• Stand clear of the closing doors, please!
• Every day is trash day.
• East Coast water is DELICIOUS!
• Sometimes people who look like they’re talking to themselves aren’t on Bluetooth– they ARE talking to themselves (or pigeons).
• When it pours, it POURS.
• When it’s windy, it’s WINDY.
• Smells completely change from one block to the next.
• The street vendors speak in an undocumented language (Especially the ice cream vendors).
• Those that DO speak English are rare and hold angry cell phone conversations.
• There is no 2-ply toilet paper.
• Don’t step in puddles! Your feet will never come clean!
• Dunkin’ Donuts needs to infest California.
• Taxis don’t stop for you in the rain.
• Taxis especially don’t stop for you in the rain if you’re standing at a bus stop.
• Taxis don’t stop for you at bus stops, period.

I was super-excited on my first plane that I would have an edge seat, meaning… A WINDOW! But lo, when I sit down, this was the incredible “window” seat I got. Pffft! A WALL!

…Fortunately my connecting flight let me stare out over fields and growing cities, into the largest city of them all, as I flew into New York’s La Guardia airport at night. Though you can’t really see the stars in NYC, looking down over the city while flying gave me the sensation of flying through space, all the city lights as stars!

Act one, scene one: THE GOOGLEHEIM! Errm– Guggenheim! A+ for the Kandinsky exhibit!

A panorama from Top of the Rock (Rockefeller building). Photosynth is this incredible (and free!) iPhone app that allows you to snap a 360 panorama, like this!

Some white on white at the MoMA– probably my favorite museum so far.

A wishing tree! People wrote their wishes down and hung them from the branches.

Looking up at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue!

Central Park! I had this crazy idea that NYC was going to be smelly and grungy. Central Park, despite the occasional homeless person, was crispy-clean, with a side feature of ice cream vendors that didn’t speak any known language. AAHHBLAHBLABLA!

Going up the Empire State Building! It had been pouring and lightning was a-lightninging, leading to a closed outer Observation Deck… hence a VERY short line! We were able to watch not only the thunderstorm but also fireworks from the 86th floor.

Choo chooooo! CHUGGAchuggaCHUGGAchugga…

EPIC KINETIC SCULPTURES BY ARTHUR GANSON!!!!!! The MIT Museum is EPIIIIIC! Lotsa these whirlygigs were flittering about, and the holograms were being very bright and 3D and holography and everything sounded a lot more intelligent than this dorky sentence.

Newbury Street, where places could be bought for only a mere 3 million dollars.

Aaaaand here’s us in Central Park!

This was just an appetizer– there will be many more photos soon!

Despite those stories, I had some enjoyable days at sea, which consisted of  a simple daily routine:

Wake up. Eat breakfast (consisting of salmon lox in a bagel, ‘yoghurt’ (from NZ; how many yogs did they have to hurt to make this yogurt, I wonder?!)), “Melon in Season” (a bowl of 5 tiny cantaloupe balls and a millimeter-thick slice of  honeydew) and tea.

Nap. (Hey, I was on vacation! CalArts veterans reccomend sleeping your entire Summer away so you’ll have enough sleep for school).

Go walk a bunch of laps around the Promenade Deck. Gawk at the Bitter End, or all the anchor equipment, if you can’t see the Bitter End.

Lay out on deck; tan. Chill to the band (Pinnacle) and wait for the Cookie Girl to deliver cookies at precisely 3:30. Mmmmm!

Hit the buffet, grab more cookies, sneak them down to the room and eat them on the balcony.

Clean up.

Go to dinner, wrassle over who gets which bread and take all the butter when no one’s looking.

Attend the show, if it looks non-embarassing*.

Draw all over the breakfast order form**.

Sleep!

And that’s it for the daily routine at sea.  Now to explain the asterisks!

* Australian entertainment is indeed a different animal from American entertainment– the whole way performance is given and the audience interacts is, well, that of another culture! At times it felt like attending church: Neil Diamond is a well-loved musician Down Under, and we had a couple of impersonators who sang and dressed like him. The crowd would often start clapping and waving their arms in the air…. kinda felt like church a little? I had no idea how any of their songs went, but A-Waltzin’ Matilda was probably the most popular song the whole time. Audience interaction also involved singing into a mic, which would lead to confused behavior (“I don’t know this song!” in a Californian accent) and embarrassment. Thankfully that never happened!

** Breakfast order forms have way too much white space to draw on. So along with the usual “Salmon Lox”, they’d get a visual just to make sure they got the order straight:

Yes, the bagel’s important.

Oh but there’s much more space for art than just that, so every night Mom and I went all-out on the front and back of these. Here are a few of the best breakfast order forms; one night we didn’t get to the whole thing and the delivery guy the next day complained that it wasn’t completely covered in drawings! hehe!

Enough of the breakfast drawings! (Though I CAN’T get enough of them, and apparently the breakfast crew and the galley couldn’t either)… I last left off blogging after Bora Bora, so you may be wondering if I ever made it into that crossing-the-equator ceremony. Fortunately, my name was not amongst the ‘chosen ones’, who were all on trial for doing such lowly acts as stealing cutlery, drinking all the gin and telling really bad jokes. King Neptune and his Queen were not impressed by those on trial.

As part of the jury, we all yelled “GUILTY!!!” when the victims were prosecuted. What a wild party! After lining up all those deemed unworthy of Neptune’s presence, they had to go through the cleansing (!) ceremony, which consisted of meringue, spaghetti noodles, chocolate and egg yolk. But first, the Queen wanted them to kiss her pet fish… On the lips! eeeyuck!

After those accused were well-”cleansed”, the cruise director was up for telling bad jokes and making silly comments all too often. They did surgery on her, pulling out her intestines and splattering guts everywhere. (aka, link sausage and Jell-O).

Naturally, one would jump into the pool after all that fun!

WHAT A MESS! Later on some officers stood at the rim of the pool, looking down and shaking their heads, clearly thinking, “tsk tsk tsk, we have to go through this every 100 days? Cleaning out the pool is absolutely not worth all this tomfoolery…” Best [interactive!] show on the ship, hands-down!

I even got a certificate saying “MISS. GEHM B736 has crossed the equator”, blah blah blah…. Very official, B736 was my room number

Crossing the equator the first time is a big deal, and mine happened at 4:30 AM… apparently in the Navy and on other ships they do a much more brutal ceremony; my grandpa was a merchant seaman and he had a fake certificate made up so he didn’t have to go through the ceremony!

The next day we did scenic cruising past Christmas Island (Kiribati), which may have made some cool photos if I had this telephoto lens.  But what’s going by Christmas Island without some Christmas carols and SANTA??? It’s the middle of summer, what better time to have Christmas?

That was about it for our days at sea before Hawaii. I thought it was funny that the Exit signs have a picture of a running guy, looks more like an Escape sign to me:

Honolulu, Oahu :: Hawaii

As soon as we hit US ground, we had to go through Customs, and being an American, that meant I got to go first! That required being at a lounge at 7:30 AM to show my passport. 7:30′s so early, why would anyone want to be up at that hour during vacation? So I went in my PJ’s. And everyone else was dressed. And a lot more people were up and walking around than I ever would have suspected. (At least I had cute Mutts PJ’s on, I just wish I had fluffy bunny slippers to go with the whole theme). Honolulu was just as I remembered it: a beautiful, tall city (yet not as densely packed as Sydney or Auckland, but definitely more spread out than the latter)–palm and coconut trees grew alongside skyscrapers. After a trip to Hilo Hattie’s for some edibles (namely getting my mitts on some green tea, specifically with honey, lemon and hibsicus! Really delicious stuff), we headed off to Waikiki Beach for a spot on the sand and a days’ worth of floating aimlessly* on a bright inflatable raft. And guess who paid us a visit? Mr. Sea Turtle! At first I saw a moving shadow, then later heard a girl on her cell talking about how no one sees this sea turtle out there, yet she kept spotting it. Upon returning to the water we had quite a few visitations; people congregated in his general hang-out area, and every few minutes he’d pop his head up above water, say hello and dive back under and disappear with the water. At one point he was right under my mom and me, we thought he’d pop up and give us a ride! After he checked out our lack of footwear, he swam on and didn’t give us any swimming lessons. After frying a good long time we hit the International Marketplace, where prices were much more tangible than at French Polynesia. And hey, we were back in America! Strange how an island soooo far from the California Coast felt like being at home. The American culture is what made it feel that way, that and the people. On the sidewalks were artists: airbrush artists, a steel drum player (wrong ocean! Generally those are found in the Carribean, this was my first Pacific encounter), men painted up as silver and gold statues (plenty of those in San Diego, and I worry about their poison intake levels, being completely covered in metallic paint) and even a guy with a bunch of birds! He let me hold a pretty green parrot

Here’s Diamondhead’s silhouette sailing by at night:

And I did some experimental ‘zoom’ photography on the city, as well.

Lahaina, Maui :: Hawaii

So I’m eating my breakfast, enjoying the view of Maui and some fresh air from the balcony when FLAPPITY-FLAP! a BIRD (of all things) lands in the balcony!

Speaking of which, a bird had landed on the ship the night before in Honolulu and was perched on the top deck a good half-hour to an hour after leaving port. I wonder if he stayed on for the entire night, and was island-hopping as well?

As usual, the great banyan tree was there….

BUT THE OVERLY RELIGIOUS YELLING GUY WHO SCREAMS AT ONCOMING CARS WASN’T THERE!!! Rumor has it he died 2 years ago, but I *know* he was there 6 months ago, proof in that photo.  (I’m amazed Google doesn’t know anything about this legendary screamer). Someone resembling him was sitting at a bench by the Banyan, but I didn’t want to stare and wasn’t under the impression it was him, but I didn’t get a good enough of a look to tell either. //regret!

One of the shops on Front Street had… *GASP* shadow puppets and wayang golek Indonesian theater puppets! HOW COOL IS THAT! They were pretty big and if I could have afforded one (both in price and luggage room) I’d probably be admiring it now, isntead of writing this blog.

Wraaaaak?

As per usual, a trip up and down Front Street to see all the shops and ART GALLERIES was mandatory! I’ve already forgotten the names of my favorite artists I spotted, but it was a great show all around– some of the same paintings hung that I remembered from before, and there was certainly some new material to gawk at, as well. How cool would it be to have a gallery where you could stare at all the artwork all day? I’d make a horrible salesperson, because I wouldn’t want to sell anything…. Just hang onto it all so I could muse the gallery every day

On the way back to the tender, there was a pretty flower on the ground. looks like it’s on the moon!

Hilo, Hawaii :: Hawaii

READY? SET?? I rode a HILOCOPTER over the active volcanoes!!!

…GO!!!

Go nuts with all these macadamia trees:

Thar she blows!

Check out the texture…

Blue smoke, the road to the big one at the end…

Saw these glowing holes everywhere:

Here’s the lookout house, which has been really fortunate in not getting melted away.

The Hawaians have their goddess, Pele, who’s the creative (and destructive) force that controls volcanic activity. She takes many forms, sometimes as a beatiful young lady, some say, and other say a haggard old woman. Or… is she really looking out from the deep here?

Wow…. the smoke/steam was wafting up in such a perfect billowing cloud at an unbelievable pace.

You could see masses of broken rocs exploding out:

Believe it or not, people actually build houses out on this desolate landscape! Our pilot was saying he was interested in buying a house, but it burned down just the other week…. But this is the cheapest real estate in the country, however if your property burns, it’s government property!

These once were regular roads, I suppose…

And in contrast to all that lava-ey goodness, here’s a waterfall for a change.

What a ride!!

Sailing Home

The most notable thing on the way home was the talent show. Being I hadn’t touched a piano key in about a month, I figured that would be out of the question– i missed the deadline for the photo contest but still wanted to do something, and I remembered that for Pictionary they had a massive drawing pad, so I figured I’d draw caricatures. After asking for a volunteer, the audience went silent, but one brave man came up to the stage… and the drawing turned out well!

I didn’t know how much time I had to be on stage and how much I’d already chewed up, but the audience wanted more, so I drew one of the social staff.

That went over really really well, and for the remainder of the cruise, people knew me as that artist who went onstage and apparently drew pictures really fast

The entire trip went WAAAY too fast.

It’s strange being back home, being back around all the smells that were so familiar when I left… it’s nice having a bathroom to myself (my first thought: WOW the mirrors are tall!),  it’s nice having a big bed that I can stretch out in, but I’m still in lazy vacation mode and haven’t quite found the motivation to start up on all the projects that need to be finished before summer’s over.

All in all…. what an amazing trip!! Hope to take more like this in the future.

APIA, [Western/German] Samoa

When we arrived in Apia, we were greeted by the expected touristy kiosks set up with souvenirs. After making our way towards town, we were greeted by a wall of taxi drivers, but we told them nooooo, we’re going to walk into town on our own. But one at the end caught my mom and me and said he’d drive us into town really cheap, because of the walk, and so on– so sure, why not.
And then we get in the car and he tells us that for just a little bit more he’ll take us up to the Robert Louis Stevenson house/museum. So we go for it– and the first thing I noticed, besides the LUSH, BRIGHT VEGETATION was that all the taxis and buses drove on the lawn at this museum. And it rains enough that the grass never quite dies. Here’s Darlos, our driver, and me, next to our taxi parked on the lawn:

Apparently RLS was a really short guy, all the doorknobs were knee-level:

After checking out the RLS museum, Darlos offered to drive us around the entire island and see the villages and waterfalls. Haven’t taken an adventure like that before, so why not?
In Samoa, the men wear lava-lavas, which are basically wrap skirts. Tattoos on all these pacific isles are really intricate tribal designs. Everyone I met in Samoa had a “love” tattoo, either on their left shoulder or hand somewhere. (Men seemed to have it on their hands, women on their shoulders). They’re such warm, peaceable people! There were plenty of dogs in the streets, but they too were really friendly and were probably pets.

A house is called a “fale”. Every family has its own fale and meeting hut, where they eat and hang out with friends and family:

And then every full family (cousins, uncles, grandparents, etc) had their own meeting pad, which was larger than the houses. Also, no one had mailboxes– they went to the post office; however, they all had these trash pads:

And religion’s really big as well.

There are no public cemeteries. Instead, people have the graves of their family members in their yards. The more important the person, the more extravagant the grave!
Little kids freely frolicked on the sides of the streets. It was so open– it felt safe, and the kids were all really happy too; it felt like being in a parade, just being in this taxi, because everyone we went by waved as we passed.

On our way to our first waterfall, I was pleased as punch to find that these plants, Sensitive (as I think they’re called) were abundant in the wild:

If you touch them, their leaves close in, kind of like a taco. Very interactive, very entertaining, very addicting. Playing with these wild plants was almost better than seeing the waterfall!

It seemed more like a river rapid sort of sighting more than a waterfall, but that would be made up for later. Still, it was pretty, and we got to play with the plants.
After more driving around the island, we came across another waterfall ‘site’, but it required an hour walk to get to the actual waterfall. And in the rain with the camera and sandals didn’t sound like a good mix, so we moved on. However, a couple of sweet little boys gave my mom and me flowers to put behind our ears!

We then made our way to our next waterfall site, the Papapapaitai Falls (I kid you not, check out the sign):


These falls were huuuge and spectacular! Too bad it wasn’t a little less cloudy, but these were still realllllly something.
All the island’s vegetation was so bright, I really expected it to glow in the dark come nightfall.

Sadly, the bright plants let me down when the sun went down. Still, you’d expect the sky to rain neon-highlighter ink in order to get these plants colored so vibrantly.
When we left, a rowing crew did a bunch of laps around the harbor to an energetic, exotic beat. These guys kept going and going (as did the drummer)– really expected them to run out of steam after the 2nd lap but I think they did about 5! We waved at them, and they got a scolding whistle blow if they were caught waving back.

(What a bunch of showboats!)

PAGO PAGO, [Eastern/American] Samoa

Pronounced “pango-pango”, American Samoa definitely had a more American feel to it.

When we got into town, I was quite delighted to hear that the Arts Festival was happening! Apparently this only takes place once every four years, and on a different island each year. There was a collaborative sculpture being made:

And, a whole bunch of different music/dance/cultural groups from various Pacific islands had come to share their ceremonial dances (in full dress)! We saw a lovely group from Fiji, their songs were cheery, with really pretty voices, and the dancers were really happy to be there:


There was also a group from Australia, but the whole ‘ethnic’ vision was tainted when non-Aborigines were performing traditional tribal dances:

And then there was also a group from Kiribati, they too had joyous songs and fun rhythms.


On our way back to the ship, we saw some more local Samoan dancers, just to tie up the cultural dance theme.

I was surprised to see the amount of fabrics being sold. Besides every store carrying fabrics and screen printing ink, they were organized in some strange Samoan way that I hadn’t the time to sort out. A selection of band-aids may also include sticks of glue for a hot glue gun. A shelf of shampoo may also include a Transformers toy. Perhaps this method of organization was meant to remind you of other products you had possibly forgotten to write on your list? Or maybe it was all somehow alphabetical, or simply placed on the shelves in the order that shipments were received. I may never know. Speaking of which, you could buy a cellophane-wrapped hot dog (and burger and sandwich too) at the counter.

RAROTONGA, Cook Islands

As Pago Pago is to the US, Rarotonga is to NZ. I’d say one of the most notable features of this island was that the vehicle of choice was a motor scooter. (Must be gas prices!) There was lots of island-inspired abstract, tribal-esque artwork on display in all the shops, which was really cool to see. Even the buildings were painted:


As I mentioned before, most all men on these islands were lava-lavas, and sarongs are popular among the women. Fabrics were abundant, and very very pretty!

I’d say the big cultural experience here was getting coconut-flavored Italian gelato. Mmmmm!

PAPEETE, French Polynesia

Bonjour! At least, that’s how people greet you in FRENCH Polynesia. Greet them like that right back and they’ll start jabbering away to you in French, so it’s best to say “hello” to let them know that yes, you’re a wandering tourist.
Funny thing about French Polynesia: all the stores have an hour or two that they close down for during lunch. And then, on Saturdays, they completely shut down at noon, and on Sundays, NOTHING is open. We landed in Papeete on Saturday, but had the entire day and night there (the boat left at 4 AM). Talk about expensive, overpriced shopping! And yes, the people here were pretty attractive, as rumors speculate.
Now I’ve never been to Paris, but I’ll take a gander that this was an islandy version of France. People kindly stopped for you if you were standing at the edge of a crosswalk, but if you’re behind a car that’s backing up, good luck to you for being fast on your feet!
Saw some more really cool artwork painted on buildings, and lots of cool graffiti.

There were a few kids break dancing out by the ship:

Brassy brewery goodness (yeah steampunk!):

There was a really amazing sailboat there too, here’s a view of the masts:

At night there was a big weightlifting shindig going on, there was quite the crowd, and during the event little kids ran amok all around the stage. (There’s that free spirit of the island life!)

AND, there was this guy in town that belted out operatic French (or Tahitian?) every time I walked by. He kept up his song for quite a while; being serenaded by a local is truly an interesting (and awkward) experience.

That night, some Tahitian dancers came on board to perform folkloric dances for us. Again, the dancers were more than happy to share their culture, and were in traditional grass skirts, shells, and other handmade costumes. At one point, the dancers jumped offstage and grabbed people out of the audience to go up and dance with them– and lucky us, Mom and I were in the second-to-front row, so they brought us up on stage! Yay for dancing with Tahitian dancers! Thankfully the show broadcast on the ship’s TV was of a previous version of the same show, so any dorky dancing doesn’t have to be re-lived.
Here are some photos I over abused in Photoshop, enjoy…

MOOREA, French Polynesia

So we got to Moorea not knowing what to expect. Originally the plan was to have no plan and head straight for the beach. But cranky weather took over the island and a dark cloud promising rain reigned our decision to not bring our beach towels.
Getting off the tender and on the island, more overpriced souvenirs awaited us. And so did a lady pointing at a sign about snorkeling with the sharks (noooo thank you!)– then she pointed at a tour bus and yelled out a price, and we were sold.
Louise was our guide around Moorea. We started out by going by a shrimp farm:

After a few CLOSE calls with other tour buses, we made it to an amazing viewing point where we could soak in all the amazing terrain (not to mention a few raindrops, too):


Ah yeah, and there were loads of chickens, roosters and chicks roaming the island.

Next we went to an old Tahitian temple, where they used to make human sacrifices looonnng ago. (Only male sacrifices, apparently there were many more men than women).

There was also this massive tree that they’d bang with rocks to inform the people that a ceremony was going on. This worked kind of like a church bell or African talking drums– hit the trunk really hard with a rock and it’ll make a noise that echoes throughout the mountains.

Next up, pineapple plantations!


Apparently if you take a pineapple and cut off the top, you can plant it– and by the time 4 years are up, you’ll have yourself a pickable pineapple. Pick it, wait until it turns yellow and your 4 years of waiting are up. I plan on planting a few of these so when I graduate from CalArts I’ll be able to celebrate with tropical fruit….
We then made our way to Cook’s Bay– here’s Mom!

We learned about hibiscus flowers and some of the plants and their uses/symbolism.
The leaves of one plant can be used as a plate, and afterwards, as toilet paper….
And, on a finishing note, I was pleased to know that the shirt this tag was attached to will not give me cancer if I wear it.

BORA BORA, French Polynesia

Being Moorea felt a bit disappointing due to the gloomy weather (cloudy skies and cool rain) I dreaded that Bora Bora may see the same skies– in the morning it did indeed look dank, but as the afternoon went on the clouds parted and a bright blue sky was to be had.

So what’s visiting Bora Bora without going to the BEACH? After bidding adieu to our postcards, we immediately hopped on a bus and went straight to Matira beach. White, semi-crunchy (due to shells and coral) sand met with pristinely clear, shallow (and warm!) water. Apparently four hours of splashing around in the water and loafing on the beach wasn’t enough to give me a sunburn…. YAY! There were again lots of dogs here– really friendly, very used to people (you could walk right alongside them– they were laying down and sleeping all over the beach– and they wouldn’t mind the slightest). The locals were kayaking, and one guy was kayaking right up by the sand; his dog was following him, though he had to sniff every tourist who crossed. The water was clear the ENTIRE way out; looking out along the surface was a glimmering light cyan color. (And it seemed to taste cleaner than other beach water… not that I’d go drinking the stuff, eeew). There weren’t so many touristy kiosks to buy overpriced jewelry at, though Tahitian pearls were still really popular. Houses were built right on the beach; didn’t see many people on the sides of the road, and I think that’s because everyone has a beach instead of a back yard. If I were them, I’d spend all my time on the beach!

Well I think that concludes my adventures thus far on this cruise, we’re about half-way through, so many more stories, pictures and adventures to come!

Hey everyone! Been a while since I’ve blogged, so it’s time to give you the first set of cruise updates (and photos!) from my 28-day cruise from Sydney, Australia up to San Francisco, California! The ship’s been entertaining so far– most of the passengers are Aussies, and it’s really strange being the “foreign” guest!

So we flew out on the 12th from LAX and, after a 6-hour-layover in Auckland, landed in Sydney, Australia with just enough time to ride from the airport to the ship. The ship was parked next to the harbor bridge and the Opera House. The Opera House is SPECTACULAR!

And the harbor bridge completely dwarfed it:

We wished that we had more time to spend in Sydney. Driving around was really intriguing– the buildings seemed so old in their architectural style, yet so modern because of their astounding height! Unlike San Diego, ALL of Sydney seemed to be tall; there were patches here and there of skyscrapers, but overall everything was TALL.

This is a place where I could wander the streets for a week and still not see everything.

Once boarding the boat, we had a couple of days at sea before we hit Auckland, New Zealand. These two days were necessary to adjust to the jetlag (not that jetlag was that big of an issue with MY sleep patterns, but adjusting to ship life took a little getting used to). I’ll say that this ship’s speeds are at about a 2.5: slow, slower, and… ALMOST stopped. Stopped in the buffet and the Atrium, yes, but overall crowds move really swiftly. And people actually use the stairs! Elevators are generally more popular than the stairs…

And then, we landed in Auckland, NZ, where I was able to finally meet my e-pal Ivan (of almost 4 years)!

Yaaaaay! And what an excellent tourguide he was around the city, too! (Thanks, Ivan!)

So what’s one of the signature sights of Auckland? The Sky Tower. Thankfully, the clouds had lifted a little so its top was visible. Naturally it was the first thing we gravitated to (and we saw a bungee ride on the side of the street, but that wouldn’t COMPARE to what we were about to see).

Again, like Sydney, the architecture of Auckland was quite mixed. Lots of new glassy buildings mixed with older stone-architecture buildings. Very cool! And the Sky Tower‘s apparently the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, at 328m’s in height. (Yes, that’s taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris!)

After being whisked up some 186m’s (in a glass-bottom elevator), we landed on an observation deck with glass floors and an amazing view that spanned from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean!

Hey, look! The Sun Princess!

We also went up to the 220m-high viewing platform, which didn’t have the glass floors, but offered even more of a view. Now, it’s bad enough being on the 186m-high deck WITH the glass floors and the signs plastered on the walls informing you that the glass is as strong as concrete. But what’s worse is the Sky Walk, which is a ring that goes around the tower– WITHOUT hand rails, out in the open (but yes, with a harness to keep you in). We weren’t quite that crazy (but almost were– yet had second thoughts after standing on the glass floors a little while). Then they had the Sky Jump; yes a harness is involved with this, as are a couple of ropes (and a landing target)– they hook you up and then drop you for some 18 seconds. And you’re basically free falling the whole way. We watched people do this, and most of the time we got the impression that the instructor shoved them off the edge in order to make them do it…..

After getting woozy from being so elevated, we came back down to Earth and strolled through Albert Park, up to Auckland University.

Talk about another motley of architectural styles! The Business building was new and, for the most part, looked like it was made out of glass– windows and glass jutted out into the open air, the whole building taking on the shape of a boomerang. On the contrary, other buildings appeared to have been there a century or two; cute little pink, blue and green gingerbread houses, which apparently were offices and not classrooms (yet one very old building housed History classes. How apropos!) We also saw a Maori meeting house, but sadly never witnessed a live Haka. (That’s their dance/ritual/ceremony to scare/frighten off their opponents and enemies). After perusing the University, we went to the Auckland Museum and soaked up more traditional Maori culture, saw a bunch of stuffed birds (including kiwis! YAY! Too bad they were stuffed, I wanted to see a live one, but they’re nocturnal. We think they’d make excellent pillows; so plump and soft and fuzzy)…. The top floor housed World War paraphernalia, which was like taking a trip in a time machine– old bars and shops were set up just like they would have been seen decades ago.

By now, we’d walked several miles and our feet were getting tired, so we took a bus down and around through town, did a little shopping and headed back for the ship. After bidding farewell to Ivan, we sailed off. Auckland was really pretty at night:

That day went way too fast.

We had a couple more days at sea and today anchored in the waters near Dravuni Island, Fiji, where we took tenders out to the beach.

The water here was crystal-clear! Coming from the tender, one could easily assume it to be blueberry Jell-O.  The sand was blindingly white, but once adjusted to, all sorts of treasures could be found– there were smooth white shells disbursed near the jungley-part by the shore, sticks of coral were everywhere and hermit crabs clambered around in their colorful shells. The sand was great for foot exfoliation… More than anything, Dravuni was THE PERFECT beach: lots of sun (with a few clouds when it got TOO hot, plus there was the ocean), a gentle breeze, super-calm waters… Tons and tons of vegetation (not to mention coconuts, which we almost had a lovely bunch of)!

We took the last tender back to the ship, and there was seemingly some confusion about the amounts of passengers that came off the boat in comparison with those that were going back to the boat. Looking out the windows of the tender, I saw that they had a bunch of villagers all looking around for the ‘lost passenger’. Eventually the crew members of the ship came back on– I didn’t see a final passenger, so either someone got left behind or there was a miscount. The captain announced that they had “found their lost passenger” when we finally shoved off, so I wonder what the deal behind that was!

We have another day or two at sea, and then we’re off to Apia, Samoa! The waters we’re in aren’t too amazingly populated, so satellite is apparently going to come and go while we’re out here. More updates to come, but probably not for another few stops. Until then…. Tofa Soifua (Goodbye and good luck!)

Meeps!

Snaily

Octopus!

Gremlins <3 socks!

Mr. Chompy <3′s Suitcases

Sweet zebra stripes

Even more sweet zebra stripes

Two fronts

Two backs

Mom painted a suitcase too– here’s a shark holding an ashtray for a stogie-smokin’ fish

A hand and some bubbles

More hands

Happy guys and a sneaky thing holding a bottle o’ meeps

SEAHORSE!

Swirly goodness

More designs

Crocodile!

Snake

Guys

Wakeup call was 6:49 this morning, followed by a hasty chow-down of breakfast and a last laugh at the bunkbed (HAH! See if I’ll sleep on that bumpy mattress again!), a final clean-up of the room and then heading off to disembark. Got home 11:25′ish, and it’s good to be back!

Yes, the cruise was a blast, but after a while one needs to get back to a regular doing-something-productive routine…. Which was going out and buying textbooks today! (Yikes! Spring semester starts in 5 days!)

To all of you who I met on the trip– please don’t hesitate to send me an email or post a blog comment! I’d like to hear from you guys again.

Anyway– haven’t even downloaded the photos from the trip yet, been busy unpacking and mowing through spam emails.

One last notable random highlight of the cruise (and yes, I plan on making a summation in the near future): yesterday they had a guy teaching how to juggle. Didn’t get it down all the way but hey, I’ve got the basics down!– and chasing after tennis balls and bending down to pick them up and re-juggle them will make your legs soooore the next day!

OMG!! (Oh man, GELATO) last night I had gelato (Italian ice cream) for the first time. “gelato al torroncino” or something I think it was called— so amazing!

Owned everyone at Balderdash and Pictionary today, maybe I’ll win some more free luggage tags today too