Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end. After dropping off the MoorSPICE scientists in New Caledonia, we embarked on my final voyage on the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. It was a short transit to Auckland, New Zealand. I had very few marine tech tasks to do as I was mostly planning my six day vacation in New Zealand and tying up some loose ends.
One of the loose ends was a table I had to build out of basically whatever scraps I could find. This table was for the next cruise which was a 40 day cruise with the ROV Nereus. They wanted a table with a sink so they could wash and strain their sediment cores without getting the deck full of silt.
The building of this table is actually a pretty funny story. After spending days scrounging up some sturdy legs and cutting a sink hole in a piece of plywood I went to paint it. I was painting it outside on the back deck, and it was getting late, so a colleague told me to put it downstairs in the hot winch room because it would dry quicker. After a few more coats of paint the next day I put all of the pieces together.
Then I realized it needed some support in order to withstand heavy use on the back deck, so I enlisted some help from engineers and found some plywood to screw in as supports. After hours of hard labor in the hot winch room it was time to take it upstairs to the now chilly air blowing hard on the back deck, and… wait. It’s way too big to fit through the door! Ahhh!
After taking it all apart and putting it back together on the back deck it was time for bed again. I finished it the next day with a water-tight caulked sink and furnished a way to bolt it to the deck. The next morning I woke up and the Nereus guys were already onboard and thanked me graciously for building this table out of the very little materials on board.
So, we had docked in the middle of the night and I spent the morning cleaning my room. After clearing customs I was whisked away off the ship by my friends Damien, Troy, and Tina who were also at the end of their hitches on the Thompson. A cab awaited us and we drove to our hostel in downtown Auckland.
After spending a lifetime total of four and a half months living on the big hunk of steel that they call the R/V Thompson G. Thompson, I was sad to walk away from it. I barely got a chance to give people hugs as I was leaving, but I knew we would all keep in touch via Facebook. My memories and everything I learned on the Thompson will never be forgotten.
Nostalgic as I was feeling, I also was extremely drained and practically burnt out. I had worked 84 hours per week for over 13 weeks straight! Sometimes I felt ambitious and worked more than 12 hours per day and some days I just felt as though sleep was way more important. Either way, my mind and body needed a break.
The wonderful people at MATE were nice enough to give me six days to myself in New Zealand! I did not waste it. The very same day I got off the ship, I also jumped off the Auckland Bridge twice with the 3rd mate Damien. This was the first time bungy jumping for both of us and we absolutely loved it! It was the same place where the inventor of bungy jumping first jumped. Later we cheered on the Iron Man competition that was going on in the streets of Auckland and headed to our hostel for an early restful evening.
After one night in Auckland, Damien, the third engineer, Troy and I all hopped on a bus and went to a small town south of Auckland where we would start hiking the Tongariro Crossing. It is involves hiking up and across Mount Ngauruhoe which is better known as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! This is arguably the most famous hike in New Zealand as it gets over 1500 hikers per day on a 7 mile trail in peak season. However the day we went was not ideal for hiking, so we saw very few people. The winds at the top of the mountain were 40-50mph and the wind chill was near freezing. It was quite a challenge considering I had spent the last few months living on the equator! Our only hope of things warming up was the volcano erupting beneath us which happened as recently as last year! Thankfully, it did not erupt and we survived the cold.
After a long and challenging day of hiking I said goodbye to Damien and Troy and headed back to Auckland alone; they were continuing south on a month-long vacation in New Zealand. After a crashing for a day in Auckland, I got out and explored the city.
Some friends I made at the hostel and I went to Viaduct Harbor to watch Prince William and Princess Kate race each other on authentic “American Cup” sailboats. These racing sailboats are more expensive than the R/V Thomas G. Thompson, and have a lot of history, but the thousands of people that showed up were not there for the boats. Everyone went crazy after waiting for hours just to see these people sail by for a few seconds on their way out into the bay. It was a huge event.
The following days were lazy for me as I tried to unwind. However my 3 roommates egged me onto another hike that took us through the giant parks in Auckland and up to Mount Eden which had a fantastic view of the city. From there we could see the harbor, the surrounding towns, some small islands in the distance, mountain ranges and the skyline of Auckland. Then we spent the evening at Mission Bay swimming under an orange and pink sunset.
The last night I was in New Zealand, I went to some bars with some people from the hostel and we ran into three crew members from the R/V Thomas G. Thompson! After dancing and chatting for a while we said our final goodbyes as they were leaving in the morning and so was I.
The next morning I bid farewell to Auckland and all of my new friends. Before I knew it, after a short bus ride to the airport, I was asleep on an airplane to Fiji. After arriving in Fiji, my connecting flight to Hawaii was delayed. I ended up staying eight hours in a hot Fijian airport, but it gave me ample time to organize the heaps of photos I’ve taken on the Thompson and relive all of the great memories.
After the plane touched down in Hawaii I gave a quick phone call to my loved ones for the first time in three months and then a short cab ride to Snug Harbor where I meet Scott Ferguson, the manager of the marine technicians at the University of Hawaii. He gives me a quick tour of the Kilo Moana, shows me my room and lets me get acquainted with my new home.
My first impression of the Kilo Moana is that it’s 100 feet shorter than the Thompson, but after getting on it, I realized that it was almost twice as wide as my previous ship. My stateroom is impressive. It is carpeted, has a small television for viewing deck operations, and most of all: It has a Window!
I expect that it will take me some time to get used to this new ship. Changing ships is like changing families, if you can imagine that. It has a different atmosphere all together, but nothing to be worried about. I feel like this ship will spoil me with interesting stories and plenty of smart brains to pick. My first cruise is the longest cruise I’ve had to date, 43 days. Let’s hope it doesn’t take me that long to get acclimated to my new home.