Bollywood Bling!!!

Oh bollywood….I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Bollywood. I know that before I came to New Zealand I had never seen a Bollywood film, however, since being here I have been exposed to this whole new world. Bollywood is crazy and outrageous. It is the Indian version of Hollywood, and just as big. The movies star casts that have numbers in the thousands, and are famous for their outlandish dance scenes and songs. The singing and dancing is distinct and you would certainly know when you were watching a Bollywood movie. They are hard to miss. Now, normally this isn’t something that would be normal on DTS. Our intention isn’t to get people excited about a new genre of movies. But…our fearless leader and captain Jeremy is borderline obsessed with Bollywood. He loves it, every bit of it. The dancing, the singing…he just cant get enough (that and techno music, but that’s a whole other story!) So in honor of the Captains return from his honeymoon, we as staff decided a Bollywood night was in order. And the Captain could not have agreed more! So we began to make the plans, a flyer to post all over the ship, plans for food, drinks, music, decorations, but most importantly…costumes. We made several trips to second hand stores to gather all of the necessary items. Bangles in all colors, crazy pants, and wraps, skirts, shirts, makeup, jewelry….it was all coming together quite nicely. Patty and Lauren and I spent hours sitting on the aft deck on Friday afternoon cutting up fruit for fruit kebabs, and making sure we had all the ingredients for fruit smoothies, while Dahvede and Hayley decorated the lounge for the party. We called it Bollywood Bling, and it looked the prom night with all the girls crowded around the mirror trying to perfect their hair and makeup to achieve the authentic Indian glamour. The night flew by as we laughed our faces off watching the Captain of our ship dance for hours, completely engrossed in the gloriousness of Bollywood Bling. We had drinks, cake and fruit galore and tons of pictures to document this party…with all the stress, sometimes you just need to have a party, and party we did!

DTS Staff...lovely aren't we?

A Weekend Away

Last Wednesday was a crazy day. It was the last minute scramble to get everything on board before the ship set sail. We were running errands, hitting up the grocery store, the op shop, blockbuster, and making sure all of the necessary goods were on board before the anchor was lifted. At around six o’clock on Wednesday night we threw off the lines and made way to Great Barrier Island. The sail was rough, but that didn’t stop our students from watching movies, and playing games well into the night. At about 9 the next morning we anchored in the bay outside of Orama Christian Camp on the island.
The next few days were filled with scary transport rides on our inflatable boat into the island. (we have to anchor several hundred yards offshore because the bay is so shallow!) We spent our mornings practicing our dramas for outreach and making new drama props to use in the islands. Our afternoons were free, allowing us to enjoy the amazingly beautiful camp that has been set up on the island. There are tons of hiking trails that take you all over the mostly self-contained island. Even though the water was rough the whole weekend it didn’t stop us from having a great time! We even had a big party on the ship…more on that later!

Me and Lauren and Patty waiting for a ride back to the ship!

On Sunday we packed up, and set sail at about 5 in the morning. After a stormy weekend, the sun broke through and the sail was one of the smoothest I have ever experienced. The ship was rocking less on the sail than it was at anchor! We were able to sit out on the bow as we made our way back down the coast to Tauranga. The sail was about 13 hours and the weather was beautiful the whole time. The sun was shining and the dolphins were jumping at the bow. It was breathtaking. It was a wonderful time for the students, staff and crew to rest and get ready for the next two months of outreach!

This is not the greatest picture of the camp, but you can see that it is right on the shore, and it is a beautiful, serene place! As you can see in the top right, our ship was pretty far from shore! The small dot in the middle of the picture is the inflatable Zodiac that took us back and forth!