Day 44 Saturday February 17, 2018. Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

We arrived in Adelaide as scheduled, so we readied ourselves for a long tour day, 8 hours, as we were getting ready, T-Mobile informed us we had service, so Ed sent out messages and we had reply’s right back, and then our youngest son called! Not sure what that will cost, but we don’t care as it all really helped with the homesickness. Thanks kids we really needed that. 

It was a beautiful day, not hot and not cold, we ended with a high of 82F. So off we went for a tour of the winery’s.  The first one was Jacobs Creek. What a pretty place. Very modern, but lots of history.  The story’s of these placeses in Australia have a similar start, like the old west in the US, but the time line is not as long ago. 

 

It had a 300 year old Eucalyptus that was beautiful and these were all over the Barossa Valley. It was a good day and we had a good lunch in another winery. We were suppose to see an old German settlement and I guess if you call driving by on the bus seeing it we did. 

At a stop at a dam, not scheduled, we saw some kangaroos. 

So all and all a good day, bought some wine, came back mellow and had dinner.

Quote “Like all great TRAVELERS, I have seen more than I can remember, and remember more than I have seen.” -Benjamin Disraeli 

Day 43, Friday February 16, 2018 Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island Australia

Chinese New Year, they decorated the Lido it was all decked out.

  

We went for lunch, as our tour didn’t leave until 12:30, as the ship was late getting in. The storm we came through, made the captain slow ship speed to make us as comfortable as he could. Ed had his tai chi, and I did some housekeeping while he was gone. And then we got ready to go to lunch, and then go down for the tour. 

This is a tender port and there were a lot of people ready to get on dry land after the last two days. So instead of taking us down the passenger way, we went down through the crew area. I’m not crazy about stairs any way, but the stairs the crew has to use are really steep, and I’m thinking of them having to do there job the last couple days, we’ll you get the picture. We board the tender and again we are rocking and rolling, I was ready to hit dry land too. 

Kangaroo Island is a place that reminds me of West Texas, and the hill country, all at the same time. Very hilly and very dry.  Not much here except 20,000 Koloa bears, we saw none, and kangaroos, which we did see. 

Our first stop was the Dudley winery, nice way to start a short four hour tour. We tasted 6 wines and purchased one. 

Then over some very rough roads, we went to the light house, wear we saw the lighthouse and a family of Kangaroos. 

Then it was a walk to the beach,,,, and back to the ship 

Dinner was ok, but nothing special, I’m getting homesick. 

Quote “ When was the last time you did something for the first TIME?” - Live learn Evolve 

Day 41 and 42 Sea Day February 14&15 Ash Wednesday and Valentines Day

How can you have Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday on the same day?  I’m not sure, but we did. And the sea in the ocean, got to REALLY nocking us around, and would you believe the winds got up to 100 kts!  Well they did, and the ship came through fine, not sure about the people. There have been dishes falling, the gala night and the Valentin ball, was cancelled,  and when you walked to lunch and dinner you had to hold on for dear life!

But this morning we are headed into Pennshaw, Kangaroo Island, a bit late, but at least I can catch y’all up, on the Sea days they are busy days, and even though we were bouncing off the walls, literally, these days were no exception. In watercolor class we painted a Koloa bear, and a wave, the wave was easy for me, sort of the bear,,,,, well. The things that made the wave difficult is the fact, you have to do the white part first, ie, put a white crayon on the part you want to be white, well that is the opposite of the way you paint in other mediums. The bear,,,, well. I also went to craft class and made wine charms, and valentine earrings 

Ed is keeping up with his thi chee, even when it was hard to stand up. 

So we are off to another excursion today, and that will be fine, but we are missing our family. 

Quote “Travel brings POWER and LOVE back to your life” -Rumi

(Backup) Day 40, MARDI GRAS-Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Hobart, Tasmania Australia

We woke up to cloudy and gray clouds, and from our side of the ship, Port side, there wasn’t much to see. But we had an early morning tour, we had to be in the Queens Lounge by 8:30, so we had to get going. No time to have breakfast, so off we went, to get coffee down there. I had not had a good night, so not at my best, but it improved as the day went on.  

We were on a seven and a half hour tour.. The capital of Tasmania, Hobart lies along the Derwent River and is dominated by the breathtaking Mt Wellington. We boarded the bus on time and headed to Richmond, Tasmania, how about that? All this way and we go to Richmond,,,, richmond is billed as one of the most beautiful places to visit. It was pretty and I can see how it would be a charming place to go for a weekend, but we really didn’t have time to explore, so we went to the bakery Ed had a huge jelly roll and I had a scone and we both had tea, as remember, we didn’t have breakfast. 

 

The oldest bridge in Tasmania is here and so is the oldest church, we were too far away from it to go inside.  So we went to the tasting room to check out the gin, woooo was it strong, 90 proof. Needless to say we didn’t buy any. LOL

 

 

Now it was time to go to the next stop, the Puddleduck Vineyards to tast wine, and it wasn’t even 11 o’clock, going to be a good day, and the sun was coming out. After tasting four wines and one non alcoholic wine called Puddleduck Verjuice, which was quite good, but not good enough to pay $22 for it. 

Next was on to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, here we saw koalas, Tasmanian devils, wombats, kangaroos and wallabies. This was really fun, we had a great guide who showed us the anamils, and we were able to touch and feed a lot of them, minus the devils as they would probably feed on us. LOL

  

 
The devils, and the baby wombat, cute at this age, but not cute when they get older, in fact mean buggers, and they said you don’t want one, borrowing under your house, as it will take it down. 

So now we were off to the historic Sheen Estate, as we approached it, it looked like something out of Giant! You could almost here the music. It was quite the place, and had a lot of history. It was built as an ostentatious monument to early colonialists Gamaaliel Butler’s wealth and position within the colony. It is a large sheep farm today, it’s colorful past has direct links with King George III and Governor Lachlan Macquarie.  We had some nice sandwiches and homemade cake and tea. The family today is trying to develope a whisky and now are one of only two leagel distlerys in Tasmania. They still have a was to go, before able to sell to the public, but they too make gin, as it is much faster. 

All in all it was a good day, now back to the ship, and Mardi Gras. 

Bumpy ride tonight and tomorrow. 

Day 39 At Sea February 12, 2018

Some sea days are better then others, this one was mixed,,,, I had watercolor class and Ed had Qi Gong & Thai Chee. Then he went to hear Barbara give info on the upcoming ports. Then we met for the Cruise Critics meet and greet. 

Ed and I went to lunch in the Lido, so we could save our spots for crafting. There was a big bro-haha in the Lido about people showing up early and sitting in the half of the Lido to save seats, but it’s more complicated. Seems there are people in other venues and they have complained that Nancy was giving out the kits early, like at 2:o’clock for the 2:30 class start, because she could see there was already 100 people seated in the Lido waiting for the class to start. Anyway, all very silly to me, as I was told years ago, you had to pick and choose what you were doing,,,,, you can’t do it all. But like a lot of life these days, a few people seem to control the mass. So now Nancy can’t even come before 2:15 and that is sad, as she had a chance to tell us background on some of the crafts, now she won’t. 

Then the other big happening was, captain Jonathan informed us that there was a big Low brewing, right in our planed track. And if we followed our planed coarse we would encounter 50-70 ft waves, sooooooo we are skipping Port Arthur, we are still going to Hobart tomorrow, but then we will have another sea day, but it will still be a bit rough on Wednesday. 

Every evening we get a travel quote on our pillow with two chocolates and I should have started shareing them 40 days ago, but I thought I would bring them all home, but I now realize that 113 of these little cards are going to be problematic to carry back and I will probably put them where I forget where I put them.. . . Well you know, so I am going to start shareing them now. 

“ A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving”   - Lao Tzu 

Day 38, Sunday, February 11, 2018 Sydney Australia, day 2

We awoke late, about 8:30 had our coffee and got ready to go to the Rocks, an area that has a huge market on Saturday and Sunday, so about ten we were off the ship, and decided to spring for a taxi as we were still whipped from the day before. When we arrived, I’m not sure what I expected, but not what it was. It was an upscale market, nothing was cheep, in price or goods. 

So Ed bought me a beautiful necklace from this lady a lady with a PhD in marine biology, Dr Kirsten Michalek-Wagner. Her designs are under the name Luka. She originally came from Germany.Ed and I loved her work, that was my valentine gift. 

 

We shopped and walked and didn’t see half. 

  

This man was amazing what he was able to accomplish with spray paint! 

Now after all that walking and shopping and walking it was time for lunch, 

    

Ed got squid and chips, and I got fish.           This is the Market on the Rocks. 

We then walked up the hill again, to look for a taxi, back to the ship. The people in Sydney are really nice, there was some sort of hospitality person who said they would call a taxi for us and she did. It was really hot, so we were most grateful. 

Back in the cool of the ship, we showered and got ready for sail a way and dinner. 

  

Lots of traffic going out, and different view, then coming in. Bye bye Sydney 

Day 37, Saturday February 10, 2018 Sydney, Australia 🇦🇺

We arrived In Sydney as scheduled about 6 am and we were up to see the sail in. It was gray and cloudy, but not raining. 

  

A Norwegian Cruise line was in Cercler Quay, which is the prime spot to dock, but we weren’t going to be there we were going to be docked at White Bay, which is a shuttle bus ride and a water taxi ride to get to Cercler Quay. 

Everyone had to depart the ship for a mandatory immigration inspection, so we decided to just get on the shuttle and figure out how we were going work out getting to and from the opera. 

It took us about an hour to make our way to the opera and the clouds melted away and the sun came out with a vengeance. The area around the opera house is really a busy one as you might imagine. There were street singers, aborigines selling didgeridoos and singing. 

We climbed all around the steps and took some pictures. And made dinner reservations for five o’clock this evening, at the Opera Kitchen. 

  

Now it was time to get back to the ship and get ready for the opera. 

We made it back to the ship about lunch time so we had a bit of lunch to replace the energy it took to walk over 10,000 steps registered on the fit-bit. 

We dressed and and ordered a taxi to take us to the Opera!

It was hot, probably high 80s and the Opera Kitchen is outside, but we had a table in a shady area.  The whole area down in the restaurant area was HOPPING! Noisy, lots of young people out to have a good time. 

 

We had fish and chips and our waitress was from France. 

We then went inside the opera house to see where our seats were, of coarse we were too early, but it was cool inside, and that was good. We started to climb the stairs inside, we climbed and climbed.... when we found our seats we were in the nosebleed section!

That is the orchestra that looks like dots down there. LOL. But we could read the subtitles and that made it easy to keep up with what was going on. One other funny thing the young Asian man about 25 I would say, sitting next to me, alone, kept falling asleep, throughout the opera, and a couple times on my shoulder LOL. All and all we enjoyed it very much, unfortunately the lead, Carmen, was week, but the rest of the cast was really good, especially Micaela, sung by Stacey Alleaume, she was incredible, and so was the orchestra!

So when it was over, we had the long climb downstairs, we didn’t have to worry about moving fast as there were all those people in front of us. When we finely got to the lobby area, I asked a lady how we needed to find a taxi in a covered area, as I noticed it was really raining HARD!  So she told us to go to this lift, down the hall, and someone would guid us, and they did, under the stage area!  We had to wait for some time down there in the garage area, but we were dry!  We were able to share a taxi with three people from, the Netherlands and we got bag to the ship about 12:30 boy were we ever tired, 6 am to 12:30 am, 18 hours, but fun ones.