New Zealand

It has been too long since I’ve written in this blog. I hate that. I hate it almost as much as I hate not being in New Zealand. Last week I saw the beautiful island country for the first time, stopping in 3 cities, 2 Fjords and forced to cancel a performance in Dunedin because of wild waters. Last week I was seasick twice, took a trainride to wrangle some sheep in the bottom of a beautiful vista, had drinks in a bar made of ice, stood atop the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, witnessed an epidemic amount of dolphins riding the waves of our boat, and made friends with a wonderfully charming German girl from Capetown, South Africa, only to see her off in Sydney. Perhaps this overwhelming combination is what has kept me from the computer. Now I must reflect, as these memories are proving to be quickly fleeting.

Both my first and lasting impression of New Zealand is of an extraordinarily clean and rugged land. I love this country. People don’t strike me as much different than in America, just less stressed and generally more peaceful. I’m sure my next statement will make me sound like a fool, but without really thinking about it, I just assume that big cities in less talked about countries aren’t nearly as developed. Like a cute little bunch of people trying to form a cute little developed community. This is not the case. In many ways, it feels like they have it down more than we do. Everything seems cleaner, more organized, with easily available public transportation, cops that don’t carry weapons, droves of people who come out of their houses to enjoy community with one another…it’s beautiful and it’s intentional. It’s enough to make me want to forget my current ambitions and move to where people seem to know how to live well. Not that they don’t have their problems, too.

We pulled into Auckland, New Zealand at about 6:30am on Feb 12th. Don’t ask me why I was still awake, but I’m glad I was. As we floated over a crystal calm bay for about 45 minutes into the heart of Auckland, there was a rare silence among the passengers as they leaned against the side of the railing taking it all in. Mighty cliffed outskirts slowly became dotted with Victorian mountain homes until a coastal city full of life sprang up behind the peaceful movement of early morning sailboats and watertaxis.

Auckland has the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and I’ll be damned if I were to miss out on that...





As it seems obvious to do, we took shots atop the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. I do not recommend vodka in the morning…



Since the trend was started, it was on to margaritas at lunch which only hardened my desire for good Tex-mex.

"Got Milk?" "Beef, it's what's for dinner" The beef and milk industries in America have a terrific way of reminding us to eat and drink their stuff. New Zealand has employed this same simple and effective advertising strategy with a different industry that obviously takes it even more to the point…Good advertisers are always sensitive to their audience...



It’s rare that I get an overnight, thus we crawled around Auckland all night as the hours wore on. We heard of a bar made only of ice and alcohol…so that is where we went. Everyone was there was really cool...







Two days later, Christchurch had me on a 3 hour train ride up mountainsides, across plains and country roads and over wide rivers into the center of the Northern island. There is a wide vista somewhere out there that houses 300+ sheep and is surrounded on all sides by giant mountains. A large heated tent in the middle of the field was set up for us to have lunch and drinks in and was a welcome break from the unusually cold summer day. As the country was experiencing a long drought, the Lord of the Rings lushness I expected was absent, but the landscape was no less magestic.







Fun fact: I randomly own socks that the sheep from this particular field exclusively produce…



On Feb 18th and 19th we entered the New Zealand Fjords, Dusty and Milford. I had been looking forward to this since day 1 and they did not disappoint…









While in the Dusty Sound we crossed paths with a ship formerly called Crystal Harmony, the sister ship to my own which has now been converted into a Japanese luxery cruiseliner still under the same company. The decks on both ships were completely filled while passengers and crew witnessed the ships do pirouettes round each other in the middle of the sound…





Each year, apparently, the Norwegein captains have a competition to see who can nudge the ship closest to this waterfall within Milford Sound. The goal is to dip the ship’s nose into the side of the falls, and if anyone can collect a full glass of the water, the captain will trade him for a bottle of reserve whiskey. Given the drought, no records were set, but it made for an impressive pic…




I was performing a show as we exited the Milford Sound on our way to Tasmania when the day’s perfection was capped off with a sight I’ll never forget…



This is video from one side of the ship. After I turned the camera off, I discovered the same unbelievable sight was duplicated on the other side of the ship. They rode the ship’s waves for about 45 minutes out to sea, as if to bid farewell.

So long New Zealand. I have a feeling I’ll be back.