Goodbye to the Cruise Ship - Hello to Australia!

Today we were kicked off the boat – the honeymoon is over, as they say!  We have walked the proverbial gangplank and are now landbound!  Okay, enough with the metaphors already!  I can’t believe a month has already gone by.  Now the real trip begins!   Daron and I were on deck when we sailed into Sydney Harbor, right at sunrise, which was amazing!  It was beautiful and quiet – such a special time to be there, before the city woke up.   We hung out on the boat until we had to leave, and didn’t have any trouble getting through customs, even though we had been warned that they were tough (they want to make sure no foreign species are inadvertently brought here).  We showed them everything we declared (chocolates from the boat, kava from Fiji, a wooden magnet from Samoa) and they let us through with all of it.  We caught a taxi to our hotel where we left our luggage until our room was ready, then headed to the main part of town to check out the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera House, etc.  While walking we saw lorikeets in the trees (so colorful and look sort of like small parrots), as well as wild cockatoos!   It was a beautiful day to walk around, at least up until about 2pm when a huge storm blew through.  Thunder so loud it sounded like explosions, along with lightning and sheets of rain!  We must have brought it with us from New Zealand, darn it.  Eventually we made our way back to our hotel to check in, only to find our room was smaller than the room on the ship, if that’s possible.  No exaggeration!  Our goal now is to explore Sydney for the four days we’re booked at the tiny room hotel, then on to Cairns in the north to buy a car so we can drive down the Gold Coast of Australia, taking about two months to see it all.

Final thoughts regarding the trip so far and our time on the ship…it was a very enjoyable way to start off our trip.  Being on the boat was so easy – we didn’t have to think about where we were going to stay each night or what we were going to eat.  The employees were fabulous!  We enjoyed getting to know many of them during our month at sea – a couple of favorites were Max from Ukraine who served warm cookies and milk in the afternoon (yum!), and Monica from Romania who worked the coffee bar in the morning.  All of the employees work seven days a week, with a half a day off each week.  They seem fine with it (at least that's what they told us), since there’s not much to do while they’re on the ship. We used to think about working on a cruise ship, many years ago, so it was nice to get the “scoop” about how it really is.  All of their stories were interesting to hear.  We enjoyed meeting many of our fellow passengers, who were from all over the world. It was such an international mix of people, from the crew to the passengers - everyone was friendly and got along great!  It was inspiring to see and be a part of. 

A few things I learned while on the ship:  1) Just because there's plenty of healthy food available, doesn't mean I'm going to eat it when there's other unhealthy yet tasty options available (never pass up pasta!), 2) warm peanut butter cookies are just as yummy as chocolate chip ones, 3) I can actually run on a treadmill without holding on while the ship is rocking at sea, and 4) a month is the longest amout of time I want to be on a ship (Daron, AKA Mr. Cruise, and I are actually in agreement on this one!).  The two of us are still getting along great and feel just as committed to making this trip work as we were when we first got on the boat. We’re looking forward to exploring Australia and seeing how things go now that we’re on our own. 

Much more to come!