Odyssey Auckland to Sydney: The Grass isn't always greener

[Emperor Norton]

I'm hoping that the TK food will be much better than the JP food on Oceania as on land these two chefs are not even in the same league.TK is a world above JP.

Ymmv

 

Mine didn't. On my Oceania cruises the food in Jacques would come out in fits and spurts, was cold and/or covered in grease. I'm sure if Mr. Pepin was around to see the poor quality of food his namesake was turning out he have pulled his name.

[Clarea]

Outstanding photos, very much enjoying this.

[newlondon]

Mr. Luxury, Absolutely agree with you. On land TK comes close to standing alone; and does when only considering traditional food as opposed to experimental or adventuresome cooking such as Noma or (rip) El Bulli, neither of which we visited.

Still, I don't know how JP did it but Imo Oceania is unchallenged at the moment.

[Mr Luxury]

You might be right but we all have good and bad experiences on all lines.

I did get to eat at El Bulli.

Forty three courses and seventy five staff for seventy guests.

What an experience.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Mr Luxury

[Emperor Norton]

Our next port was Dunedin. I opted to take a tour to see the Yellow-eyed Penguins. This tour ended up being a bit controversial for a few reasons. The first was the place we went to knew there was only a single penguin present in the wild. The second was that some people felt the tour difficulty was under-represented (it was a 2, others felt it should be a 3 or 4). At the center itself the staff pained a far less than ideal picture for the penguins future then mentioned it was illegal to put them in zoos - it came across as a case of better to let them go extinct than put them in zoos.

 

Our first stop was the old railroad station.

[Emperor Norton]

This was the currently unused Law Courts building. Damaged in a quake it couldn't be used until repaired and brought up to spec.

[Emperor Norton]

After a brief stop at the station it was off to the Penguin preserve/hospital.

[Emperor Norton]

The one yellow-eyed penguin present on site in the wild. Some people thought it was stuffed or animatronic.

[Emperor Norton]

This was one of the penguins in the hospital.

 

Our next stop was Oban where I had a do nothing day and just stayed on the ship.

The following day wasn't really a port day it was spent in Milford Sound.

[Emperor Norton]

They brought around mimosas, champagne, orange juice, hot chocolate and eventually I think it was Gluhwein

Edited March 23, 2016 by Emperor Norton

[Jay23]

I have been enjoying all your photos, but I think these were about the best.

 

Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into this. J

[Emperor Norton]

[Emperor Norton]

After an exhausting day shooting Milford Sound it was time for dinner and then a foray into uncharted territory - the Observation Lounge.

 

Sadly, my time in the lounge was cut short by a chain smoker. A single person seemed hell bent for leather to smoke as many cigarettes as fast as possible. I can't imagine how bad that lounge is with multiple smokers.

[Emperor Norton]

The next few days were sea days so that meant trivia.

[Jay23]

Such a shame that smokers are absolutely determined to exercise their "right" to smoke in whatever venue. They must be so thick skinned as they must notice that other guests don't stay for long. I would certainly have to leave.

The pianist has no choice. Seabourn really should look at this policy again. J

[DUHCAR]

Great photos and commentary as always. It will be our first big sister next trip in March 2917 too, so it is interesting to read your observations.

[Ka Honu]

I'm a smoker and I still haven't figured out why Seabourn (or any other line) allows smoking in the Observation Lounge. Even if a portion of the lounge is glassed in and ventilated (not the case on Odyssey) it carries over to the rest of an essentially closed space. I understand why they let passengers smoke on their balconies but the Observation Lounge thing still astounds me (although I do not take advantage of the "privilege" in either venue - I'm strictly a "starboard of the Sky Bar" guy).

 

[jenidallas]

Is that Pierre I spy on the piano in the Observation Lounge??!! Love him... will be sad we don't have him on Quest next week.

[Jay23]

I'm a smoker and I still haven't figured out why Seabourn (or any other line) allows smoking in the Observation Lounge. Even if a portion of the lounge is glassed in and ventilated (not the case on Odyssey) it carries over to the rest of an essentially closed space. I understand why they let passengers smoke on their balconies but the Observation Lounge thing still astounds me (although I do not take advantage of the "privilege" in either venue - I'm strictly a "starboard of the Sky Bar" guy).

 

 

Well done Ka Honu, would that everyone thinks as you do. J

[markham]

Hear hear, Ka Honu!

 

Commonsense and thoughtfulness are always a winning combination.

Thank you.

 

Happy sailing!

[Mr Luxury]

I would like to know how you can understand why they let guests smoke on their balconies please.

[Emperor Norton]

I think the idea of a dedicated smoking lounge is great. The problem is on the ships Ive been on that had one (Regent, Silversea, Crystal) all but one line you could smell the smoke everywhere BUT the smoking room (Oh, hello computer center on Voyager!).

[Emperor Norton]

Our next stop was Hobart. This was the stop where we had a wine tasting by imo the worlds most disinterested winery owner and had some out of season oysters. The town itself had an interesting collection of pubs and restaurants - I think doing a food/pub crawl would have been more worthwhile.

 

 

Brick buildings seem to like waterfronts

 

 

 

 

[Emperor Norton]

It's been a long time since I've seen any mention of Kodak.

 

I'm not sure what this was about - did the locals not like tourists?

 

Old steam crane

 

Peekaboo!

 

On the way to the winery we stopped to take in the view

 

Once again the weather was uncooperative

Edited April 5, 2016 by Emperor Norton

[Emperor Norton]

Soon we were greeted by our guide at the oyster farm

 

Unfortunately as it was the warm summer months this was spawning season for the oysters, ergo they were a bit on the milky side and their flesh wasn't quite what you'd expect in the winter.

 

baby oysters

 

 

If you can't see, just stand on the nearby equipment, even if its not built for that. What could possibly go wrong?