Norwegian Spirit Passing under Sydney Harbour Bridge

Many years (like almost seventeen) have passed since I last took a cruise. This method of travel usually does not gel well with my style. I move quickly and try to see a lot, while cruises move slowly and limit one's ability to see a great deal on land. But that does not mean I don't like the concept. Especially after the arduous Japan trip (ten hotels plus one in Korea), the notion of unpacking and repacking once and food available all the time certainly appealed to me. With New Zealand high on my travel priority list, I figured a cruise made perfect sense for the destination. An island nation for one thing, and the ability to go in and out of the fjords for another gave me the impetus to research further. I found a great deal with this Norwegian itinerary. I just needed to find a travel partner to defray the cost of a cabin. After I visited the maritime museum, I took the taxi back to the pier and had a very easy time checking into the cruise. I boarded and found the cabin on the fifth deck. Due to my extreme thirst and exhaustion, I went up to the buffet on the twelfth deck for some juice (orange-pomegranate-guano). I found the daily newsletter and went to the solo traveler gathering it mentioned. But shortly after that began, the ship began the unmooring process. The ship left White Bay and passed through Darling Harbour. We went under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House. As we approached the ocean, numerous sailboats congregated around the ship. The crew blasted the horn repeatedly. When we had the captain's Q&A a few days later, he said he had never seen such foolish behavior in his entire career. After the harbor pilot disembarked, one of the tugboats did a few doughnuts behind us to say good-bye! Then, we entered the Pacific and sailed south...