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.