The International Date Line (IDL) runs from the North Pole to the South Pole and travels through the Pacific Ocean following a longitude of roughly 180⁰. Marking the change in a calendar day it ultimately causes a lot of confusion for travelers like us who are crossing the Pacific Ocean from West to East, and will eventually gain a whole extra day upon crossing this imaginary line. For those of us on board who enjoy celebrating Halloween, our IDL crossing couldn’t have come at a better time.
October 31, 2015 was a day we were all going to experience twice. Today was our first experience and it started out well with calm rolling seas accompanying us on our journey from Tonga towards the single island nation of Niue. As with any day at sea on board the National Geographic Orion there is the opportunity to do as much or as little as you like. An array of presentations were scheduled throughout the day and Ian Markham kicked off the morning with an interesting talk about symbiosis on the reef and how the ever increasing threats of modern day life are affecting these intricate and delicate relationships. It was a fascinating insight into the smaller scale ecosystems found on our coral reefs.
Indeed all the presentations today gave us new insights and ideas to mull over. Our Global Perspectives Guest Speaker Tim Severin entertained us with adventurous stories of the Sinbad Voyage he undertook in 1981. Hearing about his lack of food and water while travelling from the Middle East to the Far East with pirate threats to boot and the challenges of sailing and navigating only using traditions means, he made us ever more appreciative of our luxurious surroundings on board the Orion.
Our luxurious surroundings were replaced by some spookier décor today though. A number of intricately carved pumpkins were on display – the crew had been busy creating their masterpieces over the past few days and the results were impressive and extremely imaginative. Some were certainly more sinister than others!
Our Halloween-themed day continued with our lovely young guest Charlotte partaking in National Geographic Orion’s very own Trick or Treating. Having listened to more informative talks from our photo guides Jack and Rikki Swenson and from our cultural specialist Alex Searle throughout the afternoon, by 6pm it was time to get dressed up and enjoy the Halloween spirit. As Charlotte made her way around some of the spookier cabins on the ship, many of us were preparing out own outfits and by recap time we had an array of new guests on board including monsters, mimes, birds of paradise, witches and our very own Wolverine!
Following recap we all headed out onto the back deck to enjoy a Halloween Barbeque courtesy of the ever-wonderful hotel staff. Digging into our roasted pumpkin we enjoyed the balmy evening as we sailed onwards to Niue.
