Waiting at the airport

There is a direct flight to Vancouver leaving in 1 hour.

But lucky me I get to stay in Sydney for another 4 hours beacuse my flight booking is on the much later non-direct flight.

Nothing like a unnessisarily long travel day.  Just another 30 hours and i will be home. 

1st contract has come to an end

Well, all good things must come to an end.

After almost 6 months at sea, my first contract working on ships is nearly over. Tomorrow I go to the airport and start my 26 hour trip back to Vancouver.

I will leave 2:30pm March 29 and arrive at 4:00pm March 29. Thanks to the international date line I will only be a few hours date wise after i leave. Unfortunately I did not get the direct flight to Vancouver I was hoping for, so i have a few hours layover in Los Angeles.

I'm not sure how much I will be posting during my vacation, but I will be back at sea in 9 short weeks. This time in the old world, of Mediterranean Europe.

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read my posts and leave comments for me. I enjoyed being able to stay in touch and share my experiences with everyone.

Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef

I have now done 4 scuba dives on the Great Barrier Reef.

I have been to 5 different reef sites 4 outer reef sites and one inner island.

Got some great pictures of different fish and corals.

Will post later with more pictures and details.

Meeting Famous People

Our ship is docked in an area of town that we don't usually go, its still near downtown but its not an area we would normally be if we weren't in dry dock. So its even more of a random chance that, walking back to the ship today after a wandering the town, who should we see walking down the street; Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

Pictured below with required "Stephen Colbert pose" me and Tony Hawk.

Credit goes to my friend Brian who noticed him and called his name.

Also credit to Tony Hawk for being really cool, and taking a minute to take pictures and shake hands.

Vacation Starts Now

Even though my sign off day isnt for another 2 weeks, technically my vacation has already started.

Due to some needed repairs for the ship, the current cruise has been cancelled, and we are sailing from Auckland to Sydney without guests.

That makes the entertainment staff effectivly the guests for this cruise.

We get to sydney in a few days and we will enter drydock for the repairs that day.

I hope to take a trip up to the great barrier reef, but nothing is set in stone at the moment.

Nothing like a 2 weeks vacation before you start your real vacation.

Last Day In New Zealand

Tomorrow is my last day in New Zealand.

So I am finally doing something I have been wanting to do since I got here. That is go Zorbing.

Here is a stock photo for those who don't know what zorbing is.

Also because of the rave reviews we brought back after our white water rafting adventure we will be doing that again as well.

Zorbing first then rafting in the afternoon.

Should be a fun day.

Golfing in New Zealand

I went golfing today with a group of casino guys and the shops manager.

There were 7 of us in total all of a varying level of skill.

When we got there it was sunny and nice out, but we were warned that the clouds would move in soon.

I was playing very well considering that I was using rented clubs of questionable quality.

The course is set along the coast, but the first few holes are inland, but as we played a few holes we could hear the waves crashing onto the beach, and by the sounds of it the wind was on it way.

As I was teeing off on the 6th hole, the wind hit me full on in the face, and after that we had to account for the wind a lot.

A little while later we got a little shower of rain, but it soon passed.

As we reached the crest of a hill of the 8th hole, we saw the beach, and I wish someone had a camera, because the view from the 8th green was amazing.

Here is a stock photo of the view, imagine that only with bigger waves and less sun, and that was today.

At the end of the 9th hole, the rain returned and the wind was pushing it almost horizontal. Each time we stopped our carts we were parking then into the wind so the windshield would stop some of the rain and wind.

We got a small break in the rain and we played the 10th hole, where i chipped to within 2 feet, and got my only par of the day.

After that the rain got really bad, and there was no way we were playing any more after that.

In the end I had the second best score of the day with a 50. The best being a 48.

A very good score considering the gusting wind and rain we had to contend with.

Going Golfing

Im going golfing today.



This will be the first time I have played in a while, and the first time playing

1 Month to go

I havent been posting much lately.

I guess im getting used to all the stuff we do in a normal cruise.

It is just under 1 month until I come home. And im starting to look foreward to my vacation.

We are leaving Sydney today, and when we get back it will be time for me to go home.

Here is a picture from the last time we were in Milford Sound.