Cruising the Pacific Islands

I've been cruising! 15 nights on board the P&O Pacific Pearl sailing out of Auckland and making our way around the Pacific Islands. We stopped at three ports in Fiji, two in Tonga and one in the Cook Islands before a long journey home. The opportunity to go on a mid-winter girls' cruise to the tropics seemed beyond my circumstances when it first arose. I'm sooooo glad my friends were persistent and pushed me into joining them.

There are so many stereotypes about cruising (and cruisers) that it's hard to know where to begin. Many of them are spot on while others are gross exaggerations but still make a good story. They say that cruising can become addictive and I can see why. There's so much to do, or so little if that's what you prefer. Cruising isn't for everyone; two of us sailed without our long term partners, something the crew thought was very funny, especially when we celebrated a friend's significant wedding anniversary on board while her husband was back at home.

I've only been home a day or two but have already been asked so many questions. What was the best part? Where was your favourite port stop? Did you go shopping? What didn't you like? Was it full of old people? And what about the food? (There was soooo much fooood. That will be a post on its own.) I'll do my best to answer them in the next wee while and bring you along on my journey.

So, join me virtually on my Pacific Island cruise. I'll add posts to this cruise tag during the next couple of weeks. I wrote some posts on board the ship and a few more after returning home. I'll apologise in advance if I bore you silly with tales from my first ever cruise, but I'm doing my best to hang onto the holiday glow before it fades along with my teeny tiny tan.