How it all began

 

One day in early 2019 Paul was idly flicking through the Radio Times and came across an advert by a cruise company, Cruise & Maritime, offering a cruise from Tilbury to Auckland.  We would not normally consider cruising as it really isn't our sort of thing.  

We have always wanted to visit New Zealand but the thought of such a long flight fills us with dread.  Travelling by sea, particularly as it was heading west through the Panama Canal and French Polynesia, sounded enticing and would give a sense of the distance travelled and the bonus of no jet lag.  We then considered travelling back through Asia, using as much surface transport as possible.  This way we would appreciate the real distances between countries and continents.

At first, this was just a fantasy prompted by the chance sighting of the advert.  But the more we thought about it, the more appealing it became.  The big problem was what would we do about work.  From Sue's perspective, a discussion needed to be had around the possibility of taking a four month sabbatical.  If this proved possible, and the cruise company had the same cruise in October 2020, this would be our preferred departure.  Having gained agreement from a very understanding and supportive manager, we then had to wait for Cruise & Maritime to publish their 2020 brochure and offer this sailing.  However, in the meantime Cruise & Maritime went into liquidation.  Back to the drawing board!

Part of the attraction was that it was a small ship so we started looking at similar alternatives.  Fred Olsen was offering a sailing from Dover to Auckland which we booked for October 2020.

Our plans were scuppered by the arrival of Covid 19 which, at first, we thought would be resolved before our sailing date.  No such luck.  In the summer of 2020 we received notification that the cruise was cancelled.  Back to the drawing board!

During those early months of Covid 19 all cruises came to a halt.  Still thinking that this would be a nice idea to travel by sea, Sue looked at other options for 2021, as we assumed that Covid 19 would be done and dusted by then.  There was a sailing with Holland America from San  Diego to Sydney in October 2021.  Not perfect, but we could fly the Atlantic, see New England in the Fall before heading west by train.

We decided to enlist the help of a cruise consultant.  Brandon from Cruise Web was helpful and knowledgeable and the cruise was booked.  Once again our plans were scuppered by Holland America cancelling the sailing.  Back to the drawing board!

Brandon looked at various options as he knew what we wanted to do, and the best option was with Celebrity Cruises sailing from Sydney to Vancouver via French Polynesia and Hawaii, departing Sydney in April 2022.  Covid 19 would surely not still be a problem by then.  No such luck.  It was decided to postpone the departure with the same cruise for the following year (April 2023).

To get from the UK to Sydney mainly by surface transport, the Trans Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing was the perfect solution.  But this time it was Mr Putin who scuppered our plans.  Back to the drawing board!

During this time, Sue renegotiated her sabbatical from four months to six months and has finally ended up as nine months.  

In the aftermath of Covid 19 and the war in Ukraine, air travel was going to have to play a bigger part in our plans, so it's not the trip that we had originally hoped for.