We had lived in Adelaide 12 years ago, so we decided to reconnect with some of our good friends. We woke up to a sunny day and an Australian band playing Australian songs out on the pier, songs such as Waltzing Matilda etc. A great awakening at 7 AM in the morning. Opened up the curtains and there was the bright sunshine that we hadn't seen in a few days. Our friends met us at the port and we drove to our dear old friend Bill for a short visit. We met Bill and his wife in NZ on our way to Adelaide and have kept in touch for many years. It was great seeing him and finding out all his new hobbies and interests. We then drove to Glenelg, a port complex that has been built up since we have been away. Doug and I used to go to the beach here when it was too hot to stay in our house. They have really built the area up with condos and piers and shopping areas. After the stroll through Glenelg, we took a drive to our old house and the area we lived in while in Australia. We walked up the drive way and took photos and laughed at some of the memories of this old house. Then it was off to downtown area to visit Marge and Kevin's house and to hug their dog. We miss our Holly Berry and loved hugging and petting Marge's poodle. Then off to the outdoor cafe that Doug and I used to frequent in Adelaide for some lunch and good Australian beer. We had a great visit reminiscing with our friends of our year here and their visit to Edmonton two years ago. Then Doug could not resist going into the Central Market across the street to see all the stands with fresh Australian fruit, veggies, including Kangaroo and crocodile meat. Then it was off to North Adelaide to visit our other good friends Greg and Evelynn who teach in that area and were kind enough to get one hour off to see us. Greg and Evelynn have also visited us in Edmonton in 2000 and plan on coming again which will be wonderful. We met in a cafe/bar and had a quick good visit. It was so nice to see our friends and get all the news around Adelaide concerning the economy, the teachers, travel news, and news about their families. Doug and I came back to the ship with smiles on our faces telling everyone what a great time we had visiting our friends again. It was like old home week.
We quickly got dressed for we were invited to the Captain's private suite for a cocktail party. He thanked us for taking the stormy seas so well but that we are one day behind schedule and need to catch up and they have decided that it was be the easiest to miss Broome on our cruise. We don't mind at all for we hadn't planned to see much at this particular port. It is difficult getting into the port, he said, for the low and high tides have a difference of 30 ft and if you come into the port at the wrong time you may have a problem, so this was one of the defining reasons why they chose to miss this port.
Tonight, the bar is open on the ship, as a thank you to all the guests for putting up with the rough seas and terrible conditions so well. Not one broken bone on the ship which is a good thing.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Melbourne, Australia
We docked at Port Melbourne early Tuesday morning to overcast skies and high winds. Doug and I decided to see Melbourne on our own for we have been here before. We took the shuttle bus to downtown Melbourne. Along the way, we noticed that the boulevards were dry and brown. Mary Anne and Harry talked to a tour operator who said Melbourne has suffered drought for the past 8 years in a row. You can see it in the dry brown grass in the parks and green areas. We took a tourist shuttle bus around the city and saw the old-world buildings and the very modern buildings. The sky was grey and the winds were whirling around the downtown areas. This is a very cosmopolitan city with large buildings, spacious walkways along the river, quaint trams, and impressive high-rises. There are many Italians and Greeks in the city, and therefore many ethnic restaurants.
After the city tour, we decided to go on our own to the Melbourne Zoo to see Australia's wildlife. We patted the Kangaroos, watched the echidnas with their long tongues. We love watching the sleepy and dozy koala bears trying to hide from the wind in the eucalyptus trees. We also enjoyed watching the Fairy penguins, now renamed the Little penguins waddling around looking at us and trying to figure out what we were saying to them. All the animals were so cute and well taken care of in this large outdoor zoo. We took a tram from the zoo to the downtown area and then came back to the ship. We looked at the skyline and it looked angry with dark dark clouds and grey skies. Little did we know what we would be in for on our way to Adelaide - a perfect storm.
After the city tour, we decided to go on our own to the Melbourne Zoo to see Australia's wildlife. We patted the Kangaroos, watched the echidnas with their long tongues. We love watching the sleepy and dozy koala bears trying to hide from the wind in the eucalyptus trees. We also enjoyed watching the Fairy penguins, now renamed the Little penguins waddling around looking at us and trying to figure out what we were saying to them. All the animals were so cute and well taken care of in this large outdoor zoo. We took a tram from the zoo to the downtown area and then came back to the ship. We looked at the skyline and it looked angry with dark dark clouds and grey skies. Little did we know what we would be in for on our way to Adelaide - a perfect storm.
Rogue Wave
Waiters at lunch time today said they lost a large portion of their wine stock. One fellow was in the wine cellar when the wave hit and he said there was wine flying everywhere. On our floor there are some elderly people nursing their bruises from falling out of their chairs. Our stewardess said the penthouse floors suffered the most damage for they are higher up and swayed more. The plasma TVs crashed along with lamps and other breakables. Our friend was in the Casino when the wave hit, and he fell backwards on the floor and hurt his elbow badly. Again, we were told that 90% of the glasses in the dining room were broken and we are going to have paper cups tonight. They laughed but the 90% is true.
AT SEA
THE PERFECT ROUGE WAVE:
Yesterday, was quite an eventual day. In the morning, the captain warned us it may be rough like the previous night where our ship was rocking and rolling. We were heading for a low pressure area. The captain said be prepared for 25 ft waves and hold onto the railings and walk carefully. The previous night wasn't too great with passengers ill from sea sickness but I was fine.
Throughout the day, it was difficult walking around. We would look out the windows and see huge waves coming towards the ship. Scary. We decided to go to the top deck for lunch, and were told it was closing down, too much movement, dishes were rattling around. So we went to the dining room on the fourth floor and watched the waves through the windows. They were getting bigger and bigger.
At 6 pm. an announcement came throughout the ship, that we would not be arriving in Adelaide the next morning. We were told that the ship had to move slowly through these very rough seas and that some events were being cancelled and decks closed for our use. We could feel that it was getting worse.
We were at our dining room table in the centre of the ship, and would see the horizon disappear completely. We thought that was strange. Then sometimes the ship just rolled so much that you could hear the guests at the window go oohhh ahhhh. We were getting alittle worried, and then our chairs started to tip, and the glasses on our table started to move and tip, the dishes in the waiter's stations started to crash, people started yelling at one table, the waiters were running around trying to stop trolleys from moving and tipping, and we stood up to get our balance. We all looked at eachother as all hell broke loose. I thought oh my God. The waiters ran to the couple who fell out of their chairs, a few fell out in the centre, and we thought no dessert for us, we are out of here. Doug in the meantime had gone to the reception desk to get something, and a lady in the bar got tossed out of her chair and banged her head to the railing. The doctor ran to her. The bar fellow was trying to rescue his glasses but they all came crashing down.
We decided to come to our staterooms to see the damage and ran into our stewardess who was almost crying. She said the rooms are a mess, broken wine glasses, stuff tossed everywhere, passengers scared, her work room all a mess. We came into our room and stuff was strewn but nothing was broken. Mary Anne had broken wine glasses in her room and all of us had to do some cleaning. My sweaters in the closets fell down, and other stuff but not too bad.
We went to the evening program that was thrown together because the dancers could not dance for fear of breaking their legs. After the program, we were told to go to our rooms and settle in for the night for it was going to be bad. We could hardly sleep. The ship was tossing, and rolling, and stuff was moving on the night tables, and the walls were creaking and the wind whistling. You could feel the bed go up in the air and then boom down you were in the bed. This continually happened all evening.
In the morning, we could look out and see that the sea was somewhat calmer. We went to the Bistro for our coffee and heard all the low down. On the way to the Bistro, I talked to another Stewardess who said that the flat screen TVs in the Penthouses fell down and broke, the TV sets is the crew's rooms fell down, the Lido deck dishes came crashing down. In the Bistro, the fellows said they have hardly any dishes left. They have to go to the boxes and bring more up because everything broke. The shops had their displays come down. The girls were putting stuff up. The dining room lost 90% of their glasses. The boys were going to be cleaning 1,000 new wine glasses for the dining rooms. Some waiters were hurt but not too badly. A stewardess told our friends that she was in their room cleaning up when she saw this HUGE wave coming and she was so frightened that she ran into the hallway because it was coming right to the 8th floor window. The captain came onto the intercom to say that last evening's waves were 45 ft high. No wonder we had so much movement. He was trying to calm us down and it helped. We had hit an unexpected very low pressure area and had to move the ship very very slowly through all the high waves and swells. It was something to see outside the windows. The staff had to work late to clean up all the mess. The backstage props were strewn everywhere, the keyboards in the music area fell down, some people fell out of their chairs in their rooms. Harry had his water glass come right at him all over him in the dining room. I jumped up. The waiter said you were lucky it was only water, some people had their wine glasses come ontop of them. The dining room was a mess in the work stations. Food on the floor, glasses broken, trolleys moved everywhere. They were running around and trying to salvage whatever they could.
Today, is another day. I am looking out the window and the waves are much smaller in height. We are coming into Adelaide tonight where we will get a good night's sleep.
All is better today. Another adventure to share and talk about.
Yesterday, was quite an eventual day. In the morning, the captain warned us it may be rough like the previous night where our ship was rocking and rolling. We were heading for a low pressure area. The captain said be prepared for 25 ft waves and hold onto the railings and walk carefully. The previous night wasn't too great with passengers ill from sea sickness but I was fine.
Throughout the day, it was difficult walking around. We would look out the windows and see huge waves coming towards the ship. Scary. We decided to go to the top deck for lunch, and were told it was closing down, too much movement, dishes were rattling around. So we went to the dining room on the fourth floor and watched the waves through the windows. They were getting bigger and bigger.
At 6 pm. an announcement came throughout the ship, that we would not be arriving in Adelaide the next morning. We were told that the ship had to move slowly through these very rough seas and that some events were being cancelled and decks closed for our use. We could feel that it was getting worse.
We were at our dining room table in the centre of the ship, and would see the horizon disappear completely. We thought that was strange. Then sometimes the ship just rolled so much that you could hear the guests at the window go oohhh ahhhh. We were getting alittle worried, and then our chairs started to tip, and the glasses on our table started to move and tip, the dishes in the waiter's stations started to crash, people started yelling at one table, the waiters were running around trying to stop trolleys from moving and tipping, and we stood up to get our balance. We all looked at eachother as all hell broke loose. I thought oh my God. The waiters ran to the couple who fell out of their chairs, a few fell out in the centre, and we thought no dessert for us, we are out of here. Doug in the meantime had gone to the reception desk to get something, and a lady in the bar got tossed out of her chair and banged her head to the railing. The doctor ran to her. The bar fellow was trying to rescue his glasses but they all came crashing down.
We decided to come to our staterooms to see the damage and ran into our stewardess who was almost crying. She said the rooms are a mess, broken wine glasses, stuff tossed everywhere, passengers scared, her work room all a mess. We came into our room and stuff was strewn but nothing was broken. Mary Anne had broken wine glasses in her room and all of us had to do some cleaning. My sweaters in the closets fell down, and other stuff but not too bad.
We went to the evening program that was thrown together because the dancers could not dance for fear of breaking their legs. After the program, we were told to go to our rooms and settle in for the night for it was going to be bad. We could hardly sleep. The ship was tossing, and rolling, and stuff was moving on the night tables, and the walls were creaking and the wind whistling. You could feel the bed go up in the air and then boom down you were in the bed. This continually happened all evening.
In the morning, we could look out and see that the sea was somewhat calmer. We went to the Bistro for our coffee and heard all the low down. On the way to the Bistro, I talked to another Stewardess who said that the flat screen TVs in the Penthouses fell down and broke, the TV sets is the crew's rooms fell down, the Lido deck dishes came crashing down. In the Bistro, the fellows said they have hardly any dishes left. They have to go to the boxes and bring more up because everything broke. The shops had their displays come down. The girls were putting stuff up. The dining room lost 90% of their glasses. The boys were going to be cleaning 1,000 new wine glasses for the dining rooms. Some waiters were hurt but not too badly. A stewardess told our friends that she was in their room cleaning up when she saw this HUGE wave coming and she was so frightened that she ran into the hallway because it was coming right to the 8th floor window. The captain came onto the intercom to say that last evening's waves were 45 ft high. No wonder we had so much movement. He was trying to calm us down and it helped. We had hit an unexpected very low pressure area and had to move the ship very very slowly through all the high waves and swells. It was something to see outside the windows. The staff had to work late to clean up all the mess. The backstage props were strewn everywhere, the keyboards in the music area fell down, some people fell out of their chairs in their rooms. Harry had his water glass come right at him all over him in the dining room. I jumped up. The waiter said you were lucky it was only water, some people had their wine glasses come ontop of them. The dining room was a mess in the work stations. Food on the floor, glasses broken, trolleys moved everywhere. They were running around and trying to salvage whatever they could.
Today, is another day. I am looking out the window and the waves are much smaller in height. We are coming into Adelaide tonight where we will get a good night's sleep.
All is better today. Another adventure to share and talk about.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sydney, Australia
Got up at 6:30 am to watch the ship come into the Sydney Harbour. The sun had just started rising in the sky. There were at least a hundred of us on deck around the front of the ship watching the Sydney Opera House appear in the distance. Many of the crew came to the front of the ship and started clapping, happy to see the beautiful Sydney skyline. It was impressive. Our ship was cruising into Sydney Cove to the cruise terminal building. (Our stateroom balcony is on the port side so as we stood on our balcony we could see the Opera House right off our balcony.)
We met Mary Anne and Harry out on the Lido deck and had breakfast looking out on Sydney Harbour Bridge. We had decided to see Sydney by using the Hop On and Hop Off bus. We jumped onto the bus, close to the terminal and went up to the top deck. We had a great view of the sights of the city and a running commentary. It was decided that we would go the one hour and a half on the bus and take the entire tour and then take the detour to Bondi Beach. The following are some of the sights we got to see: Queen Victoria Building, Town Hall, Kings Cross, Parliament House, Hyde Park, Chinese Gardens, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, and Circular Quay where our ship was anchored. We then hopped onto another bus and took more of a residential tour of the city to Bondi Beach. We found the beach to be very crowded with young people. We sat down in an outdoor cafe across the street from the beach to have a lunch. The day was sunny and hot - just perfect for touring. We walked along the beach. The sand was so fine. A helicopter was hovering above the waters. There were three shark attacks in the past three weeks. In fact, the next day, there was another shark attack. Surfers were out catching the waves and people were standing in the water waiting for the waves to lift them up and then down. No wonder this is such a popular area.
We caught the bus back in to the centre of the city. Doug and I decided to walk to the Opera House and had a drink in one of the outdoor cafes surrounding the circular quay. We could see our ship all lit up. Many of the attendees to the Opera House were outside enjoying their drinks during the break. Hundreds of people were enjoying the warm evening eating out. The little ferry boats were taking passengers home. The atmosphere was lively with couples walking hand in hand. After a stroll inside the Opera House, we walked up the stairs to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed all the roses in the Rose Garden and listening to all the birds chirping and singing in the huge tall trees. We saw many beautifully colored parakeets and heard them making a racket. The gardens had many people strolling or sitting on blankets chatting with a bottle of wine. It was 8 pm in the evening and the city was alive.
On Sunday, we decided to go into the Rock's area to look around the market place. It reminded us of Strathcona Market. We then hopped a bus to Darling Harbour and strolled around that area. We walked into George Street and decided to take a look at one of the prettiest malls in the world called Queen Victoria Building. It had been renovated inside and held high end stores. I had a coffee and Doug strolled around the entire five floors. We then walked back to the ship to read on our balcony and watch all the activity in the harbor in front of us. We watched tourists being given a tour of the harbor waving to us from their tour boats.
All of us at our table agreed that Sydney is a beautiful city and we would all come back to visit.
We met Mary Anne and Harry out on the Lido deck and had breakfast looking out on Sydney Harbour Bridge. We had decided to see Sydney by using the Hop On and Hop Off bus. We jumped onto the bus, close to the terminal and went up to the top deck. We had a great view of the sights of the city and a running commentary. It was decided that we would go the one hour and a half on the bus and take the entire tour and then take the detour to Bondi Beach. The following are some of the sights we got to see: Queen Victoria Building, Town Hall, Kings Cross, Parliament House, Hyde Park, Chinese Gardens, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, and Circular Quay where our ship was anchored. We then hopped onto another bus and took more of a residential tour of the city to Bondi Beach. We found the beach to be very crowded with young people. We sat down in an outdoor cafe across the street from the beach to have a lunch. The day was sunny and hot - just perfect for touring. We walked along the beach. The sand was so fine. A helicopter was hovering above the waters. There were three shark attacks in the past three weeks. In fact, the next day, there was another shark attack. Surfers were out catching the waves and people were standing in the water waiting for the waves to lift them up and then down. No wonder this is such a popular area.
We caught the bus back in to the centre of the city. Doug and I decided to walk to the Opera House and had a drink in one of the outdoor cafes surrounding the circular quay. We could see our ship all lit up. Many of the attendees to the Opera House were outside enjoying their drinks during the break. Hundreds of people were enjoying the warm evening eating out. The little ferry boats were taking passengers home. The atmosphere was lively with couples walking hand in hand. After a stroll inside the Opera House, we walked up the stairs to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed all the roses in the Rose Garden and listening to all the birds chirping and singing in the huge tall trees. We saw many beautifully colored parakeets and heard them making a racket. The gardens had many people strolling or sitting on blankets chatting with a bottle of wine. It was 8 pm in the evening and the city was alive.
On Sunday, we decided to go into the Rock's area to look around the market place. It reminded us of Strathcona Market. We then hopped a bus to Darling Harbour and strolled around that area. We walked into George Street and decided to take a look at one of the prettiest malls in the world called Queen Victoria Building. It had been renovated inside and held high end stores. I had a coffee and Doug strolled around the entire five floors. We then walked back to the ship to read on our balcony and watch all the activity in the harbor in front of us. We watched tourists being given a tour of the harbor waving to us from their tour boats.
All of us at our table agreed that Sydney is a beautiful city and we would all come back to visit.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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