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 cameras… The morning was narrated by Naturalist Craig Ward who was somewhere near the bridge with a set of high-powered binoculars. He spotted wildlife and would make announcements over the ship’s intercom system. During the sailing of Milford Sound, we were treated to some penguins and seals along the shore with numerous breeds of birds circling overhead. The views were a [View Full Entry]

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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 in! The day began with another visit to the gym and lunch in the Ocean Café. Today was not a Bingo day so we decided to take in the movie “Juno” at the ship’s cinema. Of course we enjoyed seeing the movie again, but the older crowd didn’t seem to laugh as much as we did. Frank finished his book “Night Fall” and Kip gambled. (Frank wasn’t pleased with his ending…and for [View Full Entry]

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After boarding the ship yesterday, eating, and then exploring the ship, we ended up sleeping in a bit. Granted, the one-hour 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 on-board activities were plentiful. Today we are traversing the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. A whole lot of grey hovering over a deep blue ocean… [View Full Entry]

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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 over to Celebrity, checked in, went through customs, boarded the ship and were in our cabin (#9173) enjoying a complimentary glass of champagne by 2pm. This will be [View Full Entry]

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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. We <heart> Qantas! They actually served a hot meal duriing our 3.5 hr flight back to Sydney. The choices were chicken stir fry or spaghetti - we both got [View Full Entry]

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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 enough for a swim. We did, however, wade in the Indian Ocean for a few prior to heading back to Perth. Today was Frank's birthday so [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the East Perth train station in the morning and took a taxi to our hotel. Although it was too early to check-in, 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 were able to catch the 10:30 am "Cruising the Swan Tour". We had missed the bus but the staff at the pier was able to radio the [View Full Entry]

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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 hypnotizing. We're constantly eating it seems. Meals are served in two shifts; we're in the later shift. By the time we get back to our cabin from one meal, [View Full Entry]

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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 10:30pm. All things considered, we slept relatively well but we're going to have to do something about the rattling bathroom door. The day aboard the train starts early, by 7am you're up and awake whether you want to be or not. But we didn't come all the way [View Full Entry]

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After a lazy morning sleeping in and packing, we set off for Central Station to board the Indian-Pacific 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 breakfast/lunch/dinner. As you can see from the pictures, the cabin didn't have much elbow room and the bathroom had, shall we say, extremely good use of space. Stainless steel fold out sink and toilet combined with the train's rattle-and-shake would make for some very interesting and [View Full Entry]

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