and so it begins....Dec/Jan Circumnavigation of Australia on Regatta

[cbb]

More details later but it is not brunch today, but we're having Christmas dinner with 3 other couples in the MDR and rumor has it that there is both turkey AND goose....aussies, canadians, and americans on board should ALL be able to find something to their liking!

 

Disembarking in 45 minutes in Cairns so off to pack a little back pack in case we got swim at Palm Cove. We've heard the stinger nets have NOT been strung yet, so we may not swim after all.

 

According to the Captain's announcements a few minutes ago, "Santa" sounds like he's buying down at the crew bar...rejoicing among the room attendants!!! He was quite complimentary of their dedication and hard work.

 

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!!

[palakika]

Sounds like you will have a lovely Christmas dinner. When you say stringer nets at the beach are they to keep out those box jelly fish? Quite poisonous, I've heard. Lovely to be at the beach in or out of water.

[cbb]

"stinger nets" are exactly what you said....a safe place to swim--more to dunk oneself than to swim--that the box jelly fish can't get to.

 

At several places along the promenade in Palm Cove were red tall containers that had the first aid "cross" on it and there were bottles of a "vinegar" product meant to neutralize the sting.

 

Fortunately we did NOT need to test the product!

 

Palm Cove is a lovely shady retreat from the heat with several beachy/Victorian- looking hotels --lots of gingerbread trim and verandas as well as places to park an RV or small pop-up trailer and camp out across the street from the beach.

 

. Royal Poinciana trees are in bloom--you may know them as Flame trees or Christmas trees and they are beautiful. From living in Florida for so many years I recognized ixora, golden shower, plumeria, and a wide variety of tropical trees--felt right at home!

 

Very pretty and serene place and I'm so glad we got to see it--thanks to Peter and Jennie! Good on ya!

[palakika]

Love those trees and plants as we grew up with them in Hawaii. My favorite is the deep yellow plumeria..So fragrant nd make great leis. So glad you didn't have to tangle with the box jelly fish. Did some folks go to the great barrier reef?

[roothy123]

Thinking seriously of taking an Australia/New Zealand cruise, but know nothing about either place, so I'm hoping to learn something from this thread!

[JoePDX]

Have just caught up on your Australia adventures.....now that the Holiday festivities are over. As always, your descriptions are wonderful and so positive. Also checked on Dr. Dave's pictures. Australia is still on our list... :D

 

Keep having fun! We are at our cabin today, snow on the ground and a cold 26F this morning..... Portland rarely gets a White Christmas (20% chance according to NWS) so it was a treat.

 

Joe

Edited December 26, 2017 by JoePDX

[cbb]

Joe and Roothy, I highly recommend a visit to Australia and New Zealand. Both are incredible countries and the people who live there are among the most warm and welcoming I've ever met. Fly in early if you can. If you cruise, fly into Sydney or Brisbane and then fly to Alice Springs and Uluru. Jet lag from the US/Canada can be rough!

 

2nd Day in Cairns (pronounced "cans"....or sometimes you hear "cahns")

 

Yesterday's first stop -- about 75k from the ship--was at Mossman Gorge which is in Daintree National Park. We rode the little shuttle bus to the round-about and walked to the suspension bridge. Even Dave could walk on it, but beware if there are people on it who delight in bouncing on it!

 

Picture huge boulders with cascades of water bouncing over them as it heads downhill towards the sea. Little pools allow people to swim but there were signs warning everyone not to bathe--didn't stop them.

 

The Daintree is a tropical rain forest so if you have been in any of the tropics around the world you will recognize many of the same plants with vines everywhere--think jungle!!!

 

Yes, it was hot when we left the ship but by the time we reached the national park it was much cooler and we were up some in altitude so we were all very comfortable.

 

From there we continued towards the absolutely wonderful ferry over the Daintree River on our way to Cape Tribulation.

 

Cape Tribulation received its name in June 1770 by Lt James Cook. His ship, the "Endeavour" struck a reef, later ran aground, was repaired, and refloated and Cook recorded "here begun all our troubles."

 

As we followed the curvy road we could catch glimpses of the most amazing blue waters and stunning beaches which had no one on them and since the road traced the coastline, the beaches showed us bays and coves or long straight stretches of white sand with no one on them.

 

Cathi swooned over the water and Bruce wondered if it didn't drive people crazy to be on those beaches and be unable to go in because of the stingers.

 

The two laned road is well sealed and was a lovely drive through "wet tropics" as road signs kept informing us.

 

Arriving at the ferry we were 3rd in line so were assured that we would be able to make the 5 minute crossing. The ferry runs pretty much constantly and holds about 20 cars.

 

We had lunch at the Turtle Rock Cafe which was toasties and BLTS with cokes and ginger beer. Food was good but I wouldn't call it 'fast' food. Locally popular but really only 1 guy on the grill made for 'slow' food!

 

Onward to the end of the road to what is described as "a little slice of paradise" and words fail....beautiful--yes, tropical--yes, stunning--yes. Just an amazingly beautiful little beach with about 10 of us there so taking pictures without strangers in them was easy to do. The sand literally sparkled and was very finely grained.

 

Back on the road to begin our return to the ship of about 100K. Regatta was to leave port at 11:00pm so we knew we had plenty of time, barring car problems, to make it back in plenty of time.

 

We stopped at a couple of scenic views that Dave had way-pointed on the GPS that morning so we were able to easily stop on our return trip.

 

When we attempted to return the car to Avis in Cairns around 5:30 we discovered that they had closed the office early for Boxing Day.

 

A quick call to the office by Jennie assured her and Peter that they could leave the car parked out front and drop all info and keys into the "return keys after hours" box despite the original instructions. All was well!

 

What a glorious day we had with Jennie and Peter who showed us how beautiful their country is. Cathi and Bruce and Jennie and Peter are a delight to travel with and we are so fortunate that we are having this adventure with them!

[palakika]

Sounds like a lovely day! Wonderful that you had an Aussie driver to keep you on the straight and narrow to the left hand side and could enjoy the sights with friends. Enjoyed Dr Dave's photos of Cairns and Christmas Day.

[cbb]

thanks palakika!

 

we're having a great time. We all meet at 5:15 or so in Horizons (after trivia) and enjoy an adult beverage and then go our separate ways for dinner

 

tonight we won 1st place in trivia; there was controversy over an answer but even if the other group had been awarded a point we still would have won. It got contentious today--not fun when that happens because we know those Big O points don't give us the keys to Fort Knox!!!

[palakika]

Really enjoyed Dr Dave's beautiful photos of the rainforest and driving up the coast. Cape Tribulation sounds very interesting as I am a Capt. James Cook fan. We've followed him around the south Pacific an Marina and Sirena. This year we'll be doing some similar ports on Insigna in May. Can't wait. Your posts and blogs make me want to be there right now instead of Bend, Ore where It's 23 degrees this am! Thanks for taking the time to take us along.

[JoePDX]

 

tonight we won 1st place in trivia; there was controversy over an answer but even if the other group had been awarded a point we still would have won. It got contentious today--not fun when that happens because we know those Big O points don't give us the keys to Fort Knox!!!

 

Congratulations on a First Place finish! On our 20 night cruise we only accomplished that once... :-)

 

Joe

[cbb]

Yeah, well we sucked tonight! Didn't finish in the points...several answers were just a little wrong...like Henry II instead of Henry IV and "yes, no, goodbye" instead of "yes, no, maybe" (what's on a ouija board) ...so yeah, we sucked! Oh well...

[palakika]

Oh well in the words of that famous wit Scalett O'hara...tomorrow is another day!

[cbb]

Good morning from Port Moresby, PNG. We're definitely in the tropics as it is green pretty much everywhere! Another WWII shorex coming this afternoon.

 

Yesterday in Alotau PNG we were to have left the ship for a WWII shorex (OLife!) early in the morning but we received a note on the door that it had been rescheduled for 12:50 in the afternoon and would only be 2 hrs instead of 4 because of sail away.

 

Since we decided we wanted to explore the port a little, we took off walking toward a red tin building we saw at the end of the curve from where we were docked. It was an extremely hot walk and we were probably crazy to attempt it but we made it.

 

We discovered that the red tin building, although labeled a "hotel," appeared to be more of an open-air shelter with chain link fence around it, roofed, but was where some locals lived.

 

There were lots of little kids on blankets on the ground since there was no furniture. My old bones would have had trouble sleeping on the ground! A tiny convenience store was in one area.

 

My first impression of Alotau was of people carrying 10 liter plastic containers around. Some would disappear towards a small grocery store--perhaps to fill with water and the others were walking towards a gas station, perhaps they were getting petrol...we don't know for sure but everybody seemed very busy!

 

Everyone was extremely outgoing and polite. The kids love to have us wave at them and their little faces just opened up when we said "Hi" or "Bye bye" with lots of waving.

 

In a large outdoor area an open- air church service was going on, children were playing something that resembled cricket and others were listening to broadcast music . Noisy, happy, and stress free morning for the locals....for us....just plain ol' hot!

 

 

We lasted an hour before returning to the ship for a shower, complete change of clothes which we hung up to dry and then lunch in Terrace where we ate lots of salads, protein, fruit, and water, water, water! Felt lots better!

 

There was a shuttle that O provided but we didn't use it. I heard it took people to a hotel where there was also a market.

 

Arriving early at the Lounge awaiting disembarkation we were told our shorex was to be the same one offered in the morning so several passengers bailed out.

 

We stuck with it and finally at 1:30 we were called to the vans. We had to wait for the drivers to refuel and have lunch. Destination Services and Corporate in Miami had been busy all night trying to arrange for these tours and buses-- not all the local drivers wanted to participate.

 

Despite being told the shorex was to be a repeat of the one offered in the morning, 3 vans of us did do an abbreviated tour of WWII stops for which we were very appreciative.

 

We had also been told that our guides weren't trained to be guides but I was certainly happy with ours. The two men had studied the history of their home and were able to give us the story of the arrival of the Australians and the American Construction Battalion (Seabees!) on Alotau to stop the Japanese expansion towards Australia.

 

Our guides told us Regatta was the last cruise ship for 2017 but that they hoped for 30 P&O ships next year. Evidently it was Oceania and P&O this year.

 

We were taken to 3 different WWII spots--both from Aussie & US participation, which are nicely cared for, and Runway #3 constructed by the Seabees is still used today as are the roads the US Engineers built.

 

Lastly we were taken to a little local market but there was very little push by them to buy--very refreshing from other markets we had been to on other cruises! Haggling did occur....successfully. I did acquire a fridge magnet from Cathi Wallis' husband Bruce for the price of a beer at Horizons!

 

Quick shower upon our return to the ship (2nd one of the day)and off to Trivia where we totally sucked! We retired to Horizons with our tails between our legs and revived our spirits with ...some spirits (groan, I know!)

 

The sail away was absolutely stunning...little dots of islands all through the Coral Sea with an orange sunset approaching......life is good.

[JoePDX]

Yeah, well we sucked tonight! Didn't finish in the points...several answers were just a little wrong...like Henry II instead of Henry IV and "yes, no, goodbye" instead of "yes, no, maybe" (what's on a ouija board) ...so yeah, we sucked! Oh well...

 

A little trivia about me (for when the question is asked!!! LOL), Henry VII is my 23rd great grandfather. :cool: Better luck tomorrow!

 

Joe

[palakika]

Joe. Sounds like you've been looking at Ancestry.com. cbb.. interesting info about Seabees in PNG. My Dr. Dave's father was a Seabee in the south Pacific during WWII. He was stationed on Tinian and helped build the runway that the Enola Gay took off from with The Bomb. Sounds sort of hot there.

[Chris86]

 

Our guides told us Regatta was the last cruise ship for 2017 but that they hoped for 30 P&O ships next year. Evidently it was Oceania and P&O this year.

 

 

I was on a PNG cruise earlier this year so can confirm Crystal also visited. On my visit they mentioned many cruise lines that recently visited. I believe Costa was prior to our visit.

 

I assume P&O would be their biggest customer as they offer numerous 7 night sailings out of Cairns. Princess is another line offering PNG several times a year

 

PNG is a gorgeous destination. Our highlights were Rabaul and the smaller traditional islands, Amazing to see locals transporting between islands in traditional canoes/ boats

[Paulchili]

I was on a PNG cruise earlier this year so can confirm Crystal also visited. On my visit they mentioned many cruise lines that recently visited. I believe Costa was prior to our visit.

 

I assume P&O would be their biggest customer as they offer numerous 7 night sailings out of Cairns. Princess is another line offering PNG several times a year

 

PNG is a gorgeous destination. Our highlights were Rabaul and the smaller traditional islands, Amazing to see locals transporting between islands in traditional canoes/ boats

 

Earlier this year we were on an P&O Australia 14 day cruise to 7 ports in PNG roundtrip from Brisbane.

The highlights were the cultural shows in Alotau and especially in Madang where some dozen or more different tribes performed in their traditional costumes - a truly unique experience.

[cbb]

forgive me all.....i was just quoting our guide as to the lines that had visited Alotau...i wasn't attempting a list of all the cruiselines that had visited.

 

I know that Princess had visited and had heard that it was on Crystal's itinerary.....so sorry about not including all the lines!

 

Palakika--i think i mentioned that i taught a WWII semester class for high school seniors and I showed a lot of photos in my presentations because visuals are a great way of showing what I'm saying!

 

One of the pictures I used was of the Seabees constructing the runway at Tinian. Huge palm trees were being felled by earth movers ---pretty amazing.

 

I'd always remind my kids that most of the people they saw in the pictures were their age. One of my favorites blurted out...."mz b...i'm not that grown up to do something like that!"

[palakika]

Very interesting about your WWII class and the photo of Tinian. Dave's father was an electrician so wasn't driving the bulldozer. Apparently he brought back some very dramatic photos of the aftermath of battles on those south sea islands. I guess Seabees went in after the Marines. Love your student's comment about the youth and abilities of those involved in the war.

[ORV]

My Father also was a Seabee in the SP. He was at Tianian also. I think he was around 18 or 19

[cbb]

I always think how amazing it was that the guys were old enough to be drafted, to fight, and to die, for their country but in most places in the US they were too young to have a beer or to vote for their Commander in Chief.

 

Thank heavens we changed that....or at least the voting part.

[Sea42]

I always think how amazing it was that the guys were old enough to be drafted, to fight, and to die, for their country but in most places in the US they were too young to have a beer or to vote for their Commander in Chief.

 

Thank heavens we changed that....or at least the voting part.

I thought the drinking age was 18 until the early 1980's? Maybe that was just in WI?

[cbb]

Arrived in Port Moresby yesterday at 8am and up on 10 taking pictures I determined that....yes....it was hot! Lots of shuttle buses to take people into town but later reports said it wasn't really worth it.

 

All of my research, as well as written and oral warnings here on ship, indicated that perhaps Port M wasn't the safest place to wander around because of theft. We were told not to wear expensive watches or jewelry off the ship.

 

After lunch we went to Horizons to get the tickets to board our vans. Cathi Wallis & Bruce went as well and off we went in our 18 passenger van (filled) to the Kokoda Track. There were 2 vans making this trip.

 

Kokoda Track is the path Australian soldiers hiked across the Owen Stanley Mt Range to stop the Japanese invasion of the island. Had the Japanese been successful in establishing permanent bases there, northern Australia and its harbors were then in their cross-hairs.

 

From July-November, 1942 Australian militia (those not drafted into the Army) carved a 100 mile dirt path up and down a series of mountains through mud and almost impenetrable jungles to confront the Japanese who had landed in the northern part of the island.

 

Many of the mountains were more than 8000 ft in height which meant 8000 ft back down before attempting the mountain next in line.

 

A series of battles with the Japanese took place and it is estimated that less than 1000 Aussies fought more than 5500 Japanese.

 

Accompanying them every step of the way were men from PNG who served as guides, and supply and stretcher carriers for the Australians. They became known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.

 

Throughout all of this, the men lacked insect repellent, nothing was waterproofed and they were in uniforms better suited for the North African Campaign. Food could not be heated because the tropical monsoons put out their fires.

 

They were periodically resupplied by air, but it's estimated that more than 1/2 of supplies were unusable because they had been pushed out of the airplane without parachutes to slow their fall.

 

In traveling more than 1 hr inland from port we were able to get a small idea of what the men faced. The road was the same one those men took in trucks to get to McDonald's Corner where they would then begin their 100+ mile hike.

 

This hike is considered to be very difficult even today but trekkers come to this area from all over the world to walk the Track.

 

After leaving McDonald's Corner we returned down the mountain to the Bomana War Cemetery where more than 3000 graves are and is a pilgrimage site for Australians who lost a loved one in WWII. More than 600 graves hold unidentified remains. The youngest buried there was 16; the oldest over 65.

 

From there we stopped at a couple of overlooks to appreciate the altitude and the green and it was at least 5 degrees cooler in the mountains!

 

Our last stop was a sculpture at the Remembrance Memorial of a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel supporting a severely wounded Australian soldier hobbling his way. Excellent memorial.

 

Dave and I were so glad that we had taken this shorex. We Americans know about Guadalcanal and know that the Australians were our allies in the Pacific Theater but most of us had never heard of the Kakoda Track and the unbelievable struggle and valor of the Australia Militia here in Papua New Guinea.

 

Well done Aussies!

[cbb]

We returned from our Kokoda shorex in time to shower, change, and high tail it for cold drinks in Horizons and met the rest of the Trivia group to hear about their adventures. Jennie & Peter took a cultural visit and enjoyed the children singing and dancing.

 

We dined in Toscana last night and I had the Lemon Veal Medallions which I always enjoy. Dave had Veal Marsala which he always orders. The menu has not changed for years but now one is presented with a menu of olive oils from which you can choose but the cart is still there!

 

We rarely stay for dessert but did burn off a few calories by descending the steps to Terrace to check out their desserts and succumbed. Hey....we had hiked the Kokoda Track and were needy.....well....actually walked less than 100 steps on it, but still.....