Back on solid ground

We arrived in Brisbane after a whirlwind two weeks of cruising New Zealand. It was awesome. Hilariously, we were basically on a retirement cruise. I think the average age on the cruise was about 79. Ok, fine...65.

**I would like to interrupt this blog post to inform you that as I was writing this, Marissa was asking me a question about Shane's new job. Marissa: "What hours will he be working?" Leana: "I think - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!! IT FRICKIN BIT ME!!!!!!!" Yes. I was sitting on the couch innocently writing a blog entry and a wasp stung my arm. So not fair! Jeremy came in and saved the day, thankfully.

So anyway, the cruise. The ship was pretty sweet and sharing a room with Shane was surprisingly tolerable! It was NOT relaxing - there was soooo much stuff to do onboard and when we were at the different ports. We went to Auckland, Tauranga/Rotorua, Wellington, Napier, Dunedin and then had a day of scenic cruising through Fiordland. A picture is worth a thousand words, so let's see if I can find a few to help me out with this story telling.


Marissa and I in the water when we swam with wild dolphins. Sadly I did not get a picture of us actually *with* the dolphins. This was her 2nd time in the ocean EVER. The 1st was a little island near Auckland, Waiheke Island. It was cooooold. Tomorrow she will be introduced to Aussie beaches.
Family Christmas dinner before we left. Jeremy made a delicious roast chicken and Grandmaman made tourtiere and petes de soeur. A French Canadian feast!
The first formal night on the cruise ship. Another chance for me to wear my grad dress. Dad encouraged Marissa and I to ride the glass elevator while he took pictures.
Formal night number 2 - Christmas Eve. Note my tacky Christmas tree earrings and awesome antlers.

So the only people on board who were in their 20s were the staff. One evening, I was convinced by Marissa to participate in "Battle of the Sexes" on the ship, which I thought was just going to be an innocent game show where I'd have to answer a couple of questions. This game show was being run by Natalie and Jorge (Hor-hay), two of the cruise director's staff. There were two teams - boys against girls, obviously - of six people each. We had to come up with what we thought the men would say their top six magazines are, etc...so perfectly fine...we tied at that particular part of the show and that's when we moved on to the scandalous section. First, our teams lined up and we had to pass a ball from under our chins down the line and back again. That wasn't too bad. I did nuzzle a lady's neck for a good minute, but ya know...it's all good. We totally won that one. Now this is where things really get out of hand. Things you should know about me:

a) I hate balloons
b) I really hate popping balloons

So Jorge advises myself and the youngest guy on the men's team to sit down in chairs on opposite sides of the stage. THEN, I am made to sit there while the remaining team members of the opposite sex run at me, thrust a balloon into my lap and then jump on it, straddling and bouncing on it/me until it pops. Can you think of anything more terrifying than five men old enough to be my father/grandfather speeding at me with a balloon??? Actually, I must admit they were quite efficient. I was laughing hysterically because I was watching the ladies run at the guy with their balloons and this one rather hefty lady was bouncing away on the guy's lap and her balloon just wouldn't pop. Poor guy. So the men win this one, and Jorge and Natalie say that it's time for the people who were in the chairs (me and the guy) to get our revenge on them for making us do that. How, you ask? Well, I was given a balloon, Jorge sat down in the chair and I was supposed to run and pop it on his lap. Lovely. So I'm a good sport...I run at him, put the balloon down and jump, and he takes the freaking balloon away!!!! Inappropriate!! Bahahaha. And my grandmaman and 16 year old cousin are laughing their heads off in the audience...very supportive...don't you agree? So he tell me he's sorry and to do it again, but this time he moves his legs...so I firmly place the balloon on his lap and hop on it and finally accomplish my darn mission. There was a third challenge, which involved removing articles of clothing (whatever you felt comportable doing...for me this included a sweatshirt since I had a t-shirt underneath, my shoes, and my lanyard with my room key card on it) and making a giant line around the room with all the clothes - the ladies obviously won. My prize for all this torture? A freaking water bottle.

Anyway...I'm sleepy and tomorrow is a big day - ZORBING!