Serene Wandering

We were in Cairns on February 3, 2025. We learned that the city name is pronounced Cans, with a bit more emphasis on the “a”.

We could still see the Crown Princess from our balcony. The ship did not leave for Port Douglas last night because of raining and flooding. 

It was still raining all over Queensland with flooding in some areas forcing evacuations, causing one death, and the delay of voluntary surgeries.

Given all that, we were not surprised that our tour to Kuranda by skyway and rail was cancelled.  

We waited out the big rain and eventually headed to the Reef Terminal and then the Cairns Aquarium. 

On the way we talked to a couple from the Crown Princess.  Their next port, Port Douglas is a “tender” port, meaning the ship doesn’t tie up to the dock, but people are transported ashore by tender boats.  The seas were going to be too rough for that so the decision was made to just stay in Cairns.  They were told the ship would leave this afternoon.

Our next two days had scheduled snorkel trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the primary reason for coming on this month long trip.  If it didn’t work out, we would just have to plan another cruise, circumnavigating all of Australia, and try again.

We walked into the Reef Terminal, a place to book excursions from a dozen different vendors to a variety of areas in the reef. As a reminder, the Great Barrier Reef, is an area the same size as the eastern seaboard of the US from Maine to Georgia. 

We spoke with representatives from the two companies we were booked with, and another that had been recommended as a potential back up.  The groups all go to different parts of the reef so some may go or not based on their destination.  Our group for Tuesday, had canceled both Sunday and Monday.  Our group for Wednesday, and the back up, had gone out but were coming back in because the conditions were so bad. They took our phone numbers and email addresses to provide information as soon as decisions were made.

A bit dejected, we walked to the Cairns Aquarium. 

This Cannonball Tree attracted our attention.

We saw a monument where an official founding party landed October 6, 1876.

We arrived at the Cairns Aquarium. From the aquarium itself:   “The Cairns Aquarium has been developed to provide a world-class venue for seeing and interacting with the incredible plants, animals, and habitats found only in Australia’s Wet Tropics, a region which borders two World Heritage Sites: The Daintree Rainforest and The Great Barrier Reef. These are home to over 16,000 aquatic animals covering 71 habitats, and 11 ecosystems across Tropical North Queensland. Many animals rely on the connection between these ecosystems for their survival, traveling upstream or down river for food or to find a mate, or even to complete their life cycle. Cairns Aquarium showcases how each of these environments is connected and how the animals that live there are perfectly adapted to these unique tropical conditions.”

We think they fulfilled their mission quite well guiding us through a series of rooms focusing on creeks and streams, river systems, gulf savannah, swamps, rainforest, forest floor, mangroves, great barrier reef and coral sea.

We saw a freshwater moray eel and pig nose turtles.

We went to talks by aquarium staff.  This one included the fascinating barramundi who all start their life as male.  When they grow up, they make their way downstream in the rivers fed by monsoons, and meet the females (a few of which have miraculously changed gender) and fertilize several million eggs in brackish water.  (Presumably those little barramundi eventually get upstream to start the cycle again.)

We saw Rankins Snake Neck Turtles and an iridescent water python.

We watched the Frill Neck Lizards but they didn’t show us their best stuff.

Walking by this presenter, we heard her speaking about a species of fish that are all female.  Eventually one will get bigger and more aggressive than the others and become the male!  It is wild stuff out there!

We saw upside down jelly fish, a honeycomb moray eel, and a longhorn cow fish.

We saw tanks with interesting corals and clams.

Our final presenter talked about sharks and stingrays.  They were grouped together because of their skeletal structure.  Sharks were her primary focus saying they have been roaming the seas since before there were trees on the land.

She gave many interesting details, but afterwords, I remembered the following things.  Sharks are at the top of the food chain in the sea and are necessary for the health of that ecosystem.  They are killed off at alarming rates, mostly because they are misunderstood as a danger to humans.  A shark can smell fish blood from far, far away and head straight to it.  Human blood is not appealing to them because of its different chemical compounds. Sharks have seven senses and when human attacks happen, it is almost always an unfortunate convulsion of these senses.

The fish at the bottom was a juvenile and about one quarter (4 feet-ish)of what will be its full grown size.

There were three types of rays in the environment.

We learned the aquarium is a private company. It took five years to complete the multiple stages of design and engineering involving 250 specialists from 25 companies.  Once done, it took two years to build, opening in 2017.  There are 2.3 million visitors annually.  We weren’t planning on being two of them, but it was a very nice consolation prize!

As we left, I ordered a mocha “take away” using the vernacular of New Zealand and Australia!

We walked back along the esplanade.  

We passed a memorial dedicated to the Olympic relay in 1956 along the east coast of Australia.  

The flame’s journey began in Olympia, Greece and it was flown to Cairns.  From there it went to Melbourne. It was the longest route the flame had ever traveled at that time and was the only time it had happened in the southern hemisphere.  Each person carried the flame for 1.6 kilometers.  The journey took 13 nights and 14 days.

There was some nice artwork along the esplanade.  

It looked like the storm was coming back!

This was an interesting tree but we don’t know anything about it!

Cairns has several free BBQ stations along the park and esplanade.  

This one was highlighting Cairns’ Sister Cities around the world.

One of the sister cities is Scottsdale, Arizona.

We saw the food boats selling prawn meals – think food trucks.  Too bad we’ll miss them because one of us doesn’t eat prawns.

We were quite surprised how close physically we got to the cruise dock.  That was not at all what we experienced in the Westerdam ports.

We saw several more art sculptures along the way.

As we returned to our hotel, we walked through several intersections.  Because the traffic flow is so different than what we are used to, it was safer to just wait until we got the walk signal!

We also noticed these directions right outside our hotel reminding us which way to look for traffic.

At about 2:30 we watched the Crown Princess leave.  We looked up some statistics while waiting and watching.  She has a capacity of 3100 and a crew of 1200.    She has a whopping 19 decks and a draft of 27 feet, that means only 27 feet of the ship is underwater. 

This was the view without the Crown Princess.

We had dinner at Dundee’s, featuring the flavors of Australia.

We should’ve had kangaroo and crocodile satay, but instead we had fish and chips and pasta.

Next up:  We hope to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.

On February 2, 2025, we got up early, as recommended, to be on deck as we sailed into Sydney Harbor.

The Opera house was dark, but its shape was still evident.

The views were definitely worth getting up for!

The Westerdam is just barely small enough to fit under the bridge.

Disembarking the Westerdam went easily and quickly a couple hours later.  We were glad to know that this “mainline” cruise company still suits us. (Holland America is the smallest of eleven mainline cruise companies.)  We have been on a couple luxury line cruises since our last Holland and they are very nice.  We have found that we can go on two nice cruises on Holland for the price of one luxury cruise. However,  that level of luxury isn’t necessary for us to enjoy ourselves.  Of course, Holland doesn’t go everywhere the smaller luxury ships can, so we’ll be on those ships again when the itinerary necessitates.

We have no interest in being on any of the mega ships that Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise lines are building.  

We enjoyed the Westerdam, even though it is a smaller ship than the pinnacle class we usually sail on with Holland.  There are so many little seating areas and bars on Westerdam that it is almost always possible to find a window seat.  

The size of our signature suite fit us perfectly.  It will be our new cabin size of choice going forward.

The single biggest drawback for us on the Westerdam was the World Stage.  Because of the way it is designed, you had to get there early to avoid pillars in your line of sight and/or to be low enough to see the full screen.  Probably only sixty percent of the seats have a good and full view.  Randy had the suggestion that they should move the screen forward for video oriented presentations which would help a lot.  We will add that suggestion to our cruise evaluation but it is such an obvious fix, there must be a logistical reason why it hasn’t been done.

We had prepared for our departure and had our declared items for Australia available.  Remember the shell we wondered about with Australia’s strict bio-security rules? No problem.

When Randy told the agent, she didn’t even look at it.  They also didn’t care about our packaged snacks.   We didn’t think they’d care about those but we’d heard the announcement so many times, we weren’t taking any chances.  The consequences are a steep fine and possible revocation of your visa. The ship’s crew said anytime anyone gets caught, they get in trouble for not making the requirements clear enough!

We went to the airport on a Holland America shuttle and checked in for our Virgin Australia flight to Cairns. Cairns is where you got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef!  

We had three hours to wait so we scouted the lunch options- there were a lot!  Sydney “Gastronomy” Airport included meat pies, something called a jaffle, lots of  sandwiches and so much more.  There was a KFC and a McDonalds but we haven’t been away from the US long enough yet to give them a second glance!  Lots of other people were lined up though!

When we did finally get lunch, we had a chicken dish at Taste of Thai.  It looked good and they had tables available- a valuable commodity in the busy airport!

So, I know this is weird but I was surprised by this twice during our time in the airport.  This is the view as you walk into the women’s restroom.  The glass is so clear, it looked like you could walk out onto the tarmac.  Randy said the men’s restroom was not this way.

Our flight was uneventful.  The plane seemed new and very clean.  No free drinks or snacks are served on Virgin Australia.  Lots of food and drink are available, but all for a price.  

On the flight, I finished The Exiles, about women convicts who came to Australia from England in the early 1800s. The main character is a governess in England who fell victim to the attentions of the son of her employer.  She became pregnant and was sent to prison, and then to Van Diemen’s Land – now called Tasmania. (I tried to get the book finished before Hobart but just didn’t make it!)

Hundreds of thousand of convicts, male and female, were transported from Britain from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s.  It is estimated that 20 percent of Australians can trace their lineage back to a convict.

We met our driver and was taken to our hotel.  We had a very good meeting with our local guide from Globus. We had a mixture of things planned, some that I organized through Viator and a day that Globus had for us. 

We just needed the weather to cooperate.

The Queensland area of Australia was experiencing dramatic rains and flooding.  So much so that even people in the US had heard about it. My friend, Jacque, texted to make sure we were okay. We were told there were four pre- cyclone storms impacting our weather.

For dinner, we went to Hemingway Brewery and had the best margherita pizza we’ve had in a long time.  I had very good beer and Randy had the alcohol ginger beer that we’d heard about.  It was very good!  I had a sip and liked it – and I don’t like ginger beer.

There was a sign as we entered the restaurant that said there was a 10 percent surcharge on Sunday.  It was Sunday, and we didn’t care, but was curious about the reason.  An employee said that they get paid 15% more for working on Sunday and the extra 10% helps management cover some of the extra cost.  (I remember when I worked at JC Penneys in the 1970s that we got time and a half for working on Sunday.)

The Crown Princess was docked right next to the Hemingway Brewery. It was interesting to watch the activity while we enjoyed our dinner.

Our day’s journey was accomplished and the next phase of our adventure was on.  The same was true for the Westerdam.  

This picture was posted on Facebook as Westerdam left Sydney.  It shows that the ship just barely fits under the Harbor Bridge!

Next Up:  The rain impacts our plans.

It was Saturday, February 1st, the day before we left the ship.

We went to an interesting coffee chat – perhaps the most interesting of all the interesting coffee chats!  This chat was with the hotel manager on the ship.

There were 740 crew members on board and more than 500 of them were under the leadership of the Hotel General Manager. That includes housekeeping, medical,  food and beverage, entertainment and more.

He said that they generally work on supplying and provisioning the ship four months in advance. In North America and Europe, that is pretty straightforward.  This ship mostly travels in Asia and provisioning is more challenging.  The Westerdam has been in the South Pacific this year and that is challenging in a completely different way. Australia and New Zealand have very strict bio-security laws and their laws sometimes conflict with each other. (He didn’t address the lack of Bailey’s issue and we didn’t ask.)

He spoke about changes he has seen in his 29 years as a hotel director on board ships.   The change he highlighted was that in the 1980s,  it was common to just open up a door and dump garbage out into the ocean. That would never be OK now.

The manager was asked about being on the Holland America ship, Volendam, when it became home to Ukrainian refugees.  The government of the Netherlands contracted with Holland America to provide housing aboard the ship in Rotterdam.  It was hard at the beginning because of the refugees’ trauma and hard at the end of the six months stay because the refugees and crew had become community.

When a Holland America crew person is hired, they attend HAL academy to get trained and certified.  The company gets the necessary visas and permits for the crew member.  The process takes six months.  Because they are so well trained, other cruise lines, (he mentioned Viking) like to poach HAL staff with signing bonuses.

Ian did one last port presentation- this one on Sydney. We already had our excursions planned, but learned about more we could do on another visit – someday.

Then we watched a program called City on the Sea, which described all the various behind the scenes areas.   We had seen this presentation before on a previous cruise, but went again thinking this one was specific to Westerdam.  The nice thing was, at the end, a whole bunch of the ship’s  staff and crew came on stage to accolades and cheers.

We were invited to a final Mariner Society lunch. We are three star Mariners. When we get to four star,  we will be able to eat at a table with an officer and hear his or her story.  We look forward to that.  We have one more cruise as three star and then will make four star.

Instead, the cruise director and captain had a brief chat right next to our table.

This lady, Roice, had a smiling face every time we walked into the main dining room. It was amazing how fast she learned names! We’d love to run into her again someday on another “dam” ship!

Randy ordered beef and I ordered halibut for lunch. Yes, halibut is fish but I had heard that halibut was a decent fish for people who don’t like fish. It was OK. It had good texture and tasted just a little like fish. It was free, and I wasn’t very hungry, so it didn’t hurt me to try it.. I won’t have it again.

Randy went to his last Mixology class, which he thoroughly enjoyed. I went back to the cabin to begin packing.  

The scales were out, so people can weigh their luggage to meet airline limitations

We went to one last educational lecture with Ian.  This one was about the treatment of the aboriginal people in Australia. He said to consider the aboriginal peoples much like the peoples all over Africa.  They spoke different languages, lived in different areas and had their own customs.  The aboriginal population was mostly killed off by colonists and their diseases. 

In 2008,  the Australian government issued a formal document of apology.  The Australian government is making a specific point to own their history with regard to indigenous peoples, in hopes of doing better going forward. We respect that.

We had one last drink at the Ocean Bar. 

As we walked in, bartender Augustin, called out “Randy” from across the room.  The Ocean Bar, where everybody knows his name!

We went to one last cocktail chat with the cruise director interviewing the vocalists from The Rolling Stones band.  We had only seen them once because their first set usually conflicted with other shows and the later ones were past our bed time.  

It was an interesting talk anyway.  They, and the four musicians, were all hired individually.  They met for three weeks in New York to learn the music before boarding the ship.

Our last show for the cruise was Melbourne magician, Tim Ellis.  He was very good!

Then it was time for bags out …:(

We didn’t see them again until we disembarked the next morning.

Next up: We arrive in Sydney, and then in Cairns.

We were in Melbourne on January 31, 2025.

We woke up to very nice sunrise as we came into the harbor for our visit to Melbourne.

We had ordered some Vegemite to have on our toast with our room service breakfast. 

We both agreed it was disgusting! Think beef bullion paste in texture, tasting a little like yeast, its main ingredient.

Looking out our balcony we saw these pilings from Melbourne’s historic wharf. These pilings are popular for artistic photographs given the right time of day and some sky drama.  We didn’t have either.

We put out our last bag of laundry.  The unlimited laundry service was worth every bit of the $119 charge against our on board credit. I’m guessing we sent out eight bags. They do a great job and, months later, it makes you smile to see the little tags left on your clothes.

We left on our last shore excursion of the cruise – Wildlife and Wineries.   That sounded like a nice way to go out! The picture shows the big board of shore excursion debarkation. The Westerdam crew did this better than any other ship we’ve been on.

On the way to the wildlife, we got commentary from the tour guide.

The Crown Casino is the largest in the southern hemisphere, covering three city blocks.

As we went by this pretty building, we learned that Melbourne has been named the world’s most livable city for the last eight years.  People from 150 countries have made Melbourne home.  The second largest Greek speaking community (after Athens) is here.

Both Australia and New Zealand celebrate their diversity, a thought that makes us very sad given that the opposite is happening in the United States.

Melbourne is known internationally for its coffee culture and for very large (1 meter wing span) fruit bats.

We passed Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open.  We watched parts of matches during the evenings at the hotel in Aukland and then on the ship.  We wouldn’t have watched them in Arizona, given the time difference, but we were in the vicinity so we did.  We also had the opportunity to watch cricket on the TV which is not understandable!  Even the Australians joke that they won’t even try to explain how you can play a match for five days and still not have a winner.

The Clifton Hill Shot Tower was built in 1882 and stands 78 meters (256 feet) high. It held the title of Australia’s tallest structure until 1930.   It is said to be the world’s tallest shot tower, and on the Victorian Heritage Register.

And because I had no idea what a shot tower was, I looked it up.  A shot tower is for producing small diameter balls by free falling molten lead caught in a water basin.

We passed Dame Nellie Melba Memorial Park.  

Dame Nellie Melba, 1861-1931, was a world famous Australian soprano who sang opera all over the world. 

She took the name Melba from her home town, Melbourne.  Melba toast was created for her by her personal chef.

Our first stop of the day was at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. 

It is one of four unique zoos in the “state” of Victoria.   This facility is for breeding and helping endangered species. 

We had an hour and 40 minutes on our own to wander. That seemed like a long time, until it wasn’t!

This was Barak, Aboriginal leader of the Wurundjeri people.

I don’t know what this was,  but it was taller than Randy.

The first resident we saw was an emu.

We saw a whole variety of birds!

We went to the dingo pen and saw one roaming around.

Dingo ancestors came with Asian seafarers over 5000 years ago.

More interesting, we saw reference to the Dingo Fence.  It stretches across thousands of kilometers.  The fence was built in the early 1900’s to keep dingoes out of the southeast part of the continent where sheep and cattle were grazing. 

At 5,614 kilometers, it is the world’s longest fence and one of the longest structures in the world.  Until 1980, the fence was 8,614 kilometers (5352 miles) long, but was then shortened to 5,614 kilometers (3488 miles).

Then we went to the reptiles and amphibians area – not my favorite!

We went into the nocturnal section and saw an Eastern Quoll.  It is extinct on mainland Australia, and now only found in Tasmania.

We saw a sugar slider. They can glide up to 50 meters between trees!

We went to the Tasmanian Devil exhibit and learned that a face tumor disease decimated the population beginning in 1996. This facility has worked to rebuild the species since 2006.

We were having a grand time until we realized we hadn’t seen any wallabies, platypuses, kangaroos or koala – and had 30 minutes left.

We were surprised to see Ben & Jerry’s on the premises, but no time for ice cream!

We found the wallaby complex but only saw one that slipped around the corner of a building.

The platypus we “saw” was more of a “disturbance” in the water. This picture was taken from a video that was showing.

We saw an echidna. It is sometimes known as spiny anteater.

We finally made it to the koala.  In the first five or six enclosures, we could see the koala, but they were resting, face hidden.  Finally, we saw one that didn’t mind us seeing his face!

We had decided to forgo the kangaroos since we’d seen and fed them in Hobart – but we came upon them.  They were chilling, and not too interested in us.

After a short bus ride, we began the Winery port of our tour – at Rochford Winery.

They have major concerts on “the green”, including stars like Elton John and Alisha Keyes.

We had a number of tastings, and a nice lunch.

The final tasting, Fortified Shiraz,  was our favorite.  It was like port. Usually there is a $20 corkage fee to bring wine on board. That is waived for wine purchased on tours. We still didn’t buy. Our time remaining on the cruise was short and our package included drinks.

The nets covered the vines to keep the birds off as the grapes ripen.

I wasn’t in need (or want) of anymore wine but we stopped at Ferguson Winery anyway. 

As the hostess began, she acknowledged the elders who were on this land in the past, present and emerging. We have heard that sentiment expressed repeatedly. Our visit was at the end of a good, but long, day and I don’t think we appreciated this winery as much as we might have under other circumstances.

Our guide had hoped to take a different route back so we could see wild kangaroos in the hills.  Unfortunately, the time was gone and we had to go the less “roo” route. The driver said that kangaroos are sometimes hit by cars, similar to hitting deer in the US.

For the second time in a row, our tour got us back after “all aboard.”   We weren’t terribly concerned because they had to wait. Our tour guide was a bit anxious because they get “dinged” for getting us back late.

When we returned to our cabin, we received our Mariner Society tiles from Holland America.   They have given passengers Netherland’s  Delft tiles since the 1930s. We have quite a collection of them.  I will do something with them someday.

 Leaving Melbourne, it took us several hours to sail across Port Phillip Bay.

Geographically, the bay covers 750 square miles. The shore stretches roughly 164 miles around. Most of the bay is navigable, although it is extremely shallow for its size — the deepest portion is only 79 feet and half the bay is shallower than 26 ft deep.

The pilot left us and we said goodbye and goodnight to Melbourne.

Next up: Our last sea day

We were at sea on January 30, 2025.

Oh, no!  We were running out of cruise!  We had a sea day, Melbourne, and then one last sea day before leaving the ship in Sydney.

There are lots of activities to choose from on sea days.   This was our itinerary for the day.

It was an interesting coffee chat session with Captain Smit.  He has been sailing over 35 years on Holland and been the captain on Westerdam for most of those.  He has never aspired to captain the larger,  newer ships.  He also enjoys sailing the Asia routes, which is where Westerdam usually is when not in Alaska.  He said many captains don’t prefer Asia because of the language challenges.  Also, it is often a new country every day with varying laws and requirements and facilities.

This is his first time captaining a ship in the South Pacific.  That only happened because another Holland ship went into dry dock in Singapore so the company shifted the Westerdam.  The other ship will sail Asia for this year after coming out of dry dock.

In general, he shares the Westerdam with another captain and they go three months on – three months off, back-and-forth.

From there, we went straight to a talk with Eli about our next port,  Melbourne.  Eli was a hoot and made every place sound like a grand time.

We did learn that the infamous Vegemite is made in Melbourne. (The air around the factory was declared a cultural site.) We had not yet tried it, but Eli said everyone needed to. In a memorable moment, Randy was making a face in response to something the woman sitting next to him (not me) said about Vegemite when Eli called him out. Eli asked Randy if he’d ever tried Vegemite and Randy said no. Eli then told Randy he shouldn’t “yuck on someone else’s yum.” It was all in good fun and hilarious since Eli had spent ten minutes telling us how he couldn’t stand oysters!

Eli told us that Chinatown in Melbourne is the oldest outside of Asia.   It is where dim sims were developed.

He encouraged all of us to eat kangaroo saying that Australia was the only country in the world that eats their national animal.

Randy had a blast in his latest Mixology class.

This is our favorite bar attendant, Emely.  She will be on Nieuw Statendam when we are aboard that ship this summer.

Augustin “performed” an anniversary service for students and they all had a class photo. Notice that the stole he used was just a tape from the cash register.

I watched for a while and then went to get seats in the world theater for the latest program on Australia.

There is a lot to see all around Australia if we ever come back!

When talking about Cairnes, somewhere we did go on this trip, Eli said the size of the great barrier reef is equivalent of the US shoreline between Maine and Georgia.

Following that, we went back to the Ocean Bar for drinks.  I had my regular, Chianti, while Randy invited Augustin to “surprise me” and make drinks of his choice. Randy had heard many bartenders on ships like to show their creative talent behind the bar, rather than pour premade Margaritas all day.

The first was called a Midori Sour. We both liked it. Augustin called the second drink “medicine.”  We assumed that it included bitters because he had talked about bitters being medicine in the class. Augustine did confirm it was mostly bitters, which has a high alcohol content (35-45% alcohol by volume.) Just right for Randy! It did cure Randy’s ailments, even though he didn’t know he had any.

While sitting there playing with pictures, we discovered that Randy could remove his knee and a glass of water behind his Midori Sour photograph. He was able to do it on his iPhone 15 Pro but I could not do it from my iPhone 15.  So, I need a better phone or he needs to be the photo editor. He said the former. 

(We did learn later that I can make those edits on my iPad! I had fun changing out many photos that way, like the one above from Lima where I removed the other person in the lower right of the original photo. In a lovers embrace, we didn’t need an extraneous guy photo bombing our picture. Yes, I always knew it was possible using photo editing but I’ve always been far more interested in the writing than the photography.)

Back to the sea day….

We had dinner at Canaletto again and had a nice view.

Bonus – We saw dolphins from our dinner table window!

After dinner we went to the Rolling Stone Lounge, site of the Orange Party.  The Orange Party is traditional on Holland America cruises. We even brought orange clothing to wear this time but skipped the party as it was way too late for us with an early excursion the next day.

The cruise director from Scotland, Grant, interviewed Security Officer, John, also from Scotland.  We were mostly used to Grant’s Scottish brogue but John’s was so hard to understand! It was fun to listen to two Scot’s talk to each other like they would back in Scotland. Still, it was an interesting discussion about his second career on board after being a “copper”(police officer) for 30 years.

Someone asked about security measures the ship can take against outside attack.  He said the ship is too big to be boarded and too fast to be caught by most boats.  If those would fail, the ship has powerful water hoses that could be turned on an intruder.

We finished our night with another concert by Bernard Walz, a premier pianist from Australia.

Next up: We arrive in Melbourne on mainland Australia- a new continent for us!

We arrived in Hobart Tasmania, our first port in Australia. From our balcony, we had our first views of the city. We could see some timber at this port, but not as much as in New Zealand!

We can see the Viking Orion that came in just after us. We always enjoy seeing what other ships are about.

The sea days were very nice, but we had a full day excursion planned highlighted by a trip to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  The sanctuary had been highlighted in our port talk.

But first, there was official Australia stuff to take care of.

Everyone on the ship, all 1900 passengers, had to go into the customs terminal, show our passports and our completed declaration form. Australia has even stricter bio-security measures than New Zealand and it is taken very seriously.

We had purchased a paua shell in New Zealand and didn’t know if it would be allowed. We declared the shell, with the expectation that we might have to surrender it.  

Shore excursion groups were gathered and taken through the process.  Passengers without excursions filled in before and after.  No one was allowed to reboard the ship until everyone had gone through the process.

We went through Australian security and still didn’t know what will happen.  We declared the shell and were told they’ll take care of it when we disembark in Sydney.

So, on with the tour.  Our guide gave us some information as we traveled to Bonorong.

The island of Tasmania is shaped like an inverted triangle, and is roughly 150 miles south of the mainland.  It is the seventh largest island in the world.

There is nothing between Tasmania and Antarctica to the south or between Tasmania and Argentina to the west.  As a result, they have some of the world’s cleanest air.

Dutchman Able Tasman was there in the 1600s.  In the late 1600s, Tasmania was identified as an island. The French were in and out.

Tasmania was established in 1804 as a military outpost by the British.  From 1804-1856 Britain sent lots of folks as convicts, some imprisoned for very minor offenses.  After four to seven years, some were given a small land grant.  Military, free settlers, and convict settlers are all part of Tasmanian and Australian history.

Errol Flynn was born in Hobart. Tasmania. He was expelled from all of the high schools in town so his father sent him to England to finish school.  He came back to Tasmania briefly before heading to Hollywood.

Queen Mary of Denmark was born and raised in Tasmania.  She met Crown Prince Frederik, now King Frederik X, at a pub during the Sydney Olympics in 2004.

The shelters on the left house INCAT Tasmania.  They make high speed ferries that are used all around the world.  The picture on the right is a picture of the one they are currently working on. Hull 96, the first all electric ferry, will be heading to South America to move people and vehicles between Buenos Aires, Argentina and Uruguay.

Sheep and cattle are also dominate industries in Tasmania. There is a plethora of mining as well.

Of course there is a timber industry.  Tasmania has a policy of one tree cut down, three trees planted.

This processing mill creates all the newsprint for all of the newspapers in Australia.

The cherry industry is worth $80 million dollars of cherries sent to Asia.  The netting protects the cherries from birds and we saw a lot of them.

Growing hops is yet another agricultural industry.  Part of the product is sent to Germany.

Tasmania has both the oldest hotel, and the oldest brewery in Australia. It also has the oldest casino and golf course.  That course is the second oldest in the world after Saint Andrews in Scotland.

We arrived at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  It is privately owned and takes care of animals that have been injured and/or need care.

Fred is a 112 year old sulphur-crested cockatoo.  He outlived two families before being donated to Bonorong.  He speaks, but we didn’t hear him.

We saw rainbow lorikeet.

These are the grounds where the kangaroo roam.  They are free to engage with people or retreat to areas where people don’t go.

We found that most of the kangaroos had already eaten their fill, but there were a few.

We came upon this group just hanging out by a complimentary feed box.

We were told to pet them in their chest area.

We saw a few Tasmanian Devils.  They are marsupials and have a pouch.  However, they aren’t much like kangaroos!

This is an albino padmelon.  He was found as a tiny joey after his mother was killed by a car.  Because of his albinism, he had no opportunity to make it on his own in the big world, so is a permanent resident of Bonorong.

This is a blotched blue-tongued lizard. He was cool!

We saw a wombat who was rescued by a passerby when its mother was hit by a car. This seemed to be a common theme at the sanctuary.

Bonorong provided us firsts in many ways. It was clean and interesting and well done. One of my very few regrets on this trip is that I didn’t buy a sweatshirt from Bonorong to support their efforts. I wonder if they ship to the US…

Next, we went to Mt. Field National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We enjoyed a 20-minute walk through the woods – quite different from walking the Promenade Deck.

There were two kinds of trees of interest- the first was Vegetable Lamb, a manfern.

The second are Eucalyptus Regnans, the tallest flowering trees in the world.  They can also be called mountain ash and are among the world’s tallest hardwood trees.

We arrived at the very nice Russell Falls, probably at about 20 percent capacity flow.  The falls were protected by the government in 1885.

We visited Curringa Farm. Sixth-generation farmers Tim and Jane Parsons, run an operation that is 1/3 sheep, 1/3 crops, and 1/3 tourist.

Obviously, we were the tourist component! They offered wine and beer – the beer being from Cascade Brewery, the oldest in Tasmania.

We were randomly given lamb or beef tickets. Both meats were wood fired.

The lunch was quite nice. Randy had lamb and I had beef. Of course, we shared and we both preferred the beef. That is probably just because it is what we are used to.

There are eleven accommodations ranging from studio to farmhouse available for rent.  

In the crops portion of the business, they grow a variety, including opium poppies for pharmaceuticals. Tasmania grows 50-60 percent of the world’s legal opium poppies, and is the only place in the southern hemisphere allowed to do so.

Other crops are primarily grown for seed production and export. These typically include carrots, cabbage and onions. The food product is mostly left in the ground for the sheep to eat.

And speaking of sheep, when the farm is at full capacity, they run 3,000 sheep. Their focus is lamb meat production.  There are only 27 males on the farm, giving each about 50 ewes.

They shear their ewes once per year.  It costs the farm $4.30 per shear and they receive about $2.00 per sheep wool.  The sheep shearers come back about six months later for face and back end touch ups. This helps with birthing.

This sheep’s wool (on the left) is used for products that won’t touch the skin. The loose wool on the right is Merino, designed for use for clothing. We were able to feel the difference.

The sheep on Curringa Farm are Suffix. The strength of the breed is reproduction.  During the last trimester, the ewes are fed grain.

The ewes live here six to seven years and then become mutton.

There was a very matter of fact approach to the lives of lambs and ewes. That was a little difficult for me who wants to make every animal (except snakes) a pet. The vibe felt different than the New Zealand sheep farmer we’d met earlier.

They did seem to value their dogs!

We saw three dogs. They are Smithfield breed, a type of English Sheep Dog. Two of the dogs are very experienced and we got to watch a demonstration.

Lucky is a year and a half old and in training.

On the way back to the ship, our guide pointed out this blue tree. It was painted by a group called Rural Alive and Well.  These trees are a symbol of their efforts towards suicide awareness and prevention. Unfortunately, suicide in rural Tasmania are higher than other areas.

Our tour was 25 minutes late getting back for the “all aboard” time on the ship. The crew were literally rolling up the gangway after us.  Thirteen minutes after we stepped on board, the Westerdam sailed. If you book your shore excursion through the ship, they will wait. If you book it another way, they may not.

Next Up: Another sea day!

Our second sea day was January 28, 2025.

The map shows we made progress towards Hobart!  

A look outside showed it was raining!  That was good because everything had been coated in a light salty crust due to the sea spray and wind.

Not much to see from the observation deck!

We went to a Cruise Director’s coffee chat.

The interviewees were two cadets on the ship.  The cadet program seems like an internship.  The terms are three or four months long.  Upon completion, the cadets go home to complete exams and wait to see if Holland will hire them as Third Officers.

Regina is from the Philippines, an electrical engineer, and working in the Electrical Department in Engineering.

Salma is from Morocco and graduated from naval training in Morocco and in the UK.  She is training in all things on the bridge and aspires to be a young captain.

Salma and her husband have only been married for three months and apart for most of that time. 

His ship, the Seabourn Quest, was in Lyttelton/Christchurch on the same day as the Westerdam last week so they got to see each other. (We have a cruise booked on Seabourn next year and I took this picture just in case it was our ship – it wasn’t.)

Our next activity was a port talk on Hobart, Tasmania.

Initially, the British set up a military post in Hobart to deter the French.  In 1803, European settlement began along with penal colonies.

Ian, the port consultant told us lots of things but we had a full day excursion in Hobart so didn’t have extra time.   There’s nothing wrong with knowing there are lots more things for a future visit.

He told us about an extinct Tasmanian tiger at the museum.  It was a carnivorous marsupial and hunted to extinction.  The last known tiger was seen in 1936.

We also did not go to Port Arthur penal colony, but it sounded very interesting. In 1830, the British developed a prison of “reform” at Port Arthur.  Over 10,000 convicts spent time there.  It closed in 1874.”

We went to an Australian Brunch in the main dining room hoping for some meat pies, kangaroo pizza or Australian brew.  Those weren’t available. I had pasta and Randy has fish and chips (with calamari and shrimp).

After brunch we tried to walk the promenade deck but it was closed.  We walked around deck 3 on the  inside and ended up in the gift shop again.

The alcohol was mostly on the floor because of the rough seas.

We spent time in the ship’s library. It was quite a big deal for many cruisers when ship libraries were taken away during Covid.  The libraries have returned in the last year or so.  The Westerdam library was quite well stocked.

We went to the Ocean Bar and found Emely setting up for the Mixology class. 

Randy enjoyed mixology classes on a previous cruise so signed up again.

Augustin, with Holland America since 1999, began by explaining his bartender tools. He said experienced bartenders don’t use jiggers because they count the drop sounds.

They began with a cosmopolitan.

And then a Cosmopolitan with raspberry liquor.

Randy recognized bartender Mark from doing the Mixology class on Nieuw Statendam in 2023. Mark, in the center on the Westerdam picture, is on the right in the 2023 “graduation” picture.

I left to get seats for the next event in the World Stage, Port Consultant Eli’s, presentation about Australia.  

He showed several interesting facts about Australia and its size and sparse population.

This is how the Australian airline, Quantas began!

Major exports of Australia are coal, iron ore, natural gas and EDUCATION.  People come from all over to be educated in Australia. This fact will be visited in a future post, so take note.

Ian was beginning a section on how aboriginal peoples used song lines and constellations to travel, communicate and maintain history.

Then he started getting interrupted by security alarms and calls for emergency personnel.

We didn’t know what was happening but hadn’t been instructed to go to our cabins and get life jackets.  Our presenter kept trying to keep going with his talk.

On the fourth interruption, the captain said there had been a cabin fire on deck seven and it was handled. The emergency crew was dismissed.  (We heard later it had been an electrical fire but no details.)

The last section of the talk was about creative expansion of solar production and technology.  Unfortunately, any chance I had of really listening to technology information had gone away with the interruptions.

Randy noticed that the captain seemed to be changing the route, and the captain later said he was doing so to avoid most of the bad weather. 

We had a very nice table for our dinner at the specialty restaurant, Pinnacle Grill.

One of their specialties is a bacon clothesline.

We finished the night with another show by Rebecca Kelly.  This was a tribute to Carole King.

We gained another hour as we went to Hobart and our next shore excursion.  We should see a Tasmanian devil!

Next up:  Hobart, Australia

We were at sea on January 27, 2025.

There we are – out at sea!

When I left you last we were heading into a night of rough seas.  They were indeed!  We heard the impressive stats in the morning but I didn’t get them down.

The rolling wasn’t really a problem but the corresponding rattling in a ceiling panel was brutal.  Randy made it some better by stuffing a washcloth between a panel and the wall.

We told our stewards, Boby and Bayu, and they said they would put in a work order.

We went to the World Stage and watched a very good presentation on Aotearoa.  That is the Māori name for what is known as New Zealand.  Eli, the travel consultant, reviewed the history of the Maori arriving, eventual colonization by the missionaries and the British.  Ultimately the Maori have regained their language, culture and equal rights (without a lot of the pushback seen in other countries) to the betterment of all New Zealand/Aotearoa.

Our next activity was a Future Cruise Presentation.  Luke, future cruise consultant, said Holland America has 836 cruises offered currently, going to 400 ports, on seven continents.

Holland has four classes of ships:

R Class (2) – 1400 guests

Vista class (4) – 1900 guests

Signature (2) – 2100 guests

Pinnacle (3) – 2700 guests

We are currently on Westerdam, one of four Vista Class ships.

We think that Future Cruise Consultant is the best job on a ship!  We’ve already spent time with Luke, booking our first ever aft cabin (back of the ship).  There are benefits for booking on board, so we usually take advantage of that perk if we know a cruise we’re interested in.  Our new booking won’t take place until late 2026.

We returned to our cabin and watched some Monday afternoon football!  (It was Sunday in the US).

I went to guest services and changed my remaining $125 New Zealand  to $65.09 USD. Then I exchanged $62.17 USD for $90 Australian.

We had a dressy night dinner which we kind of complied with.  Our dressiest clothes didn’t survive the move to the RV eleven years ago and we’ve never replaced them.  Dressy nights are getting more and more casual anyway.  It is nice to see those who enjoy getting all fancied up. 

The ship saves the “best” dinner menus for dressy nights.  Escargot and lobster were on the menu but neither of us chose them.

We went to a cocktail chat with the cruise director and Rebecca Kelly, the performer from last night.  She was quite interesting and it is always fascinating to hear how people enter a cruise ship career.

Next up was piano artist, Bernard Walz in the World Theater.  He is a premier Australian pianist with multiple awards. That show was great.  We loved how they had a camera showing him playing from above.   

We’ve never thought entertainment was Holland America’s strength, but the offerings on this cruise have been very good.

The ship was rocking when we went to sleep and was still rocking when we woke up.  Randy said he went out into the hallway over night with another washcloth to stop a plumbing closet door from banging, as the latch was left unlocked and needed a special key to close it. So he provided a solution to the banging. The noises from the previous night must have been fixed though.  He said he saw lightning out in the open ocean. After limited sleep the night before, I slept through everything.

We also got an extra hour of sleep as we are heading west!

Next Up: A second sea day!

We entered Fiordland National Park at 7:30 a.m. on January 26, 2025.

The park, established in 1952, is five percent of New Zealand land mass.  It is in the southern tip of the South Island.

Our day was spent sailing through the park with a national park employee providing commentary.

I started by watching TV in our cabin with narration and going out to our balcony on the starboard side when it seemed warranted.

We entered Dusky sound and learned that Captain Cook and his crew spent about five weeks here in 1773.

Some of the 365 islands in Dusky sound have unique ecological aspects.  One island had half of an entire bird’s population in the world.   Another has had no mice or rats since 2023!  One has the entire world’s population of a flightless parrot.

This sound is the first place where a boat was built in New Zealand and the first where beer was brewed in the country.  There is an island, named Barrell Island, where they cut the wood for the beer barrels.

The fourth largest island in NZ is in the Dusky Sound and is the site of the largest eradication effort.  Four thousand traps continue to be set to rid the island of invasive species.

The reminder in the elevator that it’s Sunday marks the halfway point of our cruise.

I went to the Crow’s Nest for coffee, croissants, commentary and view.  I was not alone!  Randy went off for a regular breakfast in the Lido.  This allowed us to be out of our cabin to give our wonderful stewards time to do their thing.

For those that don’t know, the Crow’s Nest concept is very common on cruise ships – a gathering place in a top deck at the bow with great views and opportunities for drinks and light snacks.

After the Crows Nest, I walked down from deck ten to deck three.  Along the way I saw six photographs of the Westerdam or early iterations of the Westerdam. 

Randy and I spent some time walking on the promenade deck, listening to commentary and watching the sites.  Walking around a deck, listening to an audiobook and seeing the views,  is one of my absolute favorite things to do on a cruise ship. 

The crew offered Dutch Green Pea Soup – a staple on Holland America ships.

I knew I’d like it but Randy generally does not. I thought the soup was delicious.

Randy tried it and found it OK. 

The ship had made its way to Doubtful Sound, the deepest in the national park at 443 meters in depth. 

This sound has the sixth largest island in New Zealand.

We saw exposed granite surfaces from glaciers that came through millions of years ago.

We sailed through the first half of the sound before turning around.

This was the view as we left Doubtful Sound.

Randy hung out on the Promenade Deck while I went up to the cabin to write.

We eventually joined forces again for drinks in the Ocean Bar. There, Randy learned that the bartender crew would be offering Mixology classes, something he thoroughly enjoyed on the Nieuw Statendam in 2023.

In the afternoon, we went to a presentation in the theater by the national park representative.  Almost everyone on the ship was there and we weren’t there soon enough to get good seats. (The theater seating on the Westerdam is a weak link compared to the 180 degree theater viewing on the larger Holland ships.)

We learned that sounds are flooded river valleys and fjords are long, narrow inlets of the ocean created in a valley carved by glacial activity.

The places we are visiting in Fiordland National Park are actually fjords but the people who named them in the late 1880s didn’t understand the difference and named them sounds.

There are a lot of marine mammals in the park but we did not see any.

It was time to enter our last sound (really a fjord) of the day – Milford Sound. We had actually heard of this one before!

We saw a number of waterfalls.

We crossed waters with a much smaller touring vessel.

We were told there would be more “traffic” in this sound. We even saw a small community with a few buildings and runway in Milford Sound.

This looked like a glacier but we were on our balcony, not listening to the commentary, so don’t know for sure.

Two helicopters flew right by.  The view is great from the ship but might be even better from the air! Once again, the ship did a turn around and we headed back out Milford Sound and Fiordland National Park.

In his 5:00 briefing, the captain said we were entering “weather” and asked us to stow away items in our cabins that might take flight. We weren’t worried. Randy doesn’t usually get sea sick anymore and I never have.

There were noticeable swells at dinner.  

It reminded me of when we experienced much more severe swells during our Norway cruise last winter!

There was a cocktail chat with the Cruise Director and the Head of Housekeeping.  He told us that, for 1933 passengers, he has a crew of 155.  That includes 43 cabin stewards. 

The laundry crew runs 24 hours per day with enough linen to change everything twice a day.  They clean 200-300 bags of guest laundry daily. They even have special machines and processes for linen from rooms where people have been sick.

Three tailors help with crew uniforms and minor repairs for passengers.

The final area of emphasis is cleaning public areas.

He said that turn around days, when passengers leave and new passengers come on board, are very stressful because they really only have a few hours to be ready. 

We finished our day with a program in the World Stage, vocalist Rebecca Kelly. She was pretty awesome.

Next Up: The itinerary’s first true Sea Day. Whatever will we do? (We didn’t have a port on this day, but it was pretty scripted going through the National Park.)

We were in Dunedin on January 25, 2025.

“Oh my, what a shock.”  That is what Randy said when he looked out our windows and saw logs, thousands of them, again.  We learned this species of pine originated in California where it takes 200 years to mature.   The species was brought to New Zealand where a different environment and modifications allow the pine to mature in 25 years.  These timbers are sent to Asia.  Much of it will be made into particle boards – some returning to New Zealand.

This is our last port in New Zealand.  Then we have a few sea days and begin the Australia portion of the cruise.

We had room service for breakfast today, something we rarely do. Today it seemed appropriate since we were time crunched for the dining room and had pretty much sworn off the Lido buffet for this trip.

Our excursion was the Albatross Cruise and Natures Wonders.  It held the possibility of seeing albatross, seals, sea lions and penguins.  And a boat ride! And an eight wheel drive all terrain vehicle! 

After a very short bus ride from the port, we boarded the Albatross Express.  We were told the catamaran has Euro-Six engines for lowest emissions. It is also equipped with impellers, not propellers, to protect the wildlife.

We were required to stay below as we left the harbor.  I had moments of discomfort as I remembered a similar situation near Cozumel, Mexico.  That had been my first ever experience of claustrophobia and I do my best to avoid similar situations.  Fortunately this was just a few minutes.

We passed our ship, the Westerdam.

Our guide asked if anyone from North America knew the term “red right returning?” Randy did, and explained it.  Our guide said that North Americans are the only ones who do it that way in the world and that everyone else uses green on the right return.  We were glad to hear about that because when we’d been watching the Singapore cargo ship a few days ago, we recognized that he was operating on a whole different set of rules than we understood. 

When looking along the hillside, we saw these vertical lines of trees going up the hill in several places.  We were told that it was likely a natural barrier to keep the sheep and cattle at home.

As we sailed out of the Otago Harbor,  our guide explained that Captain Cook discovered that Polynesian people occupied the largest area known at the time.  

That area was a generally a triangle formed by Hawaii (1), New Zealand (2) to Easter Island/Rapa Nui.  On this map Samoa is (4) and Tahiti is (5).  Fiji is excluded on the western side.

New Zealand was the latest large land mass to be “discovered” other than Antarctica.

We boarded busses to go to a private farm.  We got into an Argo, an eight wheel all terrain vehicle.

We passed a World War II bunker.  The bunkers were built all along the east coast of New Zealand to protect against the Japanese, but were never used. 

We had nice views at the top but the fog was rolling in!

We came back down and had a chance to watch some New Zealand Fur Seals. This area of rocks is home for the mothers and babies. 

 

We saw some very young ones!

We saw babies nursing.

Some were in the grass above the rocks.  These were the smart seals!

The babies will be here about six months at which point they will go out to sea with their mothers.  They will continue to live in this general vicinity, but not this specific cove.

We also saw the nastiest looking kelp.  It looked like something out of a horror movie.  We were told it can grow up to a meter a day and has no commercial use.  That seems like a missed opportunity!

This young seal seemed very interested in all the people.  I wonder if this curiosity will be to his benefit or detriment.

We walked a bit to see this sandy beach.  The owners of Nature Wonders are keeping this beach only for the wildlife. 

We could see a few sea lions in repose on the beach.

The real prize is to see a yellow-eyed penguin on the beach.  We didn’t, but learned they are the third largest penguin in the world and have this area as one of their remaining habitats.  There are not very many of these penguins left and will likely be extinct in 15 years.

We were able to see the other native penguin, the Blue Penguin.

Natures Wonders has set up a series of doors where the penguins can be peeked in on.  The penguins access a natural burrow on the opposite side and create a nest or den.  They can be observed by peeking in the doorway.

Different burrows are utilized different years as the penguins choose. We were able to see three in use.

The first door opened to a parent penguin (unknown whether it was mother or father) and two five day old chicks.  We only saw one of the chicks and didn’t want to stay too long to see the other.

In the second opening, we saw two 9 week old siblings. They were very fluffy and cute – much cuter than the picture shows.  They will be gone soon, no longer needing to be fed when they learn to eat fish on their own.

The third box held an adult that was molting. 

We returned to the reception center and had a hot mug of tea and a scone.

On the way back down we saw a Harrier Hawk.   I was on the wrong side of the bus so this is a stock photo.  We were told that this type of hawk is New Zealand’s only raptor.  They eat mostly rabbits.  

Seeing these hay rolls reminded me of something we’d been told a few days ago.  Someone in New Zealand invented a biodegradable hay roll cover.  The hay rolls just stay in the fields.  Eventually, the cows (sheep?) are brought to the hay roll to feed eliminating the need to transport the hay roll.  Makes sense to me.

It was time to re-board the Albatross catamaran.  It had begun to rain but we knew we wanted to be up top, regardless.

We passed the Tamara Head lighthouse. It was built in 1864 and is still operating.

We were told that a species of albatross nests towards the top of this point.  Our guide said that our best result here would be to see a white head peak up above the grass as they were nesting.  There was not very much wind and they prefer to fly when it is windy.

Just when we were feeling disappointed, we began to see albatross in the water.

Supposedly, we saw three different species!   We were rocking and rolling so much that even taking pictures occasionally was precarious enough.  I didn’t attempt to take any notes.

I do remember that our guide said that none of the three species of albatross will go onto land – even though it is close. They come here from thousands of kilometers away for feeding.  It’s an easy run to the grocery harbor!

It reminded us of when we saw and learned of the albatross on Kauai.  Those albatross parents would fly all the way to Alaska on their feed run.  See that post at Kauai: A Rainy Island and Albatross.  They really are very interesting birds.

On the way back towards  the ship.  Randy talked with our skipper, who is also the ranch owner who owns pretty much the whole peninsula where we spent the morning.

Perry explained and demonstrated the light system for boats coming into the harbor.  If you are coming straight in the light is white (as this photo shows in the middle right). If you are slightly to left or right of straight in, the light will be red or green.  

We saw penguins in the water.  I didn’t hear, or remember, which kind.  They were quite small and would disappear and then pop up again 20 meters away.

Perry and Randy had quite a conversation.  Perry said that it was soon going to be time to start shearing on the farm.  He has about 2500 sheep and he, his son-in-law, and the dogs would do it themselves.  In season, Perry has sheared 300 sheep a day for many years.

Back on board Westerdam, we were feeling fondly about our first trip to New Zealand.  We sat on our balcony and watched people come and go.

 

A couple of gulls came to visit on our balcony, but I only got one to pose for a picture.

Randy noticed that our Holland America Navigator App said the temperature was -34 F and -36 C.  We had our jackets on but it wasn’t that cold (and the conversion doesn’t compute either).

After dinner, we returned to our balcony to look for the albatross. We had been told that we’d see them as the ship left.

We had a different view of the WWII bunkers. We saw six or seven along our way.

First of all, we had a much better view of the albatross that were nesting when we were on the sixth deck of a cruise ship than we had from water level.

We stood on our balcony and spotted albatross, seals and lots of penguins!  So cool!

We ended our night at the Rolling Stone Lounge. I got a picture before the dance floor filled.

Next up: Sailing Fiordland National Park Sea Day