Halfway through Cruise #4, and I am chock-a-block full of new adventures!!

Before I begin, I promised a long time ago that I'd upload some more photos of my little cabin, so here's me making good on this deal. Keep in mind, these were taken when I first got on, so a few more papers and flyers and lighting gels to cover the harsh flourescents have been added, but it's essentially this.

mmmm....closet space.....

SO! Since last we spoke...

In Dunedin, NZ, Andreas surprised me with a privately guided tour of the city and its environs, which was sweet and thoughtful in itself. The big kicker was that he had retained a tiny bit of information I had men tioned in casual conversation WEEKS before, and hired a private tour in a 1960 Jaguar!! That car was STUNNING. Walnut interior, red leather upholstery, smooth ride, incredibly well-maintained...I felt like and absolutel Bond girl the whole time. I love Jags from the 60s and early 70s, and Andreas really pulled out all the stops for me. I'm a lucky gal. :)

On our tour, we went to the steepest street in the world, which at its steepest, is a 45-dgree angle! Absolutely bonkers. We also saw great views of the city from the surrounding hills, drove through the college town (which was in full swing of orientation week!), and went to the outlying peninsula for ice cream. It was such a wonderful day, and such a sweet gesture.

how sexy is this car!?!

Then we went to Oban, our last port in New Zealand. I escorted a tour that took us out on a catamaran into the bay, where I saw an albatross, a teeny tiny blue-headed penguin (is that the right name?), some really beautiful and rugged coastline, a mussel-harvesting operation (mmm....green-lipped New Zealand mussels.....), and chatted up quite a few guests who ended up being in the front rows of the following shows. How's THAT for good P.R., eh? :)

bad weather, good PR

Then off to Geelong, which I never had the chance to see the last times we ported there. It was a shame that we had a show that day and that it was a tender port, so I only got to spend a few hours there, but it was SPECTACULAR weather, and it was my first time actually swimming in the ocean since I got the ship! It was a sweet little beach town, and Andreas actually coaxed me into the deep water and made me swim to shore. I was shaking and freaking out the whole time, closing my eyes during the whole swim. But he stayed by my side and calmed me down as much as he could, and I made it to shore. I'm going to CONQUER this stupid fear of the ocean if it's the last thing I do! Yarrr!!!

suck it, Poseidon.

Our 3rd cruise ended in Sydney, and I spent most of the somewhat dreary day indoors....and by “indoors” I mean “inside the Sydney Opera House”!!! Andreas booked us a tour of the Opera House, and it was 110% worth it. We learned some really interesting history about the process and the construction, and Andreas got a dash of Danish pride in that the designer—Jorn Utzon—is a Dane.

I am now convinced that all Danes are tall, fair-haired, and stupid gorgeous.

The Opera House was marvelous..I never knew that the sail-shaped roof was actually covered in tiles! And they're made of a material that is slick enough to be washed simply by rainwater. Cool, huh? Mereditha nd Anthony also happened to be on our tour, and the highlight of the whole ordeal was when we got to go inside the chamber music hall (which is still huge) and sit on on the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's rehearsal for their John Williams show!!! Anthony and I definitely shed a few tears as they played the theme to Harry Potter...it was just so overwhelmingly beautiful to be in a place that was so lovingly and meticulously designed to amplify beautiful sounds. As a singer, it was sort of like what I imagine a priest would feel like walking into the St. Paul's Cathedral for the first time. It truly felt like a sacred place.

pointy and sacred

We finished off our day walking through the drizzle around The Rocks—the oldest neighborhood in Sydney, originally settled by some of the firs convicts who were “transported” here from England—and the Circular Quay area. Then it was off on Cruise #4, our first time leaving the Sydney-Auckland itinerary!

Our first stop was in Brisbane, just north of Sydney. We were docked somewhat far from the actual city, but I'm told it's quite a fun place to be. I guess I'll have to see it some other time. I DID enjoy what the city had to offer, however, by going on a crew tour to the Koala Sanctuary in Lone Pine!! It was such a cool experience...I saw almost every imaginable Australian animal...platypus, dingoes, kangaroos, a cassowary, flying foxes, womabats, wallabies, and of course, koalas! It was a nice place for me because it wasn't set up quite like a traditional zoo...the emus and kangaroos were in an open habitat where they could roam around and be ridiculously overfed by tourists like me. :-D

WORTH IT.

We hung out with the 'roos for quite some time...they are smaller than I e​xpected! There was one 'roo down the way who maybe stood 5 feet, but that was the largest I saw. It was amazing to watch them walk, using their giant tails as leverage, and sort of rocking forward instead of stepping if they only had a short distance to cover. And I didn't expect them to be shaped so much like velociraptors! Next time you see a kangroo, check out their feet and tell me they don't look like dinosaurs. Oz is a fascinating place!

Our next stop was Hamilton Island, a completely luxurious resort island in the Whitsundays. It was a spectacular place...sort of like a cross between Disneyland and Hawaii. Andreas rented us a golf cart for the day, and we zipped around the small island, saw the views, had some pizza, swam in the ocean, lounged in the pool, and sipped cocktails like a couple of loaded retirees. It was awesome. It was really, really awesome. I can see why it would be a good place for a honeymooning couple, but for me personally, I think I would go crazy there after a couple of days. Too much luxury and not enough hiking!

not that I'm complaining.

Which brings us to today, our second day in Cairns, which is also our last Australian port day!

The big news here is that yesterday I faced down my fear of the ocean yet again, this time with an oxygen tank strapped to me!

no, no, not like that.

A bunch of us took a catamaran out to the Great Barrier Reef (Moore Reef, specifically) where we went SCUBA diving and snorkeling! We only went down about 10 meters, but it was enough to see some absolutely stunning corals, giant clams, fishies galore, and even a sea turtle and a pod of squid! The sea turtle was easily my favorite part...the guy was maybe five feet across, but was so massive and graceful in the water...that's something I won't soon forget. Our instructor even fed him a bit of algae, and his big beak was so crazy to see in action! I wasn't as afraid during the dive as I thought I might be...it probably helped that I went snorkeling last year, which was the first time I'd looked at anythign underwater in about a decade. So the initial shock wasn't as bad as I imagined, and I was able to relatively relax during the dive. A funny thing that happened...for some reason, my ticket that I issued read “Barrine Linberg”. That is definitely a first for me..I'm used to having my name misspelled, but that's a new one! Anyway, I decided that only Barrie was afraid of the ocean. Barrine, however, was a rockstar in the water. I mean, her name rhymed with “marine”, so she's a total water baby! Barrine definitely won out, and I even followed up my first SCUBA dive with a snorkel outing! I voluntarily jumped back into the water! Believe me folks, that's a big deal for me!

After that ocean adventure, we headed back to the ship to do Rock the Boat, which is the big dance party with the cast and the band singing. It was a fun night, then we all reconvened and went to a massive night clubt hat's very popular with the backpackers around here. We danced the night away and made it back to the ship in one piece, happy and sated and tired and smelling vaguely of seawater and rum. It was a good day.

kind of like a pirate, only way cuter.

So that's it so far, I'll update again next cruise...WHICH IS THE GAY CHARTER!!! AHHH!!! I'm really excited to see how this goes. Mostly I just want to see how popular Andreas is with the passengers....a 6'2” blonde Viking with a baby face? Who could resist? :)

The only other piece of news unrelated to the actual ports I've been in is that I have officially deferred my flight home from Rome for 8 days. I'll be returning to California on May 6, spending two weeks there before flying back out to Amsterdam to pick up the Prinsendam for another 3 months. In those 8 days, however, I AM GOING TO CROATIA!! I've wanted to go ever since I went backpacking through Europe in 2006. We never quite had the time to make it over there, and it's been a dream of mine ever since. I'll be going to Split and Dubrovnik, details to be hashed out soon. I am really excited, and if any of you have any suggestions of places to see and things to do, I'd love to hear them!!

Hope you're all well! Love and miss you.

Ta from Oz!