Today’s weather is cold and rainy. I went on an excursion by boat through Queen Charlotte Sound. The sound here is very inspiring, lots of green ferns and other trees. After the cruise they took us back to the bus after making a comfort stop. The only interesting thing at the comfort stop was this…
This morning the ship used the life boats to tender us to shore. I took the Christchurch on your own tour. I was a bit disappointed in the late meeting time. Once we got on the bus the driver said we were supposed to have 4 hours of free time in Christchurch, but we wouldn’t…
Today is my first day on land since boarding the ship. I chose the Taeri Gorge Train and Dunedin Highlights tour. The weather didn’t cooperate today, it was chilly, rainy and a bit foggy. I walked onto the train from the ship. There were a few outside areas between the cars that allowed for better…
I’ve technically arrived in New Zealand today, although I didn’t get off the ship. I set up my GoPro to create time lapse videos. The first Fiord was Milford Sound. We entered about 7:30 AM after the Princess ship. We stopped briefly to let a few passengers off that was doing an overnight experience. I…
Finally able to catch back up. Sea is cold and choppy. The ship will be sailing through the Fjords tomorrow. I’ll have the GoPro set up.
Just a relaxing day at sea with a Turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.
This morning I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour. It’s a nice garden in the midst of the city. I took a walk through Paddy’s market in Chinatown for souvenirs. There were a number of good deals. The uber took a while to get to the hotel, but eventually I made it…
I walked along the goods line which has a very interesting building called the paper bag building to the Central Park Mall which has a very interesting amount of greenery on the outside and water in the skylight. I joined a free tour of Sydney that walked past most of the areas I am familiar…
The plan today was to take an $18 bus tour of the eastern suburbs including Bondi beach. Before the bus tour I visited Queen Victoria building. It has two large mechanical clocks. A few more interesting buildings along the way…. The bus tour first took us to Mrs Macquarrie’s chair…. I took a couple of…
Today I took advantage of the discounted fares on the train to visit the Blue Mountains. A couple of years ago I visited via a bus tour that left from Sydney. Going by train was much cheaper… it was supposed to be $2.70 each way, but when I got back to Sydney Central train station…
I had booked a shared transfer from the airport to my hotel. It was $18 AUD, while the metro has an outrageous $20 platform fee at the airport. I was actually able to check into my hotel quite early in the morning. The room is nice, but not fancy. I took a shower then took…
I call it day 1 & 2 because I’m flying from Houston at 8:30 PM on Nov 15th and arrive in Sydney on Nov 17th at 7:00 AM due to the international time line. I used miles to fly to Sydney, so I’ve flown more miles for free on United on this one flight alone…
I traveled to the desert today by car. I was able to stop briefly in Nizwa on the way and visit the fort. It had a number of great artifacts in the collection and was very well preserved (unlike most castles in Europe). …
It will be a couple of long days…. I will arrive late in Dubai and still need to connect to Oman…. where I may or may not have a hotel room (long story). My ‘coffin’ for the next few hours… if you are clostrophobic you should fly economy!
I applied for my Australian ‘Electronic Travel Authority’ today. It’s kind of a visa, but really a $20 (Australian Dollars) entry fee. It’s good for a year after applying for it.
I just got this email today… I think that’s the most I’ve flown on a single airline.
I took a few pictures from the hotel rooftop bar this evening before dinner.
Sadly I left the Caribbean paradise today. I spent a bit of the morning in the spa. A little time in the warm, but not hot jacuzzi. Then I moved to the hot Roman bath. I got a bit too warm and had to chill in the cold bath. I…
Another relaxing day today. I played cornhole and lost. I had lunch at the beach grill again. They grilled lobster and had someone cutting open coconuts (obviously adding rum to the water). I went snorkeling near the beach. I saw a skate or stingray that was fairly small. I also saw…
This morning I started my day with a spin class in the pool. I need to get one of these bikes. Lunch at the beach grill was great. They had steak and shrimp. I had to go back for seconds. So far my best meals have been on the beach. I got a few…