Shenanigans in Aoteoroa

Its been a fantastic cruise in New Zealand so far, I can't believe its almost over already. I've stayed really busy and tried to experience as much as possible to make the most of our time here. I'll catch you up on the happs:

In Bay of Islands I went parasailing with my friends Tim and Sophie, and we had a blast. I had done it once before in the caribbean, but my friends had never done it and talked me into doing it as a triple. So all three of us went up at once, on NZ's highest parasail, supposedly 1200 feet, though that seems unlikely. Afterwards we had some amazing ice cream - I tried a flavor called "hokey pokey" which was a vanilla/caramel ice cream with little chunks of honeycomb in it. Incredible!

Tauranga: I met up with my friend Hayden for the day. We walked around Mount Mauao and had a picnic on some rocks by the ocean, went swimming and bodysurfing in the waves at the public beach, and then met up with my friends Tim and Tracy for a game of miniature golf. We decided to play teams - America verses the South Pacific (Tracy and Hayden from AU and NZ respectively). America lost, Tim and I are sorry to admit. But it was tons of fun anyway, of course.

Auckland: I went out to breakfast with friends and had some great eggs benedict at a little cafe. Then the four of us made the most of our afternoon by going up in the sky tower to enjoy the view of the city, and then visiting Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic World to see some penguins and sharks. Penguins are amazing to watch.

After Auckland things got pretty interesting because of another cyclone we had to avoid. We weren't able to go to Napier as planned, so instead we arrived in Wellington a day early and got an unexpected overnight!! As you will know if you read my blogs, overnights are what we as crew positively live for. Imagine if you could only go out at night once every four months or so....you would be excited too. :-) Wellington's port closes at night, though, so we had a choice to make - you were either on or off the ship for the night by 10:30 pm, when they closed the gangway until 7am the next morning. We decided OFF, for sure!! :-) I booked a hotel room for the night on Wellington's happening-night-life Cuba Street, and shared the cost with three of the girls from the cast. It only cost each of us 30 bucks, and was totally worth it. The hotel was beautiful, the room was big, the beds and pillows were comfy, and we had a conveniently located base of operations for our big night out. My friend Nick lived in Wellington for 3 years and so knows the area perfectly and has dozens of friends there, and was able to take us around a bit. We had a nice dinner at a Thai food place, then we girls went back and relaxed in the hotel jacuzzi for a while before getting ready to go out later that night. It was so wonderful.... and we stayed out enjoying the nightlife until the wee hours, then were able to walk back to the hotel in just a few minutes, have a few giggles and a pillowfight, and sleep for a few hours before returning to the ship for rehearsal the next day. What a blast! The next day Nick took us around again, and got us free coffee at a nice cafe where he used to work. It was a fantastic unexpected couple of days. The guests were pretty unhappy with missing Napier and the change in itinerary, but I am only slightly ashamed to say that my friends and I couldn't have been happier. :-)

Today we were in Christchurch, and I cashed in my shore excursion work hours to take a full day tour on the tranzalpine train, out into the country. It was a gorgeous day for it, and I loved being out in the beautiful New Zealand countryside. We saw a few places where bits of Lord of the Rings and Narnia were filmed, and also got to stop at an old farm and see a sheep shearing and sheepdog demonstration.

And now?? I'm exhausted.....but happy. We are in Dunedin tomorrow, hopefully going to be able to go horseback riding, something Tracy has had her heart set on for months. We'll see if we can make it happen for her.

And yes, I did do some work this week....its not all fun and games. :-) We played the ABBA show again, my friend Mario D'Andrea, the Nat King Cole tribute we had last month as well, and one new one - a lady named Jenifer Green who did a tribute to Shirley Bassey. I loved my part in those charts. Tomorrow we're backing up a pianist who we've also had before, and then later a group called "Emporers of Soul"....which sounds suspiciously like another Motown tribute quartet. We shall see! Alright, enough with this too-long post!!

New Zealand again!

I just finished a pretty awesome cruise. Tracy's parents were on board and spoiled our little group a bit taking us out for drinks and ordering room service for us a couple of times. My good friend Daniel (pianist on the Voyager and my first two weeks on the Rhapsody) was on board for the week signed into one of the crew cabins, and it was great to see him again and catch up. Another of the cast had her sister on board, so I did some of what we affectionately call babysitting - taking care of her while her sister was working or busy. It was quite the social week, and a lot of fun. I'm a little tired after it, and after playing all those extra sets. But I'm pretty fired up for NZ again this cruise. I also realized that in terms of cruises I only have 4 left!! Or course, some of them are pretty darn long, but it'll fly by, I think.

1) 14 day NZ (starts today!!)

2) 12 day South Pacific and Fiji

3) First half Circumnav, Sydney to Perth

4) Second half Circumnav - Perth, Tas, and NZ then back to Sydney.

then, DONE!! Mom and Dad, I miss you and I wanna come home!! :-)

Money, Money, Money....

Tonight is a first for me - we're backing up an Abba tribute band called Fabba. I have to say, I've never played an Abba tribute show before... After the show we have two big band sets, which will make it quite a long night for us. Everyone is hoping that we will get our missing band back this Sydney so that the craziness can end. Its been a very busy cruise for us, we've even had a couple of surprise sets thrown at us at the last minute because someone in another band was feeling sick. I'm ready for a return to normalcy.... I really don't mind the hours, its just that playing a rehearsal and two shows full out is about all a brass player should realistically be doing, and its a little painful to push yourself to do two more big band sets after a show. Hopefully this is the last time we'll have to do it.

Fun fact: when the Philippinos on board play fooseball, the losers have to crawl under the table. Its entertaining to watch.

Stormy Weather

Today we're shaking hands with tropical cylone Vania, as it heads south and we head north. Its been some of the highest swells and rockiest seas I've experienced in quite a while. You know things are bad when someone has gaffer-taped your music stand to the stage.

I spent most of the day on deck 2 aft where is is less rocky - about half a dozen of us were just camped out there, drinking tea and playing card games all afternoon to entertain ourselves. We've got one more show to get though tonight, followed by a big band set. We're down a band this cruise, so everyone is covering extra sets.

We've switched our itinerary around a bit due to the cyclone, and I'm hopeing that the only recently re-opened after being evacuated Noumea will be in working order for us. Exciting times here on board!

Signs you might be an Australian Guest Entertainer:

-At some point you feel it necessary to test the cheer: "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" to hear the audience's answering "oy, oy, oy!!"

-You absolutely must include Elvis songs to some degree, whether its just singing one or full on impersonation, and usually finish with American Trilogy.

-You MUST perform either "I still call Australia Home" or "I am Australia" and possibly both if you think you have an overly patriotic crowd.

-If you're a female you probably include a medley of Edith Piaf stuff.

-You think if would be a good idea to include a tribute to Andre Rieu.

-You perform "The Devil went down to Georgia" but feel it necessary to change the lyrics so they pertain to Oz instead of the American South.

-You probably don't even live in Australia anymore, but in Vegas, New York, or London.

Tazzy (Tasmania)

Tasmania is one of Australia's 6 states, something I didn't realize before this contract. Last week we made the journey from Melbourne across the Bass Straight to visit Tasmania, known by mainlanders as being a bit backwards and behind in the times - a place for rednecks if you will. The land reminded me of New Zealand a little bit, with a whole lot of countryside, except not as many sheep. Our first stop was in a little town on the northern coast called Burnie. I took a tour with shore excursions up to see Cradle Mountain - one of the famous sights in the area. It was a beautiful drive. On the way back we stopped in Sheffield, a tiny one-street town famous for its murals all around town. I had some fresh raspberries and fresh bakes bread while I was there, which was great, and even managed to smuggle some back on board to share with my friends.

The next two days we spent in Hobart, the capital of Tazzy. Phil, one of the dancers, lived and worked in the city for a few months and so acted as a tour guide for about 8 of us. We rented a van and drove all around the surrounding areas. We did the Tahune Airwalk - an elevated bridge through one of the national forests, saw Australia's biggest tree (A eucalypt), went on a ghost tour at night in the old convict harbor or Port Arthur, went out on the town at night, and went to an awesome little animal park called Zoodoo. American zoo rules didn't apply....we were free to wander and feed most of the animals and let them bite us as we chose. At one point we were being chased by ostriches, and my hand got scratched up by an overeager kangaroo as I fed it. And it was awesome!! Loved being a part of it. Had some great food too....it was all around a fantastic experience, and amazingly everything we had planned went off without a hitch. Isn't it great when your plans actually go as you planned and you don't have to stress?? Fantastic.