http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kip-and-Frank/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kip and Frank en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:46:05 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:46:05 +0000 Happy Thanksgiving yesterday but itrsquod be today for the folks back home in the USA.So after last nightrsquos late night with the crew we thought waking up at 550 am would make for a rough early morning SCUBA dive. After dragging ourselves out of bed and brushing our teeth we set off for the sun deck for our morning dive briefing. Barely half of the crew was awake to assist but it w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/open-water/blog-349468.html We booked our dive trip with Deep Sea Divers Den based on recommendations made by Frank's dive master Terry and also because they hold a 5star PADI rating. As we found out late in our planning process the best way to experience the Great Barrier Reef is to plan liveaboards where you go 24 hours out to sea and live aboard a large hotellike vessel that is fully equipped with all the dive ge http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/open-water/blog-349480.html We had an early 530a wakeup call today so that we could grab the 615a bus to the airport for our 900a flight to Sydney. We flew Air New Zealand and as with Qantas we found them to have the same great onboard service that we used to have on US flights many moons ago. For breakfast we had a choice between a hot breakfast of potatoeggs with bacon or the continental breakfast with cereal y http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Cairns-City/blog-349487.html After the weather forecast looked to improve today we decided to get out of town. We took the AirBus out to the airport the AirBus runs every 15minutes from the downtown area of Auckland to the domestic and international terminals at Aucklandrsquos airport.Once we arrived at the airport a short 35 minutes later we picked up our Daihatsu economy car with manual stickshift. It was a flashy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-348756.html So we fell asleep last night to a wet windy and rainy Auckland. We woke this morning to that same Auckland so decided to have a lowkey laundry day.After dropping off our laundry at a nearby laundry service we walked around the central business district a bit and the KrsquoRoad area. This is a bar area of Auckland complete with some interesting shops. We popped into an army surplus store a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/Central/blog-348752.html We arrived at Tauranga at 545am. No worries we definitely were not up at the time. Tauranga is NZ's ninth largest city and growing fast. The population is close to 110 thousand and the city has tripled in size in the last 25 years. Due to its sheltered position on the east coast the city enjoys a warm dry climate. It's become a popular location to retire to but during the summer months th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Bay-of-Plenty/Tauranga/blog-347504.html The result of a compromise between the North and South Islands Wellington became the capital of NZ in 1865 replacing Auckland that had been the capital since 1841. The city is located on the southern tip of the North Island and is the country's second largest city. Due to it's omnipresent winds the city is also affectionately known as Windy Wellington. It was named to honor Arthur Wellesle http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Wellington/blog-347500.html Today we're technically at sea all day as we make our way to White Island Volcano for a two hour stop this evening. White Island is an active volcano situated 48km from the east coast of the North Island in the Bay of Plenty. The island is about 2km in diameter and rises 320m above sea level while the rest of the mountain actually rises 1600m above the seafloor. The volcano had major eruptions http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-347502.html Christchurch is the South Islandrsquos largest city and New Zealandrsquos second largest city.Once we arrived at the Lyttelton Harbor we again boarded a shuttle bus that took us downtown. Once downtown we went to the information center to view other options for the day. The information center rented bicycles so we opted to mount our 24speed bicycles and pedaled around for the day. We chos http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-347497.html We arrived into the Port Chalmers this morning. The port has the typical shipyard containers and stacks of trees prepped from nearby logging operations. Port Chalmers is the closest point to dock for Dunedin. Dunedin is the second largest city on the South Island of New Zealand and the principal city of the region of Otago. It is also New Zealandrsquos 5th largest city in terms of population http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Dunedin/blog-347495.html Today we woke from the rocking of the ship to smooth sailing into Milford Sound. The massive Millennium slowed to a crawl as we entered into the massive fjord. We quickly jumped out bed and grabbed our camerashellipThe morning was narrated by Naturalist Craig Ward who was somewhere near the bridge with a set of highpowered binoculars. He spotted wildlife and would make announcements over the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Milford-Sound/blog-347493.html Today was another day at sea. We are a little farther along the Tasman Sea and it is a rainy day. It was also another great day to sleep inThe day began with another visit to the gym and lunch in the Ocean Caf.Today was not a Bingo day so we decided to take in the movie ldquoJunordquo at the shiprsquos cinema. Of course we enjoyed seeing the movie again but the older crowd didnrsquot http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-347492.html After boarding the ship yesterday eating and then exploring the ship we ended up sleeping in a bit. Granted the onehour time change made it seem a lot later than it actually was but rolling out of bed at noon was one of our first opportunities to SLEEP IN It was also a rainy and overcast day so it adds to the sleeping in mentality. Today is a day at sea so the usual onboard activities http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-347490.html Across the street from the hotel is a McDonald's and most of them in Sydney have free WiFi. So we managed to conveniently connect to their network and used it to bring our blog up to date. Thank you McDonald's.We checked out at noon and then hopped on the train to Circular Quay where we found the impressive Celebrity Millennium cruise ship waiting for us in Sydney Harbour. We turned our bags ov http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-345253.html Today is our flight back to Sydney. We left the hotel around 10am and caught the bus to Perth airport domestic departures. It was nice going through security without having to take our shoes off. Although Frank managed to get called back by security for the bomb sniffing test while waiting for Kip to come through security. So much for being a nice guy next time we'll rendez vous at the gate. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Darling-Harbour/blog-345248.html Today we took the Rottnest Express over to Rottnest Island. We rented bicycles for the day and spent the day cycling around the island. Rottnest has 63 beaches and 20 bays on an island which is approximately 10.5 km long and 4.5 km at its widest point. The roads around Rottnest are limited to a very few number of tour buses and bicycles.It was a cool day ideal for biking but maybe not warm en http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Rottnest-Island/blog-344861.html We arrived at the East Perth train station in the morning and took a taxi to our hotel. Although it was too early to checkin we were able to store our bags. Perth is the capital of Western Australia and Australia's 4th largest city. It is the most isolated capital in the world according to the locals.After checking our bags at the hotel we bolted over to the Barrack Street Pier where we wer http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/blog-344854.html We're really getting an appreciation for how vast Australia is. As the train keeps trekking across this island continent it's obvious to see why 95 of the population lives along coastal cities the interior is dry rocky and flat with little to no vegetation for as far as the eye can see for 100s of km in every direction. The steady rocking of the train while taking in this huge vastness is hy http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Kalgoorlie/blog-344073.html So let's get something really clear the food aboard the train is really good Not some frozen stuff that they microwave and plop in front of you it's excellent restaurant quality with service to match. While you're enjoying dinner they make your beds and after dinner last night we were in bed by 1030pm.All things considered we slept relatively well but we're going to have to do something a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Broken-Hill/blog-344055.html After a lazy morning sleeping in and packing we set off for Central Station to board the IndianPacific train to Perth. When we booked this part of the trip we decided to splurge a little and booked the Gold class service. This provided us with our own sleeper cabin complete with full bath and gourmet breakfastlunchdinner.As you can see from the pictures the cabin didn't have much elbow ro http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-344032.html