Amazing Australia!

Australia

DAYS 43-47 – We ventured across the Tasman Sea for two days after leaving the western coast of New Zealand and reached the island of Tasmania, Australia on February 17th.

Tasmania is a large island south of the Australian continent, and is a state of this huge nation.  Hobart is the state capital and the largest city in Tasmania.  The entire island was originally the location for penal colonies beginning in 1803.  The island housed thousands of convicts transported there from England.  We also sailed to Port Arthur to visit the sobering remnants of one of the largest prisons, which were actually dungeons beyond belief!  Now this island is rich in protected biodiversity areas, gorgeous mountains and the home of the world renowned Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra – quite a transformation from its 200-year old first settlements!

If any of you were following the PBS/cable television ventures of “Whale Wars” and the ship, the Sea Shepherd, featuring the environmentalist  crew members who were trying to protect the whales in the Antarctica, we were amazed to be in their home Tasman Sea and Hobart area when the Japanese whalers admitted defeat after years of harvesting whales here.  This news made headlines in Hobart, and many whale lovers around the world were thrilled to learn that Japan was going to give in and end their whale-killing operations south of Hobart.

We continued our Australian voyage northward along the east coast as we sailed into the gorgeous Sydney harbor at sunrise.  (Larry and I had been in Sydney for the harbor fireworks celebration in 2000 to welcome in the new millennium, so this arrival into the harbor and seeing the Sydney Opera House from the bow of our ship was an extremely special remembrance for us.)

We heard the news of the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand while we were in Sydney, and even though we were grateful that we had departed Christchurch 10 days before the earthquakes that flattened this city, we were so saddened to hear of the loss of life there and see the crumpled buildings that were now only recorded in our memories and photos and to be no more.  Holland America corporate and most of our fellow cruise ship passengers donated thousands of dollars to the New Zealand Red Cross in an effort to be of some help during this tragedy.

Our final stop in Australia was Cairns, the city famous for the Great Barrier Reef and one of the most spectacular protected coastal rainforests in this area of the world.  This was the first and  only excursion on a rainy day on our voyage thus far, and even though a tree fell across our roadway from the heavy rains as we headed up to the top of a rainforest mountain and stopped all traffic for an hour, we felt a rainy day in the rain forest was pretty darned appropriate!

From Australia we are headed on to Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, when we will post our next blog.

Here are a few photos from our Australian adventures…

The famed “Tasmanian Devil” is actually a pretty docile little guy about the size of a wire-haired terrier.  They don’t attack people – they eat rodents  – and this accommodating photo subject was actually just taking a toothy yawn after waking up at an animal sanctuary in Tasmania.

The darling young koalas in the Tasmanian sanctuary were orphans, and their fur is is softer and thicker than angora.  They are marsupials and the sanctuary staff and volunteers wrap these orphans in soft baby blankets so they feel they are in their mother’s pouch, safe from the scary world until they are 9 months old or older.

Sunrise as we sailed into Sydney harbor and glided past the gorgeous architecture of the Sydney Opera House.

The often-photographed “coat hanger” bridge in Sydney Harbor.  You can walk all the way across the top of the bridge for $100 if you want to…the little black dots you can barely see at the very top of the bridge arch are actually a group of walkers who are tied to each other for safety.

The Sydney skyline is impressive, and a gorgeous dining room is at the top of the tall sphere.  Everything about Sydney is beautiful – the Queen’s botanical gardens, the harbor, the architecture, and most of all, the people.

This is Stein Kruse, the president and CEO of Holland America and his wife, Linda, who came aboard our ship for a few days in Sydney to kick off gala celebrations and “Mariner Appreciation Day” for all of the ship’s guests who had earned the benefits of their mariner points by taking this world cruise.  Their daughter is strongly considering attending either ASU or the UofA in sunny Arizona this fall.  (Holland America, based in Seattle, has 17,000 employees.) 

We took an amazing 5-mile tree canopy gondola trip through and above the towering tropical rainforest just below us in the mountains outside of Cairns, Australia.  Most of the trees were 100 feet high or more, and it was pouring rain…a misty, exciting, and quietly magnificent way to experience Barron Gorge National Park, a World Heritage natural wonder.