P321 - Pacific Pearl from Auckland to Sydney, Day 4

Much calmer seas today, I think they were able to finally put the stabilisers away. We started the day at the Plantation restaurant, but also went out on deck to enjoy a breakfast burger from the grill. We again went to Bingo, twice, and didn't win a thing again. We also enjoyed a comedy game show called Liars where 4 of the staff had to give us a definition of a word, 3 were lying and 1 was telling the truth. Some of the words were 'Crap Mats', 'Titubate' and 'Nelipot'. We learnt they actually were a mountain in Switzerland, to stumble on your speech and someone who doesn't wear shoes, but some of the other explanations were hilarious. In the evening we all met in the Plantation restaurant for tea and were treated to the Pacific Cirque team performing Transformations. 5 different performers performed various acrobatic routines, followed by a laser show. We then tried to get an early night to be awake to come into Sydney Harbour at 5am in the morning.

P321 - Pacific Pearl from Auckland to Sydney, Day 3

I woke this morning with a familiar feeling, the same as what I'd felt the day before. We had been warned by the captain that the swells where going to bigger, around 7 metres. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but the day before it was 3-5 metre swells so it didn't sound too good. As we had made up lost time, the stabilisers were activated and the speed reduced which made the ride a lot more comfortable. I gave the Dwarfs some Maxolon before they got out of bed and took some travel calm. Thankfully this was enough to keep any of us from being sick and apart from not being able to walk in a straight line, we were able to enjoy the day. The Dwarfs went to TC and Skippers birthday party and got to be up on stage as astronauts. Me and Roy tried our hand at Bingo and in 2 of the games managed to get down to one number and we took the Dwarfs down to the shops to buy some souvenirs with their pocket money. In the evening we got all dressed up to go to the Waterfront restaurant for dinner. We got a photo taken of all 11 of us which looked pretty good considering how hard it is to get 7 children to all look at a camera, and it was Hawaiian night so we all got a photo with the Hawaiian 'girls'. I had found on our previous cruise that we got over the food offered rather quickly, most likely due to the fact that we tried it all early on. This time we only had 1 plate for main and 1 for dessert and tried different things each night. This worked and we managed to enjoy something different each meal, I however did not expect R and a few of the Dwarfs to try snails! R eat all of his, C and X were the only others game enough to try them and didn't like the texture. We also enjoyed something we'd never tried before, Mocktails and I discovered my love for Macaroons. I think I must of ate about 8 of them over the 5 days. X discovered a good way to get down stairs faster, use the middle as a slide.

P321 - Pacific Pearl from Auckland to Sydney, Day 2

While packing for this trip, the last thing I packed was the medication. It was so far back on my priority list since last time not one of us needed anything. Well, lucky I did remember cause this time we needed it! I was warned by a work colleague I was crossing one of the roughest seas in the world, the combination of this, needing to make up time due to being late and apparently being located in the worst place at the front of the boat was not a good one. I woke up with a splitting head ache and nausea, as did 4 of the Dwarfs. I took them all out onto deck 12, gave them Maxolon made them take their jumpers off to cool down and laid them on the deck chairs. While it gave them some relief pretty quickly, on and off through out the day they either felt or were sick. Unfortunately we were not alone, quite a number of other passengers and even staff were quite sick as well. Our whole corridor was full of seasick passengers, I felt rather sorry for our cabin steward. In contrast, visiting C down on deck 8, there was absolutely no movement in her cabin, which was likely why her, my mum or sister were not the slightest unwell. So anyone reading this who is new to cruising and looking at going on the Pacific Pearl, room 8136a is a little bit smaller, but as my sister said, what's better a smaller room where you don't get sick or a larger one where you're sick all day? We had breakfast in the plantation restaurant once our stomachs all settled, and the waterfront restaurant for lunch. We slept a lot and really didn't get to go to too many activities. A put himself to bed at about 2pm and didn't move, he was by far the sickest one of us all. It was formal night, me, R, X and C went to the waterfront for tea and C had a photo taken. We headed down to the gym so R could do his daily work out and ensure he didn't end up putting on any weight eating all the yummy cruise food. We all attempted to go and watch the country singer, however we only lasted about 30 minutes before having to leave and put the Dwarfs to bed, hoping we'd have all found our sea legs by the morning.

P321 - Pacific Pearl from Auckland to Sydney, Day 1

We left Melbourne Airport at 6:35pm on Air New Zealand flight NZ126 bound for Auckland. Our flight to Auckland was much nicer than our one to Melbourne, we were all rather impressed with Air New Zealand, each seat had an entertainment unit where you could buy movies to watch or watch TV episodes or play games for free. The seats where comfortable with enough room to be able to relax. The staff where friendly and helpful and the only issue we had with the flight was X waking up suddenly during landing and crying due to I assume sore ears. A couple of the older Dwarfs had the same issue as well despite madly chewing on chewing gum, but as soon as the plane landed at midnight New Zealand time they felt relief. X however was still rather upset about being woken up and cried while trying to exit customs, when we were lucky enough to be taken out a separate exit rather than continue to stand in line. We met my sister, got our hire car and went back to her house to get a few hours sleep. We woke up around 9am and went to Pack and Save to get some last minutes supplies, where I was very impressed with the size of their shopping trolleys! Anyone with a large family will appreciate why this would be exciting, I was having visions of not having to try and push 1 very overflowing trolley or needing more than 1. After this we drove into the city of Auckland and walked down Queens street, looked in a few souvenir shops and the Dwarfs climbed some rather impressive looking trees and collected some large autumn leaves. They were a little disappointed they could not take any home with them. At 1pm we boarded the Pacific Pearl for the 2nd time and settled into deck 10, rooms 10129 & 10125. We were suppose to be on deck 5, however were upgraded to deck 10 shortly after booking. C went off with her Nanna and Aunty to deck 8, room 8136a. All were inside cabins which we found had advantages and disadvantages. They stayed dark and so made sleeping any time of the day easy, but where a little stuffy. We had lunch in the plantation restaurant, went for a walk around the ship and then went out onto deck 12 for the Sail Away party. Unfortunately although it was a lot of fun out by the pool dancing, and R and V managed to win 2 competitions and a free mocktail, it wasn't while we were sailing away. They announced that there was no form of communication while on board due to technical difficulties, so there was no way to contact anyone via phone or internet and all ATMs would not be working. Passengers were given the opportunity to disembark if this was going to be a problem for them, some did and sorting through the luggage took time. At about 8pm we were finally able to leave. We watched the boat leave the and then went and watched a circus show on deck 5. After that we all went to sleep for the night.

Wasting Time. The 7 Hour wait between flights, Melbourne Airport

So we arrived with out too much of a hitch, well if you don't count an on and off screaming toddler during landing who wanted nothing else but to stand on his chair lifting the tray up and down, then the sun visor up and down. We were greeted at the exit gates by my sister and 2 nephews, who the Dwarfs where extremely happy to see again. Sat down to a McDonalds lunch together before trying to figure out ways to keep the Dwarfs entertained. It wasn't easy, although on the whole they handled it rather well. Managed to get through customs pretty easy, although I still do have a sore arm from writing out 9 departure forms. It's times like these I do wonder the wisdom in giving all of my children 2 middle names! Eldest Dwarf is keeping her own record of her holiday in a book she has packed. I may see if she allows me to scan it and add it when we get home.

The Day is here! Waiting to board our flight to Melbourne, Adelaide Airport

Up until midnight getting the house clean and everything packed for 9 people. The excitement of going away equalled very little sleep for us, I'm sure I woke every half an hour and by 4am I couldn't sleep anymore. By 5am everyone was awake, by 6am we were all out the door and by 7am we were at the airport. The Dwarfs are all dressed in thick coats and beanies on this very chilly winter morning in Adelaide. Makes me wonder what it will be like when we get to Auckland later tonight. We got through the check in and security with little issue, although a few of the very excited Dwarfs were told to settled down a bit and sit down. We thankfully were greeted with a play area on the other side of security, which we are hoping will keep them entertained and burn off a bit of energy before getting on the plane shortly.

My little X dwarf looks rather cute :)

Willowbank Wildlife Park, Christchurch, New Zealand

While in Christchurch in 2005 we visited the Willowbank Wildlife Park. The Dwarfs wandered around and got to see and touch many different animals, including the local Kiwi. After this they were treated to a cultural show and the boys and men even got to get up and give the Haka a shot.