New Zealand

Blue skies, clear water and green, green, green everywhere – and sheep, lots of sheep. That is how I would describe the bit of New Zealand I saw. I had to work all week but I did have time to get out and see some sights in and around Auckland. It was kind of a relaxing port for me. I got to catch up on email with cheap, fast internet in the city (even got to video chat on Skype!); I got to make phone calls; I got to shop at an outlet mall and go on a world tour of eating. Food on the ship has been lacking in flavor lately so I ate out every chance I got. Thai food, Indian food, Japanese food, Italian food, seafood, burgers, pizza, ice cream, Starbucks, and – yes I’ll admit it – McDonalds. I spent more money eating than anything else. It was all sooooo good though.

My biggest cultural lesson in this port was clothing sizes. On our second day I went outlet shopping at a mall just outside the city. At first I was discouraged because they didn’t have anything smaller than a size 6. At home I usually wear a 4 and occasionally a 6. I finally found a pair of pants in a size 6 but when I got in the dressing room I could barely get them over my thighs. I quickly realized how different sizes are in New Zealand. I wear between an 8 and a 10 in New Zealand sizing! I think part of the sizing difference between countries has to do with all of the vanity sizing that runs rampant in the US. I currently wear a smaller size than I did in high school but yet I definitely have more meat on my body than I did in high school. If the sizes in the US keep getting bigger I’ll be wearing a size 0 before you know it!

So what were my highlights in New Zealand? On our first day in port one of our professors – Dana – the former US Navy Captain celebrated his 70th birthday. How did he want to celebrate? He wanted to run 7km! He felt it was his way of saying “Screw you!” to 70. His original plan was to run 7 miles but since working out on the ship is challenging he didn’t feel that he could prepare and train himself to be ready for 7 miles. And since we were in New Zealand – running 7 km only made sense. He was looking for folks to join him so another professor on the ship – Ken – and I volunteered to join him. It was a rainy day but the air was warm so it was a nice run – we sang Happy Birthday to him at the start and at the end of the run. Funny thing is – I think I was more sore after the run than Dana. I walked funny for 3 days and felt like I was 70!

In the middle of the week one of the Aussie students – Caitlin – and I bought tickets for a winery tour on Waiheke Island. Waiheke is just off the coast of Auckland – only a 35 minute ferry ride. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful island. We did three wine tastings at three gorgeous wineries and even did an olive oil tasting. Apparently Waiheke Island has a climate similar to the Bordeaux (sp??) area in France so their wines are very popular. It was a lovely day and the island had beautiful views of the ocean and of the city.

On our second to last day in port Ken (the business prof that ran with us on day 1) and I rented bikes and road all over the place. We rode up along the harbor and coastal areas of Auckland – beautiful views and great exercise – I even did some hills! We then hopped a ferry over to Devonport Island and rode around the island for some more beautiful views. It was great way to end our time in New Zealand.

It’s been three days since we left Auckland and we only have one more day to go before we arrive in Sydney. We hit some pretty rough water as we headed across to Australia – apparently it’s pretty typical of that stretch of ocean. There was about a day and a half of rocking that made almost everyone feel icky. I rarely feel seasick but there were times that I didn’t feel so well. It just made me wonder – how did I deal with feeling that way (and worse) for over two weeks in January 2005? Ugh – the rocking wasn’t remotely close to what we experienced back then but it was the first time on this voyage that I had similar feelings and flashbacks to what that time was like.

Things have smoothed out and hopefully will remain calm for the rest of our journey to Oz. I should have a few days off during our time in Australia but I have no idea what I want to do. I currently don’t feel all that excited because I know Australia will be expensive like NZ and it’s hard to plan when we have so much to do during this short leg at sea. As always, I’ll figure it out. Cheers, mate!