Just Hanging around on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Fred the frill neck

Good Morning from Cyclone Alley

Febe has a new home. After years of hanging around hotel bars and the odd (unauthorised) excursion into the nearby neighbourhoods Febe has finally found somewhere to call home.  He is now in charge of house 2 and looks after those other two women




Those worldly women are hanging around at the other end of house 2. Not quite NYC or LA but they will get used to it. LOL

This one is for Bruce. Just thought you would like to see how our pool looks and it is about the same size that you were talking about. We find it great and use it almost every day. Also as you can see a perfect place to grow our herbs LOL.

I know I showed the Bloodwoods before but they just get better and better. Our whole block is now in flower. Over the last three days we have planted another 150 rain forest trees around the back of our block as a further fire safety measure. When they have grown in the combination of Bloodwoods and evergreens will look great - can't wait.

Not everyone thinks the big rains were a bad thing

This amorous coule are taking advantage of the time of plenty and getting into the swing of the season LOL. She would be about 40cm long and poor ol' him is only about 10cm. Talk about cougars LOL.

a little further down the track was this very very healthy looking "Lace Monitor". He/she would be 6 ft in length and looking very fat. Obviously there is alot of food around at the moment.

Even the trees are getting into the swing of the big wet. Our trees have grown heaps and bounds in the last couple of weeks. The grevillias are going crazy and as you can see the beautiful Bloodwoods are springing into flower and the birds think it's christmas all over again. The black cockies haven't shown up yet but I am sure they won't be far away.

Not everything is happy though. The ocean is a dirty brown with all the fresh water pouring into it. There are piles of driftwood coming up on the beaches after having been washed down the rivers and out to sea.

We have been told that the brown stain goes all the way to the reef, 40klms away.

The Flood,

We are well and dry but would love some fresh milk LOL. We have been isolated from the world since Christmas eve with access to Gladstone being restored last week but cut off again on Wednesday. Highway 1 has been closed at Rocky since christmas so nothing coming from the north and Gympie and Caloundra have been cut for the last week so nothing coming up from the south. Brisbane as you probably know is underwater so nothing coming from there.

and so we are steaming home 

Our room with a view, but not for much longer. As we steamed across the ditch the seas got bigger, the swell more pronounced and those ever present albatross where winging their way along with us.

One last lap around the promenade deck to say "Goodbye" to the crew in the anchor and chain area (they got to know me walking past, lap after lap) and a final look back at the land of the "Long White Cloud" and yep it was there in all it's glory.

The end

See you tomorrow with the flood update

Finally we are on the way home....

On the cruise there are two nights that are "Formal wear only" in the main restaurants and one of these nights was reserved for the trip home.  Lots of glamorous frocks (some not quite so), lots of perfume (the duty free shop must have been doing overtime) and plenty of suits for the fellas.

This fun couple we meet one day at lunch and from then on kept running into each other daily. As you can see they were getting right into the swing of the season. HO HO HO

Now I am not doing names because I haven't asked the 

 the table for permission to use the picture. Every night of the cruise we met at 7.45pm for the extravagant 5 course dinner and compulsory bottles of wine. One night I was missing (locked up in quarantine), another was seasick on the way over, but if possible we all made the effort to catch up on what each other had been up to. I think we were one of the very few tables that did this because on the first night the dining room was packed, but as the trip went on the tables split up and in the end we were usually one of the only full tables.  Our waiters were Percy and Michael and they had to put up with us every night.

A big thanks to everyone on our table for making the trip that much more enjoyable.

Milford Sound

We woke up this morning sailing through Fiordland, unfortunately the weather was not very kind to us as there was alot of very low cloud. But as we cruised up through this amazing place the cloud slowly started to lift and as we entered Milford Sound we finally got to see this wonderful place.

It was truly an amazing experience to sail in this very large ship up the sound. The waterfalls, the steep canon walls, the crystal clear water and the snow capped peaks.

Wonderful place and we would happily go back via road to be able to experience it from the inside.

Tomorrow the "Last Supper" on the way home

Dunedin

As you can see it's another one of those cities that embraced the deco culture. The day we arrived in Dunedin it was showery so umbrella and raincoats were the order of the day. Pretty city probably the most livable of the cities so far. Great cafe culture, good food and some very good shopping.

We wandered all over this up and down town including visiting the brewery and a leather maker (can't get leather out of the blood LOL) and bought a great money belt. Hand made and much much better than anything I had seen in Oz.

Next door to the museum was a very new Chinese Garden complex and one of the best I have seen. Apparently Dunedin's sister city is Shanghai and they donated this garden to Dunedin. Built and carved in Shanghai and then transported over to the shakey Isles. If you have been to the famous San Yang (I think that's how it's spelt) gardens in China you will see that they have used the same techniques - very very striking and peaceful. It's only 12 months old so needs some time, if I am in the neighbourhood in 10 years time it will be on the top of my must see list.

While we were away the crew did play

The Xmas decorations arrived

tomorrow Milford Sound and the absolute highlight of the trip

Shaky city - Christchurch

Firstly I thought you might want to see our spacious cabin - wardrobes just inside the door on the left and the bathroom is on the right. I am standing on the balcony to take this pic. It was only on checkout that we saw the cabins on the floor above, much much more spacious. So if you ever are looking at Dawn Princess for a trip get deck 10.

Well Christchurch is looking good considering that only a couple of months ago it had that devastating earthquake of 7 with lots and lots of damage. It is a very pretty city with lots of churches and is also the centre of the Antarctic expeditions for 7 countries including the USA, so off to the Antarctic centre we went.

With any polar exhibition you must have the penguins and they looked remarkably like their relies at Phillip Island.

Included in the tour was the experience of -8 in gale conditions at the "Cool" room. 

Almost had a white christmas.