Feb. 27

2-27: On the way to Exmouth we had the best laugh of the trip when we spotted on the menu the dessert called Spotted Dick with Vanilla Sauce - picture included. We both read it at the same time and started laughing hysterically. Our tablemates really wondered if we had lost our minds until we showed it to them! You can imagine what we thought might appear when we ordered it! We still laugh every time we think about it! Yesterday was our last stop in Australia - well, kind of. We anchored off shore outside of Exmouth which is in the far NW corner of Australia. Exmouth is a town of 2400 people that was established in 1962 when the US and Australia jointly developed a communications center. There are large radio towers on the coast. The temperature yesterday in Exmouth was about 36C which is about 97F and there were swarms and swarms of flies! Ginnie and I decided to stay on board and EVERYONE who came back from town said we were wise to have done so. Not much in town - seems the only thing we really missed was seeing emus wandering the “city” streets! Picture of the desolate coastline of Exmouth included - maybe we found a part of Australia where we do not want to live. Our day was very nice - quiet and relatively peopleless!

Feb. 25

2-25: Yesterday we were in Perth which is the capital of Western Australia. Western Australia is 3 times the size of Texas and has a population of about 2 million, 2/3 of whom live in the Freemantle-Perth metroplex. And over a third of that population is under 24! Freemantle is the port city for Perth which is about 11 miles inland. So once you get out of the city there is nothing but wide open spaces which they call the bush. Once again we found Australia fantastic - a beautiful place. Our tour took us by bus into Perth - we stopped at a large park that contained their was memorial and overlooked the city of Perth and the Swan River. I’ve included a picture of Aussie school girls who were obviously participating in an art class - they were all drawing the city. Then we drove through the business district and down to the river where we caught a boat to take us back to Freemantle. The boat ride was great. We saw some dolphins. The boat driver tried to get them to play in the wake but they did not cooperate. All along the river there were huge homes - there are the ultra-rich everywhere. One house, which was huge and garish, was the summer home of some businessman from Singapore! Ginnie and I sampled a local - really local we passed the brewery - beer called Swan Draught and decided it was the best so far. Once back into the Freemantle port we boarded the bus again for a short tour of Freemantle which is also a very nice town. Really a great place - miles and miles of coastline that has very little built on it. Many green parks throughout the cities. Beautiful and uncrowned. Australia gets our vote as one of the greatest places on earth. After we got back to the boat we took a nice nap. The time changes are taking there toll - the 3 nights between Adelaide and Perth we turned our clocks back each night - half an hour once and then an hour twice! Today is a sea day and tomorrow is Exmouth - a town of 2400 people.

Feb. 22

2-21: Today we were in Adelaide. At 9:30 we left the ship and met Kathy and her significant other, Cedric, on the pier. Cedric took Bill and Susan and Ginnie and I went with Kathy. She took all around Adelaide. The picture of the statue is of William Light who decided where the city would be and how it would be laid out.. Turns our he is an ancestor of Kathy’s late husband. Then we went up Mt. Lofty - the picture from the mountain shows Adelaide down below and the ocean in the background. Then we went through a German town which was very beautiful - pretty rose bushes all over the place. Then we went on to Mt. Barker which is where Betty lives and where we were going to meet Betty and her daughter for lunch. We were early so Kathy dropped us at a pub while she went to fill her car with petrol. By the way petrol is 1.20 or so per liter - that makes it well over 4 bucks a gallon! Ginnie and I tried another Aussie beer - Victoria Bitters or VB. It was pretty good. Then we went on to lunch which was nice. At lunch we drank what all these Aussies think is the best Australian beer - Coopers Pale Ale - it was quite good. After lunch we went to Betty’s daughter’s farm. She raises alpacas - hence the pictures. The little black one was 3 months old and was too cute. Also got to pet a dog so that was wonderful.. We had strawberries and ice cream and real cream - very good. And Betty whose husband had mined and polished opals gave each of us an opal to take home! Good heavens - these women were so nice to us - we were amazed! They are really great - we had such a beautiful day! Then we headed back down out of the hills back to the ship. We started to get a little nervous about getting back on time - just barely got back at 5:30 which was when we were supposed to be back. The whole day was great - it was really nice to see where and how people live instead of being on a tour of some sort - absolutely great. But we are pooped and headed to bed. We set our clocks back half an hour last night - HALF AN HOUR!! - we do the other half tonight. So now - when it is 9:30 pm Tuesday here right now - it is 5:30 am Tuesday in Dallas.

Feb. 20

Okay - now I know you all are tired of the word BEAUTIFUL but yesterday we saw the most beautiful sights! We took a day trip - and it was all day, over 12 hours - along the Great Ocean Road west from Melbourne. The road was built during the depression by WWI veterans - kind of like our CCC projects. It goes along the coastline - often on cliffs well above the ocean. The views are magnificent. It twists and turns and goes up and down and Ginnie wore herself out helping the bus driver stay on the road! The driver even joked about his co-drivers in the front seat! We were driving through one section of Eucalyptus trees when the bus pulled over so that we could see koalas in the wild - there they were just up in the trees eating which is about all they do. Koala - in Aborigine - means animal who doesn’t drink or something like that. Koalas get all the moisture they need from the eucalyptus leaves. You will have to look hard at that picture to see the koala! We stopped for lunch in a nice beach town at a restaurant with a view that was spectacular. The coast line is not at all over built the way any coast line in America is. Ginnie was talking to the guide who said you could get a nice acre of land near where we were overlooking the ocean for about $60,000 - that would be per square foot and not half so pretty on most of America’s coast! Then on to the main attractions for the day. We stopped at a National Park called The Twelve Apostles. You had to walk a ways to see the 12 Apostles so Ginnie took a HELICOPTER ride! Can you believe it?!!! I, of course, decided that we need pictures from both perspectives and stayed firmly planted on the ground! Pictures are included. The cliffs and the pillars and the arches are mammoth and magnificent. It is also called the shipwreck coast - many shipwrecks along the cliffs. Even one that they discovered in the mid-1800s that dated from the 1500s. After the Twelve Apostles we went to Loch Ard Gorge where a couple of teenagers were the only two to survive a shipwreck. The pictures included show, from the air, the gorge with a pillar in its entrance and from the ground you can see it is an arch! After Loch Ard Gorge we went to a small beach town called Port Campbell for afternoon tea. Then on to our last sight - London Bridge. It was a formation that had two arches and was connected to the mainland until 1991 when the arch closest to the mainland collapsed into the sea. The people in the area feared that many would be dead because people were allowed to walk out to the end of the arches. But when it collapsed that morning there were only two people on the arch and they were stranded until a helicopter came to pick them up. They were lucky - but then again maybe not so lucky since their respective spouses thought they were off on business trips and their pictures were splashed all over the news! On they way back to Melbourne we took an interior highway and it too was beautiful - great rolling hills with dairy farms all over. We didn’t get back to the ship until about 8:45 so it was a couple of beers and bar snacks for dinner. Then bed. Fantastic day! On to Adelaide where our ex-tablemates are going to give us a tour since they both live there.

Feb. 17

2-16: We arrived in Sydney yesterday morning before the sun even came up because we had to be docked before rush hour since they use a lot of ferries to get around. Sydney Harbor is very impressive and it is huge. We had two tours scheduled for yesterday - a bus tour in the morning and a boat tour of the harbor in the afternoon. Both were really nice. The bus tour took us around different sections of the city then to Bondi Beach where we were able to spend about half an hour. Really nice beach - really nice city. Then in the afternoon we saw a lot of the areas we had seen in the morning that from the water. They have a lot of green space in Sydney which helps make the city really beautiful. There is a section of the city called The Rocks which is the original city of Sydney right on the harbor’s edge. A guide told us that in the early 60s they almost tore all of the old buildings down but the preservationists saved the area. It is a good thing they did - it is great. Today we walked around The Rocks - all of the narrow old houses have been turned into shops and restaurants and some of the small streets are just walk ways now. We had lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant in the Rocks - great pizza for me and pasta for Ginnie. We tried various Aussie beers today and we liked the one we had at lunch - Carlton Cold - the best. After lunch we went by ferry to another section of Sydney called Darling Harbor. The part that we went to was basically a mall - even had a store called Colorado! It was nice - lots of restaurants too - with outside eating. And the wildest food court I’ve ever seen - you could get anything! It started to rain while we were there and we went into a café to have a drink while we waited for the ferry to take us back to the ship. Thunder and lightening and all. The ride back on the boat was great. Then we walked in the rain back to the ship. Once back we did our laundry - we decided this would be the best time to brave the dreaded laundry because a lot of people got off the ship today and a lot were getting on taking their place. We decided all of the people getting off would take their dirty clothes home with them and those getting on would bring clean clothes! It was pretty peaceful down there which was good. Tomorrow we have a tour in the morning - a Wildlife Encounter - which should be fun then on to Melbourne.

2-17: The Wildlife Encounter this morning was great. Pictures included of us with a wombat and then separately with a koala. We also saw kangaroos and kookaburras! Australia definitely wins the prize for the most strange animals. Watching the kangaroos was fun - you went right in the pen with them. The picture is of a young one sticking its head in its mother’s pouch. It was great. Then we took a river cat back to the harbor. Saw a lot of beautiful houses. I know you are getting tired of the word beautiful BUT no other word describes Sydney! One of the pictures show people walking up the Harbor Bridge. You pay $175 to spend 3 hours climbing up the bridge and coming back down! I’m sure the view is great BUT … After lunch we went up on deck to watch us finally leave Sydney Harbor. Since we had come into the harbor in the dark it was great to see us leave. Hundreds of sailboats out. And such a fantastic place. One picture included is the lighthouse on one side of the harbor entrance and the ocean waves breaking on the ocean side cliffs. Once again BEAUTIFUL. On to Melbourne now. Oh - the picture of the bacon is for Car - when you order bacon and toast in the morning they give you a whole plate full!!!!

Feb. 14

2-14: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO ALL! Happy Birthday, Jen! Spent yesterday doing our typical sea day routine - trivia, bridge, etc. Last night was the Captain’s dinner - they have one at the end of each leg and Sydney is an end point - lots of people getting off and lots getting on. They do the Baked Alaska parade etc. And it was also Ginnie’s birthday so we had her birthday cake and the waiters all sang - know you Birmingham kids are glad to know she didn’t get away with anonymity this year! The pictures included today are of: our clothes chair (take note Judy); our waiters - Leucile and Ben; our tablemates the Aussie ladies and the Salt Lake couple; Ginnie’s birthday cake; and us at our table in the Chart Room! Tomorrow Australia - we are sooooo excited!

Feb. 13

Feb. 13: Yesterday we were in Wellington - our last stop in New Zealand. It is a beautiful place. The mountains come right down to the city. We went on a tour that took us up Mt. Victoria for views of the city and then took us to a cable car which went up the side of a hill to the Botanic Gardens. The gardens were amazing! Beautiful roses and then they had a begonia house. Never knew that begonias grew to such size. Picture included! Then we went to an old church made entirely of wood. It was beautiful - the windows were great but the wood was amazing. It had been built 1866. No longer used as a church but is still used for weddings, etc. After that we toured the city - saw the government buildings and embassies. Being a Sunday most places were closed. So we came back to the ship and enjoyed a restful afternoon on the deck. It was our first mostly sunny day we had had in quite a while. Temperature was cool and it was pretty windy. Our best deal of the trip were $10 (New Zealand dollars so only about $6.50 US) phone cards! It was great to talk to those of you we talked to. From New Zealand no less. By my second trip to the phones the lines were long and I hated to take up too much phone time! We went to the Sail-Away party on deck yesterday afternoon. Hearing the Caribbean band Opus singing Low Places was really quite humorous but it was a beautiful day and the scenery couldn’t have been better. The wind was really strong and there was a beautiful rainbow across the water caused by the wind blown spray - look closely at the picture. This morning when we opened our door to go to breakfast there were some flowers for Ginnie - they were from our waitress, Lucille, and our waiter, Benjamin. It was really nice of them - they are great. All for now. Two sea days until Sydney. Also included is a picture of the Maori dancers from our day in Rotorua.

Feb. 11

Feb. 8: Coming into Auckland Harbor was beautiful! It is cool - 70s - with some sun and some showers. Great weather. We have tours this afternoon and tomorrow morning so not sure when this will get posted to the internet. IN NEW ZEALAND! Who’d have thunk??!! It is so exciting!!!

Feb. 10: Today was great BUT it rained all day long! Poured then drizzled then poured again! Our trip to Rotorua was nice - it is about an hour from Tauranga. We left at 8:30 and stopped at a nice lakeside hotel for morning tea. Just what we needed after eating a big breakfast! But they had excellent fresh squeezed orange juice! Then we went on to Rotorua which is more like Hot Springs, Arkansas than Yellowstone. There was a spa that had been built in 1908 to draw people from England to “take the cure” - that would have been quit a trip in 1908!! The old bath house is a museum now. Before the bath house was built, there had been “the pink terraces” which were hot pools terraced down the side of a mountain toward the sea. They had been a tourist attraction since the early 1870s. Well, in 1886 Mt. Tarawera erupted and buried the pink terraces under feet of lava and ash. The whole area is very active not only volcanically but also thermally. We were glad none of the mountains blew their tops while we were there! It is a very fascinating area. It is very beautiful country - lakes and hills - and so GREEN! We went through the major kiwi growing area - kiwi grow on vines very much like grapes in a vineyard. We would have though they were vineyards without a guide. They have to be shielded from the wind because if they bump together they get bruised and become seconds! Then we had lunch at this unbelievable place! A 7000 square foot 5 bedroom house on a peninsula which jutted out into one of the lakes. This house can be rented for $1000 per person per day! It sleeps up to 10 but can be rented in its entirety by only one person for 1000 a day. That includes staff to clean up after you and cook your meals! It was an amazing house - absolutely stunning - 9 TV’s and a media room! It was too bad that the weather was so crummy that we couldn’t get out and look around the grounds. The Captain said the seas would be rough tonight - he hasn’t said that before! We have a sea day tomorrow - we will actually get the BLOG posted - before getting to Wellington on Sunday. We had 72 beers and Caesar salads in our room. Good night!

Feb. 7

Feb. 6: SUPER BOWL MONDAY! First of all last night - we came back to our cabin at 9 and found out we had to turn our clocks back again and decided 8 was really too early to go to bed! SO we took our 20’s to the casino to play the slots! I lost my 20 very quickly but Ginnie kept just hanging on. UNTIL she hit a 7 with two Triple Diamonds and won 900 quarters!! WOW! It was heavy until it was turned into paper. Then of course we had to go have a celebratory drink! Now on to today. We got up early and made our terrible towels out of a stained yellow shirt! They are beautiful as you will see! We were in the bar where the game was to start at 10 by 7:15 staking out our seats. When the TV came on about 8:45 it was in Spanish - see attached picture of the screen. There were a lot of unhappy Americans come 10 when it was still in Spanish! About coin toss time we did start getting an English override but all the ads were still in Spanish! They had quite a crowd but Steeler fans were in the definite minority and we were the only ones with terrible towels! They were serving what they considered American delicacies - even POPCORN! Lunch was hot dogs and pizza and hamburgers and what they called Texas chili served with a nice little tower of rice! Because we had booked a tour on New Caledonia we had to leave with Pittsburgh ahead 21 to 10 with 6 minutes left in the game. We were glad to see that that was the final score. Supposedly we will get a rerun of the game at 5 - maybe then we can catch the end! Our tour of New Caledonia was on a petit train (like a parking lot tram) which took us around the city of Noumea and up to a nice overlook. The island is really very pretty but the town of Noumea itself is not wonderful.

LATER: We went up to have a few beers before dinner and had more than a few and decided dinner in the room was in order. It was good. All in all it has been a very good day.

Feb 5

Feb. 4: We were in Fiji today and the city we docked in - Lautoka - was not a delightful place. We headed off the ship about 10 and it was so hot and humid that Ginnie decided she could not walk to the shuttle bus. She couldn’t breathe in the humidity. So I went on the shuttle by myself and it was definitely not worth the effort. The bus had natural air-conditioning otherwise known as no windows! It took us to the center of town and dropped us off in front of the only nice store in town. I wandered a couple of blocks and went in some of the stores but found nothing too exciting. The best part of Fiji was the sunrise and the sunset and we were coming and then going - pictures of both are included. Ginnie and I went to the movies this afternoon - we saw Spanglish which was pretty good. Seemed like a good thing to do when there was no bridge and it was too hot to sit outside. Then beer, dinner, and CSI and now it is bedtime. The other 2 pictures I’ve included are of our lovely weather in Samoa - those white spots are raindrops and the picture of the tug from our porthole shows how windy it was. They had to keep the tug there to keep the ship up against the dock! All for now. On to New Caledonia where we have a tour lined up. Of course - that is Monday - which is Super Bowl Monday - yes, Super Bowl Monday. The game is on at 10 am. Our tour is in the afternoon and if the game is still going on and close we might not take the tour.

Feb 4

Feb. 1: Today was Pago Pago where Ginnie and I were going skip shore excursions and do laundry. Well, the day dawned gray and rainy as we pulled into the Pago Pago harbor and the captain had a hard time even docking the ship. It required a tug pushing against us to keep us at the dock. All trips were canceled and the captain announced that we would be leaving shortly after noon instead of at 6pm. The “fools” that got off the ship were soaked to the skin in a very short time. And then they made our trip to the laundry even worse because they were all wanting to come in and dry their wet clothes! The laundry situation is the pits - people were saying there had even been fisticuffs a couple of days ago. We decided that “they” want to make doing laundry a miserable experience so that we will use their laundry services at exorbitant prices! Anyhow, after laundry we went to lunch and then to bridge where we discovered that we had come in 4th yesterday and earned another .18 master point so we now have a whole point!! Bridge was fun today - we are getting better. Then we went to the Chart Room for our afternoon beers - had a couple of extras and decided eating in our room was a good idea tonight. We have ordered and are happy puppies! The seas are really pretty rough tonight. Supposedly there is a cyclone somewhere in the South Pacific - you guys should check the weather for us and let us know what we are in for. At the moment we are headed from Pago Pago to Fiji! All for now. Dinner is here and CSI is on the “telly”!

Feb. 3: After dinner in our room last night we went to sleep early only to wake up and discover that we had crossed the International Date Line and it was now Friday the 3rd. No February 2nd for us this year. Don’t quit grasp the concept of where the day went BUT we’re taking it on faith. We guess that we get back on your day somewhere!