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When Hundertwasser, at the beginning of 2000, planned his return from New Zealand to Europe, he did not want to do so by plane but travel slowly by boat. Unfortunately, the cruise ships circling the world were completely booked. When unexpectedly a cabin became available on the Queen Elizabeth 2, Hundertwasser was shocked about the fare of 180,000 Euro from New Zealand to Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth 2. He had pondered a voyage with a freighter or container ship on which single guest cabins are offered as at the time when he had traveled with his friend Hans Neuffer on the S/S Bauta from Söderham to Hull in 1956.
His friend Joram Harel, however, able to calm him down, convinced him that he could afford this voyage, and Hundertwasser said: “Good, then I will earn this passage by painting on the boat.” And Hundertwasser actually began work on two paintings as soon as he had moved into his cabin in Auckland on February 7, 2000. A few days before his death on February 16, an entrance into his diary reads: “Painted very well on QE 2 on Smoke in Green.”