Random Musings: Kia Ora from Kiwi Land!

Hello to all in the great, wide world that we on the Ship know nothing about. Well expect for the Death of Anna Nicole Smith and the Dumping of Kylie. You know, the important stuff.

I’m writing to you all today from Wellington, New Zealand. We made it into the city yesterday morning and are here until Wednesday. Apart from visiting local youth and organisations, the main purpose of our journey is to have free time! Free time is all about checking emails, touching base with family and friends and getting some much needed time to stretch our legs and explore somewhere completely different. I’m hoping to go sea kayaking today with a group of people, but we’ll see.

Life on the MS Nippon Maru has truly hit an all time high. With a people powered revolution to bring us all closer together, the last week or so on the ship has seen a real deepening of the sense of community spirit that we all share and people really opening up and sharing their thoughts, feelings and debates with all and sundry.

It’s hard to put into words etc etc etc. I think you all get the drift by now. However, where in the world do you have the opportunity to debate such hot topics as respecting religion vs free speech with men and women from 14 different countries, multiple relgions, different political beliefs and different levels of English. I’ve never felt the sense of community and openness that I’ve felt here (well, maybe except for in the Philippines). It’s truly inspiring.

It’s funny though. Going onto the boat, I, as well as most of the other Aussies, had this vision of having Multiple “Ship Moments”. By Ship Moments, we were thinking of moments of inspiration were we were able to have times of true clarity about ourselves, who we are and what we want to do with the rest of our lives. All of us now have more questions though. Questions about who we are, what we believe and where we fit in the world. These questions are good questions though. If we didn’t come back from a trip like this with questions, it would be a complete waste of the Japanese governments time and money.

So yeah, plenty of questions and confusions here. The Japanese Government have spent their money well!!!

We’ve only got about 16 days left of the program. Time has flown by so quickly – I can’t believe that it’s almost time to head home. It will be interesting to come back to reality after spending so long in this surreal other world. I’ve definitely been inspired to travel though – to have all of my new friends show me around their countries and to see how they really live. I can’t wait for the opportunity to see what we’ve all been talking about and to share some of that with you all.

Anyway, that’s more than enough from me. I’ve added some pictures for your viewing pleasure, that might add some more context. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update anything in Vanuatu, so, just in case, speak to you all when I’m back in Brisbane and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CASS!!!