Australia New Zealand Tour 2009

Aloha!  Another cruise  in the books.  Here is the fabulous group of connoisseurs we sailed with.  Lets see how the trip began...

The first few days of the tour was spent acclimating to the time zone and decompressing from the airplane ride.  Nothing like walking the streets and shopping.  Here I am in Sydney getting a feel for the city life in Australia.

Here is Marissa my book keeper/sister in Darling Harbor.  This area has a whole lot of stores and restaurants as well as the Aquarium.

Later we flew to New Zealand and took off the next day.  I wish we had more time in each place but maybe in the future we will visit again. 

Our first port we run into our buddies Doug, Steve Wyland and Greg.  We had our own way of acclimatizing by having a refreshing pint.  Ahh the breakfast of champions. 

Here we pull out of port and get this gorgeous view.  There were kite boarders, surfers and boat races going on that day.  Nice to see the locals having a great time.

The first evening was all about meeting the passengers and crew.  Here are Doug and Greg with Julia one of the Dancers and Ali One of the Female lead singers in the production shows.  They also helped with the art auctions.  Don't these guys clean up well?

Marissa makes new friends as well...

I did several demonstrations for the cruise.  Here is our Auctioneer Billy and I during the first one.  We then held auctions for the art on board.  Thanks to all the collectors who acquired art on the cruise!

Of course there were dress up nights where we all got shine.

Jared and Lynn bought this beautiful moonlight painting

Dr. Mike and Dr. Gloria from LA picked up 3 Originals and several prints for their collection.

John and His wife Tracey picked up an oil for their collection

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These folks bought some art and are stoked!

Same with these folks!

Small oils found their way to Toronto, Canada.  A view to warm their hearts and memories.

Wyland and I pose with the cruise directors on board.  Russell, his wife Lily and of course Billy the crazy Canadian.

After the shows we dine with our new friends.  Marc and Heather in the back left bought several major oils as well.  We ate our way through many fine meals.  We even took pictures of them to remind us of the feasts when are back home making our own sandwiches.

Meals started with appetizers like crab and shrimp...

Roasted eggplant with a peanut mint sauce...

Stuffed Calamari.  Then we have our main course...

Pork Tenderloins..

Ahi Tartar..

Eggplant Parmigian..

And of course Steak!  afterwards we have desert....

Fruit Tarts...

Chocolate Éclair which I dubbed "The Crime Scene"...

and Chocolate soufflé.

Now you can see why people love to eat on cruises...  We watched the shows after the meals and usually played a bit in the casino.

Poker anyone?

The days were spent doing more demonstrations then art auctions....

Then there were the gatherings at the art gallery every evening at 7:30-8:30 every  night....

Wyland invited me to paint with the kids club on board where we did a collaboration.

One day we decide to walk into town to work off some food.  We thought it was a 20 minute walk but soon found out it was a 20 minute bus ride through the countryside on the side of the freeway.  Not a great idea...

The view was fantastic but after 7k we decided to hail a cab...

When we made it into town and who do we run into?  Our drinking buddies Doug and Greg.. Fish and chips anyone?

The seafood was top notch.  Oysters anyone? They were 12.90 for a dozen which came out to about 8 dollars.  What a bargain!

Back to the ship we find a picturesque place to take photo's.

Here is a painting I did of one of the lighthouses on our way out.  There were plenty of places for inspiration.

This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Jared.  Big thanks to his awesome shots!

This was the only good day to sight see since the seas were stormy and rough.  We missed the other 2 fjords.  Everyone was going stir crazy.

I tried to see it from every angle I could including other people's balcony.  Greg defines cruising!

We took a group trip out to an Antarctic exhibit to see rescued penguins. 

These penguins were rescued from the wild and treated like kings in their own aquarium.

They even had a cold room to simulate Antarctica.  I've been there and it's pretty close but no cigar.

Billy shows off his Canadian tolerance to the cold before he runs out of the room!

One of our last stops was Melbourne where the Australia open was going on.  What a great city!

I loved the old architecture with European influences amidst the urban jungle.

I loved the trees which gave us shade.  It was their summer after all...

I even found some graffiti that was in the alley ways. 

There was plenty of good shopping to be had in the fashion capital of Australia...

After our final dinner there was a champagne celebration for the passengers.

Look at this giant stack of glasses.  Good thing the ship was steady that evening.

That's all for now, thanks for checking out my trip!  See you on the next adventure!