At Sea/Dunedin

March 23-26
At sea x3/Dunedin

We had three sea days to our next port in New Zealand, meaning not much to write about. About the only exciting thing I remember is that the captain was inviting crew up to the bridge as we sailed through the New Zealand sounds, so I went up with my friends, examined the bridge, and got to see the ship navigate the sounds. And yes, Dad, I took a lot of pictures for you.
I was in Dunedin on the 26th with the plan being to do one thing…Paintballing. For those of you who don’t know what paintball is, it’s a game where you shoot paintballs at each other at 300 feet per second, causing the paintballs to break on contact with people and denote when you’ve been hit. It can be a little painful at times, but that aside, is a great rush and tons of fun.
Paintballing today was split into two teams of 9, where we were each thrown into this large pine forest and instructed as to what games or missions we played, usually involving some form of capture the flag. The area was absolutely immense and loaded up with bunkers and wood barricades and a fake helicopter, all fun stuff to jump behind and shoot people. We played one game the simulated Saving Private Ryan and that opening scene at Normandy where the soldiers jump out of the boats and onto the beach, directly into enemy fire. For us, this was simulated by the opposing team situated at the top of the hill while we waited in a wooden box for a large panel to open and let us out. I was one of the unlucky ones this time as I got picked off by the barrage of paintballs in the first seconds of play. It was still really exciting and gives you so much respect for what those soldiers did.
We played for about 90 minutes before the bus returned to pick us up. My team ended up winning, I didn’t suffer any bad paintball wounds, and it was just an all around great time. I’m also proud to say I shot more people than shot me, so that I’ll chalk that up to a win in my book. Anyway, we picked up the bus, returned to the port city, I tried to find a café somewhere with no luck, and headed back to the ship. And that’s about it, Seeya!