On the sea day following our departure from Sydney, we had the rockiest waters either of us had ever experienced, with gale-force winds and waves of 12 to 18 feet. I guess if I didn’t get seasick then, I don’t ever have to worry about it again! It was quite an adventure negotiating around the ship, grabbing for rails as the ship rocked, rolled, and pitched! We were amazed that the numerous people in walkers and wheelchairs managed to maneuver themselves through the corridors! We wondered if the rough waters were caused by the fact that we were swinging around the tip of Australia and moving from the Tasman Sea into the far southeastern corner of the Indian Ocean (and meaning we’ve now been in every ocean).
We saw little of the city of Melbourne itself, since we were doing yet another animal wildlife excursion. Our two tour guides Tim & Sarah were back at work after a holiday: the Melbourne Cup (as prestigious as the Kentucky Derby) had been held the day before. They informed us that the Melbourne Cup has been nicknamed “the ten minutes that stop a nation”. Both had been to barbies the day before, but they assured us that they’d never had shrimp on the barbie. Must be an American thing… They also claimed that they’d never been to an Outback Restaurant or had Bloomin’ Onion, though Sarah joked that if she ever got to the US she’d be interested in going to the Outback to see what kind of food Australians eat!
Our first stop took us to the Serendip Sanctuary in hopes of seeing yet more kangaroos, this time in the wild. We caught glimpses of emus, which we learned we’d been pronouncing wrong all our lives; according to Tim, it’s “e-mew, not e-moo”. (We had a “test” at the end of the tour.) For some reason, every single emu we saw was positioned on the other side of the bus or far in the distance. We got off the bus and walked to a billabong, a lake that’s been formed from a dried up river, where there were hundreds of wild birds nesting. I had been excited to see one ibis wandering around the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, and suddenly I was seeing more than I could possibly count nesting in low trees near the billabong. We caught glimpses of babies (not sure what they call a baby ibis) covered with fluff, and we also saw magpie geese – very large birds, that might make our geese look like younger cousins.
Back on the bus, Tim showed us an emu egg (abandoned & unhatchable), and we were surprised at the size and toughness of the shell. He had been in communication with some park naturalists, and they were going to try an experiment. They had sighted a mob of about 50 kangaroos, and had hoped to chase them through our group. We were positioned in small groups near a stand of trees, and the park naturalists were going to spook the kangaroos, and theoretically the kangaroos would take off and run (hop) through the stand of trees to get away. The kangaroos outsmarted the rangers though, because we saw them take off – way at the end of the stand of trees along the rim of the preserve. Oh, well, you can never predict wild animals.
We stopped for morning tea, and were entertained by the cagy little willy wagtails a short distance away. These little black & white birds were plopped on the ground chirping at us. The ranger explained that they were trying to lure us away from their nest. Chuck moved forward a little, hoping to sight the nest in the tree above them, while still maintaining a respectful distance. The ranger said, “Sir, would you step back please? You’re too close to their nest.” The nest was in the tree nearest us and was laden with three fledgling birds. Those wagtails had really pulled one over on us!
As we left the park, we saw a small mob of kangaroos lounging near the entrance – almost as if they were waving us good-bye and smiling at us, thinking, “Another gang of tourists outsmarted!”
After a brief stop for a magnificent vista that displayed Melbourne sprawled at the horizon (much like we might get a glimpse of Chicago from our far south-west suburbs), we traveled on to the You Yang Ranges National Park, where we hoped to glimpse some koalas in the wild. The rangers had been scouting out koalas in trees, and they were pleased to report that we’d most likely be able to see two koalas – unless they’d migrated to a new location while awaiting our arrival. We weren’t disappointed. We thought of our friends Al & Carol, wishing they could see Merle the Koala – a huge reddish koala sitting high up in a gum tree. At first he looked like an enormous teddy bear, but I didn’t dare let our guides hear me say it, as we’ve been informed over and over that koalas are not bears. (In fact, the name koala in one of the Aboriginal languages means “no drink” since they get their water from the eucalyptus leaves.) Merle sat majestically in his high perch looking down at all of us as we looked up at him, snapping pictures and peering through binoculars, till our guides told us it was time to continue on our way so we could meet Smoky the Koala. Smoky was a gray koala, and in her case, they had actually been able to identify her daughter and her grandson. So Grandma Smoky was an older koala, probably about eight years old. Again, Smoky sat watching us sleepily as we studied her. A real treat came when she decided her branch wasn’t that comfortable (I guess) and she climbed down to a lower branch. It’s the most I’ve seen a koala move – they’re such sleepy little animals with such a low metabolism!
We learned the way to tell the difference between male and female koalas – that’s assuming we can actually see their chests! Koalas have white fur on their chests. Female koalas’ fur is all white, while male koalas have a brown spot in the fur. We enjoyed seeing these elusive animals in their natural habitats.
Hobart, Tasmania, our last port in Australia was a wonderful surprise! Tasmania is at about 42° S, which is comparable to Chicago at about 42° N. Our shore excursion was a full-day trip that took us out into the lush, green countryside of the island. Had we not been riding on the left, listening to our Aussie guide, and viewing possibly more sheep than we saw in Wales or Scotland, we might have thought we were driving through upstate New York, with the orchards, vineyards, and rolling green hills. We had read that Tasmania was the most mountainous island in the world, and while we can’t imagine it being more mountainous than places like Bora Bora or Moorea, we wondered if it was considered the most mountainous island that wasn’t volcanic! Our drive to Field Mountain National Park was absolutely lovely, and enhanced by the (unpredicted) sunshine that was ever-present. Being mid-spring, flowers were in bloom, including vivid irises and carpets of brilliant orange and yellow flowers that reminded me of daisies and spread like weeds along the roadside if planted in someone’s garden.
As we arrived at the park, our guide pointed out a vast expanse of lawn and wondered if we could guess how it got mowed. None of us came to the correct conclusion that it was a marsupial lawn that was kept short, not by human gardeners, but by all the marsupials, who are nocturnal animals and come down to graze on the grass each evening. He told us that if we came at night we’d see kangaroos, wallabies, tiny pademelons (little wallabies about the size of a large raccoon), wombats, and possums feeding there. We took a short walk through a lush green rainforest that brought us to the Russell Falls. On our way, we saw umbrella palms (short palm trees that look much like umbrellas), moss-covered trees at every step of the way, the tallest flowering plants in the world (that weren’t quite as tall as redwoods, but came pretty close) and even a little glow-worm cave, though it wasn’t dark enough to see the glow-worms. Both of us saw pademelons. I watched one feeding on some grass, while Chuck was able to witness a family of three – mother & joey, plus what he assumed was the father, who came over to nuzzle the mother. We had been told to watch for platypuses in the stream, but since the platypus is also nocturnal and extremely shy and difficult to spot, nobody on our tour saw one. Russell Falls was a beautiful, three-tiered waterfall, all in succession, unlike what we grew up with visiting at Letchworth State Park in NY. While much smaller, it was a magnificent waterfall!
We made a brief stop in the picturesque little village of Richmond with its sandstone buildings (reminding me of the Cotswolds), which boasted the oldest bridge and oldest Catholic church in Australia. There were quaint little B&Bs sprawled across the town, as well as interesting little shops that we wished we’d had more time to visit. However, we needed to be on our way quickly in order to arrive at the Meadowbank Estates Winery for our lunch appointment. This included a wine tasting; something Chuck and I are such experts at, as most of you know! We tried sips of three different kinds of wine, but our culture when it comes to wine is sadly lacking and we couldn’t tell the difference between the three wines! However, we enjoyed the scenery during lunch. The vineyard sprawled down a hill toward a lake, and the mountains across the valley provided a breathtaking vista.
Our final stop was the Bonorong Wildlife Center where we were treated one last time to the indigenous animals of Australia. We’ve certainly made animal excursions a priority, but Australian animals are so different from those at home that we took every opportunity to experience them. That’s reflected in the frequency of animal pictures we’ve included in our albums. Each experience we had was slightly different, making each very worthwhile. At Bonorong we were able to feed the kangaroos, and we watched them lazing in the sun or hopping around, or just being inquisitive about their human guests. They certainly seem to have a lot of personality! We saw one mother with such a huge joey hanging out of her pouch that we were told she’d probably kick him out of the house pretty soon. (All we could see was legs and tail hanging out.) Chuck witnessed a joey that had been “out” crawl back into his mother’s pouch. We both enjoyed watching the little Tasmanian devils feeding and racing around their pens. There were usually two or three to an enclosure, and if one got too near another, they would go on a merry chase! Somehow I had pictured them as much larger, but they were probably more the size of a Westie. Another treat was seeing a mother koala carrying her baby on her back.
We were very sad to leave Australia, but have three days at sea to “rest up” before arriving in New Zealand. On Saturday night, we were invited to a Captain’s Dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. Everyone has one of the chief officers at their table, and we were told by others on our deck who had already attended the event that there were only about four people to a table. However, when we were escorted to our seats, we found ourselves at a table for fourteen and assigned seats at the table, scrambling people up so they were sitting with others. Chuck found himself just two seats down from the captain, while I was two seats up from the cruise hostess. We really had to be on our best behavior! The Pinnacle manager Kim had told us a few weeks ago that she only puts friendly and interesting people at the captain’s table – so I guess we must appear friendly and interesting! In conversation with guests sitting near me, I indicated that I was a career teacher and began subbing immediately after retiring. One man commented, “Then you’ll be interested in finding out that our tour guide in Hobart also did substitute teaching. He told us he earns $300 a day as a sub.” My only comment was, “WOW!!!” (However, I do have to substantiate that fact by saying that $300 Australian is probably only about $285 American.)
Sunday evening was “Dinner with the Gnomes”, and our dining stewards were all decked out as gnomes. The poor guys really have to put up with some unusual costumes during this cruise, but they take it in stride and do it with good humor while keeping the guests laughing and having a good time.
One of our table mates told us that in all her travels, she thinks the most beautiful country she’s ever seen is New Zealand. We look forward to our week there. It will be extremely busy, with shore excursions five of the seven days in port (three of those will be very long days with 8+ hour excursions and a shore event on Veterans Day evening), and visiting our friends Brian and Margaret during the other two days, we’re not sure when we’ll be able to post blogs during our time in NZ.
Barb
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