Homeward Bound

So yesterday the airline emails us to say there was a planned 24 hour strike on March 24 by the Australian Border authorities, which handles both the immigration exit process as well as the security screening.  We were advised to allow extra time at the airport, as in a minimum of three hours, preferably four.  Our flight was scheduled for 10:30 and it is 30 minutes to the airport without traffic, double that if there is traffic.   We decide to set the alarm for five a.m.   

Last night we checked again, and the strike has been called off. But we decide to allow for traffic, so moved the alarm to 5:30.  Naturally, we both awoke early at 3:30 and never really got back to sleep.  Up, shower, eat and called the Uber driver at 6:30.  Three minutes to get picked up.  At the airport a few minutes before 7.  A little confusion finding the right check-in line, but the gate agents were very proactive and kept pulling people out of the general line to take them to temporarily unused gates in the group and status sections.  Then it was through immigration and the security screening where there were lots of people and no lines.  The upshot is we got through all this by 7:30.  Qantas has delayed the plane one hour, probably because of the now-cancelled strike, so we have three hours to kill here at the airport before we even board.  The gate isn't even open for passengers yet.  But it's better sitting here and waiting than being in traffic or standing in line.

It's now 8 am Thursday here in Sydney.  We are due to land in LAX at 6:45 am, also on Thursday.  Because of the International Date Line, we land five hours before we take off.  Next post should be from LAX, in oh, 20 hours or so. 😄

Catching back up

We've been in Sydney for two days now. Done the usual touring, and no big surprise, on our official tour day (which was a half-day tour around the entire area) was during a monsoon type rain.

So we saw Mrs. Macquarie's chair, Bondi Beach, and the Sydney harbor bridge in the pouring rain. Makes for some very interesting and different photo ops.

Yesterday evening we had a tour of the Sydney Opera House, ate dinner there along the waterfront and then saw Barber  of Seville.  Very well done, and funny, too.

Today we took the ferry over to Manly, getting us some great views and a beach town all on the same trip.  Manly reminds us of Balboa. It's a short ferry ride away, but vastly different than citified Sydney and the power-suited.

And from the ferry we got some great views of the harbor, the bridge, the Opera House and the Diamond Princess which is back in port today.

Tonight we pack, for we return tomorrow. And we need to get to the airport extra early as the border immigration department is on strike for 24 hours.  Wish us luck!

Back to Sydney

We can hardly believe we have only been on the land tour portion for four days.  It seems like ages ago that we left the ship and headed to Port Douglas.

This morning at Ayers Rock we had the luxury of sleeping in until 7:30.  Naturally we both woke far earlier than that, given the early wake-up calls of the last four days.  However, we had a late breakfast, lazed around the resort for an extra hour, packed up our bags and then departed for the airport.  It was another day of hurry up and wait.  Our meeting time in the lobby was supposed to be 11:40, but we were early, as we had to be out of the rooms by 10, and they did have free wifi in the lobby, so everyone was there plenty early.  The bus loaded up and we departed at 11:32.  Good thing, even though the drive to the airport was only eight minutes, our check-in and security process for 99 people took a little over an hour.  Then it was to the plane, and off we went, right on time.  But when we got close to Sydney, air traffic control put us into a holding pattern for about 30 minutes( be issue of weather, more RAIN) and we eventually landed, found everyone's luggage, boarded the bus and whisked to the hotel.

We pretty much threw our bags into the room, and dashed through the rain to find a place to eat dinner.  Being Sunday night, many places were closed, but we wandered throu the rain until we heard music, followed the sound and found a little bar with casual food and sat down.

Weather forecast for tomorrow, when we have our city tour, is even more rain.  Of course.  We are researching indoor activities, but have pulled out our umbrellas and raincoats for tomorrow afternoon.  More rain, although perhaps decreasing on Tuesday, and then we hope to see sunshine in Sydney on Wednesday, the day before we head home.

View out the window of the bar.

And this is the interior

Ayers, Kata Tjuta and Dinner under the stars

We had another long day today, starting with a view of the sunrise at Ayers Rock, a hike to a waterhole at the base, a visit to the cultural center for a demonstration of Aboriginal life, and then a wonderful dinner in the outback under the stars followed by a short astronomy session of the southern skies.  It is now rather late and I will close with some of today's photos.

Cave art at the Rock

Kata Tjuta which is even older than Ayres Rock

Dinner view

What a difference a great Tour Guide makes

Throughout our land tour in Australia we have been on one of three large tour buses each with their own tour guide. Our guide happens to be named Ann. We knew she was a keeper from the very start when she showed her prowess getting us to the airport even though we were late departing the ship. We never realized how terrific she really is until we had to suffer through the, well, feeble attempts of Anya and Dorit.  Whom I have named Little Bo Peep and Wombat.  

Through a mix-up from Princess, 19 people had to leave early this morning to go to Ayres Rock. As in 4:30 AM early.  Ann was assigned to accompany this group. After what we went through with the other two, I really wish we had been "stuck" in the early group.  Our flight was delayed, which I know the tour guides have no control over. But what they did  have control over was how we spent our time.  Their 'ingenious' solution was to just sit in the airport. Even after being asked by several people if maybe they could do something small to give us a diversion on the way to the airport, all we were told was no no no and things like "do you think the tour bus can just go anywhere?".

So after we finally arrived several hours late in Ayres rock, we meet back up with Ann who delightedly was able to tell us not only can tour buses change their plans but that we were going to get an additional wonderful dinner tomorrow night under the stars as 'a kiss and make up' present from Princess for all the delays and poor planning.  Of course, it was Ann who made it all happen, while Bo Peep and Wombat actually called her a liar because she did.  

Here's a picture of the fabulous Ann serving us champagne and snacks for our sunset view.

Oh, and one more thing we made it to Ayres Rock, got to drive all around it and watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy, so there wasn't too much in the way of color change, but I can see that it is probably very similar to our Sandia Mountain.  And the red dirt looks exactly like Jemez.  Jus' sayin'😀

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

Just heard on the news that the last 24 hours in this area had "a quarter of a meter of rain'.  In American terms that is 9.8 inches, or about the total annual rainfall at home.

Today after breakfast we headed out wondering if the constant rain and thunder would impact our scheduled tour at the reef.  Hoping for the best, we boarded a large catamaran holding about 200 people, and through the rain we headed for the reef, about 30 miles out.  This took about an hour and a half, where we arrived at a permanent anchored pontoon facility holding snorkel and dive equipment, a kitchen, a variety of seating areas, showers, several semi-submersible boats and even a helipad with helicopter.

As you can see, it is located right up next to Agincourt reef, which made it a marvelous location for snorkeling.  One thing we chose to rent was 'stinger suits', which are Lycra bodysuits complete with with mittens and hoods.   This is not our group, or even where we were, but this is exactly how we looked, plus snorkel and mask:

Jellyfish season is not quite over for another month, and while the deadly box jellyfish are not common that far out, there are some milder ones in the water, as well as some stinging corals.  Speaking of which, our resort is on a four mile beach, which even if it were sunny would be totally empty and isolated right now.  In fact, from November to April the locals don't even walk on the sand because of the box jellyfish.  I cannot imagine a California beach empty like what we see here now.  Even with the suit, the lady next to us got stung on her eyelid when she pulled the mask off getting out of the water.  Fortunately, it was mild and just uncomfortable.  Tom and I had no issues at all.

After the expected chaos of 200 people gathering snorkel equipment and laughing at how absurd we all looked, we got into the water and realized we also all looked pretty much the same, especially in the water.  After figuring out how to keep ourselves in touch with the right person, we headed out and found some of the most beautiful corals and a huge variety of colors and types and sizes.  Tom has all of this on his GoPro camera, which is waterproof, but I cannot access those until later.  I still wanted to give you an idea of what it looked like, so I borrowed these photos from the Internet:

Yes, the blue staghorn coral really is that color.

Our weather continued rainy and cloudy for most of the day, but we did get about 45 minutes of sunny patches during the afternoon.  It was wonderful! 🌞🌞. We're tired, but happy to have seen the sun, and very thrilled with having been able to see and snorkel the reef.  It was truly beautiful and awe inspiring.

Happy St. Patrick's day.

Rain, rain go away!

We have arrived in Port Douglas Australia, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.  We were the first to depart the ship this morning (when it was pouring rain) and it looked like our connection to the flight was going to be a little tight, but fortunately the flight was delayed (because it was pouring rain).  

Didn't see much from the plane because we were above the clouds (which were pouring rain), and we landed in Cairns close to on-time, although the luggage got pretty wet when they offloaded it (because it was pouring rain), but we got sorted and on the bus to Port Douglas.  

We are at an absolutely beautiful, gorgeous, lush tropical resort, the Sheraton Mirage. I'm going to post a couple of pictures below, and as you can see, it's still pouring rain.

Great sand entry pool outside our room!

Tom bravely decided to take the shuttle into the town of Port Douglas which we briefly saw on the way in, but I have decided to stay at the resort, put my feet up, rest my knee and relax.  

Tomorrow we go for our snorkel trip to the reef; pray for no rain! 🌞☀️🌞

Melbourne

Well, despite weeks of beautiful weather, today in Melbourne dawned cloudy and overcast.  That's surely because we are here now. This probably was a blessing in disguise as we walked all over the city and took the tram system everywhere else with a day pass.

As today was the Moomba parade we saw tens of thousands of people streaming down to the parade route.  We caught a quick look at part of the parade and then continued on to our city visit.

Tom in Federation Square

Wild salmon-crested cockatoos digging for food on the park next to my bench.

Dragons from the parade

Capt. Cook's Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens

And this is the sign from inside one of the trams...we didn't know rhinos could skateboard.  Just for you, Glenn.

Thanks Princess (updated)

You know that we missed our port of Dunedin and the Fjordlands due to weather.  We've cruised enough that we know these sorts of things happen, and while disappointing, that is just part of cruising.  The company refunded our port taxes to our onboard accounts and we thought that was that.  After all, we have still had excellent accommodations, food and entertainment for two weeks, plus our land tour of Australia is still to come.

The ship is about half-filled with New Zealand and Australian citizens, and they have all told us they took the cruise especially to see those two places that we missed.  Most had seen the Milford sound from land, but wanted to approach from the sea. (Which is not easy in a region that gets an average of six meters of rain a year).  And the Taeri Gorge is another spectacular sight, and again is not easily accessible for many unless they happen to live there or make a special trip just to get there. So there was a lot of disappointment in missing out on both of these on our itinerary; the other ports were lovely, but they were nothing like the scenery missed.  Apparently Princess realized and agreed with this because last night we received a letter notifying us that Princess has given everyone onboard a cruise credit of 25% of the fare paid.  

And this credit already appears online in our Princess accounts, to be applied to our Baltic cruise as soon as we return home and call the travel agent. This, of course, makes us very happy campers who will just have to add the southern half of the South Island of NZ back on the travel list 'someday'.  (Note to Leslie!)

Meanwhile, we are tired from our busy and long day yesterday, but as we get another sea day today for our run from Hobart up to Melbourne, we will recover...and read, attend a couple of lectures and of course play golf and trivia.  We've added one magnet clip, two handmade cards, a bingo dauber and a woven ribbon lei bracelet to our stash of free souvenir junk since our last report.   

One thing I have noticed today, as we sail between Tasmania and the mainland part of Australia, is that every now and then we pass a small cabin cruiser or pleasure boat.  They are apparently out for the day, perhaps fishing, perhaps just boating, perhaps traveling, but it seems so odd to see them so far out from land in such a small boat.  Here's one that I just noticed as we passed by:

While I am meandering here, I wanted to add we have met a very interesting lady onboard.  Kathy was born and raised in Hawaii but now lives in California with her husband of 46 years, Bob.  Kathy loves cruising, takes about 5 or 6 a year, and Bob goes on only about 3/4 of them because he hates cruising.  Kathy is an eccentric gadfly, knows just about everyone onboard and has absolutely no filter, whatsoever.  Fortunately she is a very happy person, and makes many friends, even if they don't share a common language.  You can easily spot Kathy around the ship, she is about 4 foot 9 inches tall, wears a muu-muu every day (adding long underwear when the weather is too chilly or wet to be wearing a muu-muu) carries a cane wrapped in glitter ribbon topped with a yellow sunflower and today is wearing a plush Tasmanian Devil ski hat "so she will be noticeable".  I'll ask if she will allow me to take her photo.....

And she did....

Wombats and Tassies and Roos, oh my!

Today we saw land (!) in Hobart, Tasmania where we went to Mt. Fields National Park and a wildlife sanctuary where we saw the wombats, kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils.  We even saw the sun for most of the afternoon, which came as a welcome relief from the predicted rain showers.

Feeding the very tame and likely satiated kangaroos.

They like a good neck scratch, too.

This is a paddy melon in the wild, a relative of the wallaby.

That's a baby wombat, about 7 months old.  By the age of two the get cranky and need to be returned to the wild.

One of 24 Tassies at the sanctuary.

The lower part of Russell Falls