We have had a busy day today. We had an excursion booked and were to meet in the show room around 7:00 am. This was a tender port but we were on the first tender over. We had to be speedy today so we could once again have good seats on the bus. We were anchored in Akaroa. After the earthquake in Christchurch, this is where they had to start coming. They said that they are slowly getting the facilities for the cruise ships back in operation and can now handle the small ships but the larger ships have to go to Akaroa.
Our tour today was a train ride. I guess I didn't read the description closely enough to see what a long day it was going to be. It did say it was a 9 hour tour but I didn't realize that 7 of those hours were going to be on a bus. The bus left port around 8:00 am and we drove 2 hours to a little town called Springfield. They served us a snack there. It looked like maybe we stopped at the community center and there was a family serving us. They had instant coffee and tea. They also served us biscuits with butter and jam which would have been delicious if they had been hot or even lukewarm. They were hard enough to use as a baseball but I was starving so I ate the biscuit but passed up the butter and jam. We were only there about 30 minutes.
I felt sure that we were near the train station. However, we drove another 2 hours or so. We got to the train station for a restroom break and then he drove us to the top of this mountain for a lookout point. I was sure the bus was going over the edge. I had never been so uneasy before. You should have seen the people that were at the lookout point staring at us. They were probably afraid we were going to take their cars out. In fact as soon as he got the bus parked I think all the cars that had been there left. We were there about 15 minutes and it was a beautiful view and then we loaded back on the bus to go back to the train station to board it. We had to walk through an underground tunnel and up a hill to get to it. I was exhausted by the time I got there. Of course we had to walk fast to try and get a good seat on the train. There was another bus of people on board. We did find this little table for 4 that we homesteaded. I sat on one side and Krista sat on the other side. Nobody dared to join us. There really wasn't room for 4 people. It would have been very uncomfortable.
We were to be served lunch on board. As soon as we left the station they started bringing out the lunches. I was about to have a fit. The box lunches that they were bringing out only had fruit in them. I thought surely we were getting more than a bunch of fruit. We finally figured out that maybe that was the vegetarian option because she asked us if we wanted the regular lunch and we said that we did. It had a sandwich, cheese block, 2 crackers, grapes and a chocolate mint. For our drink we had a choice of bubbly, orange juice, or water. After we finished eating they came through and served instant tea and instant coffee. I know it was instant because I sat and watched her open all the packets. However my coffee was good.
About mid way through they had a stop where we could get off the train for about 10 minutes. We just stayed on board so we didn't run the risk of being left behind. In about another hour we met up with our bus again. We were on the train for 2 1/2 hours. We then had to ride 1 1/2 hours back to port.
We did see lots of pretty scenery and countryside. A lot of what we saw today were crops planted. We saw white clover and carrots planted and they said they had planted these crops for seeds. They also grow lots of potatoes here for McDonalds. Once again we saw lots of orchards of apricot trees, cherry trees, etc. At one point we passed by a small town and they said that they had just opened up a powdered milk factory. Someone asked what their main industry was there and they said they were mainly agricultural.
Our bus driver also drove us through part of Christchurch and we saw a lot of the destruction. When asked what the timeline was to rebuild everything, he said 20 years. There are still buildings standing that are scheduled for demolition, others that they have already started rebuilding and a lot of vacant lots.
We got back a little after 5:00 pm and then had to wait for a tender so we could return to the ship. It was about 5:40 pm before we got on board and we were once again late for dinner. We rushed back to the room to change clothes and made it to the dining room around 5:50 pm. We weren't the only ones late. At the end of dinner they had a parade of the Christmas Yule Log desserts. We had already eaten our dessert so as soon as the parade was over we left and were still able to make it to the 7:00 pm show.
The entertainment tonight was an Australian guitar player -- Bob Howe. He was very entertaining. He was named Australia's Instrumental Performer of the Year.
There is a lot going on tonight. At 11:00 pm there will be "The Sounds of Christmas Concert" which is Holland America Crew members Christmas Choir and we are planning on going to hear them. At midnight there will be a Interdenominational Church Service. Looks like we will be up late tonight and tomorrow will be an early morning as well because it will be Christmas and there is going to be a very special guest joining us on the ship!
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