Cairns is a nice size city but one of the noticeable things about it is there are no high rise buildings. These two buildings are the tallest in the city and that is not saying much. One of the other notable things to see is the esplanade but alas I was merely driven by it instead of walking. When we got to Cairns it was pouring. No, not pouring it was teaming. Rain would at times come down in torrents. To explain what I mean I later found out that there was 9 l/2 inches in a 24 hour period.

When we arrived in port I knew that the Great Barrier Reef was not to be seen this trip. I got on the computer and emailed my friend Pat who had arranged a trip to the Great Barrier Reef at a good price. The consensus of opinion was no you do not go there in this weather. People taking the ship tour said it was a miserable experience and should have been canceled.

So it was decided that Pat would pick me up and I would help with his BBQ for some of the kids on the ship. After doing a little grocery shopping we picked up three of the boys and headed for Pat’s place. Fortunately his canopy had been put up again after the cyclone and this protected us from the torrents of water coming down. Behind his house there is a small mountain and it kept disappearing and reappearing.
When the rain would ease for a few minutes the birds would come out . Cockatoos, Kookaburras , Pee Wees. Wagatails and Mynas. Even toads came out to make their babies but I couldn’t get photos since the rain was coming down too hard.

We barbecued in shifts as the kids came and went. Most were on time constraints. A good time was had by all and to a person we were amazed by the torrents of rain. Since enough water did get on the patio floor we just went barefooted.

Later we took a taxi back to the ship since Pat planned to stay as a visitor until late. He would be drinking and this was a precaution so he wouldn’t have to drive. He visited the Crow’s Nest and then ate at our table and we were pleased to have him there again albeit for only one more night. Joan and I at the stroke of midnight escorted him to the gang plank and said goodbye.

Pat had told me about this very lovely lady ( physical and spiritual) from Deck 7 who always throws a party for the crew and admitted that he thought he was in love. Well I did get to meet her last night as she was a guest at our table. She is indeed a lovely lady in every way.

I don’t know what happened but my Sydney post was not complete so I had to do over and since I don’t do well editing (don’t know how to do it) I had to delete but when I did so my photos went too. Thus the photos were posted again separately as I didn’t discover they were deleted until I reposted my message. I know it makes no sense but it is now all there but in different posts.

I did forget to tell you all that Wayne and Pat did leave the ship the second day in Sydney and they will be missed. Pat will come back on the ship in Cairns as a visitor.

On formal nights an officer is assigned to our table as a host and our last host was the chief engineer with 40 plus years with HAL. The beard certainly makes him look the part.

Stein Kruse the CEO of HAL is on board and he is having all the lunches for the President’s Club (I believe 1200 days or more ) and the 500 plus group. I will be a 4 star mariner shortly but that means only 200 plus days. My friends Barbie and Joan are part of the 500 plus group.

One of the members of the Presidents club is named Dolly. Actually those that know her do not love her. She was sitting with three others at specially arranged tables at the very front of the dance floor. I was dancing with James when the band struck up “Hello Dolly” I told James to dance with her to the song and I got to sit in her special place until the song was complete. She was very happy and thanked me profusely.

When we were in Sydney I noticed all these casks being brought on board and I figured it had something to do with our special Mariners Appreciation night. I was right. The theme was a Taste of Australia and you will note how the casks were utilized.

I finally have a better photo of my neighbor. Please note the jewelry and blouse and he is making progress with the hormones. I took this photo of Big Matt and little Matt. Little Matt is Assistant Cruise Director and Big Matt is part of the cruise staff. Our Cruise Director is the guy on the right supposedly stomping grapes . His name is Bruce. Last year he had white hair and this year he has orange-red hair.

The night was not quite as good as it was last year when we had a spectacular African Safari Night. I am not one for going from here to there to get my food. The Australian Gold was a good beer and as it was quite hot and humid I was drawn to it quite naturally.

Sidney is still as beautiful as I remember but the harbor is spectacular. It has to be the most beautiful harbor in the world. The sun was out in force our first day which makes the Harbor sparkle but unfortunately it was not conducive of much activity. The temperature was over 90 degrees. I did get to the Rocks and since it was Sunday The Rocks Market had been set up. Prices were very high so not much was purchased. After two hours I decided it was too hot so we went back to the ship. After cooling off we went back out to see if any of the local stores with air conditioning were open. No such luck so after a couple of hours we went back to the ship. I did find a hair salon so I knew I could get my hair cut.

The next day the temperature dropped dramatically an would have been a great day to do the hop on hop off bus. Since last boarding was at 1:30 it really wasn’t enough time so I had my haircut and a manicure and pedicure. The haircut was a necessity since the gal from the ship had butchered one side of my hair. This gal straightened it out as much as possible and said it would take one more cut to get it fixed since she couldn’t cut the other side as short and still look good.

I walked around the port area and spotted this bird. I have seen them before but I don’t know what it is called. They are very tame.

As we were leaving the harbor a fireboat put on a show for us and it reminded me of 2008 and our sail away on the QE2. The most spectacular sail away never to be seen again. I believe we had three fireboats and different colors of water. We also had 5 or 6 helicopters and a flotilla of hundreds of boats. Four Hundred Thousand people lined the shores. Oh what a sail away. Our sail away this time was great but still not the same.

This small ship is an exact replica of the original Duyfken that discovered Australia in 1606. This ship was built in the Netherlands.

Our next port was Port Arthur, Tasmania and I questioned why? Well I was wrong and we had a great time and was quite interested in the ruins of the old convict settlement. James did catch up with us and kept me laughing the entire time with his stupid jokes and commentary. We gave him a pass since it was his birthday.

One of the interesting aspects of our walk was the dodging of obvious droppings pictured here. I mean it was everywhere. Later we were informed that the droppings were from Wallabies and patty melons. A patty melon is a small wallaby and is called that because a patty melon is considered obnoxious. These animals hate tourists so they hide in the bushes.

Later that evening my friend Tony told me about walking close to the bushes (probably to find a Wallaby) and as he did so he saw a strange black stick. As he bent down to examine this stick closer it moved away from him. Since Tony is scared of snakes he moved very fast in the opposite direction.

My friend Robert who is on my trivia team is from Australia so I asked him about this black snake. He said it was a tiger snake, very poisonous but also very shy. He told me to tell Tony to stay out of the bushes.

I love Hobart, Tasmania having visited here in 2008. It is still a neat city and I did other things that I didn’t do last time I was here. Walked the city with Joan and Pat and even though I didn’t buy anything (except a birthday card for my friend James) had fun window shopping in the city mall. This sign on one of the stores naturally caught my eye since Joan and I are known as the Jay Jays.

One of the new places I visited was the very old Hadley Hotel which is Hobart’s answer to Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Certainly not as posh but interesting just the same. We did have a local beer here with our lunch.

I was quite tired since I had one of those sleepless nights so I went back to the ship for a nap. I did miss the shopping at Salamanca Place,

That evening Wayne and Pat had asked us to dine with them at Canalettos, the Italian Restaurant on the ship since sail away was around midnight. It was a very quiet dinner and actually a welcome relief from our table which is sometimes quite noisy and frenetic. I tried so hard to stay up for the sail away and the beginning of James birthday but at a little after 11:00 pm I began turning into a pumpkin.

I was very ready for some sea days as it is tiring to have a port everyday. It is also very difficult to get a post done so I am trying to catch up today. Tomorrow we will be in Hobart.

After our scenic cruising we did have the Valentine ball. Our same florist from last year is on our cruise and he is the best. I also received this bouquet which is very beautifully done by our florist. This couple was a guest at our table and they are one-half of a group known as Black Tie. Uri and his brother are Russians who immigrated to Australia and with their wives make up this group. I thought it was one of the best acts we had last year and they were great again. Uri played trivia with us last year and he is playing with us again this year until he departs in Australia.

We won Trivia today with a score of 13 out of 16 but we also won a tie breaker since there were several teams with the same score.

Oban is located on Halfmoon Bay on Stewart Island with about 390 people. The kiwis out number the people. Other than some fantastic scenery here is not much there. Very small village but they did have a pub where this photo was taken of Ellen, Barbie, Wayne, Pat and myself.

The next day we cruised near Fiordland National Park with the highlight being Milford Sound which is truly beautiful and worth cruising.

I wish we could have had an extra day in Dunedin.

I had a tour to the Larnach Castle outside of Dunedin pronounced DUN E DIN. Which is quite an amazing building. William Larnach, a Scotsman, built the Castle in 1871. It took 200 workmen three years to build. And European craftsmen 12 years embellishing the interior.. The 40,000 square-foot house required 46 servants. The gardens are considered one of the finest gardens in the world and the widow of the current owner still gives the tours of the garden.

Larnach was ahead of his time and he used double pane windows, a ventilation system in his ceilings and several other innovative ideas ahead of his time.

Before our lunch we went through the Haggis Ceremony but fortunately they had filled it with lamb pate instead of the traditional entrails.

The scenery on the drive to the castle was spectacular and this appears to be a cooler climate. On the way back we drove through Dunedin and I wish we could have stayed overnight. There is a definite Scottish dominance in this area. The city looks very nice and I heard from others that prices were good. I said this before our next stop in Oban and adamantly stated this after our stop in Oban.

Christchurch is the city that was hurt the most during the last earthquake. There is very little evidence of the earthquake as the rubble has been removed. You do see scarred walls where there were buildings attached and a few empty lots where it was evident that a building was there at one time. You can see the scars on this building just above the orange and white van.

This trip I was with Peggy and Marcie. We went to lunch and had a wonderful pizza and a beer. The shopping was not real great because this town was also very expensive. So after lunch we took the hop on hop off tram and visited the Art Center and got a good view of the town.

There was a festival of flowers at the Christchurch Cathedral Square but we didn’t find anything reasonable to buy. Remember Peggy makes me look like a rank amateur when it comes to shopping and finding a good buy.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand replacing Auckland even though Auckland remains the largest city. Joan, Pat. Wayne and I took the cable car up the major hill to the Kelburn District then we walked down the Wellington Botanic Gardens to the Rose Gardens. The building is called the beehive. This walk is about a mile down hill so we, of course, had to stop for a local beer at a pub. Such friendly people in New Zealand.

Prices were really high in Wellington so not much shopping was accomplished. Wellington is a beautiful city and very clean. As a matter of fact the whole of New Zealand is wonderfully clean. No litter and no graffiti. No obvious homeless and no begging. Oh, for a return to this kind of environs in the US.

This has to be one of the best ports of call and one of the best tours ever. The tour to the gannett colony in Cape Kidnapper was fantastic. We drove in 4 x 4 mini buses up through the hills, gorges and passes and the sights along the way were wonderful. One of the prettiest areas of New Zealand. Rugged and varied. Lots of sheep along the way and plenty of black angus.

New Zealand has adopted a program of saving the native animal species by ridding itself of newly introduced animals like rats, feral cats, stoats, etc. Apparently sheep, dogs, cows and goats don’t count. They are hoping that the native bird population will increase.

The gannett colony was worthwhile seeing. We were as close as a few inches away from the birds. They are only protective of their own 12 x 12 inches of space. The fluffy grey and white birds are the young.
One interesting thing to note regarding the gannetts is that they only like to fly when it is windy and they soar. They are a relative to the boobie and about three times bigger. I would say they are also about three times bigger than our typical seagull. Being a girl raised in a rural setting I do know about being upwind and the smell emanating from the colony made that necessary.

I had no time in the city except a quick tour on the way back to the boat. Again I wish I had more time here. They are known for their art deco buildings which they have conscientiously preserved. At the ship we were greeted by vintage cars and some costumed vintage people. More fun.