Dave’s Trip To, Around and Into Australia, Sept. 26 – Nov. 23, 2016

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 9, Albany (Cont.)

 

 

After the wind farm, we drove back through the city and out to the countryside to visit two wineries. First was Montgomery’s Hill winery, where we tasted several white and red wines, and had the opportunity to buy bottles if we wanted. Here is a photo of the vines:

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Wignall’s winery. Because we were running behind schedule, we only had 20 minutes there. The owner described his offerings, and we went through in lines to get samples, returning to the end of the line for the next one. Again, there were bottles for sale. Here is a photo of the gaggle inside the tasting room, and of the wines on offer:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then returned directly to the ship. On our tour, we did drive by some sights of the city, and I got photos of two through the bus window. One was a replica of the brigantine Amity, which brought the first settlers to Albany on Christmas Day 1826:

 

 

 

 

There were several places where large rocks were on the ground, with no apparent to us cause – maybe harder rocks that were not eroded over time or something. One of them our guide said was a landmark of Albany and was called Dog Rock. It is easy to see why it is called that:

 

 

 

 

The excursion was marked with a symbol in the Journeys Ashore booklet that meant the onboard corkage fee is waived for one bottle of wine per person per tour on the HAL excursion. When we went aboard the ship after the tour, we took the wine we had purchased to a table, where a wine steward matched our cabin number with a list he had of those on the tour, and then put stickers on our purchased bottles to indicate that we did not have to pay corkage.

 

 

My impression of the excursion: Both DW and I thought this was kind of a schizophrenic tour, not certain of whether it was a sightseeing tour or a wine tasting tour. Most of the passengers took the excursion for the wine tasting, and were not happy that we had spent so much time at the sights and had to be rushed for the wine tasting. The tour was 3-1/2 hours long and our guide tried to keep to the schedule, but there was no reason it could not have been longer – we got back to the ship just after 2:30 and all on board was not until 5:30. I think HAL should either split the tour into two separate ones, one for sightseeing and one for wine, or just make it longer to allow for more time at the wineries.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 9, Albany (Cont.)

 

 

We got aboard in time to shower and make it to happy hour in the Crow’s Nest. At 5:30, we went in to dinner. Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

 

For starter, I asked for and received a triple order of the mussels, while DW had the chicken and wonton soup. For main, we both had the excellent chicken scaloppini, and for dessert we both had the chocolate cake.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 10, at sea

 

 

Today is the first of two sea days between Albany and Adelaide. Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 10, at sea (Cont.)

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 10, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

We’ve had a lazy day at sea. DW attended the presentation on celestial navigation, and we had lunch, and read books, and generally enjoyed the day. We changed to Gala night clothing and then went to happy hour in the Crow’s Nest at 4, and then to dinner at 5:30.

 

Here is the combined MDR dinner and dessert menu:

 

 

 

 

DW had the fruit plate, and I had the bay shrimp for starter. For main, she had the beef Wellington and I had the duck (excellent, with crispy skin). For dessert, she had the vanilla soufflé while I opted for the tiramisu (translation from Italian: pick me up). It was moist and wonderful.

 

We set the clocks forward an hour last night, and are scheduled to do so again tonight. If I have it figured right (not at all a safe assumption), we still have to go ahead another 30 minutes tomorrow night … if South Australia is on daylight saving, which I think they are, based on the posts earlier on the blog from CC’ers from Australia. In any case, we are moving time zones quickly again.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[kura]

Yes, a further 30minutes for S.A time. Not sure what you are going to do in Adelaide, but it will be busy in the city as it is the annual Christmas Pageant! Lots of children in the city.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am so jealous of all those places you are visiting and seeing.

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 11, at sea

 

 

Another sea day before Adelaide. We plan to attend the ship’s Remembrance Day service at 10:45, but don’t have any other specific plans. Here are the first four pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 11, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 11, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

We have enjoyed the days at sea, but I realize being lazy does not make for riveting blog narrative. So, I have a few more photos of the ship to share, a mixture of locations. First, here is a photo of the atrium:

 

 

 

 

The Showroom at Sea:

 

 

 

 

The tennis court topside:

 

 

 

 

A couple of elevator lobbies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 11, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Another lazy day of lounging about, reading books, enjoying the quiet unhurried pace of a day at sea. We are coming to enjoy them more and more.

 

We did go see bartender Joey and our bar stool mates at the Crow’s Nest happy hour, and then went in to dinner. Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

DW and I each had the same dinner again; for starter it was the Greek meatball soup. For main, we both had the prime rib. I realize we are partial to beef, but they have had lamb in one sort or another pretty much every night. I understand that Australian (and New Zealand) lamb is superlative, and I suppose they are serving what a lot of people want. But, it’s beef for us. And chocolate – for dessert, we both had the chocolate mousse in the chocolate cup.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[kazu]

Your live thread is just SO good Dave. Thanks so much :)

 

I really like your evaluation of the HAL tours too. That's a big help to many who would be contemplating any of these ports.

 

Just a joy to follow along with :)

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide

 

 

Today, we are in Adelaide, South Australia. As we approach the port, there is a 27 knot wind from the northwest, and the temperature is 15C/59F. The forecast is for rain showers. So, we are taking jackets for our trip to the Barossa Valley to visit four wineries. It is an all-day tour, leaving at 9 a.m.

 

Here are the first four pages of today’s On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the On Location:

 

 

 

 

Here are the Explorer pages about Adelaide:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am glad to see that the stupid little tables in the show lounge are gone.

[madda]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful cruise and welcome to Adelaide, sorry about the weather. My husband and I will be on the Maasdam doing a circumnavigation of Australia in Oct/Nov 2017 - we thought it was about time that we explored our country's beautiful coastline. This will be our 11th cruise with HAL and have enjoyed every one of them.

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide (Cont.)

 

 

We arrived back aboard just after 5 p.m. from our wine tasting tour in the Barossa valley – I will post more about it tomorrow, but the short version: overall excellent, and a much more enjoyable organization of a wine tour than the rushed one we did in Albany.

 

We did not feel like rushing about to try to get to our 5:30 fixed dining time (we had already alerted the MDR stewards and wine steward we would not be there), so we went instead to the Lido for a light dinner. But, I was able to scan the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

The captain came on the announcement system and said that, because of wind and weather conditions, we were staying in port Adelaide until 3 a.m. tomorrow, when the winds are expected to come about and slacken, allowing us to leave and head quickly to Kangaroo Island, where he hoped we would arrive nearly on time and where he expected to get a lee enough to allow safe tendering. Some of us are skeptical that we will actually make the port call in Pennashaw tomorrow, and probably would have preferred spending another day in Adelaide instead. But, perhaps the port is expecting another ship to dock where we are and we can’t stay.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide (Cont.)

 

 

I’m backtracking a bit in the blog timeline to describe our ship’s excursion “Wine Tasting in the Barossa Valley.” We left at about 9 a.m. There were about 60 of us, but they split us into two buses, so we could do different itineraries and not crowd any one place. We visited three wineries, not four, but we did stop at a different place for lunch, with wine of course. We visited two wineries, then had lunch and visited a third winery before heading back to the ship. I will go out of the actual timeline a bit and describe the winery visits as a section, and then talk about lunch and the valley.

 

Our bus drove about 1-1/2 hours, bypassing downtown Adelaide, into the Barossa Valley to our first visit, to the Seppeltsfield Winery. Here is a photo of the outside of the tasting building:

 

 

 

 

We were led past the normal tasting area to a private cellar, where we tasted three table wines and two fortified ones. Here is a photo of the private tasting:

 

 

 

 

The first wine was a medium white, called Vermentino. This was followed by a light red Grenache and a full-bodied Shiraz. Then followed two fortified wines, a tawny port and a Tokay. We had the opportunity to buy the tasted wines or others made by the winery, and I got a bottle of the excellent Shiraz for $38 (Aus – all prices are in Aus $). For reference, the Vermentino was being sold for $22. I paid for the Shiraz at one of the cashiers in the main tasting room, and then collected my bottle at a collection station next the café, by the parking lots. The winery has been in operation since the 1851, and has since the 1870s been putting away a barrel of port each year and then opening it a century later. So, we could have bought bottles of 100-year-old port for a figure I forget but pretty substantial. I don’t think anyone on our bus bought the century port, but mine was not the only bottle coming aboard.

 

 

Our next stop was another small winery, Saltram, established in 1859. Here is a photo of a house on the grounds:

 

 

 

 

At Saltram’s, we sampled five wines: a sparkling chardonnay, a quite dry Reisling, a lght Grenache, a full-bodied Shiraz and a tawny port. Again, bottles were for sale, and the prices were somewhat less than Seppeltsfield, and more people bought bottles. I got a quite good Shiraz for $23.99, which was cheaper than the previous purchase, but also not quite as excellent, although still of high quality. The Riesling sold for $18.39.

 

 

Our third winery stop, in the afternoon after lunch, was the Jacob’s Creek winery, also established in 1851. It originally was on the banks of Jacob’s Creek, and that is the location of the visitor centre/tasting rooms/restaurant, but the main winery moved to nearby Rowland Flat. Jacob’s Creek is a large commercial operation that exports a lot to the U.K. and the U.S.; I had actually seen it in the U.S. and have tried it before.

 

The visitor center was large, and it had vines of many different grape varieties just outside. But, it being early spring, the grapes have just started, so we were unable to see differences in the mature grapes themselves. I did take a photo of working vine fields nearby:

 

 

 

 

 

We were given a bit of history of the winery at the front of the center, and then went to taste wine. Again, we were led past the normal tasting area, to the back of the restaurant to a private group tasting area:

 

 

 

 

 

Again, we tasted five wines. First was a sparkling prosecco, which if I heard correctly was a blend of varietals. Second was a quite dry Riesling, followed by a crisp sauvignon blanc. Then came a rose, which they called Barose, for the Barossa valley. Finally, they gave us samples of Double Barrel Barossa Shiraz. The parent company of Jacob’s Creek owns Chivas Regal, and they have gotten whiskey barrels from that branch of the company to age their Shiraz in, giving it as somewhat different flavor. The Shiraz was not bad, but I preferred the other wineries’ Shiraz wines. As we had bought two bottles previously, the limit to bring aboard without corkage fee (one per person on the tour) we did not purchase wine at Jacob’s Creek. The Double Barrel Shiraz sold for $25 a bottle, and the sauvignon blanc sold for $15.

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

Edited November 13, 2016 by RetiredMustang

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide (Cont.)

 

 

Shortly after we set out from the port, our guide circulated a menu and asked us to make our choices for lunch, which he could phone ahead to restaurant so our meals would be ready when we arrived. We had expected something of the sort, but were surprised by the large number of choices:

 

- Bratwurst with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and vegetables (this area was settled by Germans)

- Kangaroo and Shiraz pie with mashed potatoes

- Beer-battered barramundi with tartar sauce, fries and small side salad

- Thai chicken salad

- Salt and pepper squid, with jasmine rice and a side salad

- Roast vegetable risotto topped with brie

- Slow-roasted lamb shank with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables

 

The brats, squid and risotto were marked as gluten-free.

 

 

After visiting the Saltram winery, we drove for a while to a large building marked with the signs South Australian Company Store and the Company Kitchen. Here is a photo of the outside:

 

 

 

 

The other bus load of our tour were already seated at long tables inside, and we were led to the covered porch that can be seen in the photo above, where there were other long tables set for us.

 

 

The first thing brought was a board of appetizers, and small samples of wines. By the time I thought to get a photo, mine was mostly gone, but I did get a photo of the descriptive menu:

 

 

 

 

 

All the appetizers were excellent, as were the wines. Wait staff brought out the dishes and shouted “lamb” or “Thai salad” or whatever, and we raised our hands to be served what we had ordered. I had ordered the fish and chips and DW had ordered the brats. Here are photos of our dishes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the portions were generous. My fish was firm and moist and flavorful, and DW reported the brats to be very tasty; although she would have preferred kaese-spaetzle (basically, German mac and cheese) to the mashed potatoes, she understood that it might be kind of a specialty even in German-settled areas of the valley.

 

 

Wine stewards also came round with bottles of the sauvignon blanc or the Shiraz to pour into our wine glasses; hey were full-size or a bit more pours, not the small tastings. Most of our table chose the Shiraz, which again was excellent. The Barossa valley is famous for its Shiraz wines.

 

 

After lunch, we had a few minutes to wander the grounds, and I took a photo of vineyards and hills:

 

 

 

 

Even though the weather cleared a bit now and then, it was still unsettled with clouds and rain showers now and then.

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 12, Adelaide (Cont.)

 

 

After lunch, we drove to a memorial to the pioneers of the valley, which also had a fine lookout, where we were able to see a lot of the rich, verdant valley. Here is a photo of the pioneer monument:

 

 

 

 

And, here are photos of the valley, including one of the main town in the valley, Tanunda:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting the Jacob’s Creek winery, we drove through some of the other towns in the valley, including Lyndoch, Gawler, and the original town settled by the Germans, Bethany, where the oldest vineyard in the valley is still producing from original vines 170 years later. Here is a photo of those ancient vines:

 

 

 

 

We arrived back at the ship just about on time, at about 5 p.m.

 

 

My assessment of the excursion: Excellent! Our guide Peter and driver Steve were among the best we have encountered on this cruise, and we really enjoyed the day with them. The lunch was more and better than we anticipated, and the winery visits were in smaller groups and unhurried. We really could take time to taste the wine, and ask questions of the vintners. We never felt rushed nor the other extreme, bored – it was a very entertaining day (the wine may have helped the mood :D). It is focused of course on eonophiles, but the countryside in and of itself is worth a visit.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 13, at sea

 

 

Today, we were supposed to have anchored off Kangaroo Island and tendered ashore to Penneshaw. We watched our approach from the Crow’s Nest and thought we probably would not actually make it ashore, as the winds and seas we thought were too rough. We had booked an early excursion, and went as directed to the show at 7:30 and were told by the shore excursions staff to come back at 8. We went back to the Crow’s Nest to watch some more. A few minutes before 8, the captain came on and said the weather was too rough, and forecast to get higher winds and seas as the day went on, so he was cancelling the port call, and we would sail about in the area, and sail out towards Tasmania later in the day.

 

 

The cruise staff quickly put together more activities and re-issued a revised On Location. Attached are the first four pages of this revised version:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in the next post,

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 13, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

Here are the other two pages of the revised On Location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though we did not use them, I thought some of you might like to see the Explorer pages for Penneshaw:

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later,

Dave

Edited November 13, 2016 by RetiredMustang

[RetiredMustang]

Nov. 13, at sea (Cont.)

 

 

We did very little today, except watch the weather become windier and progressively suckier. We went north for a good while, and the captain warned us we would turn about 11 a.m. and head south. But, that meant we would have 40-45 knot winds on the beam, which combined with the turn would result in a quite large list to starboard, so hang on! It was actually enjoyable to this old Sailor, feeling like I was really at sea again, but I’m sure some were not as enthusiastic. We then tracked south for a while, and possibly tacked here and there, but I wasn’t really paying close attention. But, there was a considerable swell and high winds all day.

 

We went to happy hour in the Crow’s Nest, and noticed that the sun had come out more, but the swell was still high and the wind was still howling. The captain said earlier we were between the low pressure cell that had been over us in Adelaide, and a high pressure cell building in from the west, which meant very high winds in the pressure gradient. We hope to have the high pressure come in slowly over us as we head across to Tasmania tomorrow, and certainly hope for good weather in Burnie.

 

One thing I can pass on to you – I have heard from multiple sources that, starting with the cruise out of Sydney to New Zealand, the cost of the second drink at happy hour will rise to two dollars. The sources (bartenders) said that the “any drink eligible” at happy hour, in conjunction with the new two-dollar add-on, would soon move fleet-side. So, heads up.

 

After happy hour, we went to dinner. Here are the MDR dinner and dessert menus:

 

 

 

 

I was happy to find an Indonesian dish on the menu – bami goreng (basically, Indonesian spicy tagliatelle primavera) with chicken satay. Neither Ayep nor the menu made any mention of sambal … But, I asked for and got a second krupuk (prawn cracker), plus the one from DW, so I was a happy camper, even if the top of my bald head was sweating, much to the amusement of Ayep.

 

DW started with the fruit and I with the fish chowder. As I wrote above, we had the bami goreng for main dish. DW had the cherry pavlova for dessert, and I had the vanilla ice cream.

 

 

More later,

Dave

[KirkNC]

Too bad you missed Kangaroo Island, it is a fantastic place to visit.

 

I guess your HH news could be worse, they could do away with it all together. Does seem kind of nickel and dimey (not sure thats a word) though.

[kazu]

Great pics Dave. Thanks for the heads up on Happy Hour.

 

It's been a $1 for a long time (as long as I can remember), so, I guess it makes sense since drinks have gone up since.