Volendam day Five friday 28/10/11

Grey! That sums up the view from the ship. As we got up after a good sleep, even sleeping later than normal, the view out of the windows was grey. Low cloud, rain and very poor visibility. Wellington harbour came in to view, the clouds halfway down the surounding hills and pouring rain. Anyway we decided to go ashore in a leisurly fashion and the rain had eased by the time we got off the shuttle bus. Found a post office and posted some items home as we now know they'd be unwelcome on arrival at Sydney. Had a wander round the museum of Wellington, very welcoming nd informative. Could have spent longer but lunch was getting overdue. Found a reasonable looking cafe for sandwiches and soup which suited us well enough, though the service was a bit slow. Decided to do the cable car trip up the hill as the rain had stopped. Just before the top it began again and we walked round the botanical gardens with umbrellas up. A little too early in the year for any great shows, though a few Azaleas provided som vibrant colour. The rose garden was totally devoid of flowers despite the ship's tour guide Jeremy assuring us there would be some varieties in flower. Not the first time his avice proved dodgy! Long walk mainly downhill and eventually through a cemetery bisected by a motorway. Found the cathedral new St Pauls begun in 1954 where the queen laid a foundation stone, the first of 3 she laid in the building on various later visits. Down the hill a bit further and we came across old St Pauls, a wooden structure dating back well into the 19th century.  Bit more map reading got us to the bus pickup point and back to the ship for a late cup of tea and biscuit. The first day we had managed to complete al the answers to the daily quiz sheet and we forgot to hand it in. Ship doesn't leave 'til midnight as it's not very far to the next stop. No great highlights on the program this evening so we might have to play scrabble or catch up on the archers or something. Dinner does fill in quite a large chunk of the evening though. Tonight we were the first couple on the table and were joined by a couple from Bristol and another from the Philipines. Following dinner we phoned home ok except for a few glitches with the old phones, and sat down listening to the string quartet until the 'crew show' began on stage. Eight of the filipino crew put on a half hour show for us which was well received by the audience - though we probably didn't understand it at all! We need to be up and ready to get off at 8:15 in the morning so alarms set.