Australian and New Zealand Cruise – Melbourne

 

We got off the ship in Melbourne at around 8:30am. We didn’t have much of an itinerary set up but it was clear by the weather that it was NOT going to be a beach day. We initially only had long sleeves and jackets for the boys but after a minute or two off the ship we realized we needed them as well. We took a bus into city center and had a walk around and a coffee and then got on a tram and headed for the beach to have a look around that area of town. One thing Melbourne does really well is having tourist information people set up at the cruise terminal where you get off and then again at the main bus stop in city centre. They had on red vests and hats and were armed with maps and a ton of information to help you get where you were going. It’s a nice city and I’d definitely like to go back and stay longer than a day.

There was a local seaside amusement park there that was unfortunately closed until the weekends during this season. It was modeled after Coney Island. We wandered around the shore and little shops until the afternoon where we met up with one of Peter’s university friends, Pete Meek. We had some excellent gelato (Thanks Pete!) and a really good catch up. He’s been living in Melbourne since we’ve lived in Washington so it was nice to sort of hear how things had been going for him. He gave us a lift back to the cruise terminal and we got on board and we went watch the Didgeridoo player.

This leg so far has left us feeling sort of torn with cruising like this. There are obviously more things than you can even do in a week at Sydney but a day just wasn’t near enough. We also didn’t get nearly as many things in at Melbourne as we liked. When we’ve cruised to Hawaii we felt like it was a good overview of several islands that gave us enough info to figure out if we wanted to go back and to which islands we wanted to visit. I suppose it’s the same thing here but, particularly in Sydney it felt as if we’d missed out on a lot of things.

One weird final note about fellow passengers. We’ve had quite a few people ask us how we could get so much time off from work. Which is understandable. We have the kids with us.. they’re obviously school aged. We aren’t retired and I assume don’t look the age of most of the retired people aboard. Last night was a first, we had a woman ask us how we could afford to go on a cruise this long. After I thought it was just a rhetorical question there was a little uncomfortable pause where I realized she was serious. I sort of just made a joke about things and brought up that it was an expensive trip especially after you added in the hotel service charge for all four of us. Most people assume the kids somehow pay less or don’t have to pay it but we have to pay it x 4. I’m actually really annoyed I didn’t have a really exciting answer to give her about a payoff from organized crime or something that sounded really scandalous. Or just said “We decided to sell off all our possessions and live as gypsies, how much do you make? How have you paid for this? Credit card?” Next time I’ll have a good answer. J

 

Sailing up to Melbourne Station Pier…  Spirit of Tasmania car ferry docked on the right hand side….

Federation Square – city center Melbourne:

Luna Park Amusement park – modeled on Coney Island…

Peter and Pete Meek with the boys just before we got back on the ship at Station Pier…

Australia and New Zealand Cruise–Sydney

 

We arrived bright and early in Sydney this morning. Peter actually was out on the bow of the ship as we sailed into Sydney harbor and got to see the Opera house as we approached. I think this is the most spectacular dock we’ve sailed into/out of in all our cruises we’ve done. To look RIGHT outside the window at the iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbor bridge while having coffee was really cool.

 

Panorama of sailing into Sydney Harbor – about 6.30am….

 

Docked at 7am with the Harbor Bridge on one side of the ship and the Opera House on the other side:

 

We got off the ship around 8:30am and met Bernadette (my friend Sarah’s mum and Sydney resident) right outside the dock. We were introduced to her new husband Collin and they played tour guide all morning. We took a ferry to Manly Beach and had coffee/breakfast and the boys messed around in the sand for a bit. Bernadette sails a lot and between her and Collin we were given some really cool historical and geographical info on the areas we were sailing past.

After waving goodbye to our great tour guides we had a little walk around Sydney Opera House and walked almost the entire way back to the boat when Henry turned and asked me where his backpack was. We’d sat down briefly in a coffee shop in the Opera House and he left it there. Peter did a mad dash back to the restaurant (getting in his exercise for the week) and fortunately it was sitting at the same table untouched when he got there.

We walked back via a little market near the ship and Grant finally got to spend some time at a museum that was nearby. I’m totally serious, that kid LOVES a museum.

We got back on the ship and it seemed really weird.. it was partly déjà vu and part feeling like we were getting cheated out of the “oooo new cruise” experience when we were boarding. Sail off was really nice. There was a super cool moment when people who hiked up the Sydney Harbor Bridge were at the top and all waving to us on the aft as we backed right up to it before leaving .. and then the 10 of them started doing the wave.

There is one 12 yr old on board. He spent about an hour in kid’s club tonight. We haven’t met him but kid’s club people think he’ll get along fine with the boys. We’re in bed now getting an early night.

Grant and Henry sailing away from Sydney with their Club HAL teachers:

 

Sea day tomorrow but then we start getting into a LOT of port days.

Australia and New Zealand Cruise – A few notes on our sea days…

 

(A little behind on posts now – started writing this one the day prior to Sydney which was yesterday so we’ll post that one tomorrow – we’re in Melbourne tomorrow!)

Today we came down and watched a ship competition on the aft deck. Teams got together at the start of the trip and all worked on making a boat with anything they could find. The boat had to prove sea worthy in rough seas (turning on the hot tub jets) and then be able to hold plenty of cargo (a six pack of coke) they were then given additional points by highest crowd applause. During the cruise we occasionally had people stop by our table and ask for milk cartons the boys had used so we knew the competition was going on. We had no idea how elaborate some of the boats would be. We had some lunch while we watched people explain the features of their boats and watched the teams come out and cheer on teammates. I have no idea where people were storing these huge things for 3 weeks.

We’re starting to see more and more Halloween décor popping up throughout the ship on cabin doors and some of the ships floral arrangements suddenly have huge spider webs and fake spiders on them. We’ve had several people tell us they’d like the boys to stop by their room for trick or treating and the ship is supposed to be having a big party. We’ve learned that all the kids but Henry and Grant are getting off in Sydney and only one 12 yr old and one 17 yr old are getting on for the last part of our trip. So it will be interesting. I hope they do something fun. The wait staff have all been so good with the boys, between showing them magic tricks and making them origami they’ve all been really sweet with making them feel welcome. Tonight the kids are saying goodbye to their friends in the kid’s club at the Pajamarama. I think there will probably be tears. They have seen these kids every day/night for the past 27 days. It will be weird with them being the only younger kids on the ship. Fortunately this last leg is a TON of port days so we’ll be keeping really busy until we’re off in Auckland.

We’ve decorated our door for Halloween too – Ours is the Zombie crossing one.  Grant is standing in front of another decorated door on the ship (there are a few others as well)…  The ship is having a big Halloween party as well that the boys are looking forward to!

After the first week on board Henry told he had made two nice new friends that weren’t kids and they played soccer with him for a long time. That afternoon I had one of the dancers stop me at the drink station and ask if I had a little boy named Henry. She said that she and a friend (another dancer) were up on the sports courts and they played kickball with him all afternoon and that he was adorable and really super sweet. Since then we’ve passed her occasionally around the ship and Henry gets a little googly eyed and embarrassed and waves hi and walks quickly by. Last night at the show she apparently took a fall and is out on official rest for the show tonight. Henry was concerned and then asked me if they booed her when she fell and then decided to make her a get well card. It was really cute. We handed it off to some of the dancers to give to her.

We are still seeing people on this cruise we have never seen before, which is quite an accomplishment considering we’ve been all sharing the same space for the last 28 or so days. Honeymooners seem to have spent the first 2 weeks or so in their cabin and they keep popping up out and about and we had a walk through the casino and I’m not sure those people even have cabins. They don’t seem to move except to raise their arm to pull the slots.

Again, I’m feeling extremely lucky about the length of our vacation as we see people packing and walking around with a sort of “oh no it can’t be overrr!” aura around them. I guess the fortunate thing in having so little time to plan this trip is that you don’t have this “wow, 6 months of planning and looking forward to the vacation and now it’s all over” feeling. Feeling incredibly blessed and happy at the moment and that’s not just the Sunsicles talking. Have I not mentioned the Sunsicles? They’re my favorite thing ever. I have no idea how many oranges this cruise ship goes through but they have the most incredible fresh squeezed orange juice at breakfast every day. A Sunsicle is a cocktail that uses this orange juice. Best thing ever.

 

Henry enjoying desert night on the lido:

Boys imitating art:

We’ve been tracking the cruise progress on an inflatable globe:

Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Kuto – New Caledonia

 

Ile de Pins

Today we were worried the boys had finally had their max of sea days. After I had convinced Peter that we didn’t really need to be on the FIRST tender out at 8am on an overcast day we got a groggy start out on like the second tender. As we pulled up to the island it started raining and Henry started with his “I’m cold” whining serenade. I finally convinced Peter to head back to the ship and if it cleared later we’d head back out. It’s been hard to keep up with homework over the past four days with so many ports in a row (we did do additional homework on the earlier stretch of sea days) so we came back and grabbed the homework bags and found a table in the lido dining room to work. Grant spent at least 2 hours complaining and making his tiny amount of homework harder than it actually was and Henry did approximately 290938 pages in his math workbook along with additional homeschooling sheets I brought. We grabbed some lunch and tendered back into shore as it appeared to be clearing up. I’m so glad we made the call to head back. Ile de Pins? Was one of the best beaches we have visited on this trip.

We spent the first part of our beach afternoon near this huge rock island that had gorgeous water and TONS of fish. A load of the wait staff had the afternoon off and it was actually really fun to see them out having fun with everyone. About 45 minutes into our swimming/snorkeling Henry came trodding up through the water to tell me he had to poop. Great. I set off with a backpack that included a box of Kleenex, a gallon sized Ziploc bag and a couple of diaper wipes, and a prayer. It’s a pretty isolated little island and I didn’t recall passing a bathroom ANYWHERE. By some crazy stroke of luck I walked Henry through the bushes and came across a little store/restaurant that had public toilets. While they didn’t have toilet paper, Peter’s insistence that we always travel with some sort of toilet paper came in handy. After that little adventure we decided to explore the beach on that side. It was beautiful powdery white sandy beach with water so clear you could see for ages. There were a few local families that had a stall selling food nearby and their kids were playing in the water. We spent a few hours in what will probably be our last true beach stop and it didn’t disappoint. We got on the last tender back to the ship with salt water dried on our faces and sand everywhere. The room stewards have to be glad the beach days are over.

On every cruise we’ve been on we seem to find an entertainer that we find we really love and have fun with and this cruise has been no different. The incredibly talented guitarist Matt Bauer plays nightly on the ship and is so much fun. He’s not only a really versatile talented guitar player and vocalist he’s really funny and quick witted and spends a lot of time getting to know people who come to listen to his set and then teases everyone mercilessly. I think they have him at a strange location or time because everyone who comes to see him is always amazed that it’s not a packed house. We’ve kind of given up on the main shows as they’ve really not been to our liking so it’s been really fun to go up and listen and sing along with Matt and the same group of people. It’s like our own little version of cheers.

Tomorrow is a sea day and we’re alllll looking forward to sleeping in.

 

Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Noumera – New Caledonia

 

Another port, another beach day. We arrived this morning in Noumea, New Caledonia. We took a local tour bus over to the local aquarium only to find out it didn’t open for another hour. Our intention was to do dry land things all morning and end the day with beach stuff but the water taxi was just a short walk across and it took us over to a nice little place called Duck Island. Peter has been bragging about his High School French language skills to ask a lady at the park where the water taxi was but honestly.. saying “WATER TAXI” and pointing to the dock next to us probably would have been sufficient enough to get her to nod yes and point. He’s been walking around saying things in a mock French accent ever since because he’s now convinced he’s fluent.

We took the water taxi over to Duck Island and threw our stuff on two loungers with an umbrella and went swimming. Peter and Henry got in to their knees and again decided it was too cold. Grant and I went out snorkeling for a bit and then we came in and dried off a bit in the sun while the boys dug around for seashells to bring back. There was an elderly woman who I’d seen snorkeling at a few other beaches and weirdly, in the ships small aft pool. Every time I saw her on a beach she was on the shore crawling around or had something wrong with her mask or snorkel or something.. there was always some issue. She was snorkeling around the shore, where there were no coral or fish anywhere.. just kids playing with toys and balls right around her. We were sitting on the beach kind of watching her and the water taxi drifted like right over her. Instead of standing up in the knee deep water and moving she just kept snorkeling around the boat while the wind was blowing the boat over her. Eventually she got up on all fours and crawled to the shore. Her husband tried helping her back to the lounger but she got mad and refused and just sat on the beach and eventually got up and crawled her way to a place where she could get up and walk. It was really weird. After sitting there for about 45 minutes a nice gentleman came over to tell us we could pay for our deck chairs we’d been using. So, our nice cheap little outing cost us 36 bucks. There wasn’t a sign in sight that mentioned they were for rent and the people next to us with more gall than ourselves just got up and left and didn’t pay.

After another long day on the beach the boys were super tired and we realized all the buses were full. We got the last 2 seats on the bus which meant Peter had Henry on his lap and I had to stand and try not to fall into everyone’s laps while the bus went around what felt like a million swerves.

We got back on the boat and had some lunch. Even after 30 or so days on this cruise ship people will still never fail to surprise me. During lunch I saw the snorkel lady’s husband go up and take two decorative display cantaloupes back to his table to eat.  These are the large elaborately carved ones….

A few other unrelated but worth mentioning stories:

Yesterday after we got back on the boat we heard about some people getting into a bit of a fight with the locals.  On the island there was a 10 minute walk up the road to this ladder for snorkeling and in the past 6 month an enterprising local had built a ladder down to the water and had started charging $15 per person to get into the water. So people who didn’t want to walk the distance ended up paying $15 for a cab ride to get to this place to snorkel and then find out they couldn’t get in without having to pay an additional $15. The guy who built the ladder started this enterprising business about 6 months ago and some people were annoyed with having to pay this. One guy started going down the ladder refusing to pay and the ladder guy got really mad and was yelling that he was going to break his leg with coconuts and then ran off with his shoes. Another couple decided that “ok.. that’s great you’re going to charge but we’re going to make our way down the shore and climb down these rocks into the water and we’re not going to pay your ladder fee”. The guy ran off with her bag but there were enough people there that stopped him. The people who witnessed the woman and the bag were our same friends whose long boat capsized a couple of days before. I’m not sure I want to be on the same excursions with them but I sort of want to follow them around just to witness the crazy crap that seems to happen when they’re around.

Just before typing this blog post I was responding offline to a friend of mine about something and I realized that even with the elevator days of the week carpets I can’t keep track of what day it is.. they seem to change like every DAY or something. I have no idea what the date is.. I know that Sydney is coming up and a lot of people are getting off then so we must be getting towards the end of October. I only know that it’s sometime after lunch and before cocktail hour. I’m not sure what re-entry is going to be like when I’m suddenly constrained and bound by the hours on a clock, the days of the week and the date on a calendar.. and also no beach in site for quite some time. I can’t make myself begin to think what it will be like to do my own laundry, cooking or cleaning.. I have never come back from a vacation thinking “ahhhh well it’s GOOOD to be back” and I don’t think this one will be any different. It’s sort of starting to feel like “cocktail hour” so I’d better sign off!

 

 

 

Aussie BBQ and apparently desert night on the cruise:

Australia and New Zealand Cruise–Easo, Lifou–New Caledonia

 

Today we arrived at Easo and had just an easy breezy beach morning. Sadly our near bath water temperatures may be over – either that or it was just an incredibly windy day. We spent some time splashing around but the winds kept Henry out of the water most of the time.

At some point while Grant and I were out in the water I looked over to see Henry and Peter crashed out on the beach. It was also the first time I kept hearing more about sharks and jelly fish that had some stronger venom and with the heavier waves I couldn’t see the ground as much. Anyway..beautiful day, just a bit windy. We ended up coming back to the boat for lunch and never made it back out. We went to the ship pool thinking it’d be a bit warmer but that was even colder. We ended up spending a quiet day in .. I read some of the 2^nd Harry Potter to Grant and Peter and Henry napped again.

 

Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Port Vila - Vanuatu

 

Today we arrived at Vanuatu, former location of one of the Survivor reality shows. We arrived a bit early and were greeted by huge crowds of taxi drivers on the other side of a chain link fence all shouting at everyone to use their taxi service. It was a little overwhelming as a small group of us all stood on the opposite end of the fence wondering who was going to go out first. The rates for taxi hire were posted (for approximation) and the several of the numbers were helpfully rubbed out so they could really charge about what they wanted. Pete is great with this stuff so I let him negotiate with someone and we got a cab for the entire day for $150 (vs the $250 that was posted. Peter: I think I could have done better but I’d read online the going rate was $100-$150 and we started at $100 for only 2 hours).

Our first stop was this Mele Cascade Waterfall swim. Because ridiculously early Peter had us off the boat before anyone else we were actually the first people to the Waterfall. I knew it was a small hike in but had no idea we’d be hiking through tons of little streams. Parts of it looked a little more daunting than it was but the pay off of getting to this insanely stunning waterfall was so worth it. Henry loved being the “Diego The Explorer” of the group. He led the way and point out all the dangers! Being the first people to arrive we were there a good 30 minutes alone in our own little private paradise. Coming up the waterfall you felt like you were in the opening credits of a travel or nature video. Again, no camera could capture the beauty that your eyes witnessed. The water seemed pretty cold at first but after about 5 minutes I could have stayed there all day. Henry and Grant were champs the entire way there and back climbing and clambering through all the rocky terrain through smaller waterfalls.

We came back to find our cabbie waiting for us to go to Hideaway Island. Hideaway Island features the world’s only underwater post office. We of course had to buy a couple of underwater postcards to mail to the boy’s classrooms. After writing them out Grant and I had to swim out to the post box and dive down with goggles in order to put them in the underwater mailbox. It wasn’t very deep down but it actually took us a good 7-8 tries before we could actually get it in the mail slot. Snorkeling we found a huge octopus right off the shore that was fascinating to watch. We swam a bit more and had some fish and chips on the beach (and Peter enjoyed a couple of the local “Tusker” beers) and then headed back through some markets and back to the boat. We’ve prepped the boys with endless talks about different cultures and being respectful but it still doesn’t stop Henry from wondering out-loud “WHY DOES THIS STORE SMELL LIKE FARTS???”. Always a work in progress. Also, an interesting note, on the way back we ran into some friends from the boat that told us about their crazy excursion on a longboat yesterday in Fiji that capsized in the rapids! They lost 2 iPhones and a camera. They did ok otherwise but a number of the more elderly (the vast majority on the ship) had quite the scare! While sometimes I may complain about all the additional equipment we bring with us, I’m so glad Peter is uploading our photos nearly nightly. I’d be so upset to have lost them all.

Another really cool day that makes me really appreciate sharing this amazing adventure with my guys.

Mele Cascade Waterfall….

 

Hideaway Island and the Underwater Post Office – Grant and Henry posted post cards to their classes here….