Wow, The World will be in Wellington harbour tomorrow for the first time since 2006 and for the first time since I had the privilege of going on board and contributing to the renovation of one of the penthouse suites. This ship is incredible and the services and facilities on board are no different to those in a luxury resort. The crew is first class and their attention to detail and their manner is second to none. Victoria Fairfax Interiors refurbished a 4 bedroom suite in 2008. We employed professional ship builders to stay on board and perform the fitout which included fabricated walling, new carpets and re-wiring. As the ship doesn’t stop for more than 4 days anywhere we did our site survey in Greenwich, sent our carpet to meet the ship in Egypt, had an intermediate site visit in Aqaba, Jordan, sent the walling fabric to a port in the south of Turkey and we met up with the ship again for the final set up and dressing in Istanbul. It was truly an international affair and the logistics of the operation were (in hindsight) quite scary with only the smallest window of time for our carpet and fabrics to clear (not known to be reliable and certainly not English speaking) customs and delivered to the ship. I’m reminded of our exporter telling us to ‘go light’ on the description and value of the contents of the lorry that went cross country from London to Istanbul filled to the brim with furniture, art, lighting and accessories, as some of the countries that it would pass through were known for bandits. Gosh, I don’t know if I’ll have that much adventure in a set up again!
I feel so lucky to have been involved in something so exotic and wonderful and in contributing to The World I was able to see parts of the world that I would never have imagined such as Petra and the Dead Sea. Wonderful memories!
