What I Wonder Wednesday – In Defence of Cattle Class

There’s a new commercial featuring Jennifer Aniston where she has a ‘nightmare’ – that she is travelling on an American airline in ‘cattle class’, and doesn’t get the service that she’s used to on an Emirates aircraft. It’s an amusing ad .. but I have to say, the comments it has generated are both predictable…

Cruise Ships vs Ocean Liners

I mentioned recently that I’d done a cruise on the Sun Princess as an ‘Enrichment Speaker’ – someone who delivers educational and (hopefully) entertaining lectures on a variety of subjects. I’m often asked what my lectures were on … so here’s a part of one: Cruise Ships Past, Present and Future. The idea of ships…

Akaroa – a New Zealand gem

Dolphins with droopy dorsal fins;  earthquake-damage apologies; French street signs; frigid teal waters;  rose gardens; mosaic galleries – we’re talking about Akaroa, on New Zealand’s South Island. The town is on the Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the country, and it’s where the cruise ships come in to visit Christchurch, around 80km away. Akaroa’s…

Snorkeling at Lifou

Normally with my Sunday features, I try to conjure up something meaningful – taking a slice-of-life and extrapolating that into something more. But this week, I’m going to keep it simple. Go to Lifou. Take a snorkel and flippers. And enjoy. It’s really that simple! I saw a discussion on Facebook this week which related…

Eating on a cruise ship.

This post is a day late, because we’ve only just got back from a cruise though the South Pacific on the Sun Princess, and the internet coverage on the ship didn’t lend itself to blog posting 🙂 But as always, we had a blast. And part of the fun was the huge range of eating options.…

Henges you can handle …

If you’ve ever wanted to go to Stonehenge in England, you may be disappointed to find that for most of the year, you can’t get anywhere near it. Oh, I am not talking about crowds of tourists getting in the way – I’m talking about physical barriers around the stones, to prevent damage to the…