Blogs from open water, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Captains Log Tuesday day 1 of P&O cruise sailing 4pm from Cairns to PNG.We had organised to board at 2pm but arrived at 1pm, hot and sweaty from the 1 km walk along Lake St from our motel. We were swiftly ushered from bag drop, to inside, to this spot and that by a very efficient local team of people dressed in blue and white check shirts. Within 30 minutes we were on board and in our cabin. Score 1. Score 2 our cabin which is on deck 4, room 4011 which is the wheel chair room. So huge, massive open space with 4 portholes, couch, desk. Only down side is we can feel all the ups and downs and bangs being right up the front. Next stop The Pantry which is the buffet dining option ... read more

Our third week in Brisbane was routine by now. We got to try the local version of domino's pizza. I'm not sure if it's the same company (logo looks the same) but they had some seriously gourmet pizzas with awesome thin crust. The academic night that we went to with the residents had food again - lots of different and awesome pizzas! I've concluded that aside from having more prevalence of fish and chips and meat pies, Australian food is exactly the same as American: pizza, Asian, burgers, etc. There was one exciting(ish) thing we crossed off the list last week- we rode the city CAT. Their winding river that wends through the city has a nice little ferry system that you can ride as public transportation, or for fun as some pensioners on the boat ... read more

Hi there, Finally, a non-bumping bed, I had a great night. After breakfast, we got our stuff and walked to the centre of Port Douglas. It turned out to be a beautiful shopping street with lots of cute hippie shops with lots of small things. So after a cup of coffee, we split up. My dad and brother went for a walk to the lookout point and to the beach, while the girls could fo for a little shopping, and we would meet for lunch. So we ran in and out all those hippie shops for bracelets, necklaces, asian coins, and little presents for our friends. After an hour of shopping, we met at a bar to have some lunch. I had a mexican pizza with chilli con carne, nachos, guacamole, sour cream and jalapeños on ... read more

Hi there mates, After a better night of sleeping, I still had a headache and was a little dizzy, so I decided to skip the early morning dive (6:30 am!!) and get myself ready for the second dive at 09:00 am. And again, a turle here!! So great! I called her Jessy Jessy was floating above the reef, eating coral, not bothering that we were looking at her. Also saw some butterfly fish, harlequin sweetlips, long fin emperor and humbug damsels, which are one of my favorite fishes. They are so small, and are black and white striped, they live with min 2 together on one piece of coral and when a diver comes close, one of them comes forward to 'protect' the nest. Love them. The third and last dive, I decided not to do, ... read more

Queen Mary Day 6 A day of excitement and rush. An earlier breakfast so thousands could disembark to do various tours, sightseeing and just about nothing. We chose the just about nothing. Once breakfast had concluded we had to go to the “tender allocation” spot collect a boarding pass number and wait to be called. There were 8 of the side tenders, also known as lifeboats, in use and they hold 120 persons. Also employed were two local boats that held around 300 persons. A trip to shore lasted about 25-30 minutes and we were nearly two hours in the waiting area. At the dock at Yorkey’s Knob we waited for 25 seater buses to shuttle us into Cairns a further 20 minutes away. Once in Cairns we had a bite to eat for lunch, found ... read more