Day 21 - January 23, 2025 - Thursday - Sea Day

 This morning we were greeted with an absolutely beautiful pre-dawn.  When I went up for coffee, I continued on to the sun deck to snap a couple of photos.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

This morning at breakfast Predreg, the assistant restaurant manager greeted us and said he would get  grits for us this morning.  I think it has become a joke with the restaurant staff.  At lunch in the World Cafe, it was a Sicilian Pasta Day.  While getting served I saw Antonio (the manager from Italy).  I asked him if grits were being served.  His answer was "NO, NO, NO, grits only at breakfast for you.  Now you have Italian pasta!"

After breakfast, we attended a presentation about the diversity of animal life in New Zealand.  It has more endemic species than any other location on earth.  What was surprising was that there are only two endemic mammal species, both bats.  Birds prevail on New Zealand.

After the program, I went to the sun deck to walk.  I made about 2 miles and even though it was about 82 degrees, with the breeze on deck it was quite pleasant.  The others attended another presentation by Mick, the Brit Marine who paddled across oceans.

After lunch we all relaxed in our own way.  After working on my photographs for a while, I went up deck for another 2 mile walk.  

It was a beautiful day and the pool cover was open to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  The pool was not very crowded, but hardly anywhere on the ship is crowded, except perhaps the dining room at dinner time.

Afterwards we attended another lecture by Patrick Goodness.  This one was titled Cannibal Isles.

Cannibals of the Polynesian Islands

Patrick is my favorite lecturer so far on this cruise.  I am sorry that this is his last lecture.  I spoke with him on the tender ride yesterday and he said he and his wife were leaving in New Zealand.  His lecture on cannibalism was quite informative and gave me some new perspectives on the subject.

Since it has been a fairly quite day, I will share with you a couple of photos of my dinner this evening.

Lamb Chops - Fondant potato, pickled red onion, fava beans, jus

Pistachio Quintessence - pistachio mousse, praline center, sour cream

Unfortunately, I failed to take photos of my other two courses - 

Tuna Ceviche Tostada - lemon-tequila marinated tuna, red pickled onion, crispy corn tostada, habanero mayo & sour cream

Feta Cheese Salad - marinated feta cheese, heirloom cherry tomatoes, crispy red onions, cucumber, lemon vinaigrette.

I enjoyed the meal, you probably didn't enjoy the photos...  All the others at my table had Charcoal grilled Lobster .

I believe I said in yesterday's post that we had 5 sea days to reach New Zealand.  I did not take into account that we cross the International Date Line tomorrow, thus we will totally lose Friday, January 24, 2025.  We go to bed on Thursday, January 23rd and wake up on Friday January 25th.

The International Date Line marks the boundary on the globe between consecutive calendar dates.  This imaginary line extends from the North Pole to the south at approximately 180 degrees longitude.  This line helps everyone keep their calendars aligned.

Members of the International Meridian conference, attended by 26 nations in 1884, knew there had to be a line on the earth where the 24 time zones were "reset."  The International Date Line was invented and drawn on the opposite side of the globe from the prime meridian in Greenwich, England.

Does that mean that if my birthday was on January 24th I would skip a birthday and be a year younger???