hello from New Zealand!!!

arrived last Saturday, April 1st here in NZ and a day behind in North America. whisked right away on board the Alvei and put right to work scrubbing sails and painting the hull. since then the work load has increased, we all work from dawn to dusk, monday to saturday, and have sundays off. there are 8 people on board, the captain Evan, 1st mate Jared, his girlfriend Tiffany, Kat the engineer, plus Brittney, Sharky, JP and I who are all regular crew.

so far my days are filled with painting, cleaning, welding, scraping, sewing sails, putting engine parts together with Kat, and basically doing anything required of me. tomorrow i'm climbing to the top of the aft mast to free a block that is stuck. next week i'm getting into scuba gear to scrape the hull. i have never felt more productive in my life! i'm covered in 4 different colours of paint. i have black, white, red, grey and blue paint in my hair. we all collapse into bed exhausted at 9pm and wake up at 630 for breakfast. and it feels great!!

conditions are basic. i have a small cabin to myself. to get on board you swing from a rope tied to the yards from the dock. depending on the wind and tide, this could be as little as a step or as much as a 15 foot swing 20 feet above the water. it's a bit like living in a jungle gym! the toiled (head in nautical terms) is flushed by throwing a bucket tied to a rope overboard and then pouring the contents into the head. no running water, it is operated by a foot pump. we have 2 showers on shore, none on board, so at sea all bathing will be done with a bucket thrown overboard.

getting along great with fellow crew, everyone is very friendly. made good friends right away with Brittney, who I'll be sharing a cabin with once we leave for Fiji. We all take turns cooking. Mostly rice, potatoes, and curry seasoning. Kat makes great fresh bread everyday, loaded with nuts and grains and molasses, which we scarf down because it's the best thing to eat.

running out of time. have some good pics of me working which i'll get burned onto a cd and load up onto my webshots site when i have time. beautiful and sunny today so going to lounge in the sun and read my book. taking advantage of my one day off!

we leave NZ for Fiji in 2 weeks. that's when the vacation begins. for now we just have to get the Alvei ready to sail.