Sydney

Last day in Australia! We flew in to Sydney yesterday and walked down to Chinatown for dinner in hopes of finding some yummy Thai food. It was pouring and we were drenched after about a block, so 4 blocks in, we quickly gave up and instead chose a Korean BBQ. We were the only white people in the entire place and the waiters had to explain to us what each dish was and how we did it, but it was a cool experience, very similar to fondue places. They had the grill on each table, and you throw the meat on with vegetables, make a lettuce wrap and put some sauces on it for flavor. I don't have much idea of what I ate besides the basic meats and a bunch of seaweed (very good), but it was fun.

Today we went to the Aquarium and Wildlife experience, which included all of the dozens of deadly creatures Australia is home to, as well as the kangaroos, koalas, wallabees, and other animals that I've been waiting to see. We then went to Paddy's Markets, a large area with lots of different shops and kiosks set up, very similar to the marketplaces of Thailand. We're now enjoying afternoon tea at the hotel while my dad checks email, and then we're off to look at some Australian Black opals and search for Tim Tams.

I have to say, Australia/NZ really are not that different from the US; surprisingly so in fact. They listen to all of our music, watch our movies and tv shows, and after reading their newspapers for the past two weeks, they seem to have the exact same issues as we do regarding education, politics, and healthcare. Since it's my last post down under though, I'd like to note some of the differences between Australia and the US:

-Obviously, the accents. Which are in truth very similar to British accents, and were sometimes hard to distinguish between on the ship. Apparently the Aussies still consider Britain their homeland, and they trade people back and forth frequently. They still have their unique words down here though. And cheers is used in place of thank you, goodbye, hello, you're welcome, I hate you, etc...

-Electrical outlets. Pain in the butt... they luckily had U.S. outlets on the ship; however, no such luck in any Aussie hotel rooms. This is especially upsetting when you realize your camera has run out of battery and you have no way whatsoever to recharge it. Darn.

-They drive on the wrong side of the road. Which you would think would mean they pass on the left side while walking, but that seems to be misunderstood also, so they instead just walk right at you until you dive out of the way to keep from becoming Aussie pie. Also, they're obsessed with their meat pies. I had one, and it was just a shepherd's pie with no vegetables at all...mmm so healthy. And although their toilets may not flush in the opposite direction of ours in the northern hemisphere, they did walk counterclockwise on the running track on the ship. Still haven't figured out why that was different...

Tomorrow, while the U.S. watches the Superbowl (still don't even know who is in it this year), I will be boarding the plane back to the homeland. And hopefully quickly switching my body's timeclock back to Eastern time... 9am here is 5pm there, completely backwards. Oh joy!

Goodbye Australia....

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy!

A Grotto-ing Experience

Hooroo! Today was our last port, Auckland. We had a long bus ride to visit the glow worm grotto, a unique limestone tunnel of stalactites and stalagmites that are home to a worm that glows. These worms hatch after a few days, spend nine months as a worm, a few days in a cocoon, and then 5 days as a flying insect. Since they’re in a dark tunnel, they have a single thread web that hangs down to catch insects to feed on, and they glow to attract insects to them. We took a boat through the tunnel, and it looks just like millions of stars glowing in a pitch black sky, pretty neat. When you shine a light on them, you can see all of the single thread webs hanging down- that is a bit trippy. Once the glow worms graduate to flying insects, they apparently only live for 5 days because their only purpose is to reproduce, so they don’t even have mouths. Disturbing… Afterward, we had the best meal I’ve had yet on this trip. It was a cruise-sponsored tour, which meant we had 50 people on it; however, the lunch spot was out of a local’s home who had set it up specifically for cruise tours. They had their home decorated in an old English style, and I think it is one of the most beautiful homes I’ve ever seen. The garden area was spectacular, and that’s where they had a dozen big tables set up for lunch. It was a simple meal, but it tasted amazing; roast lamb, meatloaf, potatoes and tomatoes and wine carafes with fresh berries and ice cream for dessert. Sounds simple, but it was drool-worthy. All the ducks and cows were there to watch us eat lunch as they have a large farm as well. Pretty cool experience compared to the normal restaurant scene.

So now we’re back on the ship for the next three days before we arrive back in Melbourne and fly up to Sydney. Our dinner partners unfortunately got off on Auckland not to return, so it is now my father and I alone for dinner. We have dinner in the dining room each night, where you are assigned a table and sit with the same people each night. It’s a good way to build relationships with other people on the ship, some sort of consistency. In the past, we’ve been sat at tables of 6 or 8 where you have plenty of people to talk to each night. This trip, we had a table of 4, and we were sat with two women. One of the women is an independent cruise agent who books them for people and will act as a tour guide if needed, so she came on this cruise as a ‘familiarization cruise’ and brought her friend along with. When we had dinner the first night, I thought they were pleasant enough, but was not happy because I felt our conversations would dry up quickly and it would be awful to be stuck together just the 4 of us day in and day out. Turns out our conversations only got better and better, we loved their company and actually looked forward to dinners with them, and we were really sad to see them getting off the ship early since they worked in Auckland and didn’t want to have to pay to fly back from Sydney. Tonight it was just my dad and I, and although we had good conversations, we see each other all day and enjoyed having other people to talk to =P Our two waiters are very entertaining though; the head waiter is Thai and has made my dad very happy by bringing him Nam-pla, fish sauce. The other waiter is Filipino, he’s been working on the ships for much less time and seems more nervous, but he finally seems comfortable as he’s joking and singing to us during dinners now. He has two children; he works for 7 months and then gets a 3 month break, so he goes a long time without seeing them. That seems very difficult, I feel for some of the workers here; it’s good money for them, but it’s difficult to leave everything behind for long periods of time.

The ship is rocking pretty hard tonight for some reason… always an adventure when you’re trying to walk down halls and everyone is pinballing off of each other. Then, you finally get your sea legs and can account for the constant rocking so that you’re not swaying down the halls, and you get off the ship and start zigzagging down the street trying to account for rocking that is no longer occurring. I’ve also been trying to work out on each of our at-sea days, which is an experience in itself to be running on a treadmill while watching the Australian Open on individual TVs with the ocean spanning in front of you through the huge windows the machines are all set up in front of. It is much harder to account for rocking while running on a treadmill, so it is an adventure to try to keep from falling off the sides of the machines constantly and maintain speed.

Here’s to hoping the tipping and turning doesn’t get to my stomach tonight, or my father’s. And although if everyone else on the ship were sick, it would mean less people at activities tomorrow, I don’t think I could wish seasickness upon anyone…not a fun way to spend a holiday!

I leave you with the glow worm song that our driver sang to us following our grotto experience:

I wish a I were a glow worm
Because a glow worm’s never glum.
How can you be unhappy
When the sun’s shining from your bum?!

Kai Ora (hello in Maori)

Kai Ora, welcome to February! It is Day 8 or 9 of our New Zealand cruise (we’re not really counting, but it’s somewhere over the halfway point), and we are currently in Tauranga, NZ- home of the kiwi fruit, kiwi bird, and Maori people (who consider themselves Kiwis ;))

Two days ago we ported in Wellington, the country’s capital city. We had a city/Middle Earth tour scheduled, which ended up once again being a private tour since no one else had signed up! We walked some nature paths through the wooded areas surrounding the city that were used in scenes in the LOTR movies, and our tour guide made me be a hobbit to get reenactment photos. I don’t think I did the best job, despite my natural shortness. Turns out our tour guide and her husband helped start the movie industry in Wellington and they both work for Peter Jackson now (or Peter or Pete as she called him all day). I didn’t realize how big of a movie industry Wellington actually had until the tour; Miramar is based there, and Peter Jackson has made all of his movies here. Weta, a big company that does a lot of costume design and digital effects, is also based here (Peter Jackson was one of the people that helped create it). Avatar was completed here through them. We had the opportunity to go by it’s showroom and see some of the things they’ve done, and we ran into one of the owners (Richard something-or-other… you can tell he made an impression…). They’re very obsessed with their movie industry, or at least our tour guide was. We also saw all of their parliament buildings, such as the Beehive… a building that took the place of the second half of the original parliament building that never got finished being built because funds ran out, and rather than completing the original, the beehive was instead designed by one of their drunken governors back in the day. We also saw Te Papa, the national museum. And I had lamb for dinner, mm.

Yesterday we were supposed to port in Napier; however, there were bad storms that got worse throughout the day, so they chose not to dock. Although it was disappointing, it was our shortest port of the trip, only a half day, and we have had absolutely gorgeous weather other than this one day. Considering my grandparents went on this cruise last year and missed 3 of their ports and got rained out at one port during their trip, I’m not going to complain too loudly. It was supposed to be our souvenir shopping day, so in some ways, it saved me money, though still disappointing. We did, however, win trivia once again with our trivia buddies. This time, we won a bottle of champagne, so we all sat around and celebrated with champagne and sandwiches. I then continued celebrating with an afternoon nap, which was even better. And then I ate duck and lamb for dinner, mmm.

Which brings us to today- Tauranga. We had another tour, though this one did not end up being as private. No complaints though, there were only 4 other people who were all together, and they were about as picky about things as we are, which is very little. First we stopped at a kiwi orchard, where we learned kiwis grow on vines and tried various gold and green kiwi wines and juices. We then went to Rotorua, a geothermal area that the Maori inhabited. It STUNK. You could smell the sulfur from miles away. However, you quickly adapt, and by the end of the day, you couldn’t smell it at all. I have a feelng my clothes smell like sulfur and I just can’t tell any longer. The entire region had underground geothermal springs, and every house had it’s own thermal well in it’s front yard. We walked Te Puia, an area with geysers and hot springs, and saw a cultural performance by the Maoris. We also saw Hell’s Gate, another area of sulfur hot springs that was slowly killing everything around them. And we saw sheep (and lambs mmm… and cows, and horses, oh my!).

Tomorrow is our last port we stop at in New Zealand, Auckland. My last chance to illegally immigrate over here, maybe I’ll get lost on our ride to the worm grotto ;) We can only hope. Cheers mates!