On the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, the port of Napier, with its vast timber export industry, is in the heart of sunny Hawke’s Bay, the second largest wine region in the country, though when we arrived the weather was cloudy and drizzling. Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand with a…
Continue reading →Some places you can’t get enough of. So, we were really excited to return to New Zealand where Dean and I had spent a couple of weeks in 2009, working our way from the bottom of the south island to the top of the north, weaving in and out of towns, cities, countryside, wineries. We…
Continue reading →I’ve always had a distant fascination with Tasmania. It is a seemingly remote outpost island that is not much in the news, known for its native “devils”, and a stepping stone to Antarctica. We arrived in Hobart, Australia’s second oldest city located at the base of majestic Mount Wellington, at the height of their crisp…
Continue reading →The whole world is in love with Sydney and it’s easy to see why. Sydneysiders have it made with the city’s style, sophistication, friendly people, bustling art and entertainment, restaurants, museums. You could almost eat off the streets of this gleaming pristine city and the food wouldn’t be bad either, with great seafood a special…
Continue reading →The relaxed ambiance is readily apparent in this north Queensland city, pronounced “Cans” by the Aussies. Cairns, Australia, is surrounded by tropical forests, coffee, tea, and sugar cane plantations and, of course, the living masterpiece of the Great Barrier Reef stretching along its coast. The area has two seasons, wet and dry, and can have…
Continue reading →The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth from the north to the south pole and demarcates the change of one calendar day to the next. It runs roughly along the 180th longitude in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, occasionally zig-zagging to avoid splitting apart countries into two…
Continue reading →For those who know Dean and me, it would be no surprise to learn that we have befriended the charming onboard head sommelier. He is Oleksandr from Ukraine, but better known as Sasha to all. Among the many onboard activities offered to amuse us, for varying fees we can partake in occasional wine tastings that…
Continue reading →The blog has been moving in slow motion lately because of the painfully sluggish internet service onboard. As a result, I am at least nine days and several ports behind. As soon as we get a string of days at sea, I’ll try to catch up. We did take a little time to celebrate our…
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