Day 57 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 11/22/16 - Katoomba - Day 5

Today's word was cleanup. It was time to do all the things we hadn't done in our prior four days. Since the aboriginal dance program didn't start until 10am, we had a leisurely morning including yet another visit to the Three Sisters and several gift shops. There were only seven of us attending the Waradah Cultural Center performance, but it was still cool to see it again after seeing it on a HAL shore excursion a little over a month earlier.

We hopped on the Explorer Bus (the drivers are now recognizing us by sight) and rode it over to Leura to enjoy some tea at the Bygone Beauties Tea Shop and Museum. The museum is home to over 5,000 teapots. After a tea break we rode the Explorer Bus back around to Katoomba where we checked out the Blue Mountains Cultural Center. It had a powerful AV display of the local culture and history along with a nice gallery of drawings, paintings, and etchings by local artists. The library was also a part of the complex and had good free WIFI.  

My wife was in search of a book for a friend back home, so we hopped back in the Explorer Bus and rode back to Leura (a 1/2 hour ride). We got off at stop 21, found the book, and rejoined the same bus at stop 26 at the other end of town a few minutes later. The driver was sure surprised to see us so soon! We rode back to Katoomba and found dinner at the wood fired pizza place next to the railway station. The Kangaroo pizza was excellent. We then walked the two miles back to our motel with a stop at the Aldi grocery store to purchase some breakfast provisions.

And all too soon, our 5 days in Katoomba came to an end. We plan to catch the Wednesday morning 8:15am train for the Sydney Central Station where we'll transfer to an airport train.

Observations and Recommendations 

I heartily recommend coming to Katoomba and spending 5 days. There's much to do and a car really isn't needed. The Explorer Bus with the Lyre Package gives one a days entrance to Scenic World (a very nice tourist type stop with imbedded culture as a part) and unlimited rides on their very cool rides. There's also a ticket to the Waradah Aboriginal performance. The bus connects well with many bush walks, and we took most of them.

The Echo Point Motel is a good value accommodation that's clean and comfortable but it's not the Hilton. What it has going for it is location: It's minutes from 3 Sisters and there is an Explorer bus stop right in front of it. The internet is free.  

That's all for this segment of our journey. I hope you have enjoyed following along. Our next stop for a few days is Melbourne.

Day 56 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 11/21/16 - Katoomba - Day 4

Today's plan was to walk to the Scenic World Tramway and visit this incredibly popular tourist attraction and then visit some other locations we hadn't seen yet. So off we headed on a quasi-bush walk from Echo Point. It was weird to be there with very few other tourists. The walk along the cliff was very pretty and the gondola ride was spectacular with great views of Katoomba Falls and the Jamison Valley. We also met Susie, one of the Maasdam's singers who was up here for the day as a tourist. At Scenic World we transferred to the world's steepest railroad for a ride down into the valley and rainforest. The seats are adjustable to increase the thrill factor, and we positioned them for the maximum thrill. At a 52° drop angle, it was a steep and thrilling ride. At the bottom there is a boardwalk throughout the rainforest. We walked virtually all of it before riding the inclined railway back up. After a quick refreshment break, we rode the gondola back across the Falls and then walked back over the falls and took the cable car down and back up before catching the Explorer Bus to the Everglades Gardens. 

At the Gardens, the ticket agent was a serious motorcyclist so we had some good conversation about motorcycles and riding. He's rode a KLR650 all over the US and Canada. The 13 acre gardens were built in the 1930's by a rich Belgian Industrialist and were pretty amazing. The Gardens are now owned by a Trust and kept up by volunteers. It was a little thrilling to encounter signs 'Watchout for Copperhead snakes. Move slowly.' We got back on the Explorer and rode it around to the Bear Gallery and toured it. We walked to the Shuttle Stop Take Out and enjoyed Aussie Burgers and chips for dinner. On the walk back to our motel we stopped at the chocolate Factory which was a bit underwhelming.  

We finished our day watching the X Factor results show, an Australian talent competition, and I also took pictures of all of the ship's daily programs so I wouldn't need to pack the heavy paper home.

Tomorrow will be a cleanup day where we'll visit the venues we've not seen yet. 

Day 55 - Downunder 2016 - Sun - 11/20/16 - Katoomba - Day 3

Today's word was bushwalk as well. We fixed our own continental breakfast before heading out to catch our Explorer Bus. A few blocks from our hotel is Echo Point with magnificent views of the Three Sisters. But all the tourists could see today was thick fog. That had to be a disappointment for all those on tour busses where their 15 minute visit was obscured. We ride our bus to the Leura Cascades stop that we ended our walk at yesterday.  

The fog was pretty much gone at Leura Cascades by the time we got there and we started our bush walk with the goal of walking to Gordon Falls, the Pool of Siloam, and Lyre Bird Dell. The trail today was in much poorer condition and had lots more stairs and steps, but the views were not disappointing! We even encountered a pair of lyrebirds, more cockatoos, lots of butterflies, a small lizard and one foot long lizard plus Aboriginal cave dwellings. In a he first part of the walk there were a number of other people, but in the latter part, there were few to none.  

Along the way we had a very pleasant encounter with some young German tourists who were up here for the day.

At stop 20, we reboarded the Explorer Bus and rode it around to stop 1 where we bought a unique gift item for one of our children and then walked to the Gingerbread Cafe before reboarding the Explorer Bus back to our motel just as the thunderstorm was starting. It was about two hours earlier than yesterday.

Tomorrow we are going to Scenic World to ride the aerial tram, the cable car, and world's steepest inclined railway, plus a rainforest exploration. It should be fun.

While the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.

Day 54 - Downunder 2016 - Sat - 11/19/16 - Katoomba - Day 2

Today's word was bushwalk. We donned our walking clothing and backpacks and headed out after 9am from our motel and walked down the hill to Echo Point. We visited the Visitor Center and gathered some more intelligence about our proposed bushwalk along the edge of the hillside.

While the views from Echo Point of the 3 Sisters are terrific, there were even more as we walked towards the Leura Cascades (essentially a creek that cascades down over some spectacular rock formations with lots of white cockatoos sailing around) which was some 4 miles away. We were able to walk out to the first of the Three Sisters (down a series of narrow and steep stairs), Honeymoon Point, and many other scenic viewpoints. At Leura Cascades we caught the Explorer Bus to Leura where we found an inexpensive takeaway restaurant to eat lunch and use WIFI.  

We then walked back to the Railway and Toy museum and viewed an impressive collection of antique toys, trains, dolls, and much more! There was a wedding in the 12 acre garden and in that garden was an outdoor model train set in a model of the Matterhorn plus a whole building displaying more model trains! Across the street in a park ($2AUD entry fee) was a giant statute of Olive Oil, Popeye's girlfriend.

When we got on the Explorer Bus to take us back to Katoomba, onboard there were two fellows from Hawaii who were on our cruise on the Maasdam. They had come up for the day. It was fun to see them and chat a bit.

We shopped in Katoomba for some Christmas presents, and viewed some of the street art paintings on the sides of buildings and noted some places we wanted to return to. Walked back to our motel with a stop at the takeaway store/restaurant for another inexpensive meal. Just as we reached our motel the thunder and lightning began in earnest and we were able to enjoy it from the picture window in our room and rest up our feet from what turned out to be a total of some 7 plus miles of walking.

We have more bushwalking plans for tomorrow, but that tale will have to wait.

Day 53 - Downunder 2016 - Fri - 11/18/16 - Sydney Disembarkation

Our cruise was finally over today. We woke up at Sydney's Circular Quay to the sounds of the mooring line motors and propellers. We did our absolute final packing and went up to the Lido for a final breakfast.

For the uninitiated, HAL uses a color coded luggage tag system to spread out the passenger disembarkation. We, for example, were Yellow 1 with a time of 9-9:30am. We were surprised when we were called at a little after 8am. We said our goodbyes to our wonderful cabin attendants, Yudha and Ewa and made our way off the ship. No passport inspection was need as we did that on board before Geraldton. However, Angela was selected for a full inspection of her luggage and backpack which went fine. We picked up our wooden items which we had to surrender onboard for inspection by the Aussies and walked down the familiar pier at Circular Quay to the nearby train station. The Maasdam was glistening in the Sydney sunshine and with the Opera House in the background. It's always been a little melancholy for me when we disembark a ship knowing it's heading on to new adventures without us. But we hacs a different set of our own adventures ahead of us.

We purchased a couple of $20AUD Opal Cards at a newspaper shop to use the train system to get to Katoomba. It was $8.20 to travel to Katoomba. One 'taps on and off' which makes for a very efficient system. We took the train to Central Station where we changed trains to the one for Katoomba and the Blue Mountains. Since we were early for the hourly departure, we got lovely seats on the upper level. We've found the Australian trains to be clean and neat, and this one was no exception. Two hours later we arrived in Katoomba and purchased our Explorer Bus ticket which is valid for up to 7 days and has some nice extra tourist type activities associated with it.  

We found it could be used to reach our motel, the Echo Point Motel, and we checked in, left our luggage behind, and headed down to Echo Point for some lunch before reboarding the hop on hop off bus to ride it around on its full circuit to get a feel for the area. We got off the bus at the first stop and wandered around Katoomba with its quaint little shops and one impressive vintage hotel, the Carrington. We decided to walk back to the motel (about 2 miles downhill). Along the way we found an Aldi grocery for some breakfast supplies and a nice Chinese restaurant (Canton Palace) plus we found a little cafe (Shuttle Stop Corner Cafe).

In our review of what we might do while up here, it's working out that we'll do a number of bush walks Which will allow us to absorb a lot of views of the beautiful scenery of the Blue Mountains.  Since we like to walk, that really appeals to us.

Day 52 - Downunder 2016 - Thu - 11/17/16 - At Sea to Sydney

Today was our final day at sea. It's hard to believe we've been on the ship for 52 days so far and we'll conclude with 53 total days. Today was our last devotional time with Rev. Barry and his wife, Julia, who played the electric piano. I read the gospel passage from Mark 15:33-37. There was the wonderful Filipino crew show at 10:30 followed by a mass crew choir singing 'We are the World'. Then for the first time in many cruises we took time to substantially complete all our packing.  

We hadn't seen our friends, Ann and John for a few days, and after Angela returned a book to them we learned that John had been quite sick. On this cruise I haven't observed a lot of coughing, but it's been there nevertheless.  

We've really liked sailing on the Maasdam. For us, it's a near perfect size ship. It was an easy two story stair climb from our room to the Rotterdam dining room for dinner. The 11th floor Lido has not been overcrowded and the Lido Market approach to service really works well. There were sufficient activities to keep us engaged on sea days without feeling too much that we were missing something by not participating in all of them. In general the ship appears to be well maintained with the possible exception of a lingering sewage smell outside our cabin which we discussed with our stateroom attendant, Yudha. During the trans-Pacific and early part of the circumnavigation, substantial sections of the hallway and stair carpeting have been replaced.

Things that concern us a bit are:

 The librarian's position is being eliminated. We understand this to be a fleet wide change.

The shipboard internet continues to be slow and expensive. We ended up purchasing an Australian SIM card ($30AUD for a month with 3 gigs of data) and also use a Glocalme SIM CARD simulator $10AUD for 1 gig of data useable within 30 days (a real bargain).

There is pressure to reduce or eliminate the lectures and/or interdenominational devotional and worship times. We feel these are quite important on the longer cruises with sea days.

We hear rumors the Maasdam has been sold. Between the Captain and other crew, nobody has confirmed this. This ship has itineraries scheduled through 2018.

There was a bit of repeat on entertainment and movies because of this being a Collector Cruise. This should be able to be easily fixed, but I have doubts it will be.

 

This afternoon the BBC Earth game show was debuted on this ship. The questions asked seemed to be the same as we experienced on our Koningsdam cruise earlier this year, so that will need to be addressed due to the high number of HAL repeat cruisers. Dr. Wright gave his final astronomy presentation to a standing ovation that was well deserved.

 

After dinner tonight in the Rotterdam Dining Room, the bar servers and kitchen staff sang a farewell song in Indonesian. Patrick McMahon presented yet his third show this cruise. It was clearly his best of three shows (all of which were high energy). He also brought Kara, the HAL Cats vocalist, on stage to do an amazing cover of the Neil Diamond/Barbara Streisand song, 'You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore'. His show was so good that we came back for the last half (the best part) of it after watching the night's movie, Disney Films' Oceans which was good.

About 11:50pm we put out our packed suitcases, and started a very short night before disembarkation.  

While the destination is important, remember to savor the journey.

Day 51 - Downunder 2016 - Wed - 11/16/16 - Melbourne

It was really good to dock in Melbourne once again after being away for a couple of years. We walked off the ship a bit after 8am and walked the long cruise terminal which also serves as the terminal for the Spirit of Tasmania which makes a daily run to Devenport, east of Burnie. We had a short wait for our Exchange daughter, E (I want to protect her privacy), that lived with us for a year in 1995. It was great to see her again and catch up in person. She had taken the day off of work to chauffeur us around for the day.  

It turned out that she had planned a trip to take us to the Peninsula Hot Springs. So off we drove south of the city to the luxurious hot springs where we thoroughly enjoyed soaking in the various hot pools and continuing to reminisce. After a couple hours of this, it was time to head back to the ship with a stop at the Chapter 16 bakery for a quick lunch, and a stop at her son's school to pick him up. Then we made it back to the ship about 3:45pm for our 4:30pm onboard time.

We watched the sailaway from the Crow's Nest out the narrow channel until taking a break for dinner before resuming our watch of the sailaway. This we did because the CD announced that there would be no cast show and Annie Gong (whom we had seen twice before on this cruise) would be performing this night. As we cleared the bay, there was a very strong current between the. At and the open ocean. We reduced speed significantly, allowed the pilot to depart, made a sharp port turn, and re-accelerated to cruising speed for our journey to Sydney.

We watched a great movie about the 2002 Melbourne Cup. It was very inspiring.

While the destination is important, don't forget to savor the journey.