Sydney - Bangkok - Brussels - Back home - 24 March till 25 March

View from my hotel room at Darling Harbour

23 March 2014 Ayers Rock - Sydney

Next morning we flew back to Sydney around lunch to arrive around 5 p.m. This time I took train and tram as I hadn't booked a transfer.

At the hotel (the same as during my previous three stays in Sydney) I got a room with a lovely view, a free drink and some chocolates.

Went for a steak at the pier. As it was Sunday all Sydney was at and on the water, young and old!

Sydney Opera House

24 March 2014 Sydney - Bangkok - Brussels (arrival on 25 March 2014)

Had to leave the room around 11 a.m., left my bags at the hotel and went for a last small lunch at the water.

Unfortunately my shuttle misjudged time and traffic jams enforced by the thunderstorm going down over Sydney which made me almost miss my plane. I was not very happy!

Now in a very rocky flight from Sydney to Bangkok a Boeing 747. Could - as always - not sleep.

On the contrary to my trip to Sydney almost 6 weeks ago I did not have much time at Bangkok Airport which I think is a horrible airport. It is not clearly indicated were to go, you get the feeling you could have arrived at your gate faster going the opposite direction. And even in the middle of the night they do not managed to cool the building down. Shopping is on my opinion not great and very expensive.

Collapsed finally total groggy into my seat on board of a Triple Seven (same type than the still missing airplane!). Flight of more than eleven hours was very long and as again I could not sleep time did not pass.

In about an hour we hopefully will touch down at Zaventem Airport: End of Voyage!

Ayers Rock - 20 till 23 March 2014

Around 8 a.m. the shuttle took me to the airport and the airplane took off at 10 a.m., due to time change we arrived than at 11.45 a.m. already, after almost 3 hours of flight at Ayers Rock.

William Christie Gosse was the first European man to arrive at Uluru on 19 July 1873 and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, then Chief Secretary of South Australia.

Uluru was first proclaimed a National Park in March 1958 under the control of the Northern Territory Reserves Board. In October 1985 Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was returned to its original owners, the Anangu, but operates under a joint management system between Anangu and Parks Australia.

As the weather became a bit cooler (only around 39 degrees!) the time of the flies had started. They recommended to buy a fly net to put on your head with or without had. We all look quite ridiculous but otherwise the flies were everywhere: in your nose, your mouth, your ears ...

Booked a flight (only availability) to see the Uluru and Kata Tjuṯa (the Olgas) (Olga was named in 1872 by Ernest Giles, in honour of Queen Olga of Württemberg (born Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas I) wife of King Charles I of Wurttemberg ) in the sunset. Booked a flight with a Cessna after my helicopter experience at Niagara Falls last year.

At 6 p.m. the very young pilot fetched the four of us with a minibus. At the terminal we all had get on a balance with everything, camera, water bottle etc. My country man from Bavaria was the less heavy one, than me (in Brussels total diet, must have eaten to much on the ships) but than the lady went on: 127 kg), than him: 175 kg..

As my country man spoke all the time about a helicopter flight I started to get worried that they made a mistake with my booking. The surprise was than not for me but for him as the pilot directed us to a little Cessna instead to the just starting helicopter behind us.

Uluru

 

 

My country man got the two back seats to enable him to take pictures to the left and right. The couple had to take the two seats in the middle and I had the pleasure to sit next to the pilot. Not too good for picture taking. He looked am my sometimes to see if I was alright but thanks to two seasickness pills and my flight chewing gum I survived. When we touched down night had fallen.

Kata Tjuṯa (the Olgas)

Next morning we were collected by a minibus to see the sunrise. Tried to got to the outlook without the fly-net as I thought at this early hour there are none! But it was not possible.

After the sunrise we were dropped off to either walk around the rock or just to do walk on certain indicated path.

The bus was supposed to collect me around. 10.30 a.m. But as I was earlier at the crossing and the previous bus (9 o'clock) was late I got an earlier lift and was back at the resort still in time for breakfast.

Seadays 16 and 17 March

Two rough sea-days. Packing of the suit case and off we go next morning

End of voyage with the Rapsody of the Seas - 2 days in Sydney - 18 and 19 March 2014

Early in the morning of 18 March I was "sent" off the ship at 7.15 a.m., collected my suitcases and jumped in a cab and arrived at my hotel at Darling Harbour around 7.45 a.m.

Left my bags at the hotel and wandered around the city with a blue sky. During the day temperature rose to 29 degrees.

In the evening I had a lovely dinner at the harbour.

The next day I took the little train to Central Station and slowly walked up to the Town Hall and Queen Victoria Building.

I had booked a table in the restaurant of the Sydney Tower where I met my new friends from the ship, Janet and Fred, from Perth (originally from Scotland). We had a lovely lunch while the restaurant rotated 4 times permitting us a stunning view on Sydney and its surroundings.

Later I took the little train to the other side - as I had a day ticket - but the trip was disappointing as it most of the time was in a tunnel and therefore did not permit the harbour views I had expected. Than I headed to back to Central Station to take a train into town.

Tomorrow morning flight to Ayers Rock.

Nouméa (New Caledonia - Saturday,15 March 2014

The capital city of Nouméa is located near the southeastern tip of the island of Grande Terre. The city was founded by the French in 1853 and has spread over the hilly peninsula round a large natural harbour. In the 1800s nickel and gold was discovered. The mining that followed helped in the early development of Nouméa. During World War II the city served as a vital harbour and Allied base of operations. Today the fast growing city has a population of around 90,000, the entire population of New Caledonia is situated around 250,000 people with an interested mixture of Melanesians and French culture.

It is believed by a number of anthropologists that the South Pacific islands of Melanesia were settled by Africoid people of Papua as far back s 35,000 ears ago. The word "Melanesia" is derived from the Greek language and translates as "black islands or the islands of the blacks".

James Cook became the first European to see and to chart the island of Grande Terre during his 2nd of three voyages of discovery in 1774. Reminded of the jagged, hilly coast of Scotland he named the group of islands New Caledonia, Latin for Scotland.

In the early 1800s the South Pacific whaling industry was rapidly expanding. As European sailors who came ashore in New Caledonia brought diseases against which the indigenous people had neither immunity nor defense the effects were devastating upon the local population.

In 1852, under the rule of Napoleon III, France claimed New Caledonia as a colony. Using the British practice in Australia as its example, most of the first settlers to arrive were French convicts and political prisoners. Free settlers eventually came and began to populate New Caledonia. The French government established the harsh "Code de l'Indigénat" upon the indigenous Melanesians. This code basically legalized the seizure of their land and suppressed any hint of freedom or protection under French law. During the same period, the mid 1800s, and lasting through the turn of the century, the practice of "Black-birding" took place. This was the kidnapping or forced coercion of many Melanesians to worked in the sugarcane fields of Australia's Queensland.

During World War II New Caledonia and the capital of Nouméa became a strategic Allied army and navy base, a prime target of forces of Imperial Japan. Itself slated for invasion, around New Caledonia were fought the battles of Port Moresby, the Kokoda Track and the Milne Bay as well as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the vicious Battle of Guadalcanal ... all of which, costly in lives, ended in Allied victory and helped lead to the eventual defeat of Imperial Japan.

Beginning in the 1980s a large number of the indigenous people of New Caledonia began to seek independence. The process was frustrating and confrontational. However, as of 2014, eligible citizens will have decided through the ballot box whether to remain an "Entité Territoriale" or to become free and independent from over a century and half of French rule.

A bit of Fiji History - the mutiny on the Bounty

The Melanesians and Polynesians have always been superb sailors. There is perhaps one 18th century Captain, an Englishman, who, together with his crew, would have fully understood and appreciated the amazing sailing skills and courage exhibited by Pacific Islanders. His name is Captain William Bligh ..., yes, the Captain Bligh.

Most people have heard the story or seen the movie made about the 1789 mutiny on the HMAV (His Majesty's Armed Vessel) Bounty. The "Mutiny of the Bounty" did take place much the way its has been portrayed and Captain Bligh, together with 18 of his loyal crew were set adrift upon the Pacific in the Bounty's 23 foot open launch. But what Captain Bligh did after being cast overboard is one of the most amazing feasts of seamanship ever recorded in the archives of maritime history.

On April 28, 1789 master's Mate Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty abandoned Captain Bligh at sea deep in the South Pacific. Bligh and his men were given a few days of ration of meat, bread, water and rum. No maps, charts or compass were provided. To navigate the vast Pacific the Captain had with him only a sextant and his pocket watch. For all intents and purposes Fletcher Christian and the mutineers of the Bounty had pronounced death sentence upon the Captain and his men.

When the nearby island of Toufa provided unwelcoming, Bligh determined to sail west to Batavia (modern Jakarta, Indonesia) in the Dutch East Indies. Batavia was the closest European controlled port and Bligh new it was his duty as an Officer of the Royal navy to inform the British Admiralty as quickly as possible concerning the mutiny on the Bounty. The sides of their small, overcrowded boat were only a few inches above the waterline. The men were forced to bail night and day. They endured terrible storms and high waves which could swamp their boat at any moment. They suffered the lack of food and water, the terror of circling sharks and the scorching heat of the tropical sun. As they rowed quickly through the Fiji islands they were not able to stop and search for food and water. Despite their rush, Bligh produced extremely precise hand-drawn maps detailing much of Fiji.

The Bounty mutineers who returned and stayed in Tahiti were in due course captured by British Naval Authorities sent from England for the specific purpose of hunting down ever last of them. They were transported, as prisoners in chains and caged in a box, back to the British Islands. Those who survived the voyage stood trial, a few were acquitted while some were pardoned by the King. Three Bounty mutineers were hanged from the yardarms of the battleship HMS Brunswick on 29 October 1792 in Portsmouth.

What became of Captain Bligh and his men? While usually portrayed by Hollywood as an aging, inept and overweight bully, Bligh in fact was a young Lieutenant, a dashing thirty-four years old Royal Navy officer of exceptional intelligence, physically fit, extremely brave and a highly skilled cartographer, astronomer and navigator. On 14 June 1789, after 47 days at sea, Bligh and his men reached Coupang, Timor, and from there on to the Dutch held Batavia and back to England. They had miraculously rowed and sailed a total of nearly, 4000,00 miles across the South Pacific. Maritime history acknowledges this as one of the most remarkable feats of navigation.

More of Fiji

Europe first learn of Fiji's existence in 1943, when the Dutch East India yacht "Heemskercq", commanded by Abel Tasman, and the flute "Zeehaen" blundered across the north eastern reefs and islands. Plagued by storm and escaping wreck on the Nanuku Reef before winning clear scared off other marineers and more than 130 years passed before European vessels again braved the perilous waters of what the Dutch called the Prins Wyllems islands.

The second European navigator to venture into Fiji water was Captain James Cook. He seemed to be reluctant to risk the "Resolution" or "Adventure" here. Voyaging from Tonga to the New Hebrides, Vanuatu, he sighted Vatoa (Turtle Island). Fijians on shore fled when a boat from a ship landed. Cook sailed off to the south-west and saw no further Fijian islands.

A lasting legacy of Cook has been the name Feegee or Fiji, based on the Tonga pronunciation of Fiji "Viti"

In April 1789 Bligh was the first European to appreciate the extent and complexity of the Fiji islands, sailing through the heart of the group from south-west and charting the position of the islands with remarkable accuracy.

In 1797 the London Missionary Society ship "Duff", sailing from Tongo to China, entered Fiji waters and was nearly wrecked on a reef. Captain Wilson noted the position of various islands in Northern Lau and sighted Taveuni and parts of Vanua Levu.

The development of Australia as a colony, led to an increase in shipping in the southwest Pacific and some merchant ships inevitably strayed to Fiji. In 1794 the ship "Arthur" approached from the west and escaped after beating off a canoe attack with gunfire.

Fiji's last visitor in the eighteenth century was the American merchant ship "Ann and Hope" from which Beqa, Vatulele, south west Viti Levu and the Mamanuea's were sighted in 1799.

Lautoka (Fiji) - Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Around 6 p.m. yesterday our captain informed us that due to the weather conditions caused by the tropical cyclone Lusi we have to modify our itinerary and go south west instead to the North-East to avoid Lusi.

Therefore our visit to Lautoka had to be cancelled.

We had a rough day at sea instead and at present, at 5 p.m., wind is increasing and the ship is rocking.

Suva (Fiji) - 11 March 2014

Today we arrived after a rocky night and day at sea in Suva (Fiji) at around 8 a.m. Unfortunately weather was not very could due to the tropical cyclone Lusi approaching.

We did a tour around the city with a well informed guide who gave us lots of information about Fiji's past and presence.




 

We also visited a museum.

Fiji consists of around 230 islands of which about a hundred are inhabited.

In the mid 1800s a group of entrepreneurs from Australia presented a business proposal to the great warlord, Chief Seru Epenia Cakobau, King of Fiji ( Tui Viti). Given permission by the King to form the "Australian Polynesia Company" the men acquired the Suva Peninsula and promptly began to drain and clear swamps and mangrove and lay the foundation of what is now one of the largest cities in the South Pacific. With trade as the economic engine it did not take many years for Suva to be named as the capital of the islands.

Built in the southeast corner of Fiji's main island of Viti Levu, Suva serves as the political, administrative and business center of Fiji. It is also the nation's largest port. On the west side of the peninsula is Suva Harbour and to the east is Laucala Bay. The city's population is around 85,000 within a regional population nearing 340,000. It has been estimated that one-third of the citizens of Fiji live in or near Suva.

Tomorrow we should be in Lautoka if cyclone Lusi allows it.

Vila (Nanauto) - Friday, 14 March 2014

After having fled tropical cyclone Lusi with two days and three nights of rough sea we arrived shortly before 8 a.m. in Vila.

First at 8h45 I did a lovely and interesting leisurely cruise around blue, green and turquoise waters of a gorgeous lagoon past holiday resorts with lovely white beaches and private homes with the rain forest in the background. On board we were offered a local beer.

Than we went back to the ship, had lunch and off I went to see the highlights of Vila. On our way we were received by a local chief in his villages with naturally a local market.

In the local language called Bislama the country is know as Ripablik Blong Vanuatu, in English it is the Republic of Vanuatu. The people, referred to as the ni-Vanuatu (meaning "of Vanuatu"), gained their independence from combined British and French rule in 1980. before independence the islands were called The New Hebrides. 

There are over 100 languages to be found throughout the islands of Vanuatu however there are three official languages: English, French and Bislama. Bislama is "pidgin" English.

The Vanuatu archipelago is a volcanic chain that consists of approximately 80 major islands of which about two-thirds are inhabited. The Lapita People from southeast Ychina are believed to be the first people to reach and settle in the islands. Their eastward migration took place over 3,500 years ago.

The 1st European to reach Vanuatu was the Portuguese captain, navigator and explorer Pedro Fernandes de Quirós in May 1606. De Quirós was in search of the great southern continent of myth and legend when he discovered, came ashore and named the island "Terra Australis de Espiritu Santo" (The Holy Spirit of the Great Southland). He was sailing under the flag of the Spanish king, Philip III. Though De Queirós was a higly skilled, brave and daring man. His crew began to question his mental health (Too long in the South Pacific sun?) when he declared himself monarch of Espiritu Santo and the surroundig islands and then proceeded to bestow a knighthood upon each and every member of his crew ... including the lowly galley cook! The crew eventually mutinied and sailed away taking their 'monarch' with them.

Over 150 years passed before the next European, Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville, finally reached Vanuatu during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1767. in 1774 the British Captain James Cook arrived and named the islands The New Hebrides.

During World War II the US built a large military complex in Vanuatu. As dawn broke on May 4, 1942 the locals in Vila woke to see a vast unexpected armada of US troop transports and US /Australia and and New Zealand war ships filling Port Vila's Mele Bay. The ni-Vanuatu (indigenous people) understandable ran for the jungle hills believing the Japanese had arrived.

With the arrivals of the Allies came an amazing social and psychological change among the ni-Vanuatu. For well over a century the British and French had treated the indigenous people like third class citizens in their own country. The ni-Vanuatu had been decimated by European diseases, their lands seized without compensation and their men from throughout the islands rounded up nd shipped off as forced labor in the sugarcane fields of Australia and the mines of French New Caledonia. Few would ever return. Over the decades the British and French did nothing to improve infrastructure in the New Hebrides. They simply took from the islands but gave nothing in return.

Many of the ni-Vanuatu men immediately began to work for the military in many different capacities . They accompanied the soldiers as scouts and coastal observers. They were inter-island guides an dock workers but more importantly ... the local men were astounded that the soldiers paid them a fair wage, shared their tin-canned food, clothing and basic necessities, built roads where there had been only jungle trails and hospitals where there had never been medical care ... but most importantly ... the soldiers treated the ni-Vanuatu with respect! The soldiers, black and white, gave them a new and never before imagined outlook on life.

At the end of the war, for pennies on the dollar, the US offered to sell their massive amounts of equipment to the local government. The British and French laughed and basically said: "Why should we buy all this when you are leaving and it will become ours for free?" The soldiers just smiled as the dumfounded government leaders watched them bulldoze ton after ton of US equipment into the sea and wave goodbye as the sailed back to the States as suddenly as they had come.

But the Yanks did leave one very important thing behind for the local ni-Vanuatu, a seed, that sense of confidence and self-respect. Not without difficulty the seed grew and eventually blossomed into the founding of the free and independent nation of Ripablik Blong Vanuatu.

Lifou (Loyality Island) - 8 March 2014

After to days at sea we arrived shortly before 10 o'clock at Lifou. As it is only a small island we had to tender to get ashore. 

Not much to see but a lovely blue lagoon close to the pier with a lovely white sand beach and turquoise waters well suited for snorkeling and you were able to learn diving. 

Some little huts with locals and as our arrivals must have been announced local dealers arrived to sell us "local" souvenirs (some looked like others seen in the area with labels "Made in China"). 

You also could have coconut milk or a massage or tour the island by taxi.






The island Lifou is part of a small group known as Loyality Islands (Province des Îles Loyauté). These islands are included in the French Territory of New Caledonia (Latin name for Scotland as it reminded James Cook of his father's native Scotland when he first discovered the islands in 1774). Lifou is located a little over 60 miles to the east across the water from the main island of Grande Terre. As is common throughout much of this gorgeous region of the South Pacific, the people of Lifou are primarily Melanesian and Polesian with a small group of Europeans known as Caldaches. On the eastern shore of Lifou, overlooking the Bay of Chateaubriand is the island's capital, the village of Wé.

As European sailors who came ashore in New Caledonia brought diseases against which the indigenous people had neither immunity nor defense the effects were devastating upon the local population.The people of Lifou were protected, to a degree, due to their isolation. 

In 1852, under the rule of Napoleon III, France claimed New Caledonia as a colony. Again the people of Lifou benefited because the French did not feel this small island was suitable for settlement.

Sydney 3 to 6 March than on aboard the Rhapsody of the Sea to Fidschi

3 to 6 March Sydney

4th March

As when I woke up the sky was clouded (looked as if it had rained in the night) I prepared myself slowly to visit the city. After a big walking tour via the old hospital, the Sydney Library and the Government house and parc I arrived at the Sydney Opera house and the harbour. I had a short lunch at the harbour and then did an interesting city tour with a hop-on hop-off bus. Weather turn out to be very hot an humid and in the afternoon there was a blue sky.

There is so much to see and do in Sydney: lots of Galeries and Museums (even Madame Tusseauds found her way to Sydney), parcs, plays, musicals, the Harbour bridge and naturally the Sydney Opera House, lots of Parcs, Dining and Shopping or just wander through the old parts of Sydney like the Rocks with its fine collection of heritage buildings and the colorful Rocks Markets held every weekend or the Circulare Quay (were the also the Cruise ship leave). This is the area which was the first port of call were the first European settlers stepped ashore in 1788. It could even be described as the 'birthplace of modern Sydney'. History seeps from every cobbled laneway.

The Sydney Opera House designed by the Danish Jørn Utzori and constructed between 1959 and 1973 is certainly one of Sydney's most iconic attractions. It is now the home to more than 2500 performances and events each year.

Contrasting with the Opera House's undulating sails is certainly the dramatic steel presence of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Drive across it, climb it or simoly gaze at it from any angle.

Facts about the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

1. The Bridge may rise or fall up to seven inches as the steel expands or contracts in the weather.
2. The total cost of the construction was double the original quote.
3. Despite opening in 1932, the bridge was not fully paid off until 1988.
4. Approx. 80.00 liters of paint are required for each coat of the Bridge.
5. It was painted grey because no other coulour was available in such large quantities ... Imagine a red Harbour Bridge!

The most amazing place for shopping I think is the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) which was built as a monument for the then-reigning monarch in 1898 and should have been torn down and was saved in the last minute. It has a stunning architecture with a great range of local and global fashion boutiques, plus jewelers, cafes and home wares. The late French designer, Pierre Cardin, called it the most beautiful shopping center in the world.

Normally I shout buy a pair of Shearers Ugg boots, top-quality sheepskin ugg boots are sold throughout the city. Legend has it that Frank Mortel of Mortel's Sheepskin Factory in Maitland, NSW, came up with the name ugg boots in 1958 after his wife commented that the first pair he produced were 'ugly'!

One thing ou do not only see in Sydney but entire Australia a hot pants and mini shirts, unfortunately mostly worn by girls who should NOT wear them! 

5th March: Bondi Beach


 Roundtrip by bus to Bondi Beach ( Bondi=translation more or less "Water over the rocks")  has been terrific with lots of shops and restaurants and fantastic apartments and hotels. There are few sights that compare with the golden sand and turquoise water of Australia's most famous beach.

Then we drove down the coast line with a terrific view on Sydney's skyline. Rose Bay, lovely suburb to the east of Sydney featuring beautiful waterside walks (and expensive housing) and Double Bay nestled in the Sydney Harbour foreshore.
Would love to retire here with a view on to the sea but housing has become to expensive there.

Started the tour a 2nd time but got off in Paddington to have lunch and look around. Wanted to catch the next bus but as it did not arrive I therefore walked down to the city, it was vey hot and sunny but around 5 a.m. it started to rain. Went into a big store to have a juice and when I came out an hour later the rain luckily had stopped.

Tomorrow back to the harbour to board the Rhapsody of the Sea.

Perth 3 March - End of the cruise with the Radiance of the Sea and back to Sydney

Check-out in Perth went smoothly: left the lounge at 8.25 a.m. and sat in the coach to the domestic airport with suitcase shortly before 9 a.m.

Saw with blue skies and 35 degrees the skyline and some parcs from Perth and got some information from the driver for free. Looked like a very clean city surrounded with lots of water due to its situation at two rivers.

Had nice food in the airplane and, contrary to Europe, your neighbors say hi and also talk to you.

Transfer to the hotel was fine, too.

At Sea 2 March 2014

Preparing my suitcase.

In the morning covered but around 3 p.m. the wind died down and could go for an hour upstairs and lay  in the sun.

Esperanca 1st March

Arrived before 8 a.m. this morning, not much to see, cheated my way out on an early tender boat and bought a senseless 5$~ticket for a shuttle bus, traveled with it just to the little museum and then walked back to get on my tour bus. Walked around the little town to wait for my afternoon excursion down to sandy, sunny beaches.

Had a lovely lunch in Domes with free WiFi.

At 1.30 p.m. our tour bus took us first to mermaid leather, specialist in fish and shark leather (www.mermaidleather.com.au) and then to an artist creating glass decoration and jewelery.

After that the bus went down Ocean road, dropped us first off at Twilight Beach, then Sandy Beach and to a look-out to have a lovely view on the city of Esperanca and our ship. Lovely white beaches! Lovely, expensive villas at this coast.

Than I had a glass of white wine and an espresso at the pier before hopping on the last tender to bring me back to ship.

Tomorrow it is sea day to finish my suitcase and to leave the ship on 3rd March in Perth.

At sea 27 and 28 February

At sea, hope not too rough and sunshine to work at my suntan.

Was not rough at all, luckily. On the 1st sea day covered but on the 2nd day the sun come out and there was less wind so I sat one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon on deck in the sun.

Adelaide 26 February

Today we arrived around 7 a.m. in Adelaide. Took a bus tour to see the highlights of Adelaide and up to Mt. Lofti. Than I stayed in town to do some shopping and look round. Will take the shuttle back to the ship later. We will sail around 10 p.m. (Two sea days and than Esperanca). Was not too excited about Adelaide.