Serene Wandering

The genesis of our next big adventure was a phone call from Cindy, one of our close friends from Boise, in late summer 2023.  She was interested in a particular Holland America cruise because it included western Ireland and asked if we were interested. Of course we were in!  We love traveling on our own, but also appreciate the opportunity to go with friends and family.

We have been fortunate to travel internationally with Cindy and Darrell several times over the years – as well as many times in our RVs.

We have been on two cruises with them. The first was to Alaska and the second was the infamous cruise to Quebec City when Randy was quarantined with COVID.

Shortly after talking with Cindy, Randy and I were on a Holland America cruise.  Being on the ship allowed us to get extra perks when booking the new cruise.

Almost two years out, we had our choice of cabins.  I pay attention and make notes about unusual cabin attributes and how to find them on deck plans. We selected a verandah cabin with an extra large balcony. Ours is V6115 – visible on the bottom right of the picture below. The extra gray lines indicate the larger balcony.

There aren’t many of these cabins on the ship and we felt fortunate to get the same cabin for back to back cruises. More on that in a minute!

This is the map itinerary for our Wild British Isles Cruise with Ireland’s West Coast – with Cindy and Darrell.

Because we were going all the way there, we decided to add on the next cruise as well, Viking Trails and Celtic Origins. There is a bit of overlap but its lure is to cruise around Iceland.

Once the trips were on our calendar, I started collecting information.   I don’t think I’ll ever get the British Isles vs Great Britain vs the United Kingdom committed to memory.  Hopefully, being there will help.

The map of the United Kingdom seems a bit more straightforward.

We went to a class and watched a Rick Steves show about visiting Iceland – quite the trendy thing to do these days! 

Cruises are usually fully booked so it is essential to purchase the shore excursions you really care about early on.  The first excursion I booked for these cruises was in April, 2024 – over a year out.

I’ve also researched and booked several tours in Rotterdam and Amsterdam including food tours, Kinderdijk windmills and The Hague. Randy is pretty flexible and, after all this time, I have a good idea about what he will like and not.

For the first time, we had to submit an application to enter the UK.  It wasn’t hard or expensive, but struck me as sad that it is now required given the state of the world.

Cindy and Darrell are getting on the ship in England, a day before us, so they can visit London.  I opted for us to begin in Rotterdam for two reasons.  First, I wanted us to stay in the New York Hotel, the site of the original Holland America offices that so many emigrants passed through heading to the United States.  I’m sure I’ll be writing about that later.

Even more important to me was for an opportunity to go to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, a short distance from Rotterdam.  We were in Amsterdam briefly last year and saw the house on our canal tour.

I can tell quite the dramatic story about my quest for tickets to the Anne Frank House! It involves researching the exact day and time tickets became available for the day I wanted us to go.  (They are released a week at a time.) Tickets became available at 1:00 am on June 10, 2025.  It was also the night that this girl, who rarely gets sick, had the flu.  I set an alarm and was on my computer at 12:55 am. I had done web site recognizance so had an idea of what would happen. The moment the queue opened, I was number 305 – I chose my tickets but accidentally checked Visa when the number I put in was for Mastercard – Declined.  I got back in the queue and was number 680+. This time, my credit card was declined for suspected foreign transaction fraud.  I told the bank the charge was fine but it was too late – Declined.  I got in the queue a third time and was person 1350-ish.  My hopes were diminishing but I tried again and was able to reserve tickets for only 30 minutes past my target time.  I just needed to be able to pay for them!  I put in the same card, hoping it would go through, instead of beginning all over with a different card. It worked!  A stressful 20 minutes after I began – I HAD TICKETS to the Anne Frank House! 

I keep a travel book list, always adding to it when I hear of a book set in places we might someday visit.  I really enjoy having a sense of place when we travel.   A couple months ago, I went through all the possibilities I had gathered and condensed it to 3-5 books per country. I knew I wouldn’t get through that many, but its a goal!

Since we start our trip in the Netherlands, I began by reading The Map Colorist.  In 1660, Amsterdam was the map printing capital of the world. Colorists enhanced the maps with simple or elaborate paints and decoration. The main character is a young woman in a man’s world.

My second book was The Last Painting of Sara De Vos,  partially set in the 1600s. The Dutch Golden Age included artists such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. Artists were mostly men and members of artistic guilds.   Again, the main character was a woman in a man’s world.

I read two books on the internationally researched cold case of who betrayed Anne Frank.  The Betrayal of Anne Frank is, by far, the better book. Randy also read this book, expanding his knowledge of Anne Frank.

In addition to reading, I listened to a variety of podcasts including Scottish Blethers, and pertinent episodes of Stuff You Missed in History Class, History Daily, Strong Sense of Place, Travel with Rick Steves and Noble Blood.  

As I write, we are four days from embarking on this adventure. This morning I made one addition to our shore excursion itinerary.   About a week ago we were offered a new excursion to the Edinburgh Tattoo. I knew nothing about it.  It looked like a big deal but the tour was expensive so we decided not to pursue it.  Then – twice in conversations with people who have some knowledge of Scotland – the Tattoo came up.   So, we decided to jump in and get the tickets.

This is from the Edinburgh Tattoo website:  An experience like no other, our Show brings together the best of British Military with international performances from a global cast. Presenting emotionally charged entertainment featuring cutting edge lighting, sound and military precision. Sounds like fun!

All this planning is not unique to this trip. I enjoy the process and do it for almost every trip we take. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little foray into my trip planning world and will join us in reading about the trip itself!

Our last day in Sydney, February 9, 2025, was spent in the Blue Mountains, ninety minutes outside the city.  We met for our tour at 6:55 a.m. and our guide introduced herself as “Rin, It rhymes with gin, and Rin likes gin.”  She was like that all day long – all 9 hours of it!

She drove us through the CBD which doesn’t mean what it does in the US.  In Australia, CBD means Central Business District.  Sydney is one of the most diverse cities in the world with 43 percent of residents coming from overseas.  

We went through one of many tunnels in Sydney.  This one was six miles long and allows for much more efficient traffic flow than on street level.  There was dynamic pricing for the toll, as many in Sydney are.

We headed to the UNESCO listed Blue Mountains.  These mountains contained the colonizing Brits to the Sydney area after they arrived in 1788.   It took them 25 years to figure out a way around, over, or through the mountains to explore more of Australia.

Our first destination was Scenic World, described by Rin as “an amusement park for nature lovers.”  

Scenic World includes several dramatic rides.  She told us that the equipment was made by the Swiss, so is very reliable and safe for mountains.

The Three Sisters are the most famous rock formations in the Blue Mountains.  A solid sandstone ridge 14,000,000 years ago, they are now three separate formations.

We rode the Skyway across the Jamison Valley and back. The Skyway opened in 1958 as Australia’s first cable car. It rides 270 meters above ground.  

We saw this waterfall from above.

These trees are a type of eucalyptus. 

Our next ride was the Scenic Cableway.  It is the steepest aerial cable car in the southern hemisphere with a 36 degree incline.  It travels five meters per second.

We dropped into a subtropical rainforest that was claimed to be 90,000,000 years old.

We traversed one of Australia’s longest (1.5 miles) elevated rainforest boardwalks. It was built with zero ecological impact.  

We learned about plants and animals unique to this rainforest. 

Lyre birds inhabit the area and look like a brown chicken size peacock. We didn’t see any but I found this picture on the internet. Lyre are able to mimic other birds, environmental sounds and human speech.

The vines keep the canopy thick, the trees in place and the temperatures low.  A fire would be devastating here. 

A coal mine opened in the rainforest in 1878, eventually involving 65 miles of tunnels. 

The mine closed in the 1930s and they let the pit ponies go free into the wild.

The miners started taking tourists into the mines on the train in 1928. This car was used in the 1960s and is now available for photo opportunities. (We aren’t there.)

The Scenic Railway is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the steepest passenger railway in the world!  Still the record holder, it has a 52 degree incline and covers 4 meters per second.  

As we were going back up the mountain, we were looking out and down while we went up and back.

The Blue Mountains were actually formed by erosion happening in the valleys and not an uplift of tectonic plates.  The sunlight passing through dispersed eucalyptus oil, causes a blue haze, thus the name. 

Ninety percent of the trees are a variety of eucalyptus. There are 934 different species of eucalyptus in Australia.  About 70 percent of the varieties need fire for germination.

This waterfall has never gone dry in recorded history, including a couple thousand years of aboriginal history.

Another tour guide was feeding the cockatoos to the angst of our own.  He justified it by saying what he is feeding them won’t hurt them.  Rin’s point is that they become accustomed to being fed and someone will feed them something that will hurt them.

We stopped for lunch and had Chicken Parm, a very popular meal in Australia.  Notice the french fries underneath instead of pasta.

Our next stop was Featherdale Animal Sanctuary – our last chance to see some of the Australian specialties.   Our guide told us that everything in Australia is trying to kill you, including most of the world’s poisonous snakes.  Snakes actually kill very few people in Australia because of anti-venom.  

Crocodiles on the other hand are given “credit” for a number of human disappearances every year.

We did see a few more koala but didn’t understand why some of them were in a natural setting and most were in small enclosures.  

We saw a Tammer Wallaby, the smallest wallaby species.

We saw blue penguins in captivity, having seen some in the wild in New Zealand.

We were intrigued by this cassowary.  We were told they were dinosaur birds. Research says they are genetically similar to the emu.   

They are flightless and live in areas of New Guinea and northern Australia.  They are the third largest bird, behind the ostrich and emu.

It is sometimes considered the world’s most dangerous bird because it can inflict serious injury and death if provoked. The middle “toes” are weapons.

Cassowary can run 30 mph, jump and swim.  They are solitary birds, not tolerating others of the same sex in their territory.

A little further down the path was an emu.  Emu feathers are softer and more flexible than most other birds.  They have two feathers coming from the same shaft, a primary and secondary.

Wombats are very cute little guys.  Their poo is square! 

This is a quokka – definitely a new animal to us!

We finished with a couple dingo.  The oldest fossilized remains of dingo are believed to be 3250 years old.

We were leaving Australia feeling like we saw almost all of the animals we’d hoped to. We’d not seen kangaroos in the wild or a platypus anywhere, but overall we were pleased.

As we rode a bus and then a ferry back into Circular Quay in Sydney. There was another new cruise ship in port.  We knew the locals wouldn’t be pleased to have such a large ship! Ovation of the Seas sails with 4900 passengers.  We aren’t interested in a ship that big, but lots of people enjoy all the family friendly amenities.

A couple random thoughts before we leave Australia: Electric outlets have switches to turn them on. The emergency phone sequence in Australia is 000 instead of our 911.

As we prepared to leave, we found it highly amusing that we would leave Sydney at 11:05 am on a Monday  morning.  We would arrive in Phoenix at 10:35 am on that same Monday morning!   It was like getting home before we left…NOT! We lost a day going and gained a day coming home.

We flew home in Premium Economy on Delta and found it very adequate.  Our long leg was 14.5 hours.  We waited 30 minutes on the tarmac in Los Angeles waiting for customs to open.  The flight to Phoenix was uneventful.

We had a great month exploring Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia! Thanks for coming along. Stay tuned this summer when we take off again!

Our second full day in Sydney was a really good day.  We had tours of the Sydney Opera House and a food tour called the Tastes of Sydney.

First, we learned to use the Sydney light rail.  We had been told it was easy – just “tap on and tap off” with a credit card.   The places we were going to were walkable but we were going to be out all day and didn’t want to feel grimy because of the humidity.

A bell-boy gave us directions to an access point right around the corner from our hotel.  

An “experienced” tourist, who was on his third day in the city, confirmed how to get on and off. We were ready!    Our stop was three stops down the route. The cost in USD came through at 63 cents per person.

When we got off the light rail we saw the Coral Princess.  We had seen her in Cairns earlier in the week. This ship is too large to fit under the Harbor Bridge like the Westerdam did, so had to dock in Circular Quay (pronounced key). We heard quite a bit of grumbling about the big ships because they block views.

Our morning destination was the Sydney Opera House.  

We learned that the land where the opera house sits was once occupied by the Eora people.   Their ruler, Bennelong, had a complicated relationship with the British – mostly to British advantage.

The British military and government leaders built Fort Macquorie on the land the Eora had lived on. They ruled from there.  The old fort was demolished at the turn to the 20th century and a tram station was built. When Sydney leaders decided they needed a world quality performing arts center, this site was chosen. They called it Bennelong Point after the Eora leader.

A world wide competition was held to pick the design of the opera house. There were over 2000 submissions. The design chosen was by Danish architect John Utzen.  After receiving the assignment,  it took him three years to determine how to construct the shells in his design.  He eventually found his answer by beginning with a sphere.

Construction began in 1959.  Ten thousand men worked on the Opera House without a single death.  

The opera house is a self supporting structure of concrete.

Over time, a new prime minister was chosen in Australia and he was at odds with Utzen because of significant delays.  There was much angst and controversy.

Eventually, Utzen felt he could not continue and quit the project.  Sydney Opera House architect John Utzen never saw the finished building.  

Three Australian architects, led by Peter Hall on the left, took over the job of building Sydney’s Opera House. While making some necessary changes, they did their best to stay true to Utzen’s design.  One example concerned Utzen’s desire to have the lobby areas open to the harbor for breezes and views.

Instead of being open, glass windows were installed for the feel of the design but also to be more protected.   The glass was engineered, in France, so that there are no reflections visible from the inside as one looks out towards the harbor, even at night.

The glass for the windows was one of only two types of building materials to come from outside of Australia. 

The others were 1,000,000 tiles from Sweden to cover the opera house shells. The texture on the shells helps to disperse the sun’s rays.  The tiles are also self cleaning. 

(The tiles are checked every five years and only five percent have ever been replaced after 56 years.  Only 44 tiles were replaced during the last check.)

The walkways between the shells are covered in stones that are spaced to allow water to flow through the stones into an under structure water dispersement system.

Even though the shells on the Opera House appear white in photos, there are really a combination of white and off white tiles.  

Interior work on the Opera House began in 1967.   Completion took 16 years and was funded by an Australian lottery.

Queen Elizabeth II was present for the Opera House opening in 1973.

There are seven performance venues in the house and we went into the two largest.   We could only take pictures in the largest, the Concert Hall.  

This hall seats almost 2700 people and can be used for amplified or acoustic performances.

The paddles create a false ceiling for acoustics when needed.  

The stage can be modified with elevation as needed.

The hall holds one of the largest and most complex organs in the world with 10,000 tubes.  It is played in performance about five times a year.  

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is just one of the resident groups that use this venue.

The second largest theatre, was set up for an Opera Australia performance later in the day.   There is no amplification of voice or instruments in that venue.  A combination of Australian hardwoods and softwoods create perfect acoustics.   Because it was prepared for performance, we were not allowed to take pictures

Our guide had promised us a better ending to the Utzen architect story at the end of the tour and he delivered.  In the 1990s, the Sydney Opera House attempted to re-engage with Utzen.  He was, understandably, very reluctant to do so.

Eventually, Utzen and his son were hired to produce a set of guiding architectural principles that will hold indefinitely for the Opera House.

Before he died, Utzen was awarded the Pritzker award, architecture’s highest honor, for his work on the Sydney Opera House.  He also lived to see it be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world.  Eleven million people visit each year between concerts and tours.  It is the most visited tourist site in Australia. 

After our tour, we had drinks at the Opera Bar, a recommended activity.

We had a Henny Tea and a coconut margarita.  Fortunately, Randy was willing to drink the Henny Tea. One trial sip was enough for me.

During our time at the Opera Bar, we spoke for quite awhile with a Brit who has lived in Sydney for many years.  We spoke about Sydney’s high housing costs and her recent move.  We spoke about Sydney’s legal prostitution and the fact that there is no controversy about it.   She said there is much more controversy about the large cruise ships! Our time with her was informative and pleasant.

We got back on the light rail to get closer to the meeting point of our next activity, a food tour of Barangaroo and the Rocks.

Barangaroo is an area of Sydney named for the second wife of Bennelong from the picture shown earlier.  She didn’t acquiesce to the British rulers very much and is a revered person in aboriginal history.

Our specific tour was operated by a non-profit group who has worked to help refugees, immigrants and other marginalized groups.  As such, some of the restaurants we visited have been part of that supportive work. 

Our first food was lobster tacos.  I had mine vegetarian style with cauliflower instead of lobster.   They were very good.

The second sampling were sausage rolls from one of Sydney’s oldest bakeries.  That was followed by gelato. We ate our gelato cones without a picture.

Of course, along the way we learned more about the area we were visiting.  This tunnel was built by British convicts long ago.  Their hand chiseling through the tunnel is still evident.

This is a presentation about Francis Greenway, an architect that got into some trouble for shenanigans in London.  He came to Australia as a convict and eventually designed many of Australia’s most important buildings.

Our next stop was the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel- one of three breweries who claim the title of the oldest in Sydney.  This is the oldest continuously licensed brewery 

We had a very pleasant group for our tour – five Americans with a Brit turned Australian as our guide.  One was an lawyer from Iowa on business.  Two were a father and daughter from Florida.  They were in Sydney to move her to town to begin veterinary school.  

The last part of our excursion took us into The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney.   

This man is Jack Mundy, a union leader who was instrumental in not letting The Rocks succumb to progress which would have taken away the past.  Our guide considered him a hero.  From a distance, you don’t see the stairway coming down above his forehead – unless someone is walking there!

We didn’t stop at one of the other oldest pubs in Sydney, but we saw it!

Our final stop was one of Sydney’s original Thai restaurants.  Thai food is the most popular “take away” meal.    We ate in the restaurant and had a new to us dish, spicy crisp rice with pork. It was really good!

It was a delightful day from start to finish!

Next Up:  Our last tour, on our last day in Australia.

After days of rain in Cairns, the morning of February 6, 2025 was sunny and warm, but also really humid.  We thought briefly of the snorkeling that might have been but were mostly just grateful that we got it in.

Our main activity of this day was to transition from Cairns to Sydney. 

At the airport we saw a currency collector for charity.  It is always interesting to take a peak and see the various types currencies.  We saw a couple 5000 denomination bills. A little research later, we learned that 5000 Indonesian Rupiah were worth 31 cents in US currency.   It only looked like a huge amount!

It was much less dramatic flying into Sydney compared to coming in on the Westerdam, before sunrise, a few days before. I think I’d like to show you those pictures again!

We settled at our hotel and walked around a bit. We had a delicious Chinese dinner at the number 1 Chinese restaurant in Sydney – no insignificant stat! The dinner was delicious but we took no pictures.

The next morning was our first in Sydney!  We began with my least favorite kind of tour, a panoramic.  The tour was part of our package with Globus and involved riding around in a bus, listening to a guide talk about things you may or not see depending on your seat on the bus.   Pictures on these types of tours are usually poor because of glare from bus windows.  That being said, our tour guide was very nice and gave us some good information. 

We were able to get out of the bus a few times, like at this nice viewpoint to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.

Sydney Harbor is the world’s largest natural harbor and the Harbor Bridge is the largest steel bridge in the world.  It was built by a company in England and used local steel, stone and labor.  The granite pylons at each end are purely decorative to honor Australia’s sacrifices is World War I.  The steel arch is self supporting.  The bridge opened in 1932.

Atop the bridge are two flags.  The Australian Flag is part Union Jack (representing its ties to Britain) and part stars in the shape of the southern cross (representing the states and territories).  The second flag on the bridge represents the aboriginal peoples.  

The people on the bridge were on a tour to climb across the bridge from one side to another.  It is “a thing” but we didn’t know to do it – and we probably wouldn’t have done it even if we had known!

This picture shows the north head and south head at the entrance to the harbor.  The ocean is the Tasman Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean.  

We went to the famous Bondi Beach.  Bondi is from the aboriginal language meaning “tumbling water” or “water over the rocks.” There were a lot of surfers at the beach but no good waves while we were watching.  There are over 100 natural sand beaches in Sydney and its suburbs. 

Sydney has a red light district as indicated by this building.  Prostitution is legal as long as the negotiation does not take place in view of a church or school.  Both genders are available on street corners, but not in shop windows.  Learning that surprised me.

The most interesting place our guide took us was to Mrs Macquarie’s Point at the end of a peninsula within the harbor.  Mrs. Macquarie was the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor from 1810 to 1821. 

Our guide told us that Mrs. Macquarie was not happy with her husband’s posting and longed to return to Britain.  The governor had convicts cut a chair in the sandstone so she could watch the ships coming and going – while she longed to be on one of them.  

The inscription refers to a road, also built by convicts, that used to exist between the government house and her chair. The Macquarie Point area is now a park.

Our morning tour left us at Darling Harbor, one of the two primary harbor areas in Sydney. We had about five hours before our Sunset Dinner Cruise.  It was quite warm and only going to get hotter. We decided not to walk to the hotel and back again.

We dawdled over lunch and then made our way to the Maritime Museum. We almost always find Maritime Museums interesting and we could be in air-conditioning for several hours.   Yet, even as the air-conditioning called, we started with the ships outside. 

The Duyfken is a replica of the first European ship to reach Australia.  It arrived in 1606 and was repelled by the aboriginal people.  

This gentlemen tells visitors about life onboard the Duyfken for the crew of 20 Dutch sailors. They were on a six month voyage.  We sat with him about ten minutes which was not long enough for how interesting he was, but way longer than we wanted to sit in the hot, stuffy, cabin!

The next ship was the HMAS Vampire.  It was the third of three Australian-built Daring Class destroyers.  Built from 1952-1959, it was one of the first all welded ships in Australia.

The Vampire was mostly in South East Asia. However, it was assigned to escort the royal yacht HMS Britannia in 1977 during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip to Australia.  The Vampire remained in service until decommissioning, in 1986, when it was given to the museum.   

Our final exhibit outdoors was the HMAS Onslow, one of five submarines in the Australian navy.  It was decommissioned in 1999 and gifted to the museum.  

The motto of the Royal Australian Navy’s submarine corps is “Strength, silence, surprise”.   It had soundproofing on all equipment to make one of the quietest class of submarines ever built.  Onslow travelled enough miles to circumnavigate the world  more than 16 times.

Finally…indoors and AC!

We saw watercraft from Australia’s first people.

We learned that the Royal Australian Navy flies a national (blue background) flag at the bow and the Australian White Ensign on the stern.  The White Ensign is the flag for the navy.

These are the alphabet flags used by the Royal Australian Navy.

The yacht, Blackmore’s FIRST LADY, was sailed by Kay Cottee on her voyage around the world. Cottee was the first woman to complete a circumnavigation by herself, non-stop, and without assistance.  The journey took 189 days, leaving Sydney in November 1987 and returning in June 1988. Just a few days into the voyage, the yacht suffered damage to the wind-powered generator due to rough seas.  She faced several severe storms during the journey, but Cottee was able to stay in radio contact with family and supporters throughout. 

The Spirit of Australia is (or was) the Fastest Boat in the World.  Builder and driver, Ken Warby, reached 317.6 mph in October 1978 at Blowering Lake Dam in New South Wales, Australia.

Two men died trying to beat Warby’s record.  The first was Lee Taylor at Lake Tahoe, Nevada in 1980 and the second was Craig Arfons at Jackson Lake, Florida in 1989.   The museum did not provide information as to whether the Warby record has been broken. My internet search was inconclusive.

We headed across the harbor towards our evening activity.  On the way we were able to watch a few boat races.  We were told that competitors from other countries, male and female, come to Sydney and race each other and the women’s national team.  The Australian women’s national team always wins – told to us by a perfectly non biased Australian.

Our dinner cruise was with Captain Cook Cruises.   It was nice.

We had dinner and motored around the harbor.  As we passed a navy ship we were told to look for the red kangaroo.  The kangaroos were added to the ships sailing from Australia when they still sailed for Britain

We had entertainment.

These buildings have condos – two owned by Russell Crow (who is generally present) and one by Nicole Kidman (who isn’t). It is the high rent district!

There were SO MANY sailboats in Sydney Harbor on a Friday evening!!

We passed under the Harbor Bridge and by the Sydney Opera House. Touring the Opera House was our activity for the next morning and will be the subject of the next post.

We woke up on February 4, 2025, half expecting our Great Barrier Reef snorkel trip would be canceled – and it was.   

It occurred to us that our accommodation in the hotel was room 1313 on the 13th floor!  We are not generally superstitious, but we had lost two days of activities!

There were FOUR potential cyclones around Australia, and seven low pressure systems in the vicinity resulting in meters of rain!

The next day was our last chance to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.  We had a plan B for a half day tour at a part of the reef that was closer in if our full day trip was canceled.  We also had a plan C – a future cruise circumnavigating Australia and to try again some other year.

So, we spent the day watching Cairns off the balcony.  That was not smoke, it was heavy rain. There was too much rain to even venture a walk.

There was a new ship at the dock – the Pacific Encounter.  It was a P&O Cruise Line ship, but was to be taken over by Carnival Cruise Lines in March 2025.

For dinner we went back to Hemingway‘s Brewery.  We enjoyed eating there on our first night in Cairns and it was a quick walk from the hotel.

Randy got a beer flight. Our favorite was Mr. Wongs featuring banana and cloves!  

The next morning, February 5, 2025, the weather looked substantially better.

After walking to the reef terminal, we were able to check in at the Passion of Paradise desk.  Whoohoo – it seemed to be a go!  

Part of the check in process was to determine potential health issues and comfort level in the water.  The representative said that nothing was going to keep someone out of the water, it just defined what the crew were going to do to make it safe.  Even people who didn’t swim had workable accommodations.  We both swim and have snorkeled before.

Once onboard, the boat configuration had me surveying every escape route because of my claustrophobic tendencies.   When I mentioned it to one of the crew, she said she wouldn’t assign anyone else to our table.  That meant we were just four at a table that usually had six or more. That was possible because there were only 70 passengers on board.  They usually sail with 100 passengers but are allowed to have 140.  I could not have done this tour with 140 people in this space!!  As it was, Randy traded seats with me so I felt I had easier access to a way out.

As soon as it was possible, however, we went up top, and stayed up top, most of the day.

I noticed that the Australian flag on the boat was on a red background, not blue. I was told that boats fly the red flag so it will be more visible on the water.

At some point, we hit something hard while motoring.  Everyone could feel it. Fairly quickly, looking out the back of the boat, we could see it was a mostly submerged log. It was very impressive to see how the crew mobilized immediately.  There was no damage to the boat, so we continued on to the reef.

We had some sun and blue skies in the distance but mostly it was overcast with a little rain.

Soon it was time to get our sting suits on. They were necessary because it was jellyfish season.  Ugh..we hated this part! The type of jellyfish we were avoiding were very small but packed a painful punch. Our suits even had mittens to cover our hands. Fortunately the jellyfish did not impact our trip at all.

We went into the “pool” as they called the area of the reef and saw a lot of corals and many fish!! It was pretty cool!

Most cool, was being above a giant clam – think loveseat size!  One of the crew pointed it out and waved her hand above it to make the clam close.  There was a fish inside.  I hope it got out!   We learned that snorkelers drown each year by putting their hands and arms inside a clam and not being able to get loose.

We also saw several types of star fish including this blue one. We didn’t try to take pictures ourselves, choosing to just enjoy the experience.

The crew photographer took pictures of us!

When we got out I mentioned to Randy that I had been getting cold.  Randy mentioned to me that he had been having a bit of trouble with his mask.  Immediately the crew were on it – offering me a wet suit to go over the sting suit and adjusting Randy’s snorkel.  Are you getting the message that this crew was amazing?

They also made a delicious lunch.

I was dreading putting the sting suit back on (with or without the wet suit) and thinking that I might consider my reef experience to be done unless we would see different things at our second stop.  I also really don’t like the sticky skin feeling after being in salt water.

About that time, the skipper said we’d be staying where we were for a second snorkel because of wind conditions at the other site.  My decision was made.  About half of the people made the same decision I did.

Randy went out again as this bucket list item was the reason for coming!

I tried to keep my eye on Randy since I wasn’t being a good snorkel buddy.

The crew was watching too.

When Randy got back onboard, he said he’d seen several things we hadn’t seen before on our first snorkel.  Plus, the sun had broken through a couple times and he was able to see the range of colors that you see in pictures!  He was glad he went out again.

The ship operators had several procedures to be sure everyone was present including head counts by at least two crew and roll call by the passenger number they gave us at check in.  I was #20 and Randy was #21.  At the time, I told him we could remember that because I was 20 when we got married and he was 21.  He didn’t remember that!  Too long ago, I guess!

The ship’s crew had done a great job, including organizing and cleaning all this equipment.  As you can see, some people chose to dive the reef.

On the two hour ride back to Cairns, they offered a Great Barrier Reef marine life chat.  I’m usually all about learning whatever all I can, whenever I can, but not this day!  Not only did I not want to be down stairs with a lot of people, but I didn’t want to interrupt being up top in the wind!  The second in command joined us and we spent about 30 minutes talking.  He was a native Kiwi, who had lived in Australia, helping others snorkel or dive the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years.  He was planning to go back to New Zealand in the next few months to help care for his mom.

As we check snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef  off Randy’s bucket list, the only place that remains on our lists from years past is Petra, Jordan for me.  Petra was on a cruise itinerary in 2023 but we chose to cancel given world events.

Of course there are still way more places we’d like to go to than we’ll ever get to!  We have some very cool trips in the queue, we just hadn’t considered them “bucket list” destinations with longevity.

We walked back to the hotel and were so pleased to get cleaned up and get the salt water stickiness off our skin!  I had an impressive sunburn even though I never felt like I was sitting in the sun!

We chose to go back to Hemingway’s AGAIN.  It was close, easy,  and very good.  We hadn’t had pizza in at least three weeks, so why not have it three times in four days?

Next up:  We return to Sydney.

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!