The cabin is spacious for a single berth. The bed that is somewhere between a single and double, and will take a pillow lengthways plus one sideways. It is very firm though so I use the second pillow to support my lower back, as the bed does not have any give, and it means my bum is just too big!! It has orange tartan curtains that enclose it, but I’m not entirely sure why, as I’m the only one in here. Maybe I will want to pretend I’m not in this room by the time I get off?

Every surface has either a rail or a raised lip edge, and furniture is bolted in place. I think the only thing that can move is the chair. The chair has wheels but is heavy and takes some effort to make it move. Despite this, there is a bungy cord hanging from the desk, with loops either side of it to hold it in place during swells.

This makes me somewhat nervous about leaving anything out. But there are plenty of drawers and cupboards – all with kiddy locks that require you to lift and then pull, so they cannot just slide out. I am ritualistic about putting things in drawers after use, and the cabin still looks like I haven’t moved in.

This morning I have discovered there is a little lever in the air con fixture with a red stripe and a blue stripe. I have moved it from the hottest setting to the coldest setting and the room is quickly more comfortable. It is a huge relief and means I am no longer contemplating opening the window I signed an agreement not to.

There is a 4 plug multiboard above the desk for German 2 prong plugs. Luckily I had thought to ask in advance what type of plug it would be, as this was never mentioned. I have a travel adaptor with me so that I can still charge my camera and laptop etc. I had also read advice to pack a multiboard of your own so you can use more than one appliance at a time without multiple converters, but unfortunately while I checked I could plug in NZ plugs into the adapter, I hadn’t noticed that it doesn’t have space for an earth. Both my laptop and the multiboard have 3 prongs rather than 2, which means they are unusable. After a large degree of stress where I thought there would be no music, movies, or uploading of photos, I discovered I can take apart my apple power pack and plug my camera adapter into it, which only has 2 prongs. It was a big relief, and when we dock in Port Chalmers I will look for a multiboard with 2 prongs so that the last 5 days don’t require careful planning about what to charge at any given time.

The bathroom is on a slope, to ensure the water drains away. The shower has a knob where you can select the temperature by degrees celsius (which I love), and you turn the tap on for as much pressure as you like. This goes quite high, but the wall fixture is at just the wrong level, so if I turn it up too much it sprays directly in my face, or over my head on the wall.