Sweet walk, now pack, pack, pack!

Had a wonderful home cooked breakfast by Bev and Barry. After a lazy morning, we took a short but hot walk down Hyde Park, Saint Mary's Cathedral, the amazing Botanical Gardens, and finally the serpentine bayside walk to the opera house. We needed a bit of shade as the opera house is white ceramic tile and it reflects it's heat on you and me.  Tucked in the shade, against the glass, on the walkway we enjoyed lunch of PB&J with a stellar view. Here are some photos of our outing. Currently were packing and tweaking our load for tomorrow.

Saints Mary's cathedral. lite a candle for or other mother Shirely.

Key bridge

Key bridge and opera house

Financial building interior of backlit marble

Last full day in Sydney. Friday were off to New Zealand.

All coming to a tearful end here. Even tossed around the idea of staying another night. Here are some photos of Watson Bay, a bit off the tourist run. Love the kookaburra with its tail covering the web cam.

Featherdale animal park. Getting physical with Aussie animals

Had an amazing time at the park today touching, feeding, and photographing Australian animals. Here is a few snaps of our time there.  We were like a bunch of kids.

Sleeping Tasmanian devil. Most of the time this guy was running around in circles.

Smallest penguins in the world

We got to touch them. 18 hours of sleep and the it's eat, fight, and mate in that order!

Yah, I got into it to with the wallabies

Busted

Lucky for us our ship was not pulled over for excessive speed. 

More about the walk

We must have walked by thousands of school children out with their class on a beach art field trip. What became apparent was the lack of children who were seriously overweight. You had to really look for these 8-10 year olds who were even chunky as we say. Perhaps an insight is that Aussie food products are required to not only publish the amount of sugar in a product but the percentage of the daily requirement. Food producers here have successfully lobbyed this off our labels.

Good work Australia!  

Interactive art!

Club pool for laps with no sand

Getting real with poultry

Art sculpture made from bottle caps and zip ties

A few of many school kids

Beach art walk

Went for a beach walk from Bronte to famous Bondi beach. They were having an amazing outdoor sculpture exhibit complete with throngs of school children out on a field trip, hard youthful bodies, and tourist from everywhere. Here is one sculpture that was amazing. It was a circular steel sheet that was painted and a polished steel pole that took the reflection of the painting.

Sydney is our new home

Yesterday was our first full day in Sydney, Australia. What a vibrant and lively city. Our host Bev and Barry are amazing. They picked both of us up and took us to their lovely home in the suburbs of town. By afternoon we were in Darling Harbor and the circular quay enjoying water views at each step. That evening we ate at a local pub full of construction workers and young office workers seeking an escape. While we were walking, Bev warned us that it is Swooping Season here which means birds can swoop down on you in an effort to scare you from their hidden nest. They will at times make contact too. I guess we should be happy it is not Pooping Season. I am looking forward to another day full of laughs and swooping adventures.

From the ships crows nest

the whole gang

We are in France?

Today is our last island on our journey. We will miss our little room, all the friends we made and good food with no money to transact.  The internet on these island stops is pretty awful. Right now were sitting in an alley behind a cafe trying to hook up. Well I better get off the web before we get kicked off. I will post some photos on our last island visit. 

Apia Samoa Land of Two Seasons - Hot and Hotter

The best time to enjoy Apia is the first hour of each day. The coral reefs about a quarter of a mile out are continuously breaking, the hills hint of dull green and orange soil are crisp and inviting. Then an hour after that the Martian sun takes control and everything drips with heat and moisture. Everything on two legs and probably four legs move at a marsupial speed. Only the little African style buses run quickly with names like "Skippy" or "Queen Patsy".  They have a very simple schedule, they don't move until they are full.

We were going to cyber troll at the Internet cafe but the place was packed and everyone new was waiting to connect at $8 an hour. One couple was Skyping with family, stealing the bandwidth, and annoying the room especially as the conversation never left the "we're in Apia Samoa" phase. After a long walk we found an outside cafe that served $2.50 beers to bedraggled, hot cruisers and enjoyed conversation with tow Canadian sisters.  

So Long at Sea

Life aboard the ship these last 5 or so days has been an adventure. We have met so  many interesting people. Today we dined with an elderly couple who once lived right outside Downton Abbey. Their familes were "Strikers" which I believe means the poor folks who serve the castle in one way or the other.  They once returned to the village after moving to Canada and  promptly drove their rental car  right up to the castle entry way.  See those Canadians can have a wild streak.

The entertainment has really been fun if not on the quirky side.  We had a comedian come on stage that played the bag pipes. What a funny guy and we heard he was even funnier on the next showing due to a few too many well drinks.  Two nights ago we had a harmonica player who reminded us of Marco, if Marco was 70 years old with bottle cap glasses.

There have also been some really good speakers who have discussed outer space, the

islands, and the fish and whales that live out here. Now we're taking this on faith as we have seen little wildlife if you discount the bag pipe player.

Another weird event was when we crossed the equator.  They had an elaborate hazing for newby crew members that involved colored egg white bath, and begging the indulgence of King Neptune and his inner court.  The king offered us kind weather and good food after the new crew kissed the giant fish.

Tomorrow we hit Apia, home of Robert Louis Stevenson.  Gayle and I plan on waliking the town while being very careful with what we put in our mouth.  We were just given the warning sheet about food poisioning and any number of tropical malaise that we could fall victums of.  One item in particular is that the natives will open little markets with fruit and trinkets.  If you touch it, you've bought it and the price will be a mystery of negotiation. 

Our journey continues to Apia Samoa in a few hours. Had a fun filled dinner with two Aussie couples. I actually understood about 80% of what they said.

Here is a photo of us at one of the formal dinners with some new friends. Now we have to race back to the ship before the gangplank is raised. Gayle wants to dance on the Lido deck under the stars. 

Hawaii and Paradise Lost

 We finally made to Hawaii after a very busy sail.  I planned to read more but there is so much to do such as exercise, good food, lectures and so much more. I have attended several tech talks about windows 8 and digital photography. Amazingly on our second  day we ran into former neighbors Jim and Ally Bushman. They have so much fun and a fount of cruise knowledge.  I believe they have spent over 250 days on assorted cruises.

Yesterday we became mules for Alicia and nearly ended up stuck with 40lbs of ballast. Alicia one awesome young lady and friend just moved here from Sequim to start a new life as an Ultra Sound technician.  We offered to carry a bag for her on the ship so she could avoid shipping fees.

Well when we attempted to roll the Big Blue Bag off the ship the crew told us that that was not allowed until we got to Sydney.  Oh Poop! Apparently it would have to clear customs and that was not available at this port for us. We went back to our room and stared shoving as much as we could in our backpacks. We staggered back to the gang plank ready for another ugly scene but apparently if you have golf bags, huge backpacks, shopping sacks, it's all good.

So two trips, a rental car, and two bus rides later, we worked our magic. During the process we had a great time with Linda Lyon and Alicia attending a beach side concert, drinking cool ones, and looking lo shopping. Below is a photo of our room that we ow think of as home.