New Zealand

Hello everyone,

I have had a GREAT time in New Zealand…what a wonderful place.  I never thought of ever visiting New Zealand but what a great place…I highly recommend it!!! Here is what happened for the first part of this cruise:

Sunday, February 13th once again…we spent it At Sea….I am starting to think that I'm becoming a pro at this whole…at sea thing. Once again, had the normal duties that we have on the sea days…trying to find things to do, so that I'm not bored out of my mind. One of the guests asked me if I knew how to play Chess and I didn't know how but thought, why not learn something new. Come to find out that its actually a very interesting game and makes your really think about each and every move that you make. I guess that I got pretty good at it because our fourth game that we played…I won…YEAH!!! At least I have found something new now that will pass the time on the boring sea days.

Monday, February 14th we were in Wellington, New Zealand. I felt bad for Lesley because she was on IPM and couldn't get off the ship. Also, it was Valentines Day and I wasn't going to be the third wheel with all the other couples in the cast…so I headed out into Wellington alone (missing those back home in the states that I love very very much). Took the shuttle bus into town and enjoyed just walking around….getting lost in the city. First, I walked into the towns shopping center that is right in the middle of the busy downtown area. I walked into the shops and made my way to a Borders books and browsed. After a little while I became hungry so I started to look for a place to eat. I found a Subway and I thought…why not have a healthy lunch, my stomach had been acting up and I thought that it would be good for me to eat there. Again, I was a little questionable withe Ranch sauce that they put on my sandwich but it was TONS better than the sandwich in Barcelona…gosh. After my very nice lunch, I decided to just get lost in the city…to walk around and just roam the city. Its a great feeling to just walk among the people of the city…seeing them work, enjoying a coffee at the cafe in the city, seeing kids play on the playground…all of this surrounding me, while I'm halfway around the world from my home. Its cool just to be 'there'….to experience that part of life (probably doesn't make sense, but it makes sense to me…haha). Instead of worry about all the problems in the world, the crap that we have / or think that we have to face in our lives…the busy busy busy schedule that we MUST lead….sometimes people forget to slow down…take a deep breath and take a look around you…to enjoy…LIFE. Well, while getting lost in Wellington and enjoying life…it started to rain…I loved that…haha. I rain into the closest place that was next to me and you guessed it….McDonalds…(truly taking over the world). This McDonalds actually had some free wifi, so I was in luck. I got a chance to talk to some friends and also my lovely Mom…what a great Valentines Day present. After a while, I decided to get up and get some Hot Chocolate…so I walked around the corner to a little cafe that I spotted on my adventure in the city. I had a great cup of hot chocolate while I watched the people walk around the city. By the time I was done with my hot chocolate…it was time to get the shuttle bus back to the ship…what a wonderful day that I had to myself in beautiful Wellington, New Zealand.

Tuesday, February 15th we were in Lyttleton (the port city for Christchurch) New Zealand. Unfortunately, I was on IPM this day and couldn't get off the ship. No one came to my duties…so I had a lovely day of just relaxing on the ship. Had a wonderful lunch up on the pool deck and I just enjoyed the pretty, sunny weather. The mountain line that surrounded this port was just breathtaking….very very beautiful. Once it was time for us to pull away from the dock…the whole gang came back and said that they were going to play some games up on the crew deck (apparently, they had a REALLY good time off the ship…haha). We went to steal a board game from the card room on deck 9 (another James Bond mission completed by yours truly) and we played the game 'Sorry' up on the top deck.  Do you remember that game? I use to love playing that game when I was younger so it was fun to relive that part of my childhood…in the middle of the sea…haha. After a little bit of time…the ship was out in the middle of the sea…surrounded by mountains on both sides…just stunning. Also, we had a whole group of Dolphins following the ship….as we headed out into the deep sea…with a wonderful sunset behind us…what a great sail away. 

Wednesday, February 16th we were in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) New Zealand. Again, I ventured out into the city alone…Lesley wasn't feel very good so I was trying to find some free wifi to Skype with my madre…haha. Once we made the 20 min. bus ride into the city…I thought that it was best that I find something to eat…so I walked down the long road with all these shops and restaurants. This place reminded me of a bigger, more populated Key West…it was nice. I made my way to a mall (I don't know why I have the skill of finding the malls…but I do apparently) and found the food court. For some reason for a while, I had a craving for Burger King (don't ask) and luckily this place had one. After my very healthy and nutritious meal, I made my way up to the street level again…on my mission to find some free wifi. To my shock (haha) there was a McDonalds on the road and I remembered my other day with the free wifi in there…and luckily they had some. I set up my computer and was reading e-mails and such…nothing to important. Once it was time to start my Skype time with my mom…I come to find out that this wifi wasn't strong enough to do Skype…GREAT. So I rushed out of McDonalds (thanks for nothing) and made my way up the street to a place that I thought would have internet. Walked into the place and said, "Do you have any wifi?" A Japanese woman said, "Yes, sit down at a computer" "No, no…do you have WIFI..for a laptop?" "No, you have to go to the other store down the street….go there…go there quick". Ummmmm….confuse me? First off….why do you have a separate place in town for a laptop wifi place, compared to your quite large computer shop that I'm standing in. Second, why must I go there quick? Do you know something that I don't? Should I be nervous? ANYWAY…I remembered that I saw another place when I was walking down the street earlier, so I thought that I would try my luck there. I have NO idea what this place was…a bank, a wifi place…I have no idea but the people were very nice and let me use their free wifi. I had a great time talking with my mom…I needed a good talk with her…I miss her very much. After a long conversation, it was time for me to go…because my computer was about to die…haha. I made my way over to the Starbucks that was across the street to get…you guessed it….Hot Chocolate (I'm such a big kid…haha). Walking back to the shuttle bus point…I made myself just walk around the city again…just to get a feel of the city…it was very nice. When I got back to the ship…I wanted to make sure that Lesley was okay…but she was no where to be found. I searched the entire ship to come to find out that she had left the ship; walking to come find me in Dunedin (some 25 mins away on a bus….whoops). I walked up this little port city…which reminded me of an old western deserted town…was funny…to a grocery store to get some snacks and food. Did my shopping and when I was leaving…guess who I saw, walking towards me…LESLEY. I asked her where she had been and she said that she had walked for a good 45 mins trying to get to Dunedin…but thought, HELL…I'm not walking this crap anymore and turned around. We went into the store for her to do some shopping and then we made our way back to the ship and had a great time for the rest of the night….watching the Apprentice UK…It is such a good and addicting show.

Thursday, February 17th we were in Stewart Island, New Zealand. The whole gang got off this day…to find that it was not a big, populated area. We had to walk up a STEEP hill to get to the other side. When we got there, there was a lot of fog around the town / marina and it reminded me of a shot from Sleepy Hollow or Dawson's Creek (yes, I know…two very different and random titles to say…but I couldn't choose which one it looked more like….so I said them both…haha). When I said that this place had ONE street, ONE department store and ONE hotel…I'm not joking. There was NOTHING to do….so we just walked around for a little while. We were all REALLY hungry, so we wanted to find somewhere to eat and FAST. Finally, we decided to go to the hotel, since that would probably be our best bet. Once we walked the 5 feet to the hotel, we found out that they had a limited menu and were only serving seafood (GREAT…ehhh). We all decided that we would come back to the hotel after we went to another little cafe to play pool later. I went to the cafe and everyone else went to a fish and chips stop that they saw coming into the town. I met them and we had a great meal outside…right next to a stupid bee hive….not a fun meal. Once we ran away, screaming from our lunches…we made our way back to the hotel and played pool for a long time. It was so strange to see that the pool table balls were much smaller than what we have in America. Everyone told me that they are that size and Cody and myself thought that they were joking. I guess that the American way to play pool is a lot different than the rest of the world. Learned a new pool game from Greg and then we all decided to go back to the ship, we had enough of playing pool. Before we left though, we wanted to go play on a playground that we saw before we made our way to the hotel. I made the comment when we were playing on it that…wouldn't it suck if we broke the only playground that these poor kids on this island have….haha….whoops. Luckily, we didn't break it and had a good laugh all going down the slides…what big kids we all are. On the way back to the port, I remembered seeing this sign for a place called 'Observation Rock' and I thought that it would be cool to go see the view (we were surrounded by some beautiful mountain tops on this day). Once we made it up the steep, STEEP hill we had a ABSOLUTELY stunning view…just breathtaking….it was defiantly worth the trip up the hill. Just standing there, made me appreciate what crazy opportunity that I'm experiencing and how I really don't have much time left on the ship. What a great way to end a wonderfully calm and peaceful day on Stewart Island and a wonderful way to say goodbye to New Zealand. 

Friday, February 18th we sailed through the Milford Sound and what an absolutely beautiful place that is. It is incredible what all the world can offer to us if we really take the time to appreciate it. Just a beautiful mountain landscape with stunning waterfalls and glacier formed rocks everywhere. It was too bad that the weather was so crappy but still, that didn't take away from the beauty that this true wonder of the world had. After we sailed in the Milford Sound for about an hour or hour and a half…it was out to sea for 3 long and CRAZY sea days ahead of us….more to come in the next blog.

The rest of our itinerary includes: At Sea on Feb. 19 and 20th / Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on Feb. 21st / At Sea on Feb. 22nd / Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, Australia on Feb. 23rd / Adelaide, Australia on Feb. 24th / At Sea on Feb. 25th / Geelong, Australia and Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 26th / Melbourne, Australia (second day) on Feb. 27th / At Sea on Feb. 28th and ending our cruise in one of the places I've waiting my entire life to go to…the wonderful city of Sydney, Australia on March 1st and 2nd. 

I will write about my Australian adventures soon….I can't believe that I'm finally here…a dream come true…I'll tell you that.

Until Next Time,

Jason