Blackduck59

You did hit so many of the great spots to visit while you were here. And you had great weather. As I write this it is another rainy day. I haven't been in the castle for a while. I'm working my way up to it. Much of the recent restoration work, notably the recreated shutters and the woodwork in the kitchen restoration was completed by my friend and colleague Anthony Belzar. Tragically he passed last fall, much too young.

So my curious mind was confused by the sheep. On further review and after a google search it turns out they are Mouflon Sheep and were introduced to Spieden Island in the US San Juan Islands. We did a similar whale watching tour and didn't see the sheep, thank you for sparking my curiosity. Are using your phone for the pictures or an actual camera. You have made excellent use of the light.

Nice photos. Good idea to go during the week and avoiding the crowds. For others looking at Butchart Gardens, Harbour Air has announced a fly in service from downtown Vancouver direct to the Gardens. There is a dock right at the gardens. It's not cheap but it does give you the scenic flight there and back. In the series from the whale watching, there are some shots of Big Horn Sheep, where were they? They aren't native to the area, so that was a surprising image. It's nice that you spent several days here because one day as a port visit can't even scratch the surface. Did you get to have a look at Craigdarroch Castle? I'm looking forward to seeing where else you went on your Vancouver Island adventure.

It looks like we may or may not get the vehicle mentioned in the listing. I guess we will try for the best price from an agency we recognize. We may ask our TA for help with this. Trying to understand what size the vehicles listed are. Like I said I know the X Trail (Rogue here), the Rav4 and Kluger (Highlander here). The X Trail seems to be the most affordable. We haven't seen Mitsubishi among the marks listed on the sites we have visited.

After looking through your photos again, you walked right past a building we used to live in, 2 blocks east of Spinnakers (I used to have a personal mug hanging behind the bar there). The Angle of the photo of what looks like Celebrity Millennium suggests it was taken from Rainbow park where I spent many happy days as a teenager. Did you go to Butchart Gardens? In daylight and darkness? Afternoon is the best time to go, and stay for the lighted display in the dark. I'm looking forward to seeing and reading more, maybe you will go somewhere cool that we should see sometime.

Interesting photos, all very familiar. I'm quite happy you had great weather. That being said you were in Victoria and you didn't say hello? 🤔😉

I will throw my thoughts in. Having planned and cancelled 2 down under trips, and now planning our 3rd attempt, I've learned a few things. First keep in mind that Australia is about the same size as the United States, simply put vast, it's own continent. Right from the start we planned for a ne way cruise starting in Auckland and ending in Australia (first Melbourne and the second try was Sydney) This was scheduled to be followed by a road trip to explore OZ. Those first plans were for an 11 day (1st plan), then 14 day (2nd plan) cruise and about 3 weeks on land. Even with 5 weeks away from home it was just going to scratch the surface. When we planned the first 2 attempts we were constrained by time off work. For the 3rd try we are now retired so the time frame was more fluid. Originally we were doing our land portion after the cruise and flying home. It was a good plan when time was limited. As it turns out time is not an issue and we are doing the land part first before flying to Auckland to embark our cruise with several port stops in New Zealand and 3 in Australia. We will then stay on board for the transpacific voyage home. I can say if you ask the right questions here you will get lots of good advice from many helpful folks.

I'm going with Auschwitz, now a grim reminder for those who may forget

We are watching this, but not too closely. Our voyage isn't until next year, and a lot can happen in that time. Our itinerary shows 2 stops in New Caledonia and 2 in Vanuatu. I'm not sure whether we would be upset to miss New Caledonia. We have only glanced at the excursions and they didn't jump out at us. I think we will keep that on the back burner for the foreseeable future.

Cool, hopefully we can sort out a get together. Where is Diamond Princess repositioning to? I guess we will have to find something to do on the turn around day. They are going to make us get off and back on, Probably get lunch ashore because it will be a gong show on the ship.

Good thing we aren't driving in any Medieval towns on this trip😉.

Part of the problem for us is the models aren't necessarily identified as small, medium or large SUVs. We can identify some models even with different names. The Nissan XTrail is known as a Rogue here and we did have one of those in Hawaii. The Forester is of course the same here and we own one of those. The Rav 4 is the same here and we have looked at those, not that comfortable for us. The Kluger is known as a Highlander here and that is a larger vehicle. There is also a a ford product which seems to be a full size SUV. We will be spending many hours in this vehicle and comfort is important.

We haven't done a lot of international car rentals. We hired cars for 2 different periods on our European vacation. In France we had a Peugeot station wagon and in Germany a Mercedes sedan, both had diesel engines. These rentals were arranged by a friend who was a travel agent at the time. We rented cars both times we were in Hawaii but those were "American" market cars that we were familiar with.

So I just spent a bunch of time reading through the first year of this thread,, all looking for a previous post about Koalas. I finally found it about an hour ago. Thanks @vada_9 for your suggestion from 3 years ago. In the same post you mentioned the Sorento to Queenscliff Ferry. We will be taking that voyage, it will be interesting to experience that service. Also the Cape Otway Road for Koalas. I'm sure we will see Koalas at the zoo but it will be nice to see them in the wild, hopefully without a bunch of other people intent on bothering the little critters for a selfie. I'm told the best place to see a Roo is at the golf course. I guess that is like the deer and Canada Geese at the golf course here. The biggest concern while we may be wandering around enjoying the scenery or wildlife is the other deadly critters that would be unpleasant to meet. Snakes, deadly spiders and such like things. It was interesting reading back from that time. Now we have been able to arrange meetings with many of the regulars on this thread, all of whom we consider friends. With the new itinerary for the "Great Australian Meet and Greet tour". As luck would have it Mic & Rosie @MicCanberra won't be home when we are in Canberra but they will be in Sydney preparing to embark on their cruise while we are also there preparing to embark on the road trip, so we can get together there. We have been invited to visit Lyndon @lyndarra at Lake Macquarie and look forward to see him there and visiting for a few days. From there it's off to Penrith to spend a couple days with Neil & Tracey @mr walker. We are fortunate that Linda & Mario @Mareblu have offered to show us around Canberra and Bateman's Bay, hopefully Les @NSWP will be home and we can raise a glass together. From there we are back to being strangers in a strange land, hoping to find helpful and friendly strangers willing to help some hapless Canadians should we run amok. With good luck we will continue without incident seeing new and interesting places as we drive on towards Melbourne. We look forward to meeting Leigh and Rob @possum52 before we fly out to Auckland to embark on the long voyage home. Of course we will be back to Oz for 3 port stops during that voyage, one in Taz, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney;; hopefully we can get together with Julie and Rolf @OzKiwiJJ because we will have missed them on our first stop in Sydney, because they will just be finishing their cruise (on the ship Mic & Rosie will be boarding). Now that we know where we are going in Oz, I guess we think of some things to do while we are in these places.

We have just been looking at the Car Hire sites. There is such a variety of cars, and prices (for the same car) and of course cars I have never heard of. There is some SUV with an MG brand on it that looks like a Buick. I'm sure some posted prices are too good to be true. I'm concerned that we may choose a car that seems to match our needs only to find it is uncomfortable for us. At least a few of the cars we know the equivalent here.

Thanks Leigh, I'll drop a line when I get home. We are out and about. Getting petrol and some groceries, perhaps a spot of lunch.

Thanks Mic, it seems a good place for a pit stop. While I'm sure there are many great places to stay along the coast I'm not sure how important that is for us. I think we are just hoping we are able to see places less seen by visitors from overseas. I will have to go back to the beginning of this thread to find some of the points of interest that were mentioned. I distinctly recall someone posting about a place where koalas in the wild were quite common, and I think it was on our route at the time.

We really don't need a 4x4 it just so happens that the X Trail was the least expensive of the "SUV/CUV" category. I mentioned the Subaru because we own one and really enjoy it. I find most sedans to be squishy so the taller vehicle works better for me.

So we have our itinerary set. I won't mention dates on here just the "Route". We have 3 nights in Sydney, after which we will pick up the hire car for the "Great Australian Meet and Greet Tour". Driving north to Lake Macquarie to meet up with Lyndon and spend a few days with him. This is an area we wouldn't have gone to without his generous invitation. From there we will head southwest to Penrith to meet up with Neil and Tracey. We may have driven through the Blue Mountains on an earlier itinerary, but we are looking forward to spending a couple of days in the area and having a proper visit. From there it is off to Canberra to meet up with Linda and Mario for couple of days having a look at your Nation's Capital City and then continuing on with them to Bateman's Bay (Hopefully we will be able to meet up with Les if he is in the area). From there we will bid farewell to our friends for a while; we will then boldly move forward, strangers in a strange land. Hopefully we have planned our hops to make for a nice drive, stopping at points of interest along the way. We will check out Eden on the way to overnight in Orbost. From there our next overnight is in Morwell. Why those places you ask? Mic mentioned Orbost a while back, Morwell just seemed a place to make a stop. Hopefully we will find interesting places as we drive. I know someone mentioned a place somewhere in that stretch between Bateman's Bay and Philip Island that there was quite a few Koalas. This part of the drive is totally open with the only requirement being that we get checked in to the accommodation as booked (all reservations have free cancellation within about a week of check in) and most are pay at the Hotel. Some will take pre-payment about a week before check in. We have changed from 2 nights on Philip Island to 1 night. We will be sure to book the Penguin Parade well in advance to avoid disappointment. From Philip Island the next stop is Torquay via the Sorrento to Queenscliff ferry. We also be sure to book the ferry well in advance. After Torquay the next overnight is Port Campbell. We will then proceed back towards Melbourne Via Ballarat. We are booked in Craig's Royal Hotel for 2 nights. From there we will drop the hire car off in Melbourne and spend 3 nights there before we fly to Auckland to embark on our long voyage home. Hopefully we will be able to meet up with Leigh and Rob while we are there. Here I have written a novel, I will get back to shorter posts forthwith.

That is certainly in the spirit of the game. Scrub beach Botswana

Hey everyone. We are in planning mode and the last gap is a stop between Orbost and Philip Island. We are trying to keep the hops short so we can stop if something looks interesting and have a look around. It's almost down to throwing darts at a map for the last stop. We think maybe Traralgon or in the general area. We are also looking at car rentals, the difference in cost between agencies is astounding. Most I have heard of but some not, the most reasonable price we can find is from "Ace", we have never heard of it. The advertised price for the same vehicle (Nissan X Trail) is almost double at Budget. We need for the vehicle to be comfortable so econo boxes are not an option. There is a Subaru Forester listed but it would be over $4,000.00 CAD. We don't want to buy the car, just borrow it for a couple of weeks.

Why are members continuing to comment about "service" cutbacks on this thread. The topic has nothing to do with "service" levels. This is about a perceived slight that "compensation" was perhaps not adequate for missing a certain route for a sea day. There have been those who seem to think the bridge crew should lose their jobs. There are some who were on the cruise that felt the compensation offered was quite generous. There have also been some seasoned Mariners (actual trained ship's officers) who have tried to explain the circumstances that resulted in using the more traditional route for a ship scheduled for a port stop in Victoria and ending in Seattle. As others have mentioned perhaps the topic is ready to fade away, or at least stay on subject.

The BC Legislature has no say in the matter. Those waters are in the jurisdiction of the Government of Canada. As stated numerous times in this thread, the Canadian "inside passage" is used constantly during cruise season by ships of many cruise lines while sailing out and in from Vancouver.

Thank you for your valuable research @Navybikermom. On our Zaandam voyage I had my Painkillers mostly in Ocean Bar, and the Crow's Nest. We rarely had drinks at the Lido. My usual cocktail at home is a Caesar but away from Canada that is an unusual thing, and the Bloody Mary is not an acceptable substitute for me. Thanks again for reminding us all that the quality of the cocktail is directly proportional to the skill of the person mixing it.

We are so sorry to hear that this has put a damper on your active lifestyle Les. Best of luck with the ortho. Best wishes from the Great White North for a favourable result. Be well, live life full, Lyle & Lynn