Bob and Janet's Excellent Adventure: Everything in Australia wants to kill you

We cruised the Tasman Sea after we left Dunedin, New Zealand.

A little humorous bit that I forgot to mention on the Dunedin post-

Crew members get little time off and have to make the most of their few hours ashore. We generally see them boarding the ship with armfuls of bags. In Dunedin many of the Indonesian young men and women piled on the shuttle bus back to the ship with bags from the Cadbury factory. Dunedin is the world headquarters for Cadbury candy. I had stopped at the factory myself and managed to walk out without spending a dime, but I know there were some good deals. For example: 4 big bars/$10NZ. I think our cabin steward spent $200NZ-about $145. We’ll be at Indonesian ports from 2/23 to 2/26 where they will probably hand off the goodies to their families. The trick will be to keep it all from melting into a gooey mess in these temperatures.)

We cruised the Tasman Sea for three days. This was rough. Many people kept to their cabins. We were both okay but weren’t able to keep up with our daily walking routines. There’s no way we could have set foot on the walking deck. Even walking the inside decks or the treadmills was a challenge. During the first day there were several huge bangs, sounding like we must have hit something. We’re told it was just the sound of waves hitting, some 25 feet. Seasoned crew members tell us that’s nothing. We later learned that our friends who have the big suite at the bow suffered some damage. The TV wall above their bathtub fell over into the tub. Furniture moved across the floor and dumped anything that wasn't nailed down. In our mid-ship cabin we managed to sleep without falling out of bed.

There were plenty of activities during the three sea days. First- a Super Bowl party on the big screen on the pool deck. We staked out lounges early in the day and had a comfortable view for the game, including popcorn, nachos, wings, etc. etc. The Eagles fans seemed to outnumber the Patriots fans, so a good outcome.

Ninety-nine percent of Australia's population lives along its coasts. The interior is VERY sparsely populated. Melbourne and Sydney are about the same size. They both wanted to be the country's capital, so to be fair Canberra is the capital, about halfway between the two.

Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria. It's called the world's most livable city. I don't know who calls it that. Probably the people who live there. I did enjoy it, though. Our bus trip was very comprehensive. Although, I came away with the impression that Melbourne is sprawling. We drove through many different neighborhoods, all connected by what appears to be a good public transport system. Melbourne has retained the cable car system from bygone years, whereas Sydney, for example, tore its out years ago, is now realizing the mistake and is constructing a light rail system.

Chinatown

Residential architecture

I enjoyed seeing the old residential neighborhoods. There’s a lot of ironwork on the facades. I learned that the iron came over in the ships from England as ballast and was fabricated into the fancy grillwork that is seen throughout the city on the preserved buildings.

We stopped first at Fitzroy Gardens. We had some time to stroll around before moving on. At Fitzroy is Captain Cook’s cottage home. Only part of it was moved from England to be reconstructed here.

Captain Bob's cottage

In our travels through the city we came across a checkpoint where police were randomly administering breathalyzer tests. Bob was aghast that this was allowed without probable cause.