The Love Boat

Decided in advance that we wouldnt get off the ship today - essentially the last day on board which would require siome serious suitcase management as we needed to pack early to get our suitcases collected overnight. We started the day with the gym and a hearty brekfast post.  We werent due into Shimizu until after lunch so knew there was no real rush to do anything much in the morning. We watched the approach into Shimizu quite intently as we were hoping to catch a glance of Mt Fuji.  As we were on the starboard side of the boat we thought we would miss out, as most of the action seems to always be on the port side.  I had joined a facebook group for this particualr cruise and I could see from their posts that the port side could certainly see the mountain.  Just as I was resigning myself to not seeing it from our cabin, I had one last look out on our balcony and there is was.  OMG it was incredible.  We had her in view from the better part of an hour....

Woke up early again to foggy and wet weather.  Such a change from yesterday. We didnt have much planned for today - I had prepurchased shuttle tickets to go from the port and into town, which in the end was the motivation to get of the ship. We caught the shuttle quite early and were in Kochi centre by late morning.  According to the ships talk there was a cute little wooden bridge to have a look at, aside from that we were just exploring.  We got off the shuttle at the bus station to a fine drizzle.  We wandered across the road and had found the bridge within a few minutes.  We had a quick look around, and then wandered through the shops.  We had planned to get some morning tea, so decided to try Mister Donut.  The donuts there are actually quite delicious - you do have to really read the labels though as the sweet pastries look exactly like the savoury.    We wanted through a couple of shopping streets and then it was time to take the bus b...

So excited for today as we are stopping in our first Japanese port.  We were a little apprehensive though as its also the port that we have to do immigration and customs for Japan.  We were told it could take up to 4 hours!! We woke quite early again, and first looks outside were disappointing.  We've suddenly lost our warm and humid weather, and traded it for rain and fog.  We decided to stick with our usual routine and get off later than the rest.  So we hit the gym just after 6 and the buffet right after for breakfast. At about 930 we decided to make our move so went down to get a ticket to get in a queue for immigration.  It took about 20 minutes for our group to get called and  off we went.  Should have known better - Japan is super organised.  The whole process was actually quite simple, and in almost no time at all we had cleared both immigration and customs and had a nice new stamp in our passports.  We had pre paid for a shuttle...

  Up early again today to watch the ship come into Keelung Harbor.  Again, it was lovely to see the tug boats do the water cannon welcome.  We had a tour booked for Taipei as its a new place for us and we wanted to get a good idea of who the Taiwanese people are and what theyre all about.  We had to meet in the theatre at 0815 so we had booked to have room service breakfast delivered between 0700 and 0730.  Sadly they lost our order so we had to make a dash to the buffet for food before we left. Queuing up  in the theatre was interesting.  They sat us in numbered groups, and as there are many people getting tours here, we absolutely filled the whole theatre.  I think we waited about 25 minutes for our group to be called and we dutifully trailed along to find tour bus number 23.  Our tour guide was Jill - she was lovely.  Gave us a little story about Taiwan and its history as we drove the 40 minutes into Taipei. First stop was Chiang Kai ...

Must Admit, did not have the best night sleep.  I think I was awake around 3, wondering how close to port we were.  I just love coming into a new port - probably my favourite thing about cruising.  Anyhow, we got back to sleep and woke again just before 6 to watch us come into Hong Kong Harbour. It was everything I hoped for.  It was still a little dark so there was some lights, and foggy so it was super romantic.  Our cabin this time around is on the starboard side and I fully expected we wouldn't see much.  Instead, we came into the harbour and then swung around 180 degrees so that our side was closest to the harbour, and not alongside the port.  We probably spent a good half hour watching the maneuver. We had already decided to have a pretty unadventurous day as we've been here before.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then decided to disembark and take the free shuttle bus over to a large shopping centre and just have a look around.  I th...

Bit of a longer stretch of sea days now - 5 full days before we get to land again. We've got ourselves into a comfortable routine now.  An hour in the gym every second day followed by buffet breakfast.  On non gym days we either snooze in a little or walk around the deck, and generally have room service breakfast delivered. The first thing we wanted to know after leaving Darwin was what happened with the sea rescue.  We later learned that there was a boat in distress and we rendezvoused with the coast guard to assist them find them.  They did and they were rescued, so all was well.   I dragged poor Tony to an enrichment talk today called "Lets twist again".  I thought it would be a fun trip down memory lane learning some interesting things about the origins and influences on early rock and roll.  Except it wasn't.  They had some ex b grade radio jockey do a power point presentation with absolutely no tunes.  Oh well you live and learn. S...

  Sadly our first stop was a little discombobulated due to the search and rescue last night.  We were scheduled to be in port at 0830, but in reality it was closer to 1130.  Seemed to take ages to get clearance for the ship also.  The two gangways needed to be craned into place which did take a while. We decided to not rush too much, and we thought lunch before we got off would be the best idea.  We wandered up to the buffet and had ourselves a home made 'shawarma' (yiros in a pita pocket).  It was so good, Im planning on another tomorrow. At about 1230 we decided we should try to get off and were met by huge queues of people.  It felt both orderly and disorganised at the same time.  It wasn't really clear which line we should get in, so we joined everyone else and wandered our way off the ship. Our plan for Darwin was pretty simple.  Uber over and back to the Casuarina shops as there were a few things we needed.  Firstly a blanket - we ...

Slept pretty well last night, was fairly rocky but there is some comfort in that. As we were awake early we decided it was time for an early gym session.  We thought we might have the gym to ourselves as it was about 630 am.  Imagine our surprise when the gym was absolutely packed.  We pretty much got the last 2 walking machines - with a perfect view of the sun popping up on the horizon. Post gym we went to the buffet.  Its layout is a little confusing, but once you have the gyst of where things are put out its quite logical.  The most important place is of course the pastry shop, which is also the spot you get the paid for coffee - not the filtered trash they have for free in kegs in the drinks bay. We spent the morning better organizing our room, bathroom and closet space which in the end was a great idea.  Lunch came and we decided to do the grill up on the pool deck. Tony had a chilli dog and I had chicken tacos, followed by soft serve icecream.  A...

Slept pretty well considering how excited I was.  We were awake early as that's still the work routine sadly.  Very grateful to have breakfast included as it only meant we needed to take a trip down the lift to get food and coffee. After breaky it was back to the room to pack up and get ready to rumble.  Was somewhat easier this time as we didn't have to be quite as particular with weights.  So, I stuffed as much as I could in my main suitcase so my carry on was light as a feather.  Luckily we had late checkout so there was no rush.  Boarding was supposed to be from 1230 so I figured if we left the hotel at about 11 we would be at the port by 1130 so would only have an hour.  Booked a 13cabs taxi, which screwed us over again and never showed - exactly like a year ago.  So instead, we rebooked with uber and our merc van arrived only a couple of minutes after booking. We arrived at the port just before 1130 and it looked pretty quiet.  This cru...

  We actually slept fairly well.  The bed was comfy - only issue was the air con.  It doesn't hold the temperature too well so its mostly cold and then it gets warm. We started our morning with a 630 trip to the gym.  Tony did a bit of his weights routine but they didn't have the 10kg weights he needed.  I messed around on a few of the machines - just enough to get a sweat up. Next was buffet breakfast which was really nice - stuck with the proteins mostly.  The toaster wasn't great - it cremated my toast which was the only disappointment.  I also stole myself a muffin for afternoon tea which turned out to be yummy. We decided we needed a couple more things for the trip so took an uber over the the local DSO outlet shops to both shop and also to grab early lunch.  We opted for sushi as breakfast hadn't completely passed.  The DSO is only 5 kms away which is really handy. We spent the rest of the day chilling, watching tv, reading and napping....

Has been a long wait, but finally the day has come.  Tony and I are travelling unchartered waters of sorts - overseas travel on our own again.  The last trip we took that needed our passport was to Bangkok in 2004. Nate was available to take us to the airport so he picked us up from home at 0745.  A quick stop at Maccas for breakfast and we were on the way.  The traffic was kind so I think it was just about 30 minutes and we were at the domestic terminal at Adelaide Airport.  We said our farewells and headed inside.  I might say I was a little nervous as my suitcase was right on its limit.  In fact at home it was 23.7 kg!!  Luckily when i put it on the bag scale it only read at 22 kg.  Still got a "Im heavy" label.   Wasn't much of a wait in the airport which was nice.  Had our photo taken with the 1997 premiership cup as it was gather round and part of a promotion.  That was kinda cool.  The plane then started to boa...