CRUISING AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (Part 1)
We departed LAX for Honolulu on Hawaiian Air. To our complete delight, the fight and the service (plus Hawaiian ambiance), were terrific. After an overnight stay, we rejoined Hawaiian Air for our flight to Sydney. Again, great cabin service, delicious food, delightful ambiance, and on time departure and landing.
After an overnight in Sydney, we had the morning to do a short walk about (so much fun to revisit old haunts and relive memories of places we remembered from years ago). We delighted in traipsing along the waterfront, around the beautiful Sydney Opera House, and visiting hotels we have known and booked for clients through the years.
Later in the day, we boarded Holland America’s Volendam, a relatively young ship carrying 1400 passengers, which makes it the biggest ship we have ever sailed on. The good news is there are many venues aboard ship, lots of things to do, bars galore, a coffee bar (watch out Starbucks), lots of books and DVDs to borrow and shops to peruse.
Morning found us in Melbourne, delightful, beautiful, exciting Melbourne. Parks are everywhere, sports complexes are there in abundance, great restaurants, and first class theatres abound. We hired a cab for a few hours and had a great chance to see points of interest, but more importantly, we saw neighborhoods. It was a fine day.
Burnie, Tasmania was our next destination on morning two. We walked around the quaint port city, visited an art gallery, a local museum, had a great pizza lunch, and came back to the ship. If the weather had been warmer (it was really surprisingly cold for summer) we might have gone out to the Bush Country and seen wild animals including the Tasmanian Devil. Burnie is a sweet place, very provincial, and our last port in Australia.
As this section is being written we are on a two day leg across the Tasman Sea (always a bit rough) and headed to New Zealand. It is gray and the swells made working out this morning a bit of a challenge. Have to leave off here ---time to watch the National Championship Football game on satellite TV. Small world, isn't it?