A Real Roadtrip

Watch out! A 7-hours road trip in New Zeeland can easily end up to be around 12 hours long.

If you decide to go on a road trip around New Zeeland, make sure you have lots of time on your hands! There are lots of beautiful things to see, scenery to photograph and film. When we drove from Hanmer Springs to Queenstown on the 30th of December, our 7 hour drive, ended up being around 10-12 hours long.

 

Beautiful scenery on the road between Hanmer Springs and Queenstown.

 

The road between Hanmer Springs and Queenstown is around 610 km long. If you drive on the “Scenic Route” (road 72), you save almost an hour, cause you skip all the red lights in and around Christchurch. Just a tip! =o) But… taking the “Scenic Route” might not save you time anyway, because it’s so beautiful all around you, that you probably stop everywhere anyway to photograph and/or film and just enjoy the nature around you. =o)

 

Aoraki/Mt Cook, is the highest mountain in New Zealand.

On our road trip from down to Queenstown we saw Aoraki Mt Cook, which is New Zealand’s highest mountain, and it is a part of the Southern Alps. The mountain is 3,754 metres (12,316 ft). The Southern Alps are one of only two mountain ranges in the world than run from the South to the North, instead of West to East.

We also stopped to film/photograph Lake Tekapo. You can see Mt Cook at the end of the lake, and that is a very beautiful sight.

Lake Tekapo on the South Island in New Zealand.

Yeah, you see wuite a few mountains, mountain ranges and similar stuff on your way through the South Island. This scenery definitely reminds me of Norway, and makes me miss Scandinavia. I thoroughly enjoyed the road trip down to Queenstown. We arrived in Queenstown around 8-9pm. The town was full of tourists! Most motels, hotels and backpackers said “No Vacancy”. We were lucky, and when we looked for a motel, a couple had just cancelled their room, which we then got. Usually, Queenstown is fully booked many weeks before New Years Eve. It is a very popular town to celebrate New Years in. Usually, there are around 22 thousand people in Queenstown, but during high season (mostly summertime) the population doubles!

We had some indian dinner, and then went to bed, very tired after the long drive.

Pacific Jewel

Pacific Jewel is preparing for Dry Dock at the Navy Dock in Sydney.

I was supposed to come to Sydney on the 29th, stay in a hotel and then go onboard the Pacific Jewel Cruise Ship on the 30th of October. However, due to an engine problem on the Pacific Jewel, the ship arrived in Sydney 1 day early and late on the 29th, I was told that I am going to the ship right away, instead of spending one night in a hotel. To save money, I assume…

When I got to the ship in the morning, no one onboard knew that I was coming. Everything seemed to be a bit chaotic. New crew arrived that was supposed to arrive a couple of days later, like me, and crew onboard were told to go on holiday for a couple of weeks while the ship is in Dry Dock to be repaired. Other new crew was told not to come onboard for another 2-3 weeks.

Which leaves me… I’m onboard, I will get 2 weeks training with the current videographer / video producer, Mark. After those 2 weeks, Mark is leaving the Pacific Jewel to work on another ship, and train other videographers. I will be left on my own, to figure out how to film, what to film, and what to include in the DVD’s once we have passengers onboard.

On the one hand, I’ll get lots more training and preparation time than previous videographers, on the other hand, I will get no training with passengers onboard and on an actual cruise. I will have to play by ear. That’s ok, but I still wish I could’ve come onboard 2 weeks from now, get training and then start the cruises. Instead, there will be around 4 weeks of training, sight seeing in Sydney, do some work, get used to life onboard and stuff like that. I’m sorry, but I’m more of a person who likes to just work if that’s what I’m supposed to do. Not wait around for things to happen. Although, I am sure that once Mark (the current videographer) has shown me things, I will get quite busy, just coming to terms with my responsibilities. And I can film in Sydney, get to know the Sony video camera they’re using and watch the dvd’s that Mark has done of previous cruises.

I am sure things will be fine. There’s just a period of getting used to things and get my happy smile on and play and be fun with the passengers to get the best footage possible.

As I mentioned, the ship has got an engine problem. Apparently, a ship’s engine is supposed to last a whole life time of the ship. The manufacturers of the engine are from France and they are here in Sydney now, to look at the engine and figure out what is wrong with it. Then they have to repair it.

To find out more about this engine problem, check out the video bellow, posted on Pacific Jewel Ship Blog just a few days ago:

I will be posting a couple of photos of Sydney, the ship etc, in a couple of days.

Until then, take care!

 

New Job!

New job, new country, new experiences.

I have got a new job! It’s on board a cruise ship as a videographer/editor. Sounds exciting? Well, it kind of is!

I will be filming the passengers on board the ship, and when they go on tours on shore. I will be filming different events, people doing ordinary every day things on board the ship, sun-tanning on the white beaches in New Caledonia, or swimming with sea turtles in the blue sea. I will have to learn how to snorkel and shoot things underwater! I am actually looking forward to that! A new skill to learn. =o)

 

Pacific Jewel in Sydney

I will be onboard a cruise ship called Pacific Jewel. I am not sure where this ship has been cruising before, but apparently it is a new ship for this region, down around Australia and nearby islands.

I am excited about the job, at the same time a bit nervous, worried and I know I will be missing partner, home and friends in Wellington. That’s going to be the hard part. But fortunately there’s internet and phones, so I’ll be able to keep some kind of contact with family and friends. Such as my dear readers on this blog! (or the one or two people that visit this blog. Haha…)

I will keep you all updated about the job and all onboard Pacific Jewel. Take care!