Ryan Romps

Today the ship docked in Auckland, New Zealand, We had an excursion booked for today to rappel. My mom was absolutely terrified. We got on the bus and met the two other people from the ship who would be touring with us today. Their names were Michael and Bobby. They were both fun to talk to. Bruce loves to do extreme and fun stuff and his kids and grand-kids are the same way. Michael also enjoys doing extreme tours and is traveling to all of his bucket list places and checking off lots of fun things. Our tour guide, Hovier, took us to the sky tower (the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere). Hovier went to get some people who weren’t on the cruise. While he was getting them we were able to hop out of the van and look around. They have two attractions at the top of the tower. One of them is getting hooked to a railing and walking around a small walkway with nothing to hold onto and the other is jumping off. You jump off, fall, die. Whoo Hoo! Just kidding, you fall and then the ...

Today the ship docked at Tonga. Tonga is the only Island in French Polynesia to be a monarchy. There was no tender today and we had an excursion booked. We met with the other people who were going to be on the excursion and we headed out to the bus. The bus took us to a bay where we checked off what we wanted for lunch and hopped into a two person kayak. We started our journey to another island. It was a fairly calm ride. When we got there one of the guides named Aloni told us that we were able to jump off of a ship wreck. She swam out to the shipwreck and climbed up to the top. I followed her. The ship had broken in half and the hull was sticking out of the water. There was a rope hanging over the side of the ship. It was absolutely terrifying. Once we got up there it seemed a lot higher. She asked me if I wanted to jump first or if she should. I told her she should she said “OK, 1, 2, 3” and jumped with no fear. I figured if she could I could to. I stood up and leaped off. It was...

Today the ship docked in Bora Bora. We had an excursion booked for today and I was totally nervous. We took a tender to shore and boarded a catamaran. The crew was very funny and they played us songs on the Ukulele and Bongos while we floated along. When we were nearing our first stop, we started seeing stingrays in the water. Once we arrived at our first stop we put on our gear and jumped in. The coral was very pretty and the fish were beautiful. We got back on the catamaran then headed to another place which didn’t have any coral. There were several other tour boats in the area. When we got in and looked down there were sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. Sharks weren’t the only things in the water. There were tons of stingrays everywhere. I was terrified. One swam directly under me and I quickly lifted my feet. When I looked back up there were two sharks right next to me so a pushed off of the bottom and swam away from them. Then a stingray bumped into me. It scared the living day...

Today the ship docked in Papeete Tahiti. There was no tender required so we were able to get right off of the ship. From there we wandered over to the tourist center where we asked if there was any chance of getting bikes to ride to the beach. We also said it would be fun to rent a moped if there were no bikes. The people there called some places but there were no bikes at the bike rental place and you needed a special motorcycle license for the moped. They provided directions on how to get to a different bike rental place which didn’t work out because we misunderstood. We thought we would be paying $120 for the bikes when we would really only be paying $12. So we left there and headed to some stands selling souvenirs and pearl jewelry. We didn’t buy anything but we did ask around for the directions to the bus stop. Eventually we got some directions and hopped on the bus. The driver only spoke French but a lot of people on the bus worked together to translate. Eventually we discovere...

Today the ship anchored off the coast of Pitcairn Island. Because the sea is rough and their are no actual ports on the Island, we were unable to go ashore, however, since there are less than 60 people on the Island they weren’t going to miss the chance to sell things to us. About 25 of them climbed into a long boat and rode out to the ship. They then climbed up a ladder with all of their things, set it out on tables, and began selling. All the people on the ship began a frenzy to buy things. It was quite a sight. Our ships crew giving supply's to the Islanders We had gone to some lectures about the Island and learned that they have very good honey. It is said that they have the best honey in the world due to having the only bees in the world with no disease. We thought it would be fun to try some of this honey, but by the time that we got to the honey selling table they were all out. We were disappointed but then my mom had an idea. She thought we could give o...

Today the ship anchored near Easter Island. There was a long wait list for tender rides. Our tickets were for tender number 12. Due to the rough sea they were only able to get to tender ticket fifteen. They usually are able to get everybody to the port. I am extremely glad that I got to go because very few tourists ever get to go to the island. When we got called we made our way to the tender and saw our friends Frank and Philomena. We had plans to get a cab with them and see the Island together. After the tender delivered us safely to shore we got a driver who spoke only Spanish named Niu (New). He was saying something about a ticket but we weren’t sure what so we just started our journey. Frank and Philomena tried to talk to him using a small notecard with a few Spanish phrases but were mostly unsuccessful. When we got to our first stop we figured out what Niu was talking about when he said tickets. We had to go all the way back to the port to get tickets for the National Park. Then ...