Day 50 1st March 2011

Sidney and Aurora from Opera House

Sidney Harbour Bridge on the other side of Aurora

Eddy Avenue near Central Station, Sidney

We arrived in Sidney this morning. It is apparently the first day of autumn here but it is still very hot with occasional showers. Although, we managed to miss the rain. The ship had to be docked by 7am this morning since that is when the ferries start to run and it would be too dangerous for it to sail in.  Sunrise was 6.30am so the approach was largely in the dark. I did take a look at about 5.30am but all I could see was the city lights and I was not sure where the ship was. I then feel asleep to wake up as we were mooring. The circular quay were we have docked is probably the most scenic anchorage of any city. It is between the Sidney Bridge and the Opera House.

This morning we went on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. In our case it was most stay on but we did change to go on another bus to Bondi Beach through the suburbs. This way we did see a lot of the city with a guided commentary. Finally, we left the bus at the Central Station stop in

Eddy Avenue

. From there we walked up

George Street

through Chinatown and the centre of Sidney. It was rather like walking along

Oxford Street

in London with crowds of people. We sought a cup of coffee but the first place did not have a lift so we settled for Starbucks which at least we could get in.

In the afternoon we walked around circular quay to the Opera House which perhaps because we have seen so many pictures it did not impress us as much as we had expected. For one thing it is very difficult to get into if you are in a wheelchair with long flights of stairs everywhere. We did locate a lift but access was quite limited. The views from half way up were spectacular. I was more taken with the walk along the harbour front that leads to the Opera House. We found an impressive Chinese restaurant that offers a lot of Australian style Chinese food (e.g. kangaroo in black bean sauce etc) so we book a table for this evening. We can sit outside on the harbour side and watch the world go by. I managed to get a glass of Blue Lagoon, a local lager –not a bad brew.

              

Day 49 28th February 2011

We gained an hour last night so we are currently GMT +11. This makes working out when things are happening in the UK and elsewhere difficult. It is easy to get confused, for example as we went to bed last night the England Cricket team had just started their innings in the Cricket World Cup. It seems easier to work things out when we are behind the UK. The crew are in a state of shock that England managed to draw with India after they scoreD 338. It is an amazing result. At dinner last night the waiters kept popping out to get the Indian score since they batted first so we had a continuous stream of news about how well India were playing.

Leaving Brisbane last night was like one continuous light show. The lights of the suburbs of the city combined with the occasional ship going up river as we went down made a magic display. At one point we saw what seemed to be a large flock of birds circle the ship but they were very large bats. There were probably several hundred of them, jet black and silent. They were obviously after the insects that were flying over the water.

Last night we went to see Aubrey and Miller who are two Australian singers. They were quite good although I think not to everyone’s taste since they sang Waltzing Matilda as well as a range of other folk and country numbers. They used a variety of musical instruments including a didgeridoo and one made from lager bottle tops also guitars and banjos.  

This morning we are sailing south with the coast of Australia visible on the starboard side of the ship or opposite our balcony. It is on the horizon which means that it is at least twenty miles away.  It is a hot day about 30c with calm seas. Curiously, we have not seen another ship although running parallel with the land. You would have thought that it would be crowded.  Equally we have not seen any sign of any animal life in the air or water.

This afternoon we went to hear two talks one on the lyrics of American Pie and one about the production of the World at War neither lived up to our expectations. We are off to a drinks party tonight hosted by Gordon and Janet, our table companions.

Day 48 27th February 2011

Brsibane

View acroos the Brisbane River from our balcony

Cool Dude

We have reached the half-way point of the cruise and have arrived at our first port of call in Australia, Brisbane. We are docked at the cruise terminal on the Brisbane River. This is a wide muddy river that flooded the city in January although we saw no sign of the damage. The city has made a rapid recover and we were taken to places that where several feet under water six weeks ago. It is a large city of 2 million people but looks clean, pleasant and vibrant. From our balcony we face onto the river and can see the high-rise buildings of the city. Everyone was friendly and welcoming.

We went on a trip to a Koala sanctuary called Lone Pine. It had many animals apart from Koalas such as possums, duck billed platypus, kangaroos and Tasmanian devils. The koalas were the high point and there were many in different places mostly asleep since they sleep 18 hours a day. The platypus was in a special glass sided tank so you could see it catching prawns for its dinner and swimming around. It is a remarkable animal. In one large area, red kangaroos freely wander around and since they are fed by visitors they are easy to approach and touch. They were very laid back animals just keeping cool and waiting for someone to offer them some food which you can buy at the shop. It was very hot about 34c and you had to keep moving into the shade or bake.

As part of the trip we had a drive around the city and to a couple of viewing points. The guide and driver both kept up a non-stop flow of information about the place. It seems Australians have a very outdoor life style with everyone owning a caravan or trailer tent and a boat. They spend a lot of time out of doors and given the lovely day that we spent here that is no surprise. The city council are trying to encourage the use of bicycles and there are racks of them that you can hire all around the city centre. It looked a thriving place with wide streets with many square and trees everywhere.

We left at 6pm and sailed along the river passing under a bridge apparently we had 4 feet of clearance. About 10pm tonight we will leave the river and pass out into the bay. Night fell very quickly and revealed a landscape of street and building lighting.

Day 47 26th February 2011

We went to the Café Bordeaux music night, yesterday. It is a simple idea that you can have a meal while listening to live music. Last night it was a band called Caravan who seems able to provide music from across several decades in many different styles. They are very popular with the passengers since they can offer something for everyone. It was a sell out event with many ships officers eating with groups and getting up to dance. On the next table was the Deputy Captain and ship’s doctor while on the other side of the restaurant the Captain and Purser were sitting with another group. Chris wondered who was driving the ship. Many people got up to dance and it was a good night. We even shuffled about. The band did several encores finishing up with Bohemian Rhapsody.

The only negative is that the waiters who served us breakfast were also working on the music night. We asked a headwaiter did he ever sleep and he told us when he was at home. The staff are ‘only’ supposed to work a maximum of 10.5 hours a day but since this is broken up into shifts they never seem to get a long break. The headwaiter said he was not working between 11pm and 9am. The waiters have all chip in to buy an internet card so they can watch the India versus England, the World Cup cricket match so I suppose on Sunday they will get even less sleep.

We had to be checked through Australian immigration today. This was quite a straightforward process of queuing up to be seen by an officer who checked our passport pictures against us and then stamped them.  It was done on the ship to save time when we land in Brisbane tomorrow. We had to complete an entry and exit card which the ship will submit at the appropriate times for us. For several hundred passengers the trip ends tomorrow in Brisbane or two days later in Sidney. Other passengers then join the cruise to complete the final two legs of the voyage. We have met several couples who are leaving in Australia to visit family and friends or simply to have a holiday. Australia marks the end of the third stage of the trip.

We were up early this morning and even managed to have breakfast in the main restaurant. This is only the fourth time we have achieved this event. The restaurant stops serving at 9.30am and we never quite manage the time. The ship moved a good deal last night which may explain why we got up early. The weather had clamed down a bit by this morning but we have had some heavy rain showers.

Day 46 25th February 2011

View of Noumea

Chris on road train

Road Train

We arrived at Noumea in New Caledonia today. It is a French overseas territory and on first impression looks rather like the south of France. We have docked again in the container port. One of the side effects of this trip is that we are gaining an insight into the world container trade. We went on a tour of the city on a road train. This is a vehicle built to look like a steam engine that tows a series of carriages in which the passengers sit. There was a guide who in our case was a young American woman married to a Frenchman. The train had no space to carry a wheelchair so we had to leave it with the Aurora staff at the bottom of the gangway. It was a good trip and showed the place to be beautiful. Even the view over the nickel plant which is the key export failed to dissuade us that it would be a wonderful place to live. Every road seemed to be lined with coconut palms and round each corner was a view of the azure ocean. The water is very clam since the island is surrounded by a reef which keeps the waves, out to sea. Our guide claimed that the reef was the second largest in the world after the Australian barrier reef.

Apparently there are only two seasons, summer and winter with summer lasting nine mouths and winter three months. During the summer the daytime temperature is between 18 and 40c and even in winter the temperature rarely falls below 15c. Education and health care is the same as mainland France but the cost of living is very high. A house will cost you about £500,000 and because most things have to be imported commodities are two to tens times the price in the UK.

We saw the news from New Zealand about the effects of the earthquake in Lyttleton which is the port that serves Christchurch. This is where Aurora is supposed to call but it looked harder hit by the earthquake than Christchurch. We have not heard anything from P and O about what is going to happen but looking at the devastation it is obvious we should not go there.

We left harbour at 5pm and sailed out through the channel in the reef towards Australia.

Day 45 24th February 2011

The captain warned us last night that we would be experiencing rougher weather during the early hours and today. We were going to enter an area in which a tropical storm had passed a few days earlier and had left behind some bad weather. At 2am we could feel the ship moving. This has continued during the day with some rain showers and a good deal of spray. However, nothing exceptional just a contrast to the smooth rides we had been having for the last few weeks.

My daily walks around the deck passed 500 laps today and it was hard work with the high humidity and also the ships movement. 500 laps is the equivalent of about 156 miles. While I walk I look at the sea in hope of seeing a whale but so far only the occasional dolphin. Today we did see from the cabin a flock of birds feeding on what must be a shoal of fish. The interesting thing is that the nearest land was over 200 miles away. They were dark in colour but we could not identify them. We wondered where they came from or whether they were migrating.

This afternoon we went to hear Lembit Opik, the former Lib Dem MP talk about the last election and formation of the coalition. He was very clear and made a good impress on the audience. He tried hard to be open and honest and I was impressed that he took questions. I did not know that he was born in Northern Ireland and had worked in Newcastle upon Tyne for Proctor and Gamble as a HR and Training and Development Manager.

Life on board does not exclude you from the domestic duties of washing clothes. This is a competitive sport with many people seeking machines than there are washers available. I managed to get our clothes washed this morning but then could not find a drier so they are now hung around the bathroom. No everything is glamorous on a long cruise.

  

Day 44 23rd February 2011

At one minute past midnight we crossed the International Date Line and moved from GMT-11 to GMT+13 which meant that we went to 23rd February and missed out 22nd February. This is obviously a bit puzzling and confusing. We will cross the line again in about three weeks on our way back and then we will have two 12^th March. Thus, we balance up the changes in the long term. The ship published a spoof newspaper, “The Day That Never Was” to mark the missing day.  

The news is full of the earthquake in Christchurch which we are due to visit on 8^th March. It seems likely that we will now not go there. The Captain announced that P and O are considering the options and are seeking information from Christchurch before making a decision. It would seem wrong to me to go there. They have enough to do without 1800 tourists arriving to look around and perhaps get in the way.

Today, we are sailing towards Noumea in New Caledonia. On the way we are passing through the Fijian Islands. We saw several and they are all similar in shape being long with high cliffs and surf showing along the bottom to indicate a rocky coast. Although, they are high they seem to be flat on the top. A bit like Table Mountain which is in South Africa. It is a warm afternoon (i.e. about 30c) so we sat on the balcony and watched the islands go by.

Chris attended a talk on Aboriginal art and was so impressed she bought an original painting. We will need to get it framed when we get home. Tonight, we are giving the main restaurant a miss and going to a theme night up in the self-service area. It is a Tandoori night and we are going with our table companions Gordon and Janet.