The Land of the Kiwi's!

On Monday, January 23 we traveled from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand! And we got to fly in style on a full double decker plane, the A380! This was our first trip to New Zealand and we were so excited to explore a new destination! We arrived in Auckland around 3pm and got to the hotel around 5 - the immigration line took forever to get through. After we checked in to the hotel, we decided to explore the area around the hotel and the port (it was within walking distance from the hotel). Then we had dinner at a Thai restaurant one block from the hotel. We passed a restaraunt that was airing the playoff game so we went back to the hotel to watch the game, but didn't have the channel. We fell asleep around 8pm.

Tuesday, January 24 - we woke up around 9am and walked over to  the ship to work. Fortunately we didn't have any problems getting on the ship and we were able to finish working by noon. We ate lunch on the ship before we left and then dropped the tool bag off at the hotel, before going out to explore more of the city.  Our first stop was a bookshop to add some new books to my library! They had some great books but they were ridiculously expensive, 2-3 times more expensive than U.S books!! After the bookstore we walked over to the Sky Tower, the tallest building in New Zealand. New Zealand is known for extreme sports and this building is no exception. Two options at the Sky Tower are Sky Walk (walking around a platform at the top on the 300 meter tall building) or Sky Jump (essentially bungy jumping off the building). It was crazy to see both of these options in action!! We considered going up to the top of the tower to see the sights, but we decided not to spend money on that. We went out for dinner at the Thai restaurant again and went back to the hotel around 7. It was another fun day!

If you look closely, you can see orange jumpsuits. Those are people walking around the outside of the building. This is the Sky Walk. 

The Sky Tower. 

There was a neat little museum inside the Sky tower with models and artifacts from movies filmed in New Zealand. This is an Orc.

And of course Gollum.

Sorry the video is sideways. This was someone we watched jump from the top. You fall over 600 feet at speeds up to 50 miles per hour. 

Wednesday, January 25 - Our flight home on Wednesday didn't leave until 10:45pm so we planned a day trip to Waiheke Island to tour some wineries. We checked out of the hotel at 10am and ate breakfast at Burger King. We went to the ferry at 10:45am and arrived on the island around 11:45. We got on the tour bus and our first stop was Stony Ridge Winery. We had a short tour of the vineyards and then had a small lunch. We ended up buying a bottle of wine and then moved on to the olive oil tastings at Rangihoua Estates. Our third stop was Wild on Waiheke for some beer sampling and then our last stop was Mudbrick Winery. We were back at the ferry dock for the 4:00 ferry back to Auckland. We grabbed our bags from the hotel and then ventured to the airport on the airbus. We were at the airport for about 4 hours before our flight, but we were able to be in the lounge with free internet so the time went fast.

Waiting to board the ferry. 

On the ferry. Ready to explore! 

Just the two of us on the ferry. 

The view of downtown Auckland from the ferry. 

The scenery was absolutely breath taking! 

I don't think the pictures do the beauty justice, but this one is pretty close! The water was so blue and the land was so green and lush. Absolutely spectacular! 

Our tour bus. 

It was so nice to step off the bus and be greeted immediately with a sample of wine. We were spoiled for the day! 

The vineyard at Stony Ridge Winery. 

Wine with lunch at Stony Ridge. 

My husband sure is handsome! He was so excited all day! 

Sampling Stony Ridge's finest wine, Larose. The tasting alone was $15.00. A glass sells for $46.00 and a bottle sells for $220.00, but good luck getting your hands on one! They sell out before the wine is even bottled. Such a treat for both of us, especially Kevin!

Our next stop was to sample local olive oils. This was also a great treat, but not nearly as great as the wines!

This is in front of some of the natural vegetation and rain forest that is protected on the island. Beautiful!

An adorable little pond at the olive oil estate. 

Our third stop was to Wild on Waiheke where we sampled some locally brewed beers, including my first taste of Ginger Beer. Kevin enjoyed this stop more that I did, but it was still fun! 

A great close-up of the grapes. 

This is at Wild on Waiheke. This was a very family friendly vineyard with children's activities. This is also the reason for brewing Ginger Beer, so the kids have something they can sample as well! 

Our last stop before heading back to the city was Mudbrick Vineyard where the views were spectacular! A great way to end the tour. 

Overlooking Auckland from Waiheke. It is a little hard to see, but it is there in the background. 

Gorgeous! Can you see my sunburn? It was a good one!

Our flight home was incredible!! Kevin and I each had a row of 4 seats to ourselves so we were able to lay down and sleep the whole way to Los Angeles! We got home around 9pm on Wednesday night. It was a long day, but absolutely worth it! This experience may very well be one of my favorite travel experiences we have had thus far! We had a blast! 

This was the safety video they showed on our flight from Auckland to Los Angeles. By far, the most entertaining safety briefing ever! Too bad they can't all be like this! It certainly got my attention!

Crazy to think we were in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and back all in 8 days!!! New Zealand was absolutely amazing and we can't wait to go back!

From Sea to Shining Sea

On Tuesday, January 17 Kevin and I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our flight left Colorado Springs at 1:30pm and we flew to Buenos Aires through Houston. We arrived in Buenos Aires around 10am Wednesday and went to the hotel. Unfortunately, we were not able to check in right away, so we went to the pool to wait for our room to be cleaned. We were at the pool until about 1:30 and then were able to go up to the room and shower. We went out around 3:30 and wandered over to the Recoleta, the neighborhood where Eva Peron is buried. Our main goal was to get food and we were certainly successful! The walk to the Recoleta was HOT so our first order of business was to order 2 cold beers. I tell you, beer never tasted so good! Then we order proveletta (baked block of provolone cheese) and topped it off with 2 incredible steaks! We were in heaven! We attempted to go over to the cemetery (from previous post) after dinner but something was happening and the cemetery was closed to the public. Instead we wandered over to the massive bookshop in an old theater. Unfortunately that mission was unsuccessful too - in that no new books were purchased. We were getting pretty tired so we stopped to get a nice bottle of Malbec and went back to the hotel to play cards - that didn't really happen either as we both fell asleep watching Evita instead.

Our incredible proveletta!

Our massive steaks! Simple, but delicious!

 The entrance to the Cemetery. We never did find out what was going on there. 

Thursday, January 19 - This was the day we had to work as well as leave the hotel. Unfortunately we had to check out of our room before we went to work, but we were able to store our luggage in the locker room by the pool. We had no problems getting on the ship this time (as opposed to last time we were in Buenos Aires) and we were on and off the ship in 2 hours. We went back to the hotel around 1pm, swam for about a half an hour and then showered in the locker rooms. We hung out in the lobby for an hour or so and then went to the airport around 3:30. This was the beginning of our 50 hour travel journey to Sydney (no, I didn't type that wrong...we actually traveled for 50 hours!). For some crazy reason, the company booked us from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chili; Santiago to New York City (with a 12 hour layover); New York City to Los Angeles; and finally Los Angeles to Sydney. Needless to say we were not looking forward to the journey.

Friday, January 20 - We arrived in New York City around 7am and were through customs and immigration by 8. I have a great friend from high school (Ryan) who lives in Brooklyn who graciously volunteered his couch to us for the day, so we hopped in a taxi and and hour later arrived at his Brooklyn apartment - the traffic was horrible! We went out to breakfast with Ryan and his roommate and then Ryan had to go to work :(. We stayed at the apartment and napped and showered before we had to go back to the airport. We left the apartment at 4 and got to the airport at 5 for our 6:30 flight (each taxi ride should have only been about 25 minutes but we hit rush hour each direction). We then traveled another 22 hours and arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning around 9:30am. It was a long 2 days of travel, but could have been much worse if it weren't for our lovely outing in the city!!

Unfortunately, I have become a horrible blogger and I forgot to take a picture with our lovely host for the day. I will try to do better!

Sunday, January 22 - We went straight to the hotel from the airport and fortunately we were able to check in right away. We went to the ship around noon and were done around 2. We went back to the hotel and then went out and did some shopping. We went to the Haymarket and the bookstore and then relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the evening.

It was such a beautiful day! 

TO BE CONTINUED....

The Land of Oz

This post will primarily be just photos, only because it has been over 3 months since the trip and it is hard to remember all the details!

On November 16, Kevin and I had an overnight trip to Baltimore before flying to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney on Saturday, November 19 and were unable to check into our hotel so we walked over to Darling Harbour and ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We checked into the hotel around 1pm, took a long nap and then went to the harbour that evening to watch the fireworks. We inspected the ship on Sunday morning did some shopping Sunday afternoon and crashed early Sunday evening.

Waiting for the fireworks in Darling Harbour. 

Pretty spectacular!

This one turned out awesome! 

What trip to Sydney is complete without a photo of the opera house??

On Monday morning we flew to Brisbane, Australia. This was our first time in Brisbane, so we decided to visit one of Brisbane's major tourist attractions, The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Of all the places we have been to see koala's, this is the only one in which you can actually hold and cuddle a koala. This is something I have wanted to do since our first trip to Australia in 2008, so I was super excited to finally get the opportunity. We checked-in to our hotel, got directions to the sanctuary and arrived there around 2pm. The park had over 130 Koala's and a large area to hand feed kangaroo's. We had a great time and I can now check off cuddling a Koala from my bucket list! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some dinner (our hotel room had a kitchen, so we were able to do some minor cooking) and called it an early night. We inspected the ship on Tuesday morning and did some shopping that afternoon, before we went back to the hotel to pack our bags for our early morning flight. We didn't have too much time to explore Brisbane, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves while we were there! We flew home on Wednesday, just in time for Thanksgiving on Thursday!

On the bus to the Koala Sanctuary. 

The entrance.

It's a tough life as a Koala!

The Koala's were everywhere! This was right by the picnic tables where we ate lunch.

They are just so stinking cute! 

Feeding the Roo's!

Such a great experience! This was the second time we were able to feed the kangaroo's like this, but it never gets old! Their teeth are very interesting. 

They were everywhere, and got rather ticked if you didn't feed them...hence my lovely expression! 

I like this one!

SOOO AWESOME!! He smelled like Eucalyptus and so did I for the rest of the day! 

See how sharp the claws are!?! Apparently Koala's can be pretty nasty. I think this is why most places don't let you hold them, let alone touch them. Such and incredible experience!  I could have cuddled this little guy all day!

On our way out, we passed the nursery and saw these adorable babies! 

This picture gives you a much better view of the size difference. Can I have one!?!

Apparently it is a tough life for a wallaby too! So comfortable!

Brilliance of the Seas Part 3

After our exciting detour to the Emergency Room, our trip got even better (please sense some sarcasm in that statement)! We got to the airport on Saturday to continue our journey back to the Brilliance and the first problem was that we did not have seats together and the flight was overbooked on our 9 hour flight to Rome. This is not usually an issue, but after what happened the night before, I was not going to let Kevin out of my sight. After some kind words and throwing our frequent flyer status around, we were able to sit together and got some extra leg room sitting in Economy Plus! Because the flight was overbooked, we were about 30 minutes late leaving IAD and therefore 30 minutes late arriving in Rome. When we got to Rome, we had to find our bags, which were shockingly on the carousel with all the other bags from our flight (well 2 of the 3 bags– that’s right, Kevin was missing his bag with ALL of his clothing). We were told that for some reason the bag was checked all the way to our final destination and we could claim it there – Great, Right? It would have been great if we had made it to our final destination, but unfortunately that didn’t happen!! By the time we figured out our bag situation, and moved from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, we only had 25 minutes to check-in, get through security, and get to our gate – obviously that wasn’t going to happen. So we went to the re-booking counter. The next and only flight on that airline (Alitalia) to our destination (Reggio Calabri) was not until 5pm, putting us there at 6:30pm. The ship was leaving at 8:30pm from Messina (a 30 minute ferry ride from the airport) and we most likely would not have made it to the ship in time on this itinerary. Our next option was to change airlines and fly out at 10:10am to Reggio and arrive only an hour later than originally planned. This seemed too good to be true, and was! Let me note that it was approximately 9am at this point and the flight would leave in an hour. First, we had to go back to Terminal 3 from Terminal 1 and find the booking office. We successfully found and booked our ticket and then proceeded to check-in. With our boarding passes in hand, we walked over to security and immediately my heart sank! The line was like a Disney line. It wove back and forth and no end was in sight. We finally got into a line for one of the 10 or so scanners and right before we reached the end of the line one scanner broke. Of course this caused everyone from that line to come over to our line and our hopes of making the flight were shot! If you have never been to Italy or had much interaction with Italians you probably can’t imagine the chaos and pushiness we encountered. Everyone seemed to think their flight was the most important and they would miss it if they did not push to the front. I remember looking at my watch with 15 minutes until the plane left – not boarded, but left - and we were still not through the mess. I finally made it through (Kevin was a few people behind me) and sprinted to the gate. When I got there, the agent informed me that we had missed it by 5 minutes! AHHH!! I couldn’t believe it, and at this point Kevin and I were both LIVID!! They told us where to pick up the 2 bags we had, and we were back to square one. I collected the bags while Kevin attempted, without success, to get a refund on our ticket and make plans for another flight. After some research, we decided to take a flight from Rome to Milan and Milan to Reggio, putting us there around 5pm – still cutting is close, but worth a shot. When we went to purchase the tickets, they were no longer available! What more could go wrong!!! The very kind agents back at Alitalia suggested we fly into the Catania airport and take a 1 hour train ride to Messina. This was a great suggestion, but would not allow us to claim Kevin’s luggage in Reggio. We weighed our options and finally decided to for-go the bag and just try to get to the ship. So we booked our ticket to Catania, leaving Rome at 1:40 and arriving at 3:30. We finally got out of Rome, but were still apprehensive of what was to come. Once we had claimed our luggage, we went to the tourism office and were told we could take a bus directly to Messina so we booked our ticket. We missed the 3:45 bus by about 5 minutes and the next bus didn’t leave until 5:10, so we had some time to eat some pizza – probably the best pizza I have ever eaten – and then wait. We got on the bus with no problems, drove for about 90 minutes and were dropped of at the train station that was within walking distance of the ship. We finally got to the ship around 7pm with 90 minutes to spare before departing (this was about 8 hours later than we planned, but we actually made it). I honestly didn’t think we were ever going to get to the ship! Around 7:30, 30 minutes after we signed-on to the ship, Kevin got a phone call and was informed that his luggage was at Reggio. Instead of risking the chance that the bag would not make it to the ship in an hour (which was highly unlikely) Kevin opted to have his bag delivered back to Colorado Springs. We shall see if that actually happens. Kevin does not have high hopes of ever seeing that bag again, but I am optimistic!

After we settled in our room and showered, we had dinner in the Windjammer, watched the headliner show in the theatre (a comedic violinist), and finished the evening watching Dancing with the Stripes – the ships version of Dancing with the Stars. It was an incredibly long day, well 2 days really, so we called it a night around 11pm. We were just happy to have actually made it to the ship!

We woke up around 8am on Monday morning, because we had a meeting with the environmental specialist on the ship. The meeting was quick and easy and we were able to start working by 9am (although we didn’t). We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Windjammer and then went back to sleep until noon. We went up to the rock wall at noon and removed the holds on the top 3 meters of the wall and then quickly powerwashed the wall again. Fortunately most of the prep work was done when we started this job in August, so we didn’t have much to do this time. We were back in the room around 2pm and slept again until about 7. We showered and then Richard (the sports supervisor) met us at the room before we all went out on the ship together. We had dinner in the Windjammer again, and then went to the Schooner Bar for drinks and Piano Bar Entertainment with Paul O’Shea. His entertainment never gets old! Around 10pm we went out to the centrum for the 70’s dance party. Sadly, Richard didn’t have to dance this time, but we still enjoyed watching others dance…I even joined in for a while! We finished the night in Starquest and parted ways around 12:45am. Kevin and I decided to grab a midnight snack at the Seaview Café, and took our snack to go as they were just closing down for the night. It was a nice and relaxing day before the painting began!

On Tuesday, we waited about 24 hours for the wall to dry from the powerwash the day before, and didn’t get started painting until about 11:30am. We (well Kevin) painted until 2:30 and then took a quick lunch break. We got back to work an hour or so later, but were forced to stop working at 5:30 because the sun had set and it was extremely difficult to see what we were painting. We were hoping to finish painting all in one day, but no such luck!

Beginning of painting, Day 1.

End of Day 1.

I snapped this picture while Kevin was finishing up....Still shocked that I actually captured something so beautiful!

And a close up of the above picture! Love it!

Because Kevin's bag was lost, he had to wear my pants! Richard supplied Kevin with some new shirts and I provided the pants. I thought it was rather entertaining. 

On Wednesday, the ship passed through the Suez Canal! We woke up around 9am and ate breakfast in the Windjammer. The ship started through the canal around midnight and was almost half-way through when we woke up on Wednesday morning. We saw the ship exit from the upper part of the canal into the Great Bitter Lake - a holding point for all of the ships waiting to go north and south. We waited in the Great Bitter lake for about 3 hours before entering the last one-way section of the canal. In total, it took about 15 hours for our ship to pass through the entire canal. Meanwhile, we finally finished painting the wall!! We finished everything around 1pm, but the coat of paint we put on the wall earlier in the morning had been thinner than what we ended up with, so we had to do some patch work around 4pm. We ate dinner at the Windjammer that evening and then went to the juggling show in the theater. We were able to spend some more time with Richard during the show, and again later that evening at the White Party. We were so happy to finally be done painting!!

The front of our convoy entering the Great Bitter Lake. 

Our first daytime glimpse of the Suez Canal!

Ships in holding in the Great Bitter Lake.

More ships waiting for their turn to pass through the last half of the Suez Canal.

Beginning of Day 2. 

Going through the last half of the Suez Canal. It was amazing how different each side of the Canal was. The European side was lush and green, where as the Asian side was completely barren. 

Our convoy leaving the canal. 

Exiting the canal 15 hours after we entered. The city behind us is surprisingly called Suez! 

The end of painting...Or so we thought! If you look very closely at the top left of this photo you can see some color differences. This was when we realized we had to do a few touch-ups.

Finally DONE!! For real this time! 

The final product, minus the last few holds at the top. 

It's about time we took a picture of the 3 of us! 

We woke up around 9am on Thursday and went up to the wall to finish putting the few holds back up that we had to remove. We worked for about an hour and then were finally finished! The ship docked in Aqaba, Jordan right next to Eliat, Israel. I wished we could have gone to Israel so bad!! We had to be out of our room around 11 that morning so we packed our bags and stored them in Richard's office. We ate some lunch at the Seaview Cafe and then relaxed on the ship until about 2pm. Our flight left Aqaba at 6:30 that evening so we went to the airport around 2pm. We had no idea the airport would consist of only 2 gates and that we would not be able to enter the airport until 2 hours before our flight. So we sat in the lobby and waited very patiently to check-in and wait some more. We flew from Aqaba to Amman and had a 6 hour layover with the same situation - we could not enter the airport until 2 hours before our flight left. So we waited in the lobby until 11pm (with horrible bathroom facilities and no where to get anything to eat). It was absolutely miserable. Our next flight was from Amman to Frankfurt, where we waited another another 5 hours before flying to Chicago. Our layover in Chicago was 5 hours before we finally flew home. In total, we traveled for 40+ hours that day! Needless to say, we were exhausted and incredibly happy to be home, out of airports and off of airplanes!!

Looking out at Eliat, Israel from the port in Aqaba, Jordan. It always surprises me how close Israel is to so many countries that dislike them! 

It was a once in a lifetime experience to travel through the Suez Canal and we are so glad to finally be done with this crazy paint job. We had great experiences and met some great people throughout the process, but we are so glad to be DONE!!

On a sidenote, it took 2 weeks for Kevin’s bags to make it back to the house, but fortunately they did return, one day before we were scheduled to leave again!

The Adventures Continue…

On Friday, November 3, Kevin and I left to go back to the Brilliance of the Seas one last time. We left Colorado Springs at 8:40am and flew non-stop to Washington Dulles International (IAD). We arrived at IAD around 2pm and our flight to Rome did not leave until 5:15pm so we went to the United Club to wait out our layover. While in the United Club, we enjoyed some snacks and drinks. Around 4pm, Kevin started to shuffle around a bit. I asked him what was going on and he said his throat felt like it was swelling up and he was having a hard time breathing. He suggested leaving the club and walking a bit before our flight left. Within about 5 minutes he started to have an anxiety attack…in his mind, he was thinking – “what happens if something is really wrong and I am on a plane for 9 hours with no access to medical attention?” or “how difficult will it be to seek medical attention in a foreign country?” With these concerns and many more, Kevin decided to ask a gate agent what his options were. Apparently, there are no medical facilities in that particular airport and the only option was to call the paramedics. So that is what we did. The paramedics (about 8 on them) arrived in about 10 minutes and started examining Kevin (in front of a flight about to board to Montreal). Kevin explained his symptoms and they checked his blood pressure and pulse oxygen. His blood pressure was extremely high because of the panic that had set in. The paramedics didn’t seem to think anything was too urgent, but recommended Kevin go to the Emergency Room to get checked out, and to get his blood pressure under control (apparently the change in altitude and pressure on a plane is not good for a person with high blood pressure). Kevin also thought a trip to the ER was a good idea so we hopped on the ambulance and went on our way. The gate agents re-booked us on the same flight the following night (we were supposed to spend a night in Rome so this didn’t change plans too much) and then we were off to the ER. Kevin rode in the back and I rode shot-gun (I had never ridden in an ambulance before!). Because Kevin’s health was not a dire emergency, we didn’t get to turn on the sirens and lights, but it was still a fun experience (I can say that now that I know Kevin is OK!!!). We got to Reston Hospital and Kevin was triaged because the emergency room was full and his case was not urgent. We waited about 45 minutes before getting a room and then waited another ½ hour or so before the doctor came in. The doctor asked some questions, did a brief work up, and then ordered an x-ray. Another 30-45 minutes later, Kevin was taken to get x-rays and then we waited even longer to get the results. The doctor wasn’t able to find anything obstructing Kevin’s breathing and gave us the go ahead to travel, but to check-up with an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor when we got home. Kevin was still not feeling normal and started to panic again when we were released with no answers, so the doctor prescribed some Ativan (anti-anxiety pill) to take if needed. We took a taxi to a nearby Walgreens to get the prescription filled, booked a room at a Holiday Inn near the airport, and checked-in to the hotel without luggage (our luggage flew to Rome that night without us). We had a small dinner at the hotel, Kevin took his meds, and we called it a day!

Now that some time has passed, we are starting to believe that Kevin may have been having an allergic reaction to carrots. The possibility of an allergic reaction never really crossed our minds in the heat of the moment, because before that day, Kevin was not allergic to any foods. He is doing much better now – although getting over the nasty cold going around – and now we have another interesting story to add to our book of life!