Rough Day

About 25 years ago we met a couple when we were camping.  We became very good friends with them and his parents and spent many hours enjoying campfires together, dinners, as well as crafting, cooking, picking blueberries...all sorts of things.  They were very strong in their faith, but they never "preached"...just transmitted their love of God through their lifestyle!! 

The Dad had passed away several years ago and when we got home from the cruise we got an email from the daughter-in-law saying that Mom had passed away but her service would be at a later date when it fit better into her chemo schedule...she had had breast cancer years ago and had been doing very well for quite some time until it spread to her liver.  The doctors were very optimistic that even though it was incurable she would still have a couple of years to live, so they set the date for Mom's service.  Unfortunately a couple weeks before the service she took a turn for the worse and passed away quite suddenly.  Mom's service was on Monday and her service was on Tuesday.

Rest in peace my friends...you'll both be missed and will always hold a very special place in our hearts!

Sea Day

Second full day at sea.  Lots more good food to eat, exploring the ship, going to lectures and visiting the shops on board...you have to go each day because they showcase different stuff each day...sometimes they even give you a glass of champagne or like today they have several of the duty free liquors they have for sale on board and we were given small samples to try.  We bought our duty free today but they'll deliver it to our cabin just before we disembark in Vancouver.

Seas were lovely and calm today....so beautiful and peaceful!

 This is the wake at the stern of the ship.  The South Pacific is such a beautiful blue colour!!

 Had a clear night tonight so a beautiful sunset.

Afterwards we went up to the top deck to see if we could see the Southern Cross.  We'd seen the Southern Cross several years ago when we were sailing up the east coast of South America.  It was so dark and the stars were so big and bright it was unbelievable!!  We saw the Southern Cross then we did a 180 degree turn and low and behold there was the big dipper!....but....it was upside down and the top of the dipper was touching the horizon.  It was a sight I'll never forget!!!  To this day whenever I see the Big Dipper I remark, "It's upside right!!"  This time we saw the Southern Cross but no Big Dipper and there was probably too much light from the ship and the moon to have to stars really bright.  Disappointing but at least we got to see it!

At Sea

Left Sydney Friday about 6:30 pm.  It was already dark and we've got 2 full sea days before we arrive in Noumea, New Caledonia. 

 Slept well last night.  Decided to go up to the Lido deck for the buffet breakfast so took the glass elevator midship.  As we got into the elevator we saw the mat had the day of the week on it.  Great idea, especially after being on board for several days you lose track of what day it is.  One day when we got on one of the elevators it had a black mat on the floor...guess the "day" mat was worn out or something.  I said to B, "Wonder if that means it's Black Friday???"  Thought some special deals in the shops on board would be a great idea!

 The atrium midship.  The glass stairs were particularly interesting!

 Culinary Arts Center.  This is where they did the cooking demonstrations.  The area was also used for games and was transformed into a theater to show movies in the afternoon by pushing the cooking counter out of the way, having a screen come down and closing the curtains leading into the room.  In the evening they transformed it again...this time into B.B.Kings Disco.

 Thought this was an interesting 3D picture of an elephant in a china shop!

 Bar stools by the pool.

Nice calm seas today.

Came back to the cabin tonight and our cabinboy had made us this adorable guy using towels.

Busy Harbour

Sydney Harbour is a very busy place!

 Looking toward Circular Quay where the ferries dock and people can make connections to trains and buses.

We've seen and taken "Hop on Hop off" buses before, but didn't know about this boat!

This tanker was beside the ship all day apparently loading enough fuel to get us to Hawaii!

This is several pictures stitched together to form a panoramic of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

MS Noordam

Usually when we book a cruise we book the lowest inside cabin for a couple of reasons.  It's more stable in rougher waters and it's much less expensive and we'd rather use that money to go on shore excursions or spend it on something we want.  Well, this time the package we booked was priced for a verandah cabin, we thought the price was very reasonable so we decided to "upgrade" ourselves...what a mistake...the verandah cabin was so nice I'm not sure we'd want to go back to an inside cabin or even an ocean view cabin.  Nice big bathroom with tub and shower.

Lots of closet space...even had a safe which was so simple to program!  The TV could have been bigger and more high definition...no wonder we spent more time in the cabin than we usually do!!

It was so nice to lay in bed and watch the ocean go by, and we had lots of sea days!

For the first couple of days it was quite pleasant to sit out on the deck, read, have a glass of wine or in B's case, scotch.  As we got closer to the equator though, it became so hot and humid it was much nicer to sit inside in the air conditioning and look out the patio doors.  As we got closer to Hawaii and then on to Vancouver sitting outside became very pleasurable again.

Goodbye Australia

Our last morning and we finished packing up the suitcases and headed out to see if we could see the ship.

 The Circular Quay is a station for all the harbour ferries and local trains and buses.  The International dock is behind this building and to the left...that's where our ship is docked.

 Look at this seagull's spotted tail!!

 This ship will be our "home" for the next 24 days!  That's the Sydney Harbour bridge in the background.  The Opera House is on a little peninsula to the right of the ship across the water.

Hungry Jacks is the equivalent to our Burger King, even the signage and posters look similar to Burger King.  We'd already had some breakfast and knew we'd be eating lots on the ship so we didn't try the food there to see if it is like here.

Took the Train

Our last full day in Australia we took the train up to Morisset.  We had made arrangements to meet our daughter-in-law's Aunt and Uncle there.  We'd met them several years ago when they came to the Vancouver area.  They drove us around and we went to a place where we saw kangaroo in the wild...not that they were too wild.  Apparently everyone feeds them even though there are signs posted not to feed them.  One came right up to me wanting to know if I had anything for him/her.  Sorry, I didn't, but I got to pet it anyway.  The most mind boggling thing though was seeing them bounding across the plain in complete freedom!!!  The same sort of feeling when seeing an Orca in the wild here!!

It was also interesting seeing the countryside, both from the train and from our friend's truck, and of course our friends told us all sorts of interesting things about the area.

 The seats in the train can be made to face in either direction.  Very comfortable and lovely windows to look out at the passing countryside.

 The friendly "wild" kangaroo that let me pet him/her.

 Our friends had made a beautiful picnic lunch so we sat at a picnic table overlooking this beautiful beach and had lunch.  This area used to be a coal mine and the land has been reclaimed and made into a park for all to enjoy.