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Location Date Europe 1429743600 South America 1429138800 North America 1427842800 Oceania 
1426896000 Africa 1421539200 -
Location Date American Samoa 1426896000 Tonga 1426550400 Fiji 1426464000 New Zealand
1426291200 New South Wales 1425772800 Tasmania 1425427200 Victoria 1425340800 Cook Islands 1424304000 French Polynesia 1424131200 -
Location Date Cape Reinga
1426291200 Wellington 1426204800 Akaroa 1426118400 Arthur's Pass 1426118400 Dunedin 1426032000 Milford Sound 1425945600 Waitomo 1425254400 National Park 1425168000 Two Mile Bay 1425081600 Rotorua 1424995200 Auckland 1424908800 Matamata 1424908800 Russell 1424822400
A really lovely lazy sea day. We must have been very tired from three land days on the trot because we didn't stir until after 9 and then didn't get up till about 1030!!!! At that point it didn't seem worth bothering with breakfast so we took our Kindles and coffees out onto the rear open deck and enjoyed the warm sunshine.
Very calm weather today as we headed north up the coast of North Island, New Zealand. Clear sun and a pleasant 22C with very calm seas. The capitano warned again this morning that we would have a lovely day today but that tomorrow would be a very different matter. More about that later.
Had our lunch outside too and then went to painting. The first class of a workshop on portraiture. He covered the dimensions and ratios of a classic face and then we had a go at one. What to say…..? Mine wasn't bad….. not particularly human/realistic I fear. Not hideous but not right either. He has a trick with the eyes which is excellent and which I must practice and emulate. We try again tomorrow.
After that we returned to the open deck and more tea and reading. There is a lot of open deck space on Aurora on 7 different decks. This means that it is never crowded. In particular the stern is tiered in semi-circular open deck areas from deck 7 to 13, as well as the full length open decks on 12 and 13. A much better design than the very modern ships which have just a straight stern with cabins all the way up in a wall. It obviously packs more cabins in for the shipping company but the result is that anyone who wants to sit in the sun is forced up onto the top sundecks and they become more crowded with lines of loungers like Mediterranean beaches. It's never like that on here.
The evening news was full of Cyclone Pam which is now a perfect supercyclone and has decimated Vanuatu. Ulp. We are heading that way next so the best we can hope for is that the storm will track south east faster than we head north east and that we will miss anything serious other than the surrounding rough sea….. No further update from the bridge so we will wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
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Fredelinda Vanuatu has been major news headlines here for all the wrong reasons. Many people in the UK will only really be aware of the islands as a name on the label of manufactured clothing items. Tragic that the islands come into the nation's consciousness in such circumstances. The trick of drawing a face was explained to me by my dad when I was about seven. Eyes half way down, nose, mouth etc. Lots of oval shapes used in all sorts of life drawings - ask your teacher to show you the horse drawing trick, based upon 4 differently sized oval shapes. I still can't draw for toffee though, even though I can get a face in proportion and get a reasonably well shaped horse onto paper. It is my party trick for young children - they go away thinking I am such a brilliant artist. All from my dad showing me a bit of his art training........