Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 17

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melsea
Senior Second Officer
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Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 17

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Post by melsea »

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 17

Day 53. At sea & half way through our voyage.

2nd March Evening Casual.

First thing this morning I visited the laundry on our floor. I arrived there at about 7.50 and it was already open and I had the last two machines for my two wash bags. As this was the first time I had used them I had to ask the one person that was there. It was none other than John who is the one that sits in Raffles and has a glass of red wine most days and often in the morning. He told me what was what and I was all set.
These are new machines and they take about 45 minutes if you don't have extra rinse switched on then it can take an hour. I had up and until now sent laundry to be done at the discounted price.
Today is also the day before we land at our first port of Australia. We only have three visits this time as this cruise has more of New Zealand ports.
Clocks to go back tonight.

Saw Julian Smith who plays the Saxophone but a smaller one of which I don't know the name of but he was really good.

Day 54. Melbourne, Victoria Australia. 8am - 6pm

3 March. Evening Casual
Clocks went back last night to GMT -11

Our first port in Australia.
Had breakfast in the Glass House. Left the ship at 10.15 to go into to town, waited a few minutes for a shuttle bus to arrive. Arrive in town at around 10.45am. I made my way to Flinders Station where I was to meet Gemma, the daughter of my second cousin. Unfortunately for whatever reason Gemma had not turned up which was a shame. Had I known she was not turning up I would have had more time to do other things but hey ho these things happen. I left the station at 11.45. While waiting there a camera crew turned up and filmed a young guy in a suit just walking a few paces. Not sure why he was doing this. I didn't stay around to find out.
I made my way up the street to find the post office which was marked on a map so it was easy to find. Once there I was able to post Kate's birthday card, she is my best friend back at home. I ended up using the self service machine which was a whole heaps quicker as by the time I had finished, the queue for the counter service was almost out the door of 20+ people. I then went into on of the shopping malls. While there my phone rang and it was Bill. We met up and had lunch at the food court of the mall I was in. We had Japanese. Two meals and one drink was only 17.50 A$. Afterwards Bill went his way and I continued to have a look through the various malls and towards where shops were going into a number of them and not buying anything. I did however find an art shop down what looked like an alley way which had all the way along it tables and chairs that belonged to various cafes and restaurants. The alley way led out to the main street where Flinders Sreet Station is so I turned left and headed towards where the shuttle buses were. I went via Federation Square which had cafes there too. Eventually I got to the shuttle bus pick up point. Didn't have to wait long and we were soon back on the ship.

Day 55. Burnie, Tasmania. Cloudy with sun & rain. 9am - 6pm.

4th March Evening casual.

Bill & I went ashore. Found a cafe where we had a couple of hot drinks and a hot cross bun.
I went off to look around the town and peruse the shops. I bought an art book to do small drawings. While I was in the shops it had rained and quite hard it seems but it wasn't long before it dried. I had reached where Bill was sat and he hadn't long been outside because he went inside when the rains came. Sat a couple of minutes with him when he had decided to go back to the ship. I walked with him to the bus and one came as we got to the bus stop. I continued on and made my way to the Burnie Art Gallery. There were two exhibitions, well actually there were 3. Two were of photography medium and the other one was of a few paintings. I looked around for a while as you couldn't really rush it especially if you wanted to read about each picture.
When I had finished there I started my way back via the boardwalk walk way up to the makers workshop building which is where the shuttle bus number 1 was and would have the best chance of getting a seat on a bus! The walk along the shore line became very windy and a few spots of rain fell but didn't actually rain fully. I took a few photos which was a bit of a challenge as it was very windy at times. Also it was beginning to feel rather cold too. It didn't take too long either as it was a short distance nothing was very far away in this small town. I went into the workshop and saw a number of skilled artist doing their specialise area of their art, ranging from jewellery, paper making, wood carvings, painting in different styles and mediums. I ended up buying two piece of jewellery; a pair of heart shaped glass earrings and a glass made pendant. I spoke with the lady who made the pendant and she makes it look so easy but of course a steady hand and concentration is needed to produce these items.
At just after 4pm I went outside to get the bus which arrive a few minutes later. When it arrived the wind really picked up and it started to rain, at first just a few spots but by the time I got onto the bus the rain was really coming down hard, we only just got on the bus in time. It fact by the time we got back to the ship the rain had gone and the sun was shining but there was still a blustery wind howling around us.

We went upstairs to the Horizon Buffet in the evening where the theme dinner was Thai.

Day 57. Sydney, NSW. Day 1. Overnight stay.

6th March

First day in this fabulous city. As there was a Carnival ship docked at the terminal we had to anchor just off ( Cremorne Point ) and use tenders to get ashore. We used a couple of our own plus two from another ship Sea Princess & 1 from the Australians, so in total we had 7. We finally set off & stepped ashore at 11am. It took longer than we thought it would but at least we were on Sydney land. We made our way to George Street where the Apple Store is situated. Once there we were able to start downloading a few things and update the various apps that we wanted to update. There were still quite a few updates to do but as I am not using those ones at present it seemed right only to update the ones I use regularly. At around quarter past one we both left the Apple Store and made our way to where we wanted to go. Bill was heading back to the ship so he could have a nap and something to eat. I headed to Westfield shopping centre where I had a little peruse but didn't buy anything. I went in search for something to eat and I ended up buying a really nice soft baguette roll, Tiger prawns, avocado, lettuce and a lime flower sauce. It was delicious, with it I bought a drink also. I then started to make my way towards the NSW Art Gallery which was free to go in to. They had some really lovely pieces and I was studying them and wondering how they painted certain effects and I noticed it was all down to the right colour to get the effect they perfected. I was there just over an hour. I use the galleries wifi. Once I finished there I then walked to Macquarie's Chair which is where I was able to see our ship anchored off in the harbour. At 5.15 I began my walk towards Darling Harbour where we were meeting up with David my cousin outside the IMAX cinema. I got there literally a couple of minutes after 6, Bill turned up 3 minutes later. It turned out that he walked virtually the same route I did to get to Darling Harbour. Having made contact with David we headed off to go for a drink first and have dinner afterwards. We ate at an Italian place which was not too busy and so we were able to choose our seats. I spotted an ideal place for us. Bill & I both had salads and they were delicious. David had a pasta dish. For dessert Bill & I shared one and it was a very unusual one. It was a pizza based dessert with Nutella topping with Walnuts. It was a lovely evening and it soon came to an end. We took the ferry back to Circular quays as it was quite a walk back and we both had a long day. As it turns out this was a good idea and we had few stops to go to before we reached our destination. Just as we left Darling Harbour there was a firework display which was in aid of the Margi Gras gay pride parade that was happening tomorrow. Just when we got off the boat and were just by the ship there was another firework display which was even longer than the one we had just seen at Darling Harbour.
By the time we got back on the ship we were definitely ready to sleep.
Tomorrow is the start of our fourth sector of our cruise!

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