These things occurred on Friday March 7, 2025 to Thursday March 13, 2025 in transit from Fiordland, New Zealand (Cruise) to Sydney, Australia
Toward the end of the first week of our cruise, I was starting to feel off. My stomach was still unsettled from our last day in India, I wasn’t sleeping well, and fatigue was beginning to settle in. I had noticed that more and more people were wearing masks on the boat and praying whatever virus was going around would pass quickly (and hopefully over us). No such luck. By the end of the week, Shai had come down with a fever and Chaim was beginning to feel unwell from too many late nights and very early mornings to make his work hours. Because we had two cabins, I stayed with Shai in the “sick” room and Chaim moved into the other cabin with the rest of the boys since he needed his rest to keep up with his work hours.
Thankfully, Friday and Shabbat were at sea days. We figured this would be a great opportunity to rest and reset. Unfortunately, the seas were rolling on Friday so I spent the day running room service for Shai in between sitting outside trying to calm my nauseated stomach and hoping no one else would catch whatever Shai had. A short-lived hope. By the time we sat down for Shabbat dinner, my head was clogged, my body was full of shivers and shakes, and my eyes were quickly closing. I lasted twenty minutes before I rushed back to our cabin to get ready for bed. I put on every single warm piece of clothing I had (not many!) and fell into bed. Clearly feverish, I passed out. I spent the night going in and out of shivering and sweating accompanied by a bad headache. True to parenting, I spent the night helping Shai manage his own fever symptoms and barely slept.
Shabbat morning, Shai was feeling better. I was not. Chaim spent the day with the boys while I stayed in bed moving between sleeping, playing solitaire, and reading. While out with Chaim the boys discovered an upcoming karaoke night and begged Chaim to take them. He loves karaoke and was eager to share the experience with the boys. They spent the rest of the day practicing for the next karaoke night in the other cabin. Listening to them singing their hearts out made my day so much better. By Sunday, I was fever free and mostly feeling better, except for a cough that I had developed with some soreness from a lack of movement and no fresh air.
We docked in Hobart, Tasmania and I was excited to be out of the cabin and off the ship. I craved fresh air. The boys were looking forward to visiting the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary where we would be able to see Tasmanian Devils.
We had been traveling through New Zealand up until this point. Tasmania is part of Australia, which meant before we could board our tour bus, everyone had to pass through customs. It should have been a seamless operation. However, guest services gave us the wrong forms to complete, which meant we had to complete new forms at the customs agent desk. One wrong form takes a matter of minutes. Six wrong forms take much longer. I’m certain we held up our bus and the reason our tour group ended up with only forty-five minutes at the sanctuary. It wasn’t nearly long enough.
When we arrived at the sanctuary, we could see tens of kangaroos hopping around and hanging out freely among the grounds. Food boxes were scattered around so that visitors could feed the kangaroos. The boys were ecstatic. They loved feeding and petting kangaroos and could have stayed with them all day. That is, until we saw the Tasmanian Devils.
Tasmanian Devils are the size of a small dog or big cat, and they are cute! Their eyesight is terrible, which can lead them to bump into stationary objects. The ones we saw at the sanctuary were suffering from cancer. According to the wildlife ranger at the exhibit, Tasmanian Devils in the area are at risk of extinction due to a widespread genetic cancer that they all seem to be developing. Researchers are supposedly very close to developing a cancer vaccine for the Tasmanian Devil population to try and save the species from extinction.
From the sanctuary we were bussed to Old Richmond, a Georgian city, where we spent forty-five minutes enjoying ice cream and playing chess on a giant outdoor chess board. Back in Hobart we walked to the center of the city to find food to eat. We passed a Target. Amichai was so excited because it reminded him of America. He begged to go inside because it reminded him of home. He didn’t even need to buy anything. Then we walked through an arcade – the mall kind, not the video kind. We found a funny store called TYPO that had hilarious items like a pencil with toilets and poop, punching robots, and so much more.
By early afternoon, Chaim was feeling worse and Matanel and Shai wanted to hang out in the youth lounge. They walked back to the ship while Amichai, Eitan, and I stayed out to visit the maritime museum. (After being cooped up in our cabin for so long, I had no interest in being back on the ship any time soon.) The museum is small but does a good job of sharing the maritime history of Hobart. To make it interesting for kids, they created a lowkey scavenger hunt by scattering lego people and some small animal dolls around the exhibit for the kids to find. Midway through, Eitan got a headache and was done. Oh no! This was a bad sign.
Halfway back to the ship we noticed a one-man kayak and a small posterboard set up along the promenade. A man in a kayaking uniform standing next to it. We stopped to inquire what it was all about and ended up talking to Richard Barnes, the first and only person to kayak solo unassisted from Tasmania to New Zealand. He spent sixty-seven days on the water by himself! It was a neat opportunity for the boys to meet someone who has a Guiness Book of World Record, hear what it’s like to have a goal and the courage and persistence it takes to get there when things like the weather can delay or cancel plans. He let them explore his kayak and explained how he slept and ate throughout his journey. They were impressed.
Back on the ship, Eitan’s headache turned into a fever. Shai and I moved into the “healthy” cabin so that Chaim and Eitan could move into the “sick” cabin. It was a coughing musical in both rooms all night long.
The next day was an “At Sea” day, we had planned to have everyone sleep in. Instead, everyone was up by 8:30AM. Eitan was already watching a movie because he couldn’t sleep. Chaim and Eitan stayed in bed all day. The rest of the boys played in the youth lounge for most of the day while I caught up on writing. My cough wasn’t going away and my head still felt like it was going to burst each time I coughed.
That evening, I tried looking for something to alleviate our symptoms in the ship’s store, but there were no good meds available. Instead, I ended up talking to the clerks who were from India. One asked if I was Jewish when he found out we had been to Israel. More so now than before in my lifetime, this is a loaded question. I am always wary of people who ask my religion, especially in the aftermath of October 7. I said yes, to which he told me he loves Israel, loves the Jews, admires our ability to “live in ‘that’ neighborhood”, and that Jews are some of the nicest people he’s met. It was one of the nicest responses I had ever received. That conversation reminded me that though we, the Jewish community, often feel alone, there are people who not only don’t hate us, they appreciate us.
By this time, half the cruise passengers were wearing masks and were coughing. We even saw someone being helped off the ship with an oxygen tank on our Hobart port day. I had now been running food service to our cabin multiple times a day while keeping track of the “healthy” boys. It would not have been such an arduous task if I had been fully recovered. Instead, whatever the virus was, I had been knocked out. I couldn’t even climb a few stairs without getting winded and my cough was not helping. Amichai and Matanel, our last men standing, succumbed to whatever was going around on the ship. At this point, the idea of having “sick” and “healthy” cabins for our family was laughable, but we kept up the charade because it lent us some sense of control. The boys spent their days watching movies and begging to be let into the youth lounge.
Our last port day was in Melbourne. We were supposed to go on a chocolate tour, but we obviously skipped it. Everyone put on masks and we disembarked to walk to the beach. Fresh air was desperately needed. It was hot and I seemed to be the only one who had been fever free for days and could function. I walked to a store and bought cough drops of all varieties, Vick’s Vapo Rub, guaifenesin, Gatorade and Powerade. The boys were especially excited about those last two purchases. About an hour later, Chaim and the boys went back to the ship to sleep and watch movies. I was not ready to be cooped up again.
I toured Melbourne on my own for about two hours using a tram card a random passerby handed me on her way back to the ship. I found Melbourne architecturally fascinating. It was hard to walk without stopping every few minutes to look up and around. I would love to return again with more time to explore. One big lesson from this cruise is that it is best not to book excursions when docking in a big city with so much to do and great public transportation or walkable.
That night everyone was disappointed because it was supposed to be the big karaoke night. Sadly, Chaim and the boys were still sick, and no one was able to go. We all agreed that we would have to do karaoke in Japan where it’s all the rage.
The next day was a sea day, which meant I was a full-time food service operator. I took a short break to enjoy a ship activity just to claim some much needed “me” time. When I got back, Matanel looked terrible. His fever was spiking more than anyone else’s had, his cough was dry, and he was wheezing even after taking a double dose of his inhaler. I had no idea that we could just walk to the Medical Bay so I dialed 911 for medical support. They sent someone with a wheelchair to personally escort Matanel and me to Med Bay. Oops. I felt badly about that. I could have carried him. But, Matanel was so excited because he got to use a wheelchair! (It’s the small things in life…)
We met a very nice doctor from South Africa, but the whole process took forever because Med Bay was swamped with patients. After a quick test, Matanel came back positive for Flu A, which I assumed is what we had all been dealing with. However, the doctor said there were multiple viruses going around simultaneously. Lovely. We got our prescription and medicine, and then went back to our cabin. Later, we received a note letting us know that Matanel was officially in isolation until 24 hours after his fever broke. Luckily, the next day was disembarkation day. We had no problem staying in our stateroom until we disembarked the next day.
The healthy part of our cruise was magical, joyful, and exhilarating. After eight days of dealing with fever and exhaustion whack-a-mole, I was eager for land. Grateful we would be in a home with windows, fresh air, and the ability to get out and walk around whenever we needed or wanted.
