A Day in Perth with Andrew, Sam and Family.

Andrew, Sylvia’s god-son, drove to meet us at the port at 8.30 this morning and after a welcome hug we were heading back on the 12 mile journey into Perth. Today our base was to be King’s Park a 1000 acre area in the centre of Perth made up of parkland, bush and botanical gardens. It is suppossed to be the largest inner city park in the World, even bigger than New York’s Central Park.

While we waited for Sam, Andrew’s wife, to bring the children from home we had a pleasant walk through the Botanical Gardens, stopping to admire the floral clock....

.....and the views of the city.

Although it was pleasantly warm the sky was a little overcast but if anything, that made walking a bit easier.

The gardens were very well labelled with most of the specimens individually identified and larger signage providing further information.

We meet Sam and the children and headed towards the children’s play area. Grace after a momentary burst of shyness was soon climbing all over the many animal sculptures such as these “Bullockornis”.

Grace and I played hide and seek while Sylvia and Lydia sat and chatted.

In addition to the cultivated parkland much of the park is made of up of bush....

......which gave Grace plenty of chance to find sticks to play with.

It was soon time for lunch and we made our way to the Old Brewery which is conveniently located just under the park with an outside eating area bordering the Swan River.

Andrew and Sylvia decided on barramundi and chips, while Sam and I chose pork ribs and Grace had chicken and her favourite “chippies”.

The meal was finished off with coffee for the adults and a baby-chino for Grace which she really enjoyed.

Before long it was time to say our goodbyes and for Andrew to return us to the ship. It was a brilliant day spent with a lovely family but over far too soon. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we see them again.

Three days at sea now with a tropical cyclone to navigate before the next stop at Bali and the next post.

After the storm.

The high seas that have dogged us for the last couple of days at last abated and Tuesday turned out to be a lovely day. Unfortunately,due to the course that the captain had to take and the slower speed, we were likely to reach Margaret River some six hours late. It was thus decided that we would miss that stop and sail onwards to Fremantle. The good news was that we would be in Fremantle some twelve hours early at 8.00 pm Wednesday, but the downside was that we would leave early due to the iminent arrival of Tropical Cyclone Marcus. This is a category 5 cyclone that is tracking off the coast of Western Australia directly on our route. That should be fun!!

In the meantime I took advantage of the sunshine to catch up with some reading on the balcony.

Tuesday was also Win and Jim’s wedding anniversary and so we joined them for a celebratory meal in the Crown Grill, a speciality restaurant that serves superb steaks. While Win Jim and myself enjoyed some very large steaks, Sylvia went for the sea bass. As a special treat the waiters gathered together to sing “Happy Anniversary” and present them with a small cake. A very pleasant evening with great friends.

The sunshine stayed with us on Wednesday morning and it was a pleasure to see everybody enjoying the heat.

We continued our journey toward Fremantle passing Rottnest Island just before a quite spectacular sunset.

The ship arrived on time which gave us a quick opportunity to walk into the town, and take a few photos of the Anglican church.....

.....some of the older buildings......

.....and the information centre.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with Andrew and family who are taking us on a short tour of Perth, we are really looking forward to this.

Port Lincoln - Australia’s Seafood Capital.

The anticipated storm from last night failed to materialise and we awoke to a blue sky in the small seaport of Port Lincoln.

This small town with a population of around 14,000 sits at the end of Boston Bay an area that supplies over 85% of South Australia’s seafood. Along the jetty as we walked into town sat some of the many fishing boats, this one in particular attracted me. Might be the funny name!!

The boats go into the ocean and catch tuna in their nets and pull them back to port alive in the nets. Here they are transferred to large pens in the sea to be fed up to satisfy the far Asian market. The fish pens can be seen right across the bay.

The town itself is quite small and became very busy with an additional 3000 plus people on what would be normally a quiet Sunday morning. Once again there were scores of volunteers ready to offer advice and show directions. In fact even the mayor was on the quayside to greet us.

The town was named by the explorer Matthew Flinders who discovered the bay in 1802. Flinders hailed from Donnington in Lincolnshire and named the town after his county. A statue in the centre of the town commerates his exploits along with his constant companion, Trim the cat.

Some of the oldest things in town were the large fig trees, originally planted in 1870, which flank the main road, their twisting branches forming a great canopy from the sun.

After dinner tonight we had a fun time at the sixties music trivia, although arriving a little late to actually take part. The entertainment director, who hosted the event, is one of the funniest we have come across on our travels and he really put his heart into it.

The captain has warned us of rough seas ahead over the next two sea days, the next post will be from Margaret River.

St Patrick’s Day in Adelaide.

Quite often when on a cruise you need to alter your watches to ensure you are on local time whilst ashore, but we were surprised to learn last night that Adelaide time is half an hour behind Melbourne time. Generally time zones go in hour increments but the Australians obviously like a different approach.

Opening the balcony door at 7.00 this morning we were welcomed into the Port of Adelaide by a local band playing “Black Velvet Band”, an ideal start to St Patrick’s Day. The port itself is located about a 40 minute train ride away from the centre, but we were expertly guided to the station and the ticket buying process by a band of volunteers. Once at the station others pointed out the best sights to see and how to get there, an excellent welcome to the city.

Walking up King William Road towards Victoria Square and the Central Market, today’s first port of call, we passed the town hall and its interesting homage to The Beatles.

I can recognise John, Paul and George but I’m not sure who was drumming with them on this tour as the fourth person looks nothing like Ringo!

The market contained a nice selection of fish, vegetables and fruit and was clearly influenced by German heritage as there were a number of sausage stalls. Talking of sausages, we thought that these might be good for your next barbeque, Thai......

......apparently the hump in the middle stops them rolling off the grill!!

We were a little unsure of where to go next.......

.......but decided to head to the Rundle Mall for a little retail therapy and a cup of coffee. The mall is a long pedestrian street full of retail outlet, with interesting sculptures and street entertainers.

A number of arcades lead from the main street and it was in one of these we stopped for a mid-morning drink and a slice of banana cake, delicious!

Suitably refreshed we next walked across the river bridge towards St Peter’s Cathedral......

......and the second test cricket ground of the trip, the Adelaide Oval.

Although not quite as impressive as the MCG a couple of days ago, this newly built ground has everything you would expect from a major test venue.

No visit around the ground today because all the entertainment was on the outside, with a full blown St Patrick’s Day celebration including dancers and singers. With a plentyful supply of Guiness, Irish spirits were riding high.

The weather today in Adelaide was warm and overcast, but as we sat down for dinner with Win and Jim lightening filled the sky. We could be in for a rough night!!

Goodbye Melbourne, Hello Golden Princess.

For the last morning in Melbourne we once again explored some of the arcades of the city. Linking some of the major shopping streets, these contain a mixture of cafes and specialist retail outlets with some elaborately decorated.

It was also nice ro see that the Melbourne street namers have a sense of humour.

Checking out of our hotel just before eleven, we took a taxi to the cruise port and unbelieveably boarded the ship by 11.45, the quickest yet!!

Although this is the first time on this particular ship, it is identical in layout to Star Princess and so we very quickly found our way around. After muster drill at 3.15, the ship left its berth and slowly commenced the journey to Singapore, leaving Melbourne in its wake.

We had a lovely time in the Melbourne, both with family and exploring the city, and I’m certain we will return. Tomorrow is a sea day so unless something special happens there will be no blog until Adelaide on Saturday.

Another Busy Day in Melbourne.

This weather this morning was a little overcast but ideal for today’s planned activity, a trip to the Botanical Gardens. After the short walk to Flinders Street station we caught the tram to the Shrine of Remembrance. We thought that this was just going to be a war memorial so were surprised to come across a large building housing a military museum and memorial to all Australians involved in conflicts around the world. The museum itself contained artefacts and uniforms from the first Australian troops in the 1860s through the two World Wars to the modern era. A paricularly poignant exhibit being the WW1 Gallipolli section which included an actual boat used in the troop landing. Outside a large poppy sculpture could be seen.

The terrace at the top of the shrine gave a great opportunity for a running photo.

Over the road from the Shrine is the entrance to the Royal Botanical Gardens which are reckoned to be the second best in the World after those in Kew. Indeed there were a good selection of plants and flowers such as these.....

........and these.

Unfortunately most of the plants had finished flowering as the autumn is upon us but it was still a lovely place with great smells and superb views across the lake...

......and of the borders.

We had arranged to meet up with Lorna, Patrick and Sally, a school friend who was visiting from New Zealand so mafe our way to the Southbank. We had a lovely lunch, lamb shank for me, chicken for Sylvia and lamb burgers for the others, compliments to Patrick. After lunch we split up the girls going off into town while Patrick and I made our way to the Melbourne sporting area for a visit to the MCG.
We managed to just make it in time for the last guided tour around the stadium including the dressing rooms, press area, underground practise pitches and the members long room.

The ground is really impressive and the tour was both interesting and amusing, even though England cricket was the butt of most jokes!
Outside the ground are a series of statues of great athletes and especially cricketers, not many being greater than Shane Warne.

Sylvia meantime took a walk along the river to visit the sailing ship “Polly Woodside”, which is part of the Australian National Trust.

Melbourne as a city has so much to offer and on this visit we have only just scratched the surface, I’m sure that there is plenty left to see in a future visit.

Tomorrow we board our cruise ship.

A Tour Around the Mornington Peninsula.

Patrick and Lorna picked us up from our hotel at 9.30 and expertly navigated through the morning rush hour traffic towards our first destination. The viewing points at Arthur’s Seat can be reached by a cable car or by driving up a twisting road, we choose the latter. At the top we had some magnificent views of the bay.

The park contains some interesting Aboriginal sculptures...

... but unfortunately today no sign of any kangaroos, although they had left plenty of evidence on the grass of their existence.

Arthur’s Seat takes its name from the Edinburgh extinct volcano and not the large chair that tourists sit in when they visit.

After a quick cup of coffee we made our way back down the hill towards the ferry port of Sorrento, a pictureseque little town full of fishing boats and holiday cottages.

The ferry across the strait took around forty minutes during which a pod of dolphins played alongside the boat, unfortunately too quickly for a photo. We did however manage to capture these three.

Arriving at Queenscliff we parked the car and walked first to the Point Lonsdale pier....

....before climbing the cliff path towards the lighthouse.

At the end of the walk a good helping of flake and chips, a local fish from the shark family, was had by all. In fact for most of us the helping was far too big even though we had chosen the small portion.

Thank you Patrick for an excellent guided tour of a beautiful part of the country.