This year the Oceania Athletics Championships are in Townsville starting on June 24th. As we have no long overseas trips planned for this year we have decided to venture into the heart of our own country and visit some places neither of us have been to yet. Hence on Tuesday we are heading off in our trusty Mazda 3 for points north. We have planned out our trip to Townsville and have booked ahead, ( no pulling caravans!!) and are looking forward to seeing the Outback and especially, Uluru. I have visited many of the landmarks of the world , but not this icon of my own country! I will try and keep my blog and share our experiences and photos as we wander north!... read more

We had one day at sea after we left Cabo and the most exciting thing that happened that day was that we finally won the quiz!! We had been tied twice before and lost on a tie breaker and had been close several times but this day we cracked it. Our friends from the UK,Helena and Mark Smith,were great and we got 12/15 on a fairly tough set of questions. Much to our delight we were the last team with hands up when they called the number 12 . The prize was a Mimosa each( champagne and orange) but it was the honour and the glory that mattered. The next morning we arrived into San Diego. We all had to present ourselves with passports and forms in hand to custom inspectors on board but that went ... read more

On Wednesday morning we rrived into Puerto Quetzal about 9am.This is the gateway to Guatemala for most ships and cargo.. Our included tour today was to be 6 hours in length so we were prepared for a long bus ride before reaching our destination, the city of Antigua. This had been the capital in colonial times and contained many beautiful old buildings. To get there was an almost two hour bus trip into the central highlands of Guatemala. On board the bus we were pleased to find a lunch bag containing two rolls, two packets of chips and an apple each. This would keep the hungry bugs at bay. We had also brought our books in case the trip was boring. We left at 10am and headed inland. Our guide, Jose, talked to us about the ... read more

Friday morning we awoke early to find we were alreaady entering the Panama Canal. On Deck 3 forward they were serving coffee and a crowd had gathered to watch as we approached the first set of locks. These are the Gatun Locks and there was a cruise ship ahead of us. We watched as the Norwegian Jade gradually rose in front of us. It was a slow process so after coffee I retreated back to the cabin to watch from our balcony.I was not feeling the best and once we were through the first set of locks and into the large lake I went back to bed while Fletcher headed upstairs for some breakfast. I could still see the passing scenery through our floor to ceiling windows.Traversing the canal takes all day so we discovred back ... read more

On Saturday morning we awoke to find that we were sailing into Santiago de Cuba harbour. We watched from our balcony as the morning sun glistened on the water and the green hills drifted past. The sight was interrupted though by a large power station spewing out brown smoke from it’s chimney covering the distant mountains with a smoggy haze. The harbour is very large with a narrow entrance and it is easy to see why the Spaniards chose this place to build the colony as it is well protected, especially by the 16thcentury fort overlooking the entrance. We docked about 10am and again we could watch all this process from our balcony on the port side of the ship. Our tour was not leaving until 11-45 so we had plenty of time for breakfast and ... read more