London, England -- September 1st & 2nd, 2009 We arrived in London the morning of August 31st, and although we had little rest, never-the-less we signed up for one of those tours where you can jump on and off at different sights within a 24 hour period. It is a great way to get a quick overview. September 1st, we are off first for Buckingham Palace. There are different tours that one can take; we chose the State Room tour. A tour that I would recommend to anyone, unfortunately you are not permitted to take pictures once in the Palace so [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop after Melbourne was Cairns, several days on Dunk Island and trips to the Great Barrier Reef. While Adelaide and Melbourne were coping with 6 years of drought and fires, the northern portion of Australia was struggling with flooding. The flooding was so extreme that when we travelled to the Great Barrier Reef it was foggy and I didn't bother to get my pictures developed. The Reef was an hour out to sea from Dunk Island and yet the rivers were carrying so much silt that this far out to sea that visiblity was limited. This was our 2nd [View Full Entry]

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On February 7th we can claim to have been in the hotest city in the world which was Melbourne. The tempature was 46.4 C or 115F. I don't know what the effect of wind would be but if it is -10C and there is a wind it will feel and the impact will be as if the tempature were colder i.e. -20C (Windchill). There must be the same effect with heat, for on the day the tempature rose to 46.4C there was a very strong wind and it felt as if there was a very huge and strong hair dryer on [View Full Entry]

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I will have to go back and post some additional pictures, since upon review I did not post some of the better shots taken in and around Sydney; but we will hold this for a later posting. On Febuary 1st we flew from Sydney to Adelaide. The entire week before, Adelaide and South Australia had tempatures of 40C+. In the summer time South Australians are accustomed to 40 C for one or two days but then a break with the tempature declining into the 30's but never a full week of 40C and higher. For the four days we were in [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Brisbane on January 25, 2009; rented a car and set out to drive to Sydney along the Gold Coast. This was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road. It not that difficult if you rememberr that as the driver you should always be closest to the driver coming in the opposite direction. My biggest problem was with the turn-signals and the windshield wipers. At home the turn signal is on the left side of the steering wheel. Well in Australia, it is on the right; the result was that frequently when I went [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop after French Polynesia was the Kingdom of Tonga. From there we we suppose to travel to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, unfortunately the Cook Islands were being hammered by a hurricane, so the Captain wisely decided to take a long detour and sail directly to Vavau Tonga. I did discover one thing in the 31/2 days at sea and that is that Mare has a stronger stomach than I do. If one wishes to visit an island in the South Pacific that is still under developed with regard to the tourist trade, I would recommend Tonga. Another day [View Full Entry]

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On the start of our trip from Papeete Tahiti to Brisbane Australia, I was unable to download pictures. Hopefully I have fixed the problem and will now be able to share some of the sites we visited. [View Full Entry]

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Fiji Another day at sea but fortunately the seas had calmed down a bit. Our next stop was Savusavu Fiji. As the ship approaches you pass a number of smaller islands and enter a lager bay. We took a cab ride around part of the island with one stop being where there was boiling water bubbling up from the ground. A woman was there cooking chicken in a pot, then back to town and a brief stop in an open restaurant/bar to listen to a very good singer. Our next stop was Suva, which is the capital of Fiji, and a [View Full Entry]

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Tonga I am still unable to include pictures: in the interim I will plublish some commentary and add the pictures once we return home. The original schedule was one day of sailing to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. The captain informed us that a large storm was battering the Cook Islands and that we would be detouring away from that area and that our next port of call would be Vavau, Tonga. What he didn’t mention is that this is the typhoon season in the South Pacific. Well after 3!/2 days we finally arrived. The [View Full Entry]

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Tahiti Tahiti equals relaxation, particularly for someone escaping winter in Toronto We arrived early January 5th 2009 and relaxed for the next two days in Papeete before boarding the Paul Gauguin. Todate we have visited Moorea, Bora Bora and today we are visiting Taha’a. Tomorrow we are at sea all day arriving next at Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Then it is another two days at sea before we arrive at Vavau, Tinga. After another day at sea we reach Fiji stopping at Savusavu and Yasawa. Back to sea for another two days before we arrive at Noumea, New Caledonia. Finally [View Full Entry]

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