Last of eight days in New Zealand - we sail the beautiful fjords of Milford Sound.  See waterfalls, rainbows, majestic cliffs.  Why is it called a 'sound' when it makes no noise?  So many misleading names.  The 'straights of Magellan' are not straight.  Greenland is white.  'Four Mile Road' in Colorado is ten miles long.  We're scheduled to visit Thursday Island on a Wednesday.  How do these things happen?

The world is naturally difficult to comprehend.  Misnomers only confound the issues.  Common beliefs often begin with an error; a simple mistake that through the magic of originality becomes entrenched in our culture.  Columbus propagated such an error when he referred to the natives of North America as 'Indians' based on his intended destination of India.  It took five hundred years to even begin correcting that mistake.  The Roman Catholic church imprisoned Galileo for asserting that the Earth orbits the Sun, rather than vice-versa.  And so it goes - nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error (Goethe).

This makes the task of understanding the world so much more difficult.  On our cruise, as we visit new places almost daily, we try to resist the urge to see what we expect or believe and instead believe what we see.  Not so easy.  In addition to our ten suitcases, we brought onboard a complete and matching set of pre-conceived notions.  These are further enhanced by commercial hype and 'glass-half-full' tour guides.  So in our pursuit of learning about this world from direct observation, we try to read between the lines, to make our own observations.  Then to somehow assemble these observations into a coherent, plausible story. 

It's a big story.  The diversity of this planet is so overwhelming that it seems impossible to comprehend, much less convey.  On a world journey, the etiquette of our tweet culture provides solace in our struggle to tell a story - a shelter from the onslaught of stimulus.  In the 21st century it is okay to summarize by saying that wherever you travel, people are, on a basic level, pretty much the same.  It is also fair to say that the diversity of human cultures, and indeed all life forms, is remarkably rich and varied.  Taken together, these seemingly opposite statements imply the world is what you make of it.

For perspective, we imagine what an inter-galactic blogger would write on a luxury, six-star cruise through the universe.  Universal Tour, day 54,100:  Milky Way, Earth. Mostly water. Many fish, some mammals, opposable thumbs.  Tomorrow Jupiter, then 1,200 light years of deep space before visiting Orion's Belt.

Antarctica is fifty percent bigger than the U.S., twice the size of Australia, and 23 trillion times the size of a postage stamp.  It has no income tax and no extradition treaties.  A cold and windy continent, it contains 70% of the world's ice, the remaining 30% being found in chilled beverages.  Daily flight service is available from Christchurch in summer months.  Only penguins and scientists live there.

But we are not going to Antarctica.  The closest we will get is to visit the Antarctic Center in the lovely town of Christchurch.  We view a film, see the other-worldly beauty of the frozen continent.  See blue penguins.  Maybe will visit it some time.  In Christchurch we enjoy an afternoon wandering around town.  Beautiful parks, botanical garden, rivers.  Wide, lively European-style plaza. Friendly people.  Expensive though.  Not a great shopping destination.

We continue to enjoy cruise life.  Wonder if the world would be a happier place if more people cruised.  Marie Antoinette allegedly had similar musings.  The year was 1793 and France was in the midst of their revolution.  Croissants and jam were in short supply and the people were angry.  Marie, Queen of France and married to Louis XVI, saw their frustration.  She was a smart lady and wanted to help, but she had no street-cred.  She offered them cake.  It was not enough.  Had she offered cake AND ice cream, things might have turned out differently.

In remembrance of this unfortunate queen, we always eat ice cream with our cake.  Perhaps it is no coincidence that the best ice cream on Earth is made in a small shop in Ilse St. Louis, situated on the Seine River in Paris.  Delicious.  Go there by all means, but don't lose your head over it.

For our first million years as a species, humans were nomadic.  We descend from hunter/gatherers; transients who continually moved around in search of food, and to avoid becoming food.  Home ownership was virtually unknown.  Then, about 10,000 years ago, frustrated by the paucity of good dining establishments, fashionable cave persons began to practice farming and animal husbandry.  They built great structures.  They made tools.  Texting become popular.  They specialized in all manner of skills, each person knowing more and more about less and less.  They opened restaurants.

To be sure, the hunter/gather instinct remains fully intact today.  You must forgive my stereotyping, but in women this instinct manifests as shopping.  In men it manifests as a problem-solving, goal-oriented approach to life, how to get from point A to point B quickly, efficiently.  The interaction of these two archetypes is itself an interesting story and usually best avoided.

This new way of life grew to dominate the planet.  Tribes formed villages.  Villages grew into towns, and towns became cities.  After a million years of subsistence hunting, the human species one day found their population organized into nations.  We settled down.  Money moved to center stage.  Fast-forward a few millenia: shoppers now fill our malls and goal-oriented males still go about achieving goals.  Ancient behaviors became expressed in new ways.  For example, after a million years of scarcity and the real threat of starvation, humans developed the impulse to gorge after a successful hunt.

In modern times this instinct, this 'greediness', shows up in the realms of money and buffets.  Greed became, as the character Gordon Gecko claimed, good.  Some clever people acquire vast sums of money, collecting far more than needed for a thousand lifetimes.  Most however acquire just enough to earn a living, while their greed heritage manifests in the buffet line, where we pile more food on our plates than is necessary or wise.  Alternatively some of us collect memorabilia or beach towels or hubcaps.

One theory postulates that since early humans did not live very long, they naturally wanted to party like there was no tomorrow.  Often there was not.  We generally behaved badly and were an unruly species.  So to solve this problem, some early agrarian communities developed the rule of law.  Along with creating new opportunities for corruption, such rules, along with religious dogma, came to dominate. Thus human intuition and instinct bred through the ages became suppressed, pushed aside.  As a species we have adapted more to our own inventions than to forces of nature.

Today, perched comfortably atop the food chain, we humans now have excellent dining choices throughout the planet.  Established authorities struggle to hold their grip on the minds of once loyal followers.  They are now forced to compete in the global marketplace of ideas.  An increasing number of us can work online and all of us can socially connect via the Internet - that vast and chaotic collection of equal parts information and dis-information. 

So the nomadic way returns, 21st century style, or Nomad 2.0 as we might call it.  On our world cruise we've met some people who have sold their homes, cars, and all belongings save what can fit in a few suitcases.  They are houseless, not homeless.  When asked that most standard question "Where do you live?" they are unsure how to reply.  I live in the moment.  Or, hand to heart, 'I live here'.  They follow summer around the globe like hunters followed buffalo migrations.

Some straddle both worlds - homebound AND wanderer - choosing to travel half the year and live the settled home life the other half.  Rapidly evolving services and technologies continue to blur the line between nomad and farmer and to enable new beliefs, new rules, the emergence of a new moral compass.  First transient, then settler; what next for our species? Perhaps free agent - the self-determined soul.

And so we continue our near circumnavigation of the planet, slowly revealing the wonders of both modern and ancient worlds.  Or as Brigit describes it, we sit on a boat and the world revolves underneath us.  To risk the obvious pun, our travels are just skimming the surface.  We don't stay in any one place long enough to gain any depth of understanding.  Yet the rapid-fire exposure to 67 diverse locations in a short time informs in a more intuitive, less detailed way.  Onboard we enjoy the opposing modes of transience and stationary living.  We stay on our ship, nurtured to the core.  Yet from our mother ship, we wander, browse, capture impressions of once far away places, a new location every day.  We raise our awareness of the world a notch or two, celebrate our nomadic heritage.

All things considered, a good time to be alive.

Feb ?: Breakfast gazing through a big picture window as we cruise by the New Zealand coast.  We try to figure out the current day.  Friday? Saturday?  Hmmmm. 

Fourth day here.  Lovely pastoral countryside.  Over four million people live in New Zealand along with 30 million sheep.  How do they know this?  How to count 30 million sheep without falling asleep?  I suspect it's a made-up number.  That makes me a conspiracy theorist, or a 'mutton-buster'.

The name 'New Zealand' is actually of Dutch origin, dating back to the first European visitors who were Dutch.  Today many of the towns and streets have Maori names.  Others have British-sounding names, such as Wellington and Queensland. The most populous city is Auckland, with over 1 million residents.  It was named 'Auckland' because nobody could think of what else to call it.

New Zealanders are called 'Kiwis'.  Named for the national bird, not the fruit - although they do grow both the green and yellow varieties of the fruit.  The islands were first settled by Polynesians about 1,000 years ago.  They formed their own culture called Maori.  The early Maori people hunted, fished and wrote myths.  A myth is a type of female moth.  They hunted many native species to extinction until food became scarce.  Eventually they had no choice but to eat out more often.

Then Europeans came along in 1600's.  They introduced the rule of law, sidewalk cafes, and forced everyone to drive on the left side of the road.  Today the islands are a blend of Maori, European, and other cultures.  Besides sheep, lots of farming, forestry, plus 16 million beef and dairy cattle.  And of course sailing.  Kiwis are avid sailors.  In Auckland, 1 in 4 residents owns a boat.  Kiwis recently won top prize in the pricey sport of yacht racing - the America's Cup race.

Tomorrow in Wellington, the nation's capital city.
For some great photos, see Brigit's blog at http://anchorsawaygrandworldcruise.blogspot.com/

Feb 6.  Life onboard:  we've been sailing now for 23 days. A few brief stops, though most days at sea, endless horizons, learning the rhythms of cruise life.  Will undoubtedly acquire a different perspective after five months, but should note some early impressions.  Port stops so far have been uninspiring to most of the passengers.  This will soon change, but so far the trek across the Pacific has been more meditative than enriching.  Lots going on in Hawaii, but all quite familiar.  French Polynesia and Tonga are sleepy tropical islands with struggling economies in beautiful but disadvantaged locations.  Pacific islanders can earn a subsistence living from the plentiful sea and lush islands.  These locations score poorly however in the econometric realm of GDP.  One passenger who spent four years living and sailing among south Pacific islands in the 70's describes the current situation as 'sad'.

Better adventures await.  Tomorrow begins eight days in New Zealand, then many stops in Asia, Middle East, & Europe.  Meanwhile cruise ship life reframes the obvious.  The cruise industry has spent a great deal of time and money figuring out what people want.  They could have spared such effort and just googled it.  On this ship we feel nurtured, socially connected, enriched,  and entertained.  I think the nurture feeling comes from the all-inclusive feature. We pay one upfront fee, then everything is included.  No money needed onboard, no upselling, no gratuities.  The power of this arrangement is profound.  We feel like honored guests in the home of gracious hosts. 

There are pros and cons to this arrangement.  On the downside, after five months we will probably forget how to do some simple tasks, such as putting a napkin on our lap.  Lots of upside:  have met interesting people, diverse selection of enrichment lectures, abundant fun and stylish living.  Soon we'll get a taste of many cultures, see many sites.  We garner clues from some veteran travelers.  Five months of cruising and 67 ports may recalibrate our value system - increase the importance of experiences, diminish the importance of things.  We'll see.

Tomorrow New Zealand, sail into the beautiful Bay of Islands, so named for the 140 small islands dotting this bay.  Originally home to bloodthirsty Maori headhunters.  Will visit forests and the tiny historic town of Russell - the first European settlement in New Zealand.  Looking forward to this.