Day 26- 10/28/22 At sea to Alotau, Papua New Guinea - Day 1

 And the sea days just keep coming at us.  We're now on the first of two sea days in order to reach Alotau, Papua New Guinea (PNG).  While we have been to PNG previously, the ports that we are visiting this time are completely different.  Our day started out with Rachael's coffee chat with John & Morag Hocknull.  They had all sorts of keen observations about PNG.  Neil, the shore excursions manager gave his presentation on the Main Stage concerning the upcoming Australian ports of call with specific emphasis on declaring all wooden items and having clean items and clothing.  John then presented an account of what it was like to be a District Officer in PNG as they prepared the country for transition to becoming an independent nation.  


After lunch at 1pm, Racheal gave one of her port talks on Alotau and the Conflict Islands.  She was followed by Dr. Jack Hardy who spoke on his years of exploring the underwater world.  I spent much of the rest of the afternoon reviewing and selecting turtle pictures from my GoPro camera.  It's time consuming to watch the videos that I shoot frame by frame and select the ones I think are the best.  Then I post process them with the iPhone photos APP and the Camera+ APP.  I ended up with some really good photos which I posted to Facebook and my thread on Cruise Critic.  I received a lot of positive comments about the photos.


We booked a free dinner in the Pinnacle grill and enjoyed it except the meat was a bit salty and one has to now pay for an additional appetizer.  Afterwards we enjoyed seeing BBC's Blue Planet II in Concert on the Main Stage.  While we've seen it before, the photography is so good that it was worth seeing again.  After that film we watched A Walk in the Woods starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.  It's about two old friends that decide to walk the Appalachian Trail in order to search for meaning in life.  We rather enjoyed it.  Emma Thompson was also in the movie.


Tomorrow is another sea day and it's pretty full with activities including a special dinner.


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