tropical-cocktail-giggly-goodness up in the Funnell Bar until the wee hours of this morning.

And then of course the girls woke me up nice n early today! Why does Meridith look so much more awake than me today? I'm ususally the one with no hangover.

No wonder I'm so confused about the time zones...