cruising the fjordland national park

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Today was an early morning day for us since we were entering the Fjordland National Park, in the very southern part of the south island of New Zealand, quite early and we wanted to make sure we got a great spot on the bow of the ship to see the entry into the park.  We would be cruising 3 different “sounds” within the park.

Fjords are valleys carved by the pressure and power of glaciers during successive ice ages, which are then flooded as the ice melts, which causes the sea levels to rise.

The first sound we cruised through was Milford Sound, which is 10 miles long and is the most visited of all the Fjords in the area. The large amount of precipitation in this area annually leaves a 10-13 foot layer of permanent fresh water above the warmer sea water. This has allowed for diver sea life in the waters of this fjord, with various species of sponges, corals and fish. It was quite overcast as we entered Milford Sound, which presented a mystical, enchanting atmosphere. As we made our way around the sound and paused in front of one of the largest waterfalls in Milford, the clouds began to open up around us and the tips of the most famous landmark in Milford Sound, Mitre Peak, began to peek through, giving us a true idea of how large the valley was through which we were cruising!

After we existed Milford Sound, we made our way through the other two main sounds in the Fjordland National Park, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Each of these Fjords provided a beautiful, serene setting to start our entry to New Zealand and left us with a sense of wonderment and enchantment. We were excited to explore the ports and cities that lay ahead of us!

2 days at sea

Tuesday, December 6 &  Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The next two days were “sea days,” meaning that we would be out in the open ocean, making our way to New Zealand, without any stops or even seeing any land, in this case. These two days we spent getting to know the ship and participating in some of the events they have planned for the guests. Some of the things we participated in included a ring toss, bean bag toss, putting and chipping competitions for Tim, trivia challenges and, of course, happy hour!

During happy hour one of these days, we met Peter, who is from Australia’s capital, Canberra. He was traveling on the cruise with his sister and brother-in-law and friends of theirs. Peter was a great person to meet and we eventually found ourselves spending more time with him, his relatives and friends through the cruise. We even eventually moved our seating for dinner to their table, as they invited us to eat with them and made arrangements for a bigger table. We have since received invitations to stay with them in their respective cities on our next trip to Australia. Tim has a standing tee-time date with Peter at his golf club for whenever we are able to come back and Peter’s sister and her husband have offered to loan us their “caravan” (RV) to take across the Outback or along the coast when we decide to come back. Needless to say, we’ve made a few friends on this trip! We also crated a solid trivia team with them for the pre-dinner trivia challenge put on by the DJ nightly. We won a few times and consistently come out toward the top in the times we did not win. 

We enjoyed our time on the ship during these two days, but I got a bit antsy at times and just wanted to be on solid ground and start exploring New Zealand. We did take a few trips around the outside deck on our floor to get some fresh air and exercise, but it still wasn’t the same as being on solid ground (though when we did eventually make it to solid ground, it constantly felt like we were still on the ship, with the ground below us moving. This was such a strange feeling to me and had Tim and I constantly laughing at each other in port when one of us would stumble because we felt like the ground was moving. It’s a feeling that is hard to describe, but those of you who have been on a ship or boat for an extended period of time and know the feeling we are talking about are probably laughing right now!).

first day aboard the ms volendam

Monday, December 5, 2011 – Happy Birthday Mommy!!

Today is my (Nikki) mom’s birthday and we send our best wishes to her for a wonderful day and fantastic year. We love you.

This morning we organized our things then grabbed a taxi to take us to Darling Harbour to board our home for the next 2 weeks, the ms Volendam. Once we went through all the required checking-in, customs, security, etc., we boarded the ship and dropped our carry-ons off at our room. They were offering a Mariner’s lunch in the dining room, so we took part in that then headed off to explore the ship. Since we boarded at noon and wouldn’t leave the harbor until 6, we took the time to unpack and get settled in the room so we could put our suitcases and bags away. When we were ready to leave the harbor, we went up to the top deck for some spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It was quite an exciting experience to cruise under the Harbour Bridge and see the small amount of clearance between the top of the ship and the bottom of the bridge! When we passed the Opera House, our captain made a special announcement that the prior captain had just retired and was standing outside the Opera House watching our cruise ship pass by. As we passed the Opera House, the horn was sounded seven times in his honor – it was quite the sendoff for him!

We had our first dinner in the formal dining room that night and enjoyed our meal. Our dinner guests at the table were from Chula Vista and we spent the meal getting to know one another.

After dinner, we spent some time in the Crow’s Nest, which is below the navigation bridge where the captain sits, so it has great views of the ocean ahead of us. The Crow’s Nest also is the main area of entertainment during the evenings. The first night we experienced quite a bit of rocking and rolling on the ship due to the rough seas from the rainy and windy weather. It was a bit difficult to get used to and I didn’t sleep too well the first night, unfortunately. We took advantage of the tablets the front desk was handing out and didn’t have any issues with sea-sickness, thankfully. 

a rainy day

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Our beautiful, warm, sunny day was followed by a cold, windy and rainy day. We decided to don our rain gear and make the most of it, since it was our last full day in Sydney before the cruise. We headed over to an indoor market place we had heard about that opens on Sundays and walked around the stalls of vendors selling their wares. Once we had a bit of people overload, we headed out to Darling Harbour, on suggestion of the Australian couple we met the night before. On the way there, we got caught up in quite the wind and rain storm, so we stopped in a Starbucks on the harbor to warm ourselves up with a coffee and some lunch. The view was great and we were warm and dry, so we stayed for a bit and took some time to catch up on emails and the blog. Actually, this was the last day we had time, and a reliable enough internet connection, to update.  The weather cleared up a bit after we hung out so we decided to bundle up again and head out to the outside of the maritime museum. They had several military vessels on display, as well as some other boats, so we took some time looking at those. We then made our way across the Darling Harbour bridge, with quite a bit of wind attempting to push us in the opposite direction, and then walked along the harbor. Once we had enough of the windy and cold weather, we made our way back to the timeshare to pack up our suitcases before dinner. Around dinner time, we consulted Yelp yet again and found a highly rated sushi restaurant in the neighborhood next to Surry Hills and made our way to it, stopping again at a bottle shop on the way. The sushi restaurant, like the Thai place, was small and family-owned. We both ordered miso soup and I enjoyed a wonderful teriyaki salmon while Tim indulged in a plate of sushi. Everything was very tasty and fresh! After dinner we walked around the neighborhood again before heading back to the timeshare to relax.

a beautiful day in sydney

Saturday, December 3, 2011

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny, warm day, and headed out after making breakfast and coffee in our suite. The only thing we had on our agenda for the day was our 5:00 tour booking at the Opera House, so we made our way up from our timeshare to the Harbor on a leisurely hour-long stroll through Hyde Park and up George Street, stopping along the way wherever we found something interesting. One of the stops we made was at the shopping mall, thinking we would find some great Australian stores, but actually found that they were all the same stores we have at home, but most of the clothes, shoes, etc. were priced much higher than they are at home. That said, we didn’t do much shopping, since we could get better prices at home and wouldn’t have to schlep anything back in already-full suitcases! The major streets and shopping areas were decorated for the holidays and we saw some beautiful Christmas trees in some of the plazas, reminding us that Christmas would be soon upon us when we got home. The feeling of Christmas here in much the same as it is at home in that the stores and shopping centers are all decorated for the season, but the sun is shinning and the weather is warm, making it hard to believe that it is the holiday season.

After walking around the stores, we made our way up George Street to eventually arrive at an area of town called “The Rocks,” which is right between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, with incredible views of both landmarks on each side! We sat here to have lunch and enjoy the sun and great people watching…until the seagulls started eyeing our snacks! We watched them swoop down on several other groups enjoying their lunch, which made our decision to continue with our day an easy one! We walked over to the ferry terminal and purchased our tickets to go over to Manly Beach. The ferry ride over was very pleasant and we had incredible views of the Bridge and Opera House from our seats outside, at the front, top section of the ferry. We docked in Manly 45 minutes later and made our way through the cute city to the beach. The water was so clear, with incredible shades of blues and greens – Tim was in photo-taking heaven! We were able to spend just a short time in Manly, however, because we had to get back to the Opera House to make our 5:00 tour, so we got on the ferry and headed back.

The tour of the Opera House was wonderful and we would highly recommend it to anyone going to Sydney – it is a “must do” in our book, but does take some planning as you have to make the booking in advance. The tour was about an hour long and the tour guide took us through the history of the Opera House, including the controversy with its architect, design, and construction. The Opera House is a true architectural wonder and took quite a bit of  “outside the box” thinking to complete the complicated design. The tour also took us through the various theaters that make up the Opera House, with the size and acoustics of each theater dictating the types of performances taking place in specific theaters. We learned that ballets, rock concerts, classical concerts, operas, plays and dance performances all have their specific requirements taken care of between the various theaters. The grandeur and sophistication of both the inside and outside of the Opera House is truly impressive and cannot be fully appreciated without physically experiencing them – photos and videos cannot do it justice. After our tour was complete, we spent some additional time walking around outside to take some photos, then decided to get a drink at the Opera Bar, which is located along the walkway to the Opera House. The bar is outdoors next to the harbor, with panoramic views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. The bar was extremely crowded, as it is a popular spot for after-work drinks for those living and working in Sydney, but we were fortunate enough to score a high-top table. We were there for about 30 minutes, when we were asked by a guy if he and his girlfriend could join us at our table since they weren’t able get a table. Of course we said they were more than welcome to join us. We got to talking to them and found out that they both live and work in Sydney and are about the same ages as we are. We had a great time talking to them for about 3 hours and covered many topics about Australia, New Zealand and the US. He traveled quite extensively through New Zealand and had been to the States a few times, but never to San Diego. We were able to answer some questions they had about the States and they answered some of our questions about Australia, plus gave us some great tips on things to see and do in Sydney. By the time we left the Opera Bar and took the subway back to Surry Hills, it was nearly 10 and we went out in search of a dinner spot. We found a Spanish tapas restaurant and shared some nibbles and a great pizza, and each enjoyed a glass of sangria. We had a great first day in Sydney and both really enjoyed the city. We looked forward to continuing to explore the city the following day.

Photos to come in a later post as the current internet connection is too slow to upload photos - sorry!

good-bye cairns, hello sydney

Friday, December 2

Today we woke up in Cairns to finish packing and head over to the airport for our 3 hour flight to Sydney. The trip to the airport and flight were quite uneventful and we found our shuttle bus easily and headed to the timeshare in the Surry Hills section of Sydney, located in the Central Business District. The timeshare was close to a few parks and very close to a variety of shopping centers and restaurants with diverse cuisine. We unpacked and consulted Yelp for dinner options. We came across great recommendations for a Thai restaurant called Spice I Am close to the timeshare and took the suggestion of someone on Yelp to stop by a bottle shop to pick up a bottle of wine as the restaurant, like most here, are "BYO," meaning you can bring in your own drinks, more often than not with no corkage fee. The restaurant was a tiny place, but was crowded with locals, which we took to be a great sign! I ordered veggie Pad Thai ( my go-to) and Tim tried a curry dish. Both were fantastic and we enjoyed the atmosphere.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and find a grocery store for breakfast and lunch stuff.

Below are some photos from adventures mentioned in earlier posts, including the esplanade in Cairns, the dive boat we took to the Reef, the living room of the timeshare in Cairns, us at the esplanade pool in Cairns, and the Pad Thai dinner. Enjoy!

great barrier reef scuba adventure

Tuesday, November 29th
Today was our great barrier reef scuba day! We got up bright and early for the hour trip to Port Douglas to meet up with the dive boat. The boat we went out on was a catamaran and served for both SCUBA divers and snorkelers. There were 8 certified divers and close to 8 more getting their certification, plus 20-30 snorkelers on the boat. It was very well organized and well run, though, which we were pleased to see.

When we left the marina, we headed out to the Outer Reef, which took close to an hour and a half. The weather was warm and we spent most of the time out on the upper deck enjoying the nice breeze and beautiful views. Once we got to our first dive site, we got our gear on and jumped off the boat into the warm, clear blue water! The process was the same for all 3 dives, the only change being the depth of the dives, with the first being the deepest and the last the most shallow. The reef itself is quite shallow and our deepest dive was only about 60 feet. The terminology of the diving and equipment was a bit different for us since Australia is on the metric system. We are used to measuring the amount of air we have in our tanks in psi (pounds per square inch) and they measure it in "bar," with 3,000 psi equaling 200 bar. Of course the depths are measured in meters, so we had to keep that in mind when we were told how deep we would be diving during each dive.

On our dives, we saw the diversity of the coral and sea life, and were impressed with how vibrant the colors were. We did see some sharks, but they were harmless as they were only black tipped reef sharks. The variety of fish was quite stunning and it was stunning to see how many species were there. We normally do not touch any fish, coral or sea life we see while we are diving, but our dive master did say here were a few animals we would be able to touch once he picked them up and handed them to us. One of these was the pineapple sea cucumber, which sort of reminded me of a caterpillar in its look. It was quite sticky on the bottom and felt a bit like rubber on the top. The other thing we got to hold was a purple starfish, which was actually very beautiful. Tim took videos on his go-pro of the dives so he will likely upload that to YouTube once he has edited it so I'll put a link in a blog post to that.

Overall, our day at the reef was great and we were really thankful to have such a beautiful day for such a wonderful, perhaps once in a lifetime, opportunity! Once we arrived back into the marina at Port Douglas, it was close to 5 in the evening but we walked a bit around town and stopped to share a pineapple-mango sorbet, which was perfect on a hot afternoon! We headed back to the condo and made dinner before crashing in bed after a very long and fun day! Photos and video to come!

the rainforest and a town called kuranda

Thursday, December 1st (Happy December!)

Today was our last full day in Cairns so we decided to check out the rainforest and a little town called Kuranda that we had heard so much about. We also read that there were a few great nature walks in this area so we were game.

The road up to Kuranda wound through the rainforest and was very scenic. We stopped a few times at the lookouts and admired the views down on the city and out to the ocean. Driving a windy road on the opposite side of the car and road was a fun experience for Tim and a bit of a nail biting experience from the passenger seat! :) Once we arrived to Kuranda, we found the trailhead to the nature walk that took plus through the rainforest and eventually to a lookout to Barron Gorge. Barron Gorge is a series of waterfalls that were used at one point to power all of Cairns. They have since found other means for this but have maintained the falls within the rainforest as a point of interest. The view from the lookout was beautiful and the nature walk proved to be quite informative about the life and evolution of that particular rainforest.

After our walk, we headed back into town to walk around and check things out. Kuranda is the junction point for the sky rail and Kuranda railway. We opted to drive ourselves, so we didn't take a ride on either, but we did spend some time at the railway station taking photos for our train-fanatic nephews, Trevor and Gabo! We then walked around the town and picked up some goodies at the market for lunch.

We decided to go back to downtown Cairns once last time to see if we could catch a tour at a brewery, only to find that it was closed due to some flooding they had in their building. We were quite disappointed, but put it on our list of things to do when we return to Australia one day! After the brewery bust, we made a last beach visit to Halloway Beach. We parked the car and took note of the caution signs (stingers, ie jelly fish, and crocodiles) before heading out to the sand. We obviously decided not to swim but enjoyed a great walk along the sand. The beach reminded us a bit of the North Shore beaches of Oahu and it was sort of a trip to think that, all these miles away, we were still walking along the shores of the Pacific Ocean. We did notice that there are certain areas along the beach that are separated off by large nets and are deemed safe for swimming and even patrolled by life guards.

We headed back to the condo to pack up and enjoy our last night in Cairns with steak and a bottle of Australian red outside on the deck.

The first photo below is from the rainforest nature walk in Kuranda, the second one is from Halloway Beach and the third is from a few days before at the botanical gardens.

downtown cairns and the esplanade pool

Wednesday, November 30th

We took the day to head downtown Cairns and check out the esplanade, which we had heard and read a lot about. The esplanade is a path that winds along the coast, and has shops, bars and restaurants along the opposite side. We took the opportunity to get some exercise in and go for a walk and check out the coast of Cairns. The weather was extremely hot and humid this day, so our walk was not as long as we expected. We did see some interesting birds along the way and a very large sting ray in the water with a beautiful spot pattern on the underside of its fins.

After our walk, it was definitely time for a dip...in the pool. The city built a sort of infinity pool just across the esplanade from the ocean and filled it with water that it filtered from the sea and they moved some sand from the beach for the entrance to the pool to create a sort of sandy beach pool. We enjoyed the water and sun for a while, even having our picnic lunch there before we headed to a bar for a pitcher of Victoria Bitter, or "VB" as the locals call it. Cold beer and hot weather is always a good combination!

Our day concluded with dinner and wine on the balcony again.

On a side note, check out what Tim found at the supermarket. No, we did not decide on this for dinner!

cairns - day 1

So we haven't exactly been great at keeping up with posting regularly, have we?! That should tell you we are enjoying ourselves and have been too exhausted to post at the end of each day. That said, let's try to get caught up on our time in Cairns, which is located in the northern part of Australia, called Queensland, and is quite tropical. The weather for much of the time we were there was in the high 80s to low 90s with very high humidity.

Monday, November 28th (Happy Birthday, Molly!!)
We spent the morning looking around the local shopping center and checking out a great little farmer's market where we picked up some great fruit for lunch. We then headed to the Chrystal Cascades to do a bit of hiking (or bush whacking as it is called here). We found a website that said the locals like to keep this place hidden from the locals because of its swimming holes. We were almost there when we were stopped by a road crew who was fixing the road and said the road would be closed for another hour. Instead of hanging out in the car, we redirected ourselves and headed to the Flecker Botanical Gardens, which were created in 1886, so much of the flora and fauna are quite mature and very beautiful. Tim got a bunch of great photos of the plants with his big camera, but I can only post those that I got with my iPad camera. Tim will likely create a slideshow with the photos he took so we'll post that when it's done. Anyway, the plants and flowers we saw were all very tropical and many were similar to those we have seen in Hawaii due to the similar climate. We also saw several HUGE spiders that pretty much made me get the heck out of their vicinity!

After we finished at the gardens, we headed back to the Crystal Cascades and were happy to be able to make the whole way this time. We saw a great "kangaroo crossing" sign on our way up too, so I took a photo of it and it's posted below. The Cascades were beautiful and the hike came with a well deserved dip in one of the swimming holes. We did note that the locals haven't done such a great job of keeping this a secret, there were 2 your busses there when we were leaving! After the Cascades, we made our way back to the condo, making a pit stop at the bottle shop for a bottle of wine, the to the supermarket for dinner supplies. One interesting note - beer, wine and spirits are not sold on grocery stores or supermarkets here, they are only sold in separate stores called bottle shops.

We got back to the condo and made a great dinner of chicken and veggie stir-fry, the went to bed early since we had to get up early to drive to the wharf in Port Douglas to meet up with the dive boat that was taking us to the reef. And that's the subject of the next post! Stay tuned!

Now for some photos of the day: