South Pacific Sea Days

 I wanted to do a quick post before leaving the South Pacific behind, after our many days at sea on it.  I would never have guessed that the Pacific Ocean could look this calm, but we had one amazing day when it felt like we were sailing on a lake.  It looked like a computer generated screen!

Not much to say about this sequence of photos except that on a whim I peeked through the drapes early one morning and was treated to the beginning of this sunrise,

that progressed on to this view,

then to this one,

then to this rainbow sherbet sky that is probably my favorite,

and finally to this beauty, all within minutes.

One night we were treated to an amazing full moon that reflected on the calm waters.  I tried out a couple of different filters on my phone as I took this one.  I can't decide which I like best.

For several days I went to lectures by Tom Vassos, (he's on the left in the photo below) when he talked about space, astronomy, the cosmos, aliens, all kinds of good stuff that has always fascinated me.  He was engaging and entertaining every day.  Can't wait to have him come back on the ship in a couple of months to share more presentations.  In the photo above I'm holding a heavy piece of four billion year old meteorite that landed in Russia.

On the left is a slice of a meteorite of the same age that landed in Kenya, encased in plastic so it doesn't fall apart.  Since I went to all of Tom's lectures I got the classification as a Super Duper Cosmic Geek.  I'll take it!  The following are some quotes his presentations displayed that I really liked:

" We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

-Native American Proverb

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."

-Neil Degrass Tyson

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

-Albert Einstein

A fiery sunset behind Mo'orea as seen from Tahiti.

The moon over Tahiti as we said farewell.

And then there was this sunset that rivaled that earlier sunrise.

The sun's rays, the clouds, the color, just, glorious!

I mean really, does sunset get any better than this?

Just before arriving in New Zealand the bakers went all out and made this lovely map cake to celebrate our travels.  I passed on eating a piece but I heard it was pretty good.

We were treated to a backstage tour of the theater here on Serenade.  It was pretty crowded so I only got a couple of pictures.  Looking out on the audience from the stage is tough on those performers, the lights are hot and right in their eyes.

I couldn't help myself, I had to take a selfie while I was onstage.  It will probably never happen again!

These are the guys we eat dinner with almost every night.  They were all supposed to be doing something weird during the picture, apparently Mark, who was in the middle, didn't get the memo. Karl and Chuck did a really good job!

I don't know how many rainbows we've been treated to on this trip but here's just one more to finish off this post.  I really have loved these long stretches of days at sea!