Friday Jan 9, 2026 - Day 2 at sea to New Zealand

 

Deb here. Lost another hour on the clocks last night so we slept a little late this morning, or actually normal time but the clocks have changed two hours in the last two days. Light breakfast in Windows Cafe, a talk by the Professor and then off to the second talk by Aylene about what to see and do in New Zealand city by city. A bit too heavy on the powerpoints. Nice woman but she needs some help with her presentations. We then stayed on for a presentation about Azamara cruise itineraries, which turned out to be interesting and entertaining. The captain also had a mic and added lots of color commentary. 

In the afternoon we had a great tour of the bridge. We’d put in a request for this tour and apparently a bunch of other passengers had as well, since there were 18 of us total. Interesting to get a tour of the command center and meet some of the staff. Captain Jonas from Sweden is a great entertainer as well as captain, so he always has a wry answer to questions and a dry sense of humor. 

Later we went in the hot tub, just as it rained. Ah, such a rough life!

We tried Discoveries Restaurant for dinner, and then entertainment once again at 9 in the Cabaret Lounge. Tonight was Miro, who played excellent piano and something like a xylophone, all backed up by the house band. Have to say that all of the entertainment on board has been excellent.