Pinky and Perky World Cruise #3 on Arcadia

[Pinky and Perky]

Auckland 21st February 2014.

Part 2.


No tour needed as we know Auckland very well from previous air and sea visits.
At first a little shopping and then a walk over a new bridge to our favourite seafood restaurant at the fish market.
On the way a few photos of some very expensive looking yachts also the Sky Tower in day light.

[Pinky and Perky]

Auckland 21st February 2014.

Part 3.

Lunch.

Some fish, we are always surprised at the variety of the fish, some unknown to us at home.
This was labeled cooked crayfish.......more like a very big lobster to us.

John Dory.

Granddaddy  Hapuka, never seen fish like this before.

A trip to our favourite supermarket and purchases of two 3 litre boxes of New Zealand red and white wine and a 6 pack of my favourite New Zealand black beer, Monteith's made from 5 malts.
WOW set up for a nice sail to Sydney!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some small ships and looking towards the suburbs of Devonport and Auckland's tall ship the Spirit of New Zealand.

The William C Daldy.

What a great city, port and Country, loved it.
We will be back maybe by air real soon, for a longer stay I think.

[Pinky and Perky]

Sydney, Australia, 25 and 26th February 2014.

What a port, harbour, city and country, we just love Sydney.
Sydney just takes the biscuit from Auckland, but so very, very close.
I have so many photos so will post in batches as Photobucket is playing up for me when uploading the photos.

Part 1.
It was an early morning arrival so some photos in the dark.

If you look to the left of the Opera house you can see some lights, a surprise appeared.......it was Pacific Princess following us again!!!!!!!!!!!

Pacific Princess appearing out of the dark early morning.

Out for our first walk around and a photo of Arcadia and the Sydney Opera house.

First visit for us was a trip to China town which we love.
Kanya had her first taste of real Thai food for one and a half months.
We have visited this food court many times now in Sydney and the Thai owner of the restaurant remembers Kanya every time.
I had Chinese at this outlet in the same food court area.
It was incredibly good.

[Pinky and Perky]

Sydney, Australia, 25 and 26th February 2014.

Part 2.

With all that walking around China Town, shopping and eating it was time for my favourite pastime.

BEER.

This typical Aussie bar we have frequented before so we knew the local beers would be outstanding...and they were!!
A very nice and welcoming Aussie young lady also adds to the pleasure, don't you think!!
I love the second left beer called Constable (A Copper ale!!) crafted by James Squire a local Sydney brewing company.

We then started our way back to the ship to get ready for an evening ashore around the Circular Quay.

Missus O was in this street artists "frame".

It is really wonderful to have an overnight in port particularly one as beautiful as Sydney.
Here are some photos around Arcadia's berth.

Painting and tidy up in progress.

Passenger Overseas Terminal and Sydney harbour bridge in the background.

Sydney Opera House and a view towards CBD.

[Pinky and Perky]

Sydney, Australia, 25 and 26th February 2014.

Part 3.

The view from our cabin (port side) has been absolutely stunning.
How much would a view like this cost for 36 hours.
We have not drawn our curtains, good luck to any peeping toms!!

I returned to the cabin around 20.00pm to leave the camera so we could enjoy a nice meal ashore and a few drinks without worrying about forgetting the camera.
This was a photo I took, stars starting to come out and the Opera House looking magnificent.

A super nice seafood meal at one of many restaurants and then return to our balcony for brandy, or two and take in the magnificent view we had.

Next morning a very nice sunrise for our last day in Sydney.

We decided to head for Manly travelling by ferry from Circular Quay which turned out to be a very nice trip that we enjoyed in beautiful weather.
Manly is located a mere 7 miles north-east of Sydney and is considered the gateway to Sydney's beautiful Northern Beaches.

While waiting for the ferry I was surprised to see Amadea arrive and just managed to take 2 photos, the last a little late as I was fumbling to get the focus correct.

Our local ferry to Manly.

[Pinky and Perky]

Sydney, Australia, 25 and 26th February 2014.

Part 4.


This is our trip to Manly.

I know that lady!!!

Manly Wharf.

Manly beach.

A warning for "Blue Bottles...not the fly type but the jelly fish type"!!

Pacific Pearl departing.

[Pinky and Perky]

Melbourne, Australia, 28th February 2014.

Part 1.

This is our second visit to Melbourne.
The previous visit left us a little unimpressed with Melbourne partly because it followed a special 2 days in wonderful Sydney and also because it was a Sunday and followed some special event in town on the Saturday that left it rather untidy.
Not this time, it was a Friday with great weather and Melbourne looked just grand.

Here are some of the early morning sights as we sailed into Port Melbourne.

CBD,

Rush hour in full swing on the bridge linking north and south Melbourne.

These are hot air balloons giving folks a thrill while watching the sun rise over Melbourne.

Oosterdam followed Arcadia in making it a brace of Vista class ships.

[Pinky and Perky]

Melbourne, Australia, 28th February 2014.

Part2.



We decided to have a walking tour of Melbourne.
The trip into town was interesting.
We purchased a tram ticket which allowed us to hop on and off anywhere and on any route.
Many passengers opted for the coach down town (the same cost as the tram) which we remembered last time.
It had and still had a really silly idea of taking you by coach but it would not bring you back, the coach ran back empty!!
You had to catch the tram back and not from the stop the coach used to drop you off.
Melbourne city has a grid system and the trams had priority over any other vehicles.
The trams are safe, fast, clean and very reliable with many stops all announced by the driver, but in a very broad Aussie voice.

We headed for Elizabeth street stop which was just about bang in the middle of downtown Melbourne.
Had a walk around and then hopped onto another tram heading north to Queen Victoria market.

What a market, huge all types of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit and clothes and souvenirs.
It was massive and heaving with shoppers buying for the weekend.
We must have spent 2 hours walking the market then heading towards the "Greek Precinct" followed by "China Precinct" for another 2 hours walking.
By now the legs were going which meant time for a pit stop.
We headed back into the middle of the city using 2 more trams and then the 109 back to Port Melbourne.

Oosterdam and Arcadia.

We really did enjoy Melbourne this time.

[Pinky and Perky]

Adelaide, Australia, 2nd March 2014.
We arrived in Adelaide to a nice sunny day and a little warmer than Melbourne.

This is a view of the passenger terminal.

A little music from the Adelaide welcoming band called "The Old Gum Tree-o"

No tour for us as we were told the city roads were being used for today's V8 car races and also for a "Fringe" street show.
It was also Sunday and transfer into the city could take 1+ hour each way depending on traffic.

We decided to stay local and explore the Marina area.
It was very nice indeed.

We had lunch at the Marina restaurant and it was incredible.
In front 6 scallops in butter garlic.

Right back a platter of 6 chicken BBQ wings, a pot of 6 large prawns in garlic butter then 2 fresh oysters.
Australian Barossa rose wine.
What a lunch sitting looking out over the marina.

Arcadia.

This we really did enjoy and will remember this day in Adelaide.

Good-Bye

[Pinky and Perky]

Fremantle, Australia, 6th March 2014.

What a terrific sunny warm (later very hot) day in Freo (as the locals call it).

Queen Mary 2 was first in and as Arcadia was due last out had to settle for a berth behind the Queen.
Arcadia was unable to turn onto her berth due to container ships opposite restricting her turning space.

The Oberon class Submarine HMAS Ovens is an authentic Cold War-era vessel situated on Fremantle's historic World War II submarine slipway.

Queen Mary 2

We took the train into Perth and did the same trip we did 2 years ago and loved very much which was the river boat back to Fremantle.
Perth really is a very nice city, gets better each trip.

[Pinky and Perky]

Hey Seacruise is back!!

A number of days of not being able to load the site and no notification from the so called "Seacruise team" as to what was happening or that it was back on line!!!.

Hey we understand we are not worthy.

Phil I do not wish to continue with this blog.

Signing off now, this is the end.

[Chris in Inuvik]

Hey Seacruise is back!!

A number of days of not being able to load the site and no notification from the so called "Seacruise team" as to what was happening or that it was back on line!!!.

Hey we understand we are not worthy.

Phil I do not wish to continue with this blog.

Signing off now, this is the end.

Haven't been on here much recently, but was disappointed by this post.
This is one of the first things I check when I do manage to find time to get on here
Hope you reconsider.
BTW - site was messed up for a while because of some updates that wouldn't play nicely with each other.
Phil did finally manage to get it fixed. I guess that is one of the problems with relying on technology, huh?

Chris in Inuvik

[Cape Cod 13]

VERY WELL SAID CHRIS........C.C.13