Scuba Diving Recap

A main reason for me working on cruise ships is that I have many opportunities to go scuba diving. I had always wanted to try diving, so I when I knew I was going to work on ships, I took the opportunity
to get certified. I took an online knowledge course, did my pool work before going on ships, then was able to get in the water immediately when I was on ships. I took to it like, well, a fish to water, and haven't stopped since. I recently got my advanced license, and sometimes entertain ideas of becoming a dive professional. (I'll squeeze that in sometime...)

Cruise ships not only take me to an amazing list of destinations around the world, they also allow me to build my dive resume. So here are pictures from various dive trips in Fiji, Vanuatu, Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia and Bali. And that's only in the past 5 months.

Fiordland National Park

Views from Fiordland National Park, on our various days of scenic cruising.

New Years on Ships

Cruise ships are in operation 365 days a year. That means Christmas and New Years. We generally hate the holiday season, because not only are a large number of people traveling, with crazy demands and little experience at the whole 'cruising thing,' but we're also missing our own Christmas or New Years celebrations.

So up go the decorations, out comes the holiday cheer, and we buckle down for another Season's Greetings (Australia has a much higher percentage of Christians, and much lower percentage of vocal dissidents, so we were able to wish everyone 'Merry Christmas' rather than America's staple, 'Happy Holidays').

Every cruise, on the last formal night, we throw a 'New Year's Gala' with balloon drop (courteously executed at 11:30pm, so that people do not have to stay out too late). With this weekly occurrence under our belts, we were well equipped to provide a flash-bang New Years balloon drop on the stroke of midnight. The net was rigged in the atrium, the balloons were inflated, and the drop was put on the schedule. The rest was clockwork.

Sailing away from Akaroa

The view from my window as we leave the Banks Peninsula, departing our anchorage near Akaroa. Akaroa is our alternative port to Christchurch, since the big earthquakes.