Regardless of what Thomas Wolfe said, you can go home again... well, if it is within a couple of months of when you left!
Flights from Sydney back to Tampa all worked out. We were an hour late leaving LA but we had plenty of connecting time in Dallas so it turned out OK! We've learned it always works out best to allow lots of extra connecting time!
As we arrived at the bottom of the escalator at Tampa International, the limo driver was there with the "FLINN" sign. Great for us as we then knew another part of "the plan" "was coming together"! Our bags were some of the earliest coming off the carousel. We'd described them to the driver and shown him the multi-colored boa that would be on each.
No glitches getting out of the airport and home! By 9:15PM or so, we were home. And, as comfortable as beds were on the ship and in the hotels, none is better than the one at home!! YES, you can go home again!
Tom was up around 10AM, I slept until almost 3PM... tomorrow, we'll think about getting into a regular "home" routine!
What a magical, wonderful trip. Hope you all enjoyed our sparodic updates!
This is the last update on this blog. Please do send comments, questions, etc. I'll be happy to respond!
R
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Homeward Bound!
We are now at the Sydney International airport and the beginning of our trip home! If we calculated the time zones correctly, we'll be home in about 27-28 hours!
Our last day in Sydney was totally awesome! We started the day with a backstage tour of the Opera House (a truly fascinating building) ending with breakfast in the "green room"! We learned a new term. Apparently every large theater / performance house has a "green room", typically off limits to those not performing or working at the theater, where stars and workers can gather, eat, etc. It was early, before rehersals start so we only saw the worker bees.
After the Opera House tour, we took a water taxi to Rose Bay, boarded a Seaplane and took a 30 minute flight up the coast from Sydney then back down and up the harbor for a pass by the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Again, we had a beautiful sunshiney day and could see "forever"!
Last night, our last night in Australia, we had dinner at the 360 Dining at the Sydney Tower. What a delightful way to spend our last evening! We were there high above the city looking down on the lights below for about 2.5 hours, long enough to make almost 3 rotations of the dining room.
It has been a WONDERFUL trip that we have thoroughly enjoyed and, we're certainly looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight (whenever that is!)!
Ruth
ps - it is currently 9am Saturday in Sydney!
Our last day in Sydney was totally awesome! We started the day with a backstage tour of the Opera House (a truly fascinating building) ending with breakfast in the "green room"! We learned a new term. Apparently every large theater / performance house has a "green room", typically off limits to those not performing or working at the theater, where stars and workers can gather, eat, etc. It was early, before rehersals start so we only saw the worker bees.
After the Opera House tour, we took a water taxi to Rose Bay, boarded a Seaplane and took a 30 minute flight up the coast from Sydney then back down and up the harbor for a pass by the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Again, we had a beautiful sunshiney day and could see "forever"!
Last night, our last night in Australia, we had dinner at the 360 Dining at the Sydney Tower. What a delightful way to spend our last evening! We were there high above the city looking down on the lights below for about 2.5 hours, long enough to make almost 3 rotations of the dining room.
It has been a WONDERFUL trip that we have thoroughly enjoyed and, we're certainly looking forward to sleeping in our own bed tonight (whenever that is!)!
Ruth
ps - it is currently 9am Saturday in Sydney!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Now in Sydney!
What a whirlwind the past few days!! Melbourne was marvelous! Flight was on time and we saw "Super Shuttle" before we found a taxi so we took it in to town... quite efficient! Turns our our hotel was right on the edge of China town so after getting checked in and having a couple of drinks, we headed out for a little walk around the block to explore th neighborhood! We felt quite safe. Well, except that we're still learning to look for oncoming traffic in "backwards" lanes!
We found a little Chinese restaurant where some 18-20 young folks had congregated. They were talking and laughing and it made us feel young again.
On Sunday, the weather was PERFECT for our hot air balloon ride! We were picked up around 4:30, yes AM and had an hours drive out to the winery. There, we checked in and along with some 46 other folks we headed out to the launch site. Three balloons were going up each with 16 people. Having other balloons in the air certainly gave the flight more perspective. And, once we were up, we could see another group of 4 balloons off in the distance over the valley. And, we could see a couple over Melbourne some 40-50 miles away! What an exhilirating experience!
After the flight, we all went back to the winery for the traditional champagne toast and a fabulous breakfast... yes, the champagne continued to flow freely!
Back at the hotel around 11am or so, we laid down to finish the prior night's sleep! We spent Sunday afternoon at the Melbourne Museum. Wish we could have spent more time as there was so much to see. There we did learn about "concession" rates! Anyone over 60 gets the senior discount!
Dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was very good and a delightful experience. I would highly recommend it! There were 3 separate tram cars each which held 36 passengers. We did learn that the booths are completely stationary thus folks of large girth could get wedged in! We'd eaten a lot on the ship, fortunately not THAT much!
Monday was a "free" day. Fortunately we'd done the museum on Sunday as we had more time to explore other areas. We learned about a free tourist bus that makes a 1.5 hour loop around the city and has "hop on - hop off" privileges. And, we always like "free"! One place we for sure wanted to see was the Eureka 88 Skydeck. We got off at the nearest stop to there.
Like the museum, they offered a Concession rate and the 10% off coupon we had also applied! Saving a few dollars never hurts!
Up 88 floors is less than 40 seconds. The "lift" works with hydraulics rather than cables and was an extremely quiet and smooth ride. On the 88th floor, you can walk around and see all of Melbourne spread out for miles. Also on this floor is "The Edge", a glass "box" that slides out about 3 meters (10') from the building! Tom wasn't up to it but I couldn't resist! Looking straight down, I could see the ground some 1,000' feet below! Actually, I was a bit disappointed that I felt no fear whatsoever!
Wednesday 2/9, we took the train up here to Sydney. It was about 11.5 hours and almost all the way was in daylight. What a relaxing way to get from Melbourne to Sydney... going through the beautiful south eastern Australia countryside and a beautiful sunshiney day! And we did see a couple of wild kangaroos!
It was a short taxi ride to our hotel, another Marriott, this one right at Circular Quay (pronounced "key"). Circular Quay is adjacent to "The Rocks", where the original colonization of Sydney took place. And, this is all in a harbor between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the point that the Opera House sits on. Where I'm sitting as I write this (the 30th floor of the Marriott), I'm looking out on the Bridge.
Yesterday (Wednesday), we took an all day tour out to the Blue Mountains. Fortunately, the sun came with us and we had a beautiful sunshiney day! When we'd arrived in Sydney on the ship last Saturday, it was rainy and dreary!
There were 12 of us on a mini-bus. We could not have had a better driver/guide than Jim! He is very proud of his state and country and truly knows the history of the area. And, on top of all of that, he had a delightful, albeit dry and a touch "corn-ball", sense of humor. In addition to the Blue Mountains, we got a mini-tour of the 1996 Olympic grounds. Extremely impressive! From there, we left Jim and boarded a ferry down the Parmetta (?) River back to Circular Key to end an exhilirating day!
Back at the hotel, we freshened up and went to the Lounge for a couple of drinks. We totally splurged on our hotel here and have access to the Executive Lounge. And, that includes breakfast, cocktails and snacks in the evening and water and soft drinks in the afternoon!
Today (Thursday, 2/11) has been a "free", i.e., nothing pre-planned, day. We walked over to the Opera House, about 15 minutes, and from there into the Royal Botanical Gardens. We must have spent 2 or more hours just wandering through there... so beautiful. And, hearing birds we recognized, we looked high up in a ficus tree to see a pair of yellow crested cockatoos! Yes, they are wild birds here.
That's it for now! It is 3:43pm on Thursday as I sign out here in Sydney! Two more days and we'll be headed home!
ruth
We found a little Chinese restaurant where some 18-20 young folks had congregated. They were talking and laughing and it made us feel young again.
On Sunday, the weather was PERFECT for our hot air balloon ride! We were picked up around 4:30, yes AM and had an hours drive out to the winery. There, we checked in and along with some 46 other folks we headed out to the launch site. Three balloons were going up each with 16 people. Having other balloons in the air certainly gave the flight more perspective. And, once we were up, we could see another group of 4 balloons off in the distance over the valley. And, we could see a couple over Melbourne some 40-50 miles away! What an exhilirating experience!
After the flight, we all went back to the winery for the traditional champagne toast and a fabulous breakfast... yes, the champagne continued to flow freely!
Back at the hotel around 11am or so, we laid down to finish the prior night's sleep! We spent Sunday afternoon at the Melbourne Museum. Wish we could have spent more time as there was so much to see. There we did learn about "concession" rates! Anyone over 60 gets the senior discount!
Dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was very good and a delightful experience. I would highly recommend it! There were 3 separate tram cars each which held 36 passengers. We did learn that the booths are completely stationary thus folks of large girth could get wedged in! We'd eaten a lot on the ship, fortunately not THAT much!
Monday was a "free" day. Fortunately we'd done the museum on Sunday as we had more time to explore other areas. We learned about a free tourist bus that makes a 1.5 hour loop around the city and has "hop on - hop off" privileges. And, we always like "free"! One place we for sure wanted to see was the Eureka 88 Skydeck. We got off at the nearest stop to there.
Like the museum, they offered a Concession rate and the 10% off coupon we had also applied! Saving a few dollars never hurts!
Up 88 floors is less than 40 seconds. The "lift" works with hydraulics rather than cables and was an extremely quiet and smooth ride. On the 88th floor, you can walk around and see all of Melbourne spread out for miles. Also on this floor is "The Edge", a glass "box" that slides out about 3 meters (10') from the building! Tom wasn't up to it but I couldn't resist! Looking straight down, I could see the ground some 1,000' feet below! Actually, I was a bit disappointed that I felt no fear whatsoever!
Wednesday 2/9, we took the train up here to Sydney. It was about 11.5 hours and almost all the way was in daylight. What a relaxing way to get from Melbourne to Sydney... going through the beautiful south eastern Australia countryside and a beautiful sunshiney day! And we did see a couple of wild kangaroos!
It was a short taxi ride to our hotel, another Marriott, this one right at Circular Quay (pronounced "key"). Circular Quay is adjacent to "The Rocks", where the original colonization of Sydney took place. And, this is all in a harbor between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the point that the Opera House sits on. Where I'm sitting as I write this (the 30th floor of the Marriott), I'm looking out on the Bridge.
Yesterday (Wednesday), we took an all day tour out to the Blue Mountains. Fortunately, the sun came with us and we had a beautiful sunshiney day! When we'd arrived in Sydney on the ship last Saturday, it was rainy and dreary!
There were 12 of us on a mini-bus. We could not have had a better driver/guide than Jim! He is very proud of his state and country and truly knows the history of the area. And, on top of all of that, he had a delightful, albeit dry and a touch "corn-ball", sense of humor. In addition to the Blue Mountains, we got a mini-tour of the 1996 Olympic grounds. Extremely impressive! From there, we left Jim and boarded a ferry down the Parmetta (?) River back to Circular Key to end an exhilirating day!
Back at the hotel, we freshened up and went to the Lounge for a couple of drinks. We totally splurged on our hotel here and have access to the Executive Lounge. And, that includes breakfast, cocktails and snacks in the evening and water and soft drinks in the afternoon!
Today (Thursday, 2/11) has been a "free", i.e., nothing pre-planned, day. We walked over to the Opera House, about 15 minutes, and from there into the Royal Botanical Gardens. We must have spent 2 or more hours just wandering through there... so beautiful. And, hearing birds we recognized, we looked high up in a ficus tree to see a pair of yellow crested cockatoos! Yes, they are wild birds here.
That's it for now! It is 3:43pm on Thursday as I sign out here in Sydney! Two more days and we'll be headed home!
ruth
Friday, February 5, 2010
What Time Is It?
I hadn't noticed before that the time on the post is US time. As I post this, the local time here in Sydney is Saturday, 10:42am! So for our friends back home, it is tomorrow!
R
R
Australia Here We Are!
We have now set foot on the continent of Australia! Coming into the port in Sydney, we were really "rocking and rolling"! Sea and into the harbor seas were probably 20-25'! We arrived around 8am and disembarked just before 9. We docked right at the Sydney Opera House! Even with the dreary rainy weather, it is a marvelous site to see. We'll be back up here to Sydney on Wednesday and have a visit planned there for Friday morning.
What a surprisingly smooth exit! A Regent porter carried our "carry-ons" down the ramp, into the terminal and up the escalator to where luggage was waiting. We claimed our bags, walked through security/customs as a dog sniffed everything we were carrying. Oh so much simpler than the US processes!
Walked right outside, got a taxi for the airport and were on our way! In less than an hour, we were off the boat, at the airport with bags checked and through security. It's about 4 hours until flight time but we can just relax now. Sydney is an excellent airport, well organized, lots of places to eat/shop and the seats are comfortable.
The cruise was wonderful! So happy we made our trip to Australia this way. Tom made lots and lots of notes and plans to put them together when we get home. With his writing style, I'm certain it will be a wonderful read!
And soon we'll be off to Melbourne, (Australia that is, not Florida!)
R
What a surprisingly smooth exit! A Regent porter carried our "carry-ons" down the ramp, into the terminal and up the escalator to where luggage was waiting. We claimed our bags, walked through security/customs as a dog sniffed everything we were carrying. Oh so much simpler than the US processes!
Walked right outside, got a taxi for the airport and were on our way! In less than an hour, we were off the boat, at the airport with bags checked and through security. It's about 4 hours until flight time but we can just relax now. Sydney is an excellent airport, well organized, lots of places to eat/shop and the seats are comfortable.
The cruise was wonderful! So happy we made our trip to Australia this way. Tom made lots and lots of notes and plans to put them together when we get home. With his writing style, I'm certain it will be a wonderful read!
And soon we'll be off to Melbourne, (Australia that is, not Florida!)
R
All Packed
Just a quick update! We disembark somewhere around 9am tomorrow (2/6). Everything is packed and our bags are in the hall! We beat the 11pm deadline by a long shot. We said farewell to some dear friends this evening... after 3 weeks of wonderful shared memories, there were lots of tears!
Tom's sleeping already and I'm using up the rest of our internet minutes! When I purchased a 250 minute package, I thought I'd run out in no time. Here it is less than 12 hours before leaving the ship and I have over an hour left!
Next update, if access is free or cheap will be from Melbourne or Sydney. We're off to Melbourne tomorrow.
R
Tom's sleeping already and I'm using up the rest of our internet minutes! When I purchased a 250 minute package, I thought I'd run out in no time. Here it is less than 12 hours before leaving the ship and I have over an hour left!
Next update, if access is free or cheap will be from Melbourne or Sydney. We're off to Melbourne tomorrow.
R
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Next stop Sydney!
Update 2/4:
Incredibly, the cruise is almost over. Two days from now, we’ll be arriving in Sydney. It seems like we’ve been gone forever and just left yesterday! I must say, it will be good to be on land long enough to get land legs again. Today’s update covers our last two ports of the trip.
2/2 (Tuesday) – Port Vila, Vanuatu
We walked/climbed about half-way up, stopped at an overlook that would have been quite pretty on a sunny day if there hadn’t been so much smoke from the locals burning their gardens in preparation for re-planting. When it got to the point that we had to wade in the streams and walk on potentially slippery stones, we chose to return back down to the “base camp”. Folks who made the whole trip, said it was quite nice and refreshing.
After everyone came back down, the locals served up native fruits (bananas, papaya, coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, and one I didn’t recognize) for us to taste. They served what tasted kind of like tang to drink. A 5 piece band played some local music for us. Amusingly, the bass was a wooden box with a stick and a couple of strings. The controlled sounds that one can get out of such rudimentary instruments never ceases to amaze me.
We were back on the ship in time for lunch and to muster for our excursion at 1:30. It was a nice 2 hour trip on a air conditioned coach (large tour bus) that was less than half full. We made 3 stops for photos at places high enough up to get some great views of the bright blue water and surrounding islands. One stop was where there are still cannons from WWII where the Americans and French had an encampment to fight against the Japanese.
Incredibly, the cruise is almost over. Two days from now, we’ll be arriving in Sydney. It seems like we’ve been gone forever and just left yesterday! I must say, it will be good to be on land long enough to get land legs again. Today’s update covers our last two ports of the trip.
2/2 (Tuesday) – Port Vila, Vanuatu
Our shore excursion today was Cascades & Waterfalls. I’d talked to our new friends Dick & Nora and they said they’d cancelled it after a similar trip a few days back. We should have heeded what they said. It took 20-30 minutes to get to the site in a van that was not air-conditioned. (Did I mention that it is HOT here!?) The description had cautioned that might be the case; guess we were just hoping for otherwise!
We walked/climbed about half-way up, stopped at an overlook that would have been quite pretty on a sunny day if there hadn’t been so much smoke from the locals burning their gardens in preparation for re-planting. When it got to the point that we had to wade in the streams and walk on potentially slippery stones, we chose to return back down to the “base camp”. Folks who made the whole trip, said it was quite nice and refreshing.
After everyone came back down, the locals served up native fruits (bananas, papaya, coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, and one I didn’t recognize) for us to taste. They served what tasted kind of like tang to drink. A 5 piece band played some local music for us. Amusingly, the bass was a wooden box with a stick and a couple of strings. The controlled sounds that one can get out of such rudimentary instruments never ceases to amaze me.
We were extremely happy to get back to the cool air of the ship! Perhaps in the cool of winter, same as our summer months, it would be more pleasant.
We caught the pre-dinner show, “Martinis & Bond (007)”, presented by the Regent Singers and Dancers and the Orchestra. Screens above and beside the stage showed clips of Bond movies, the entertainers were dressed in “Bond Formal” and the waiters were serving several varieties of martinis. An awesome show!
One of the waiters who knows us, came by upstairs and offered us a martini, he then said “I think this is not your kind of drink. Scotch and water, scotch and soda?” We of course said yes, and he was back in a few minutes with our drink of choice.
2/3 (Wednesday) Noumea, New Caledonia
Scheduled arrival time was 10am and we were in on schedule! Today was the clearest most beautiful day we’ve had.
Our scheduled tour was at 1:15pm and as we pulled in to port, we saw that the dock is right in town!
Tom and I went off the ship around 10:30am and found the terminal quite inviting. As we entered the terminal, we were greeted by a couple dressed in the very stylish garb of the French colonists of the early 20th century. And, inside the terminal were native musicians and dancers. All very friendly!
The cruise terminal here is the nicest we’ve seen on the entire voyage, including San Diego’s basically cargo terminal. To San Diego’s credit, they are building a new one!
We noted a “Casino Johnston Supermarket” right across the street from the dock and headed off to check it out. It was somewhat similar to our WalMart SuperCenters. They carried everything but a wider variety with smaller quantities! They totally beat out any market I recall ever seeing in the US when it comes to fresh fish, crabs, vegetables, etc.
We were back on the ship in time for lunch and to muster for our excursion at 1:30. It was a nice 2 hour trip on a air conditioned coach (large tour bus) that was less than half full. We made 3 stops for photos at places high enough up to get some great views of the bright blue water and surrounding islands. One stop was where there are still cannons from WWII where the Americans and French had an encampment to fight against the Japanese.
Our last stop was at the aquarium. It was very small by comparison to our Florida Aquarium in Tampa but is very nicely done. They had quite a few of the blue starfish I’d seen while snorkeling in Fiji as well as other starfish varieties we’d not seen in any other aquarium. This aquarium housed an incredible collection of the many varieties of fish and coral in the waters around New Caledonia. I could only think of friends who have expressed interest in diving / snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. On going there, New Caledonia might be a good stop along the way.
Noumea was by far the cleanest, best organized, most industrious, most modern island area we have visited since leaving the US some three weeks ago. This was accompanied by a beautiful sunshiny day with relatively low humidity and fairly heavy wind. Thus, I think Noumea was my favorite port followed way back by Bora Bora, purely for its natural beauty. And, Noumea was HOT as well! The luxury of an air-conditioned transport and the beautiful breezes kept us feeling cool.
2/4 (Thursday) – At Sea
This morning, Australia Immigration Officials were on board and we have now cleared immigrations… guess they’re getting a nice two night cruise from Noumea back to Sydney! What a tough job!
And, in preparation for our arrival in Sydney, one of the lecturers gave a presentation on “Sydney – Past & Present”. Sandra Bowern is quite a knowledgeable polished speaker. When we’re back to the land of no additional charge for unlimited internet, I shall Google her to get more information on her background!
Having purchased a pareo in Bora Bora and a sulu (same thing, different name) in Fiji, I decided to attend a “How to tie a pareo” class this afternoon. This was given by the Tahitian wife of our Chief Executive Chef and he was there to help her and to translate! What fun!
Tonight was our next to last night aboard and the rpe-dinner even was the Captain’s Farewell party. This included a show named “Crew Capers”. Choreographed and director by one of the crew members, it was incredible! Our stewardess was one of the main Philippine dancers! We have been extremely fortunate to have Theresa!
From the pre-dinner show, we meandered to our favorite lounge then to dinner. By 10pm, we were back in our room and ready for beddie bye! What a couple of old faxds we’re becoming!
That’s today’s “ramblings from Ruth”!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Fiji & A Day at Sea
Sunday, January 31st – Lautoka, Fiji
Fiji was not quite what we expected after having visited the beautiful islands of French Polynesia. Can’t wait to get home to do some Googling to find out more about the Fiji Islands. We docked in Lautoka which is primarily an industrial city (Sugar) with a totally industrial wharf. Perhaps it is the other side of the island that has all the aspects we’d anticipated.
Tom was still not up to getting off the ship so we turned in his shore excursion ticket but I chose to make our planned excursion… a visit to an out island with an option of snorkeling. I’d not snorkeled in probably 20-25 years and do know how to swim so took the snorkeling option! Well, my excellent swimming skills of years ago have faded along with the rest of me! No more attempts at Olympic swimming medals!
The waters were pleasantly cool compared to the extremely warm air but somewhat murky due to the runoff from the mountains during the recent rains. However, as I approached a large reef area, I could make out some of the bright blue and bright yellow fish that before, I’d only seen in an aquarium. The most amazing sight was that of bright blue starfish! Had not even heard of those before! Once again, I thought, “So much to learn, so little time!”.
Some folks skipped the snorkeling and went straight to the island. The others donned provided gear some 2-300 yards off shore and swam to the island. The “island” turned out to be what we would call a sand bar with a few scrub trees on it. They’d erected a 10’ pole (looked like a cutoff telephone pole) and strung coverings out to other smaller poles for shade.
Back at the ship, I freshened up a bit, had a bite of lunch and took the ship supplied shuttle into town to the only store open. It was a department store and I’m guessing they’d opened only to accommodate the tourists from the ship. There were however, quite a few locals taking advantage of having a store open on Sunday! We’ve learned that the islands all have high religious beliefs and still follow the old rules that many of us grew up with… Stores close at noon on Saturday and don’t open again until Monday. While the French Polynesian islands are primarily / heavily Christian, the Fijian Islands are primarily Buddist.
Monday, February 1st – At Sea
A lazy day at sea! Tom’s much better and we actually went up for breakfast and lunch! There was nothing on the day’s agenda that excited us enough to get involved so continued another lazy day!
Tomorrow (2/2) will be Port Vila, Vanuatu. I didn’t do any research on it but it does have an exotic sounding name! We shall see!
To date, one piece of advice: If ever you’re planning a trip to the South Pacific, do it in their “summer” / dry season which, I think, ranges from late June to mid-September!
R
Fiji was not quite what we expected after having visited the beautiful islands of French Polynesia. Can’t wait to get home to do some Googling to find out more about the Fiji Islands. We docked in Lautoka which is primarily an industrial city (Sugar) with a totally industrial wharf. Perhaps it is the other side of the island that has all the aspects we’d anticipated.
Tom was still not up to getting off the ship so we turned in his shore excursion ticket but I chose to make our planned excursion… a visit to an out island with an option of snorkeling. I’d not snorkeled in probably 20-25 years and do know how to swim so took the snorkeling option! Well, my excellent swimming skills of years ago have faded along with the rest of me! No more attempts at Olympic swimming medals!
The waters were pleasantly cool compared to the extremely warm air but somewhat murky due to the runoff from the mountains during the recent rains. However, as I approached a large reef area, I could make out some of the bright blue and bright yellow fish that before, I’d only seen in an aquarium. The most amazing sight was that of bright blue starfish! Had not even heard of those before! Once again, I thought, “So much to learn, so little time!”.
Some folks skipped the snorkeling and went straight to the island. The others donned provided gear some 2-300 yards off shore and swam to the island. The “island” turned out to be what we would call a sand bar with a few scrub trees on it. They’d erected a 10’ pole (looked like a cutoff telephone pole) and strung coverings out to other smaller poles for shade.
Back at the ship, I freshened up a bit, had a bite of lunch and took the ship supplied shuttle into town to the only store open. It was a department store and I’m guessing they’d opened only to accommodate the tourists from the ship. There were however, quite a few locals taking advantage of having a store open on Sunday! We’ve learned that the islands all have high religious beliefs and still follow the old rules that many of us grew up with… Stores close at noon on Saturday and don’t open again until Monday. While the French Polynesian islands are primarily / heavily Christian, the Fijian Islands are primarily Buddist.
Monday, February 1st – At Sea
A lazy day at sea! Tom’s much better and we actually went up for breakfast and lunch! There was nothing on the day’s agenda that excited us enough to get involved so continued another lazy day!
Tomorrow (2/2) will be Port Vila, Vanuatu. I didn’t do any research on it but it does have an exotic sounding name! We shall see!
To date, one piece of advice: If ever you’re planning a trip to the South Pacific, do it in their “summer” / dry season which, I think, ranges from late June to mid-September!
R
Saturday, January 30, 2010
It is now tomorrow!
As I write this, we have crossed the International Date Line and it is now “tomorrow”. We’re already in the Fiji Islands and will dock in Lautoka, Fiji in the morning. Fortunately, “Passages” had a great article on the International date line in yesterday/today’s issue so we better understand it. It can be mind-boggling!
After some 18 hours of really rough seas with winds gusting up to about 65mph we're enjoying the smoother, no smooth but MUCH smoother waqters.A couple of very lazy days at sea have now passed and we’re looking forward to a shore excursion tomorrow after 4, or is it 5?, days at sea!
Today’s update includes pictures to illustrate the last post.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Next Stop Fiji
Like with the last post, I’d hoped to include pictures with this post but I just wanted to get something up and didn’t get them included. Perhaps I’ll add some in the next couple of days or wait until we get home. Hope you’re enjoying our occasional updates.
Saturday, the 23rd, Papeete, Tahiti.
As the morning light awakened us, we looked out to the east to see a beautiful South Pacific sunrise welcoming us to French Polynesia.
From a distance, and when we traveled inland, we found Tahiti to be a beautiful island. Papeete itself is big busy town with lots of people and lots of traffic.
Here we were docked rather than anchored. I wandered the market for a while, came back to the ship for lunch with Tom before departing on our selected shore excursion “Tahiti Natural Treasures”. It was very hot there so we were quite pleased to have an air-conditioned bus! Should our travels bring us back to this part of the world, we will schedule it for the cooler dryer months of July – August.
The tour took us on a half day exploration of the island’s east coast. There was a lot of driving but we made a couple of stops that were spectacular, the guide was great and the coach was very comfortable. One stop was at the three waterfalls, we only went to the lower one (seeing the others would have required a looong strenuous hike) and, even in the rain is was beautiful and marvelously refreshing to look at and feel the mist coming from it. We stopped at the Paul Gauguin restaurant for either a local beer (Hinano) or fresh juice. Tom and I chose to share a beer. Quite tasty! We agreed it tasted similar to Heineken.
The restaurant was set on the water, had a thatched roof, natural wood bar, tables and chairs.
The third stop was at a local botanical garden, the Spring Garden of Vaipahi. There, we found that most of the plants we knew well from our years of living in Miami. When we return home, we’ll have to compare the latitudes of the two places, one north of the equator, one south of the equator.
The evening brought a special Polynesian dinner on the pool deck. The crew really outdid themselves! The window walls around the deck were covered with palm fronds they’d picked up in Nuku Hiva. All of the food tables had ice sculptures, each different. Watermelons were carved into animals, salads were shaped into fish, just incredibly beautiful! And, the food was truly good. Yes, it did include the traditional roast pig. The pigs may have been cooked in ground ovens and brought aboard as the meat was that tasty!
After dinner, the show “O Tahiti E” was presented by local Polynesian dancers, singers and musicians. WOW, what a show!
We over-nighted in Papeete.
Sunday, the 24 – Moorea
Leaving Papeete around 5am we arrived in Moorea (about 15 miles away), arriving around 8am. Here, the tour we had selected was an “Off-Road Safari”. WOW, what a trip that was! The vehicle was a small four-wheel drive pickup with a canopy over the truck bed and two bench seats facing each other. It would hold 8 people, fortunately there were only 5 in our vehicle as it was another hot and humid day!
The highlight of the trip was a very steep and winding climb up to the top of Magic Mountain. It looked like some of the inclines were 45º and may have been if physics will allow a truck to climb that steeply. At the top of the “road”, we all got out and walked up another hundred or so yards to the peak. The path with deep dropoffs was about 100 to 115 yards of concrete with ridges for grip. It had steep inclines at least 45º and hairpin turns. Our only support was a rope and that ended about 10-15 yards before we reached the top. Bottom line, it got scarier and scarier the higher we went!
By now, the rain had stopped and we had a GLORIOUS view of the bays below! “Truly awesome” is the only description that fits!
Back to the dock and back to the ship, we headed straight to the pool bar for a bloody Mary. We needed it after all the “not for the faint of heart” roads we traveled today!
A “Sundowner Sail Away” on the top deck was planned but rain caused it to be cancelled. The ship served the fresh coconuts with a very special colada type drink in them to guests in the Observation and Horizon lounges! Yep, the drink was delicious!
This evening’s show was performed by the Regent singers (4 of them) and the Regent Signature Orchestra and was “A Tribute to the Beatles”! These guys and gals are great!
Monday, the 25th – Bora Bora
We were anchoring at 8am and we needed to be in the theater for our first tour at 8am so we had an early breakfast at La Veranda. It had opened earlier than the usual 7:30am to accommodate the guests with early tours.
Our first tour was a glass-bottomed boat tour out to the coral reefs about 20-25 minutes away. This was our first sunny day thus the mountains and surrounding islands were clearly in view and beautiful to look at. Tom mentioned he’d thought Moorea to be the most South Pacific like, I felt the same about Bora Bora.
Because of all the recent rains, the water over the reefs wasn’t as clear as we’ve seen in pictures however; we could still see the colors of the fish as they came up to retrieve the fish provided by our captain. There was a snorkeling option, however, since we’re not experienced at it we chose not to do that. We saw some of the other Regent guests on boats close to where ours was tied up. To prevent damage to the coral reefs, they have installed anchor bouys.
Back at the pier, we boarded a tender back to the ship for a brief encounter with air conditioning and a bite of lunch.
We tendered back to the pier and joined our afternoon excursion of a “Le Truck” circumnavigation of Bora Bora. It resembled a school bus with open air windows, was made of wood and plastic chairs with a cushion on the seat, a plastic chair bolted down to make the seats. It would hold 37 people, fortunately, we only had about 18 people. Did I mention the weather is HOT and HUMID? It reminds us of the hottest most humid summers we ever had in Miami; of course, we were MUCH younger then and could tolerate them better!
We made several stops for photos. One stop was a rest stop at Mama Edna’s. In addition to the rest rooms, they had fruit for sampling. I was glad to see the fresh coconut meat, a favorite of mine! And, of course, it was a business! The primary items were beautiful pareos for sale at $10 each. That was about half the price I’d seen before. Yep! I bought 2 of them! They did a demo on how to tie them. I’ll have to refresh my memory when we get home and have don’t have to pay extra for internet service!
The last stop was at the apparently famous “Bloody Marys” restaurant and bar. We’d not heard of it before however, many of our shipmates were familiar with it. Yet, you bet, we did have a Bloody Mary! The building had a sand floor and rather than a coat check, it had a shoes and sandals check! It was open air and had a traditional high ceiling thatched roof, natural wood bar, bar stools, tables, etc.
We sailed out of Bora Bora around 4pm and after a “sail around” salute to also anchored there, Holland America’s Rotterdam, the two ships exchanged appropriate horn blasts and we headed west northwest to Apia, Samoa.
Tuesday, the 26th – At Sea
We may be getting “old”! After 3 shore days, we were truly glad to be having 2 days at sea where we could be lazy and do our own thing! Tom went for a spa appointment at 9:15. After the bumpy roads, a good deep massage was in order! I attended two lectures, one on South Pacific culture, one on Tahitian cooking presented by our Executive Chef and his Tahitian wife. Their toddler son was also there. The chef’s wife and son had boarded in Papeete.
Tom had come down with a terrible cold and spent most of the day sleeping. He did have a hot dog and some potato salad for lunch but didn’t even feel like getting up for dinner.
After having eaten so much for the past few days, I chose to skip dinner, however did dress up a little and headed to the theater to see “The Platters”! One of my favorites! Tom and I had attended my 50th class reunion back in October (’09) and one of our classmates had put together a CD that included a medley of their songs of our high school years. Although not the original singers, they maintained the sound! They opened with “Only You” and closed with “The Great Pretender”!
Wednesday, the 27th – At Sea
Last night was another “set the clocks back” night! I’ve forgotten what the time differences are now. Once again, we awakened to a beautiful sunrise around 5:30am, took a few photos and headed back to bed. We were up around 7:30 or so and Tom sounded SO much better so we cleaned up and went for breakfast around 8am.
When we got back to our cabin, Tom headed out to do some more reading on his book. I worked on typing up log notes and then attended another Apollo space program delivered by General Charlie Duke. He is such a wonderful man!
During Charlie’s lecture, the seas turned rough! I mean really rough! Staggering was not an uncommon scene as folks departed the theater! Fortunately, along almost all of the walls there are “grab” rails!
We have some great pics and video (I think) of the ocean as seen from a “rocking and rolling” ship! It got worse as the day went on. According to bridge information shown on our TV, the winds were sustained at perhaps 25-30mph with gusts up in the 55-60 range! The lowest deck above water is deck 3 so water line is midway deck 2. Water was crashing over the bow on deck 4 and splashing up as high as the bridge on deck 10!
The Captain spoke over the PA system and advised speed is drastically reduced and we would not make Samoa. He changed course and were now headed to Lautoka, Fiji. He referred to the winds as a gale. To those of us who have experienced Florida, it would be a tropical storm!
Around 6pm or so, our cruise director advised that the evening shows had been cancelled or postponed.
We’ve somewhat enjoyed the “rocking and rolling”. It’s been humorous to have drawers and doors opening and closing on their own! Tom figured out that putting socks between the drawers would stop that so as of now (10pm wherever we are) we have no more banging of drawers and doors!
Looking at the display on the information channel, we were sailing quite straight between ports until we changed direction to bypass Samoa. The current line from that point, albeit in a pointed direction, has a lot of “waves” in it.
Tom had turned in and I was working on this so we stayed in all evening. Hopefully, by morning he will be “all better”! I think it is fortunate that we’re not going to Samoa tomorrow as he probably wouldn’t have felt like making the shore excursion. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see Samoa, however fortunately we’ll be reimbursed for the “up charge” for the shore excursion we’d chosen (most are included but we particularly wanted to do one that had an up charge). I’ve made another spa appointment to use part of the refunded dollars… that’s another fortunate part!
Saturday, the 23rd, Papeete, Tahiti.
As the morning light awakened us, we looked out to the east to see a beautiful South Pacific sunrise welcoming us to French Polynesia.
From a distance, and when we traveled inland, we found Tahiti to be a beautiful island. Papeete itself is big busy town with lots of people and lots of traffic.
Here we were docked rather than anchored. I wandered the market for a while, came back to the ship for lunch with Tom before departing on our selected shore excursion “Tahiti Natural Treasures”. It was very hot there so we were quite pleased to have an air-conditioned bus! Should our travels bring us back to this part of the world, we will schedule it for the cooler dryer months of July – August.
The tour took us on a half day exploration of the island’s east coast. There was a lot of driving but we made a couple of stops that were spectacular, the guide was great and the coach was very comfortable. One stop was at the three waterfalls, we only went to the lower one (seeing the others would have required a looong strenuous hike) and, even in the rain is was beautiful and marvelously refreshing to look at and feel the mist coming from it. We stopped at the Paul Gauguin restaurant for either a local beer (Hinano) or fresh juice. Tom and I chose to share a beer. Quite tasty! We agreed it tasted similar to Heineken.
The restaurant was set on the water, had a thatched roof, natural wood bar, tables and chairs.
The third stop was at a local botanical garden, the Spring Garden of Vaipahi. There, we found that most of the plants we knew well from our years of living in Miami. When we return home, we’ll have to compare the latitudes of the two places, one north of the equator, one south of the equator.
The evening brought a special Polynesian dinner on the pool deck. The crew really outdid themselves! The window walls around the deck were covered with palm fronds they’d picked up in Nuku Hiva. All of the food tables had ice sculptures, each different. Watermelons were carved into animals, salads were shaped into fish, just incredibly beautiful! And, the food was truly good. Yes, it did include the traditional roast pig. The pigs may have been cooked in ground ovens and brought aboard as the meat was that tasty!
After dinner, the show “O Tahiti E” was presented by local Polynesian dancers, singers and musicians. WOW, what a show!
We over-nighted in Papeete.
Sunday, the 24 – Moorea
Leaving Papeete around 5am we arrived in Moorea (about 15 miles away), arriving around 8am. Here, the tour we had selected was an “Off-Road Safari”. WOW, what a trip that was! The vehicle was a small four-wheel drive pickup with a canopy over the truck bed and two bench seats facing each other. It would hold 8 people, fortunately there were only 5 in our vehicle as it was another hot and humid day!
The highlight of the trip was a very steep and winding climb up to the top of Magic Mountain. It looked like some of the inclines were 45º and may have been if physics will allow a truck to climb that steeply. At the top of the “road”, we all got out and walked up another hundred or so yards to the peak. The path with deep dropoffs was about 100 to 115 yards of concrete with ridges for grip. It had steep inclines at least 45º and hairpin turns. Our only support was a rope and that ended about 10-15 yards before we reached the top. Bottom line, it got scarier and scarier the higher we went!
By now, the rain had stopped and we had a GLORIOUS view of the bays below! “Truly awesome” is the only description that fits!
Back to the dock and back to the ship, we headed straight to the pool bar for a bloody Mary. We needed it after all the “not for the faint of heart” roads we traveled today!
A “Sundowner Sail Away” on the top deck was planned but rain caused it to be cancelled. The ship served the fresh coconuts with a very special colada type drink in them to guests in the Observation and Horizon lounges! Yep, the drink was delicious!
This evening’s show was performed by the Regent singers (4 of them) and the Regent Signature Orchestra and was “A Tribute to the Beatles”! These guys and gals are great!
Monday, the 25th – Bora Bora
We were anchoring at 8am and we needed to be in the theater for our first tour at 8am so we had an early breakfast at La Veranda. It had opened earlier than the usual 7:30am to accommodate the guests with early tours.
Our first tour was a glass-bottomed boat tour out to the coral reefs about 20-25 minutes away. This was our first sunny day thus the mountains and surrounding islands were clearly in view and beautiful to look at. Tom mentioned he’d thought Moorea to be the most South Pacific like, I felt the same about Bora Bora.
Because of all the recent rains, the water over the reefs wasn’t as clear as we’ve seen in pictures however; we could still see the colors of the fish as they came up to retrieve the fish provided by our captain. There was a snorkeling option, however, since we’re not experienced at it we chose not to do that. We saw some of the other Regent guests on boats close to where ours was tied up. To prevent damage to the coral reefs, they have installed anchor bouys.
Back at the pier, we boarded a tender back to the ship for a brief encounter with air conditioning and a bite of lunch.
We tendered back to the pier and joined our afternoon excursion of a “Le Truck” circumnavigation of Bora Bora. It resembled a school bus with open air windows, was made of wood and plastic chairs with a cushion on the seat, a plastic chair bolted down to make the seats. It would hold 37 people, fortunately, we only had about 18 people. Did I mention the weather is HOT and HUMID? It reminds us of the hottest most humid summers we ever had in Miami; of course, we were MUCH younger then and could tolerate them better!
We made several stops for photos. One stop was a rest stop at Mama Edna’s. In addition to the rest rooms, they had fruit for sampling. I was glad to see the fresh coconut meat, a favorite of mine! And, of course, it was a business! The primary items were beautiful pareos for sale at $10 each. That was about half the price I’d seen before. Yep! I bought 2 of them! They did a demo on how to tie them. I’ll have to refresh my memory when we get home and have don’t have to pay extra for internet service!
The last stop was at the apparently famous “Bloody Marys” restaurant and bar. We’d not heard of it before however, many of our shipmates were familiar with it. Yet, you bet, we did have a Bloody Mary! The building had a sand floor and rather than a coat check, it had a shoes and sandals check! It was open air and had a traditional high ceiling thatched roof, natural wood bar, bar stools, tables, etc.
We sailed out of Bora Bora around 4pm and after a “sail around” salute to also anchored there, Holland America’s Rotterdam, the two ships exchanged appropriate horn blasts and we headed west northwest to Apia, Samoa.
Tuesday, the 26th – At Sea
We may be getting “old”! After 3 shore days, we were truly glad to be having 2 days at sea where we could be lazy and do our own thing! Tom went for a spa appointment at 9:15. After the bumpy roads, a good deep massage was in order! I attended two lectures, one on South Pacific culture, one on Tahitian cooking presented by our Executive Chef and his Tahitian wife. Their toddler son was also there. The chef’s wife and son had boarded in Papeete.
Tom had come down with a terrible cold and spent most of the day sleeping. He did have a hot dog and some potato salad for lunch but didn’t even feel like getting up for dinner.
After having eaten so much for the past few days, I chose to skip dinner, however did dress up a little and headed to the theater to see “The Platters”! One of my favorites! Tom and I had attended my 50th class reunion back in October (’09) and one of our classmates had put together a CD that included a medley of their songs of our high school years. Although not the original singers, they maintained the sound! They opened with “Only You” and closed with “The Great Pretender”!
Wednesday, the 27th – At Sea
Last night was another “set the clocks back” night! I’ve forgotten what the time differences are now. Once again, we awakened to a beautiful sunrise around 5:30am, took a few photos and headed back to bed. We were up around 7:30 or so and Tom sounded SO much better so we cleaned up and went for breakfast around 8am.
When we got back to our cabin, Tom headed out to do some more reading on his book. I worked on typing up log notes and then attended another Apollo space program delivered by General Charlie Duke. He is such a wonderful man!
During Charlie’s lecture, the seas turned rough! I mean really rough! Staggering was not an uncommon scene as folks departed the theater! Fortunately, along almost all of the walls there are “grab” rails!
We have some great pics and video (I think) of the ocean as seen from a “rocking and rolling” ship! It got worse as the day went on. According to bridge information shown on our TV, the winds were sustained at perhaps 25-30mph with gusts up in the 55-60 range! The lowest deck above water is deck 3 so water line is midway deck 2. Water was crashing over the bow on deck 4 and splashing up as high as the bridge on deck 10!
The Captain spoke over the PA system and advised speed is drastically reduced and we would not make Samoa. He changed course and were now headed to Lautoka, Fiji. He referred to the winds as a gale. To those of us who have experienced Florida, it would be a tropical storm!
Around 6pm or so, our cruise director advised that the evening shows had been cancelled or postponed.
We’ve somewhat enjoyed the “rocking and rolling”. It’s been humorous to have drawers and doors opening and closing on their own! Tom figured out that putting socks between the drawers would stop that so as of now (10pm wherever we are) we have no more banging of drawers and doors!
Looking at the display on the information channel, we were sailing quite straight between ports until we changed direction to bypass Samoa. The current line from that point, albeit in a pointed direction, has a lot of “waves” in it.
Tom had turned in and I was working on this so we stayed in all evening. Hopefully, by morning he will be “all better”! I think it is fortunate that we’re not going to Samoa tomorrow as he probably wouldn’t have felt like making the shore excursion. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see Samoa, however fortunately we’ll be reimbursed for the “up charge” for the shore excursion we’d chosen (most are included but we particularly wanted to do one that had an up charge). I’ve made another spa appointment to use part of the refunded dollars… that’s another fortunate part!
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