And so here we are again, on the most beautiful ship in the world, joining a passenger list of some 1900 other excited passengers here to enjoy the amazing privilege of discovering the world by ship.
Travelling down the coast of New Zealand, we sailed through a calm blue ocean, a portent to those long sea days expected ahead of us, but first we will dock in Lyttelton, the port for Christchurch.
After the devastation of the 2011 earthquake, the city of Christchurch has slowly begun to awaken and while the destroyed buildings are still being cleared, some interesting new architecture is growing up out of the numerous carparks that have since proliferated on the streets.
Once berthed, the first stop for us off the ship's shuttle was the Memorial Wall. A beautiful white Carrera marble structure that runs alongside the Avon River that flows through the city.
The calm, elegant structure reflects the echoing tranquillity of the lazy brook, belying the tragic story written on it of that fateful day in February 2011, but my main aim today was to see the 9/11 memorial.
A number of years ago, the Firefighters of New York had sent to Christchurch five girders that had been recovered from Ground Zero as a tribute to the First Responders who lost their lives that day. It is also a tribute to others everywhere who put their own lives at risk on our behalf.
I had seen the original elegant but fated World Trade Towers standing and this was to be a poignant visit – to see actual girders from the 102nd floor that had fallen the length of the building in a explosive force that pierced through the ground and into the subway below.
We meandered along the river looking at the wonderful sculpture everywhere, avoiding the constant trams running along the tracks and admiring the new buildings and diggers still clearing rubble, until we found a quiet part of the river at the beginning of the Firefighters Reserve and where, on the banks, stood the memorial.
Steel contorted, buckled and gnarled, the once flat iron twisted back onto itself in a grotesque curve, its rivets completely melded into the framework.
A poignant reminder that stands here in a city that also suffered an incredible force beyond its control.
The next stop on our wander was the Cardboard Cathedral. Originally a structure built to temporarily replace the beautiful bluestone Anglican Cathedral devastated by its tower collapsing in a dramatic fashion onto the square below – scattering tourists and locals as it fell.
The original Cathedral’s fate had been in doubt for many years and some feared for its future, thus the new transitional building being erected. Fortunately, the parish and Government have seen fit to restore the bluestone structure.
However, the replacement Cardboard Cathedral or 'transitional Cathedral' has since become so popular that a new purpose is being sought rather than it be demolished once the Anglican Cathedral is restored.
After walking around the square where the original Cathedral had ruled, we left her sad ruin and walked back through the new food market towards the shuttle bus back to Lyttelton.
The small port town of Lyttelton is perched on a hill, its houses, clinging tenaciously to its slopes, look as though they could slip down at any moment.
While they look fragile, only a few were so badly damaged that they became uninhabitable during the earthquake and most seem to have been repaired with only a few showing the scars.
One of the big victims, however, was the historic Time Ball Station which drops its ball each day at one o'clock in time with GMT.
The old stone tower was left a dusty and rubbled heap with its ball damaged, but was recently rebuilt and stands proudly once again above the town pronouncing its presence to all that enter the harbour.
Christchurch proved a great day, and is a great city experiencing its rebirth, but its time to leave the comfort of NZ behind us for the world is calling. (ROSS THORBY)
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Published: March 2024