Boarding the Rhapsody of the Seas and the Isle of Pines

Wednesday 10/27/2010

After waking up and packing we went for breakfast at a quaint little spot called Faith’s Café. Then we caught a cab over to the International Passenger Terminal at the Circular Quay. We then checked our bags with the cruise line porters and walked over to the “Rocks” of Sydney that consists of an area of the oldest buildings in Sydney that have been converted into a nice shopping area.  Here we visited the NSW Art gallery which is a great place to see unique Aboriginal art .

We then found a nice little pub in the Rocks at the Mercantile Hotel where we decided to have a couple of cold adult beverages since it was still too early to board the ship.  Once we boarded the ship we grabbed lunch at the Windjammer on the 9 deck and checked out the ship. It was a bit cool this day and a bit cloudy so we just checked out the ship until dinner time. We left Sydney Harbor at 6:30 PM and the views leaving were stunning.

10/28/2010 and 10/29/2010 - At Sea

Every day at sea is packed with activities...from deck games, to casino action, to live music and entertainment. This is the time we indulged ourselves in exercise or laid out in the sun or took a dip in the pools, hot tubs or “spas” as the Aussies call them. Just a totally relaxing time…

Saturday 10/30/2010  Depart at 6:00:00 PM

We arrived at Isle of Pines (part of New Caledonia) at 8:00 am and our plan for the day was to snorkel all day.  The Ile des Pins (as the French call it) is often referred to as the jewel of the Pacific and the currency is the Pacific Franc. Isle of Pines is known for its pristine beauty, prolific Norfolk pine tree skyline (up to 200 feet tall), aquamarine lagoons and powdery white sand beaches.

When the ship anchored we caught a tender over to the island. The Isle of Pines is said to have some of the best snorkeling in the area. The spot we were looking for was called sacred rock in Kanuméra Bay.  The left hand side of sacred rock is the place to go and the water is very clear with lots of varied corals and abundant fish within meters of the beach. The beach here had the whitest sand and it's almost as fine as talcum powder.  Once we were off the tender we took a short 5 minute walk over to a beach near sacred rock… the rock was stunning, surrounded by crystal clear blue waters. It was a bit cloudy and the water was a bit cooler than we expected but that didn’t stop us from snorkeling completely around sacred rock.  The most interesting thing we saw was a deadly sea snake called a banded sea krait. Their venom is ten times stronger than that of a cobra, making them extremely dangerous. Fortunately, this snake won’t bite humans unless they feel threatened and they are incapable of dispensing enough venom for a deadly bite. We saw two of them but always made sure there was plenty of distance between us :)

As we were about to go ashore the skies erupted and produced a torrential down pour of cold rain.  We could feel it hitting our backs as we were snorkeling and would dip under the water to warm up and to prevent the stinging rain from hitting our legs.  When it let up we went to the beach for a small walk down the coast line and then returned to circumnavigate the sacred rock a few more times.  After getting our fill of the wonderful corals and diverse and colorful fishes, we found a small café where we were able to sample the local beverages… a “number one” beer that cost eight bucks US but we still had to have a couple and spent most of our francs on beer.. oh well…

Last full day in Sydney, Australia

Tuesday 10/26/10 – Happy Birthday Sharon (Ms. Heyduke)!

This morning we headed off through the CBD to catch a ferry at the Circular Quay to Manly beach.  We stopped at a little outdoor restaurant for “take away” (where you can get “to go” items) and order a breakfast sandwich with Aussie bacon… yummy! Here while eating we noticed how very hurried everyone is in Sydney… lots of hustle and bustle.

But we were enveloped in sunshine and so when we got to the ferry dock we decided to walk over to Mrs Macquaries Point in the Royal Botanic Gardens for some photo ops. From here you have a stunning view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the iconic Sydney Opera House. Really hard for us to believe we were there…

We went on to catch the commuter ferry to Manly Beach which is a fantastic way to see the Sydney harbor and its beaches. It was beautiful and cost less about $16 return. They departed every 30 minutes and the ride lasted about 30 minutes.

Manly beach is a beautiful spot… the ferry stops and then you can walk through the Corso (a pedestrian path with shops) to get to the beach. A nice stretch of white sand and rolling waves led to a path that we took over to a nice pocket beach called Shelley Beach where there was a sign about surfing the “foamies”. We walked a bit

Further up the path we saw an interesting lizard and some colorful lorikeets in the wild. Unfortunately one must have found a short on the wire it lit upon as it hung silently while remaining clutched to the wire. Back to the town of Manly we stopped by a fish market where they also will cook the fish for you so we order some fresh fish and chips again (I know we are boring but man they were great).

Then we caught the ferry back to the Quay and walked back to the CBD to find another nice pub called “Century” pub where we sampled more fine Aussie beers such as Boags, and Victoria Bitters.  Deciding not to eat fish and chips again for dinner we headed to Chinatown near the hotel and discovered a really nice Malaysian restaurant called Mamaks where we had our first “roti” which was exquisite.  After diner we headed to the hotel for a sleep and to pack for the cruise.

Holiday–part 2 Sydney Australia…

Monday 10/25/10 - So our first morning in Sydney started with a morning stroll over to Paddy's Markets which is an interesting mix of shopping mall meets Asian market with everything from nice dresses to a fish market and a Chinese grocery store.  Then we headed through towards Darling Harbor which is where you will find lots of shopping and oodles of fine dining establishments along with a few pubs as well.

From there we headed to Sydney’s casino only to find out we couldn’t carry our backpack in so we considered this an omen and headed out of it… After passing through the casino in Sydney we decided we were energetic enough to continue our walk on to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

The Royal Botanical Gardens are a must visit sight for any traveler to Sydney with spectacular views of Sydney Harbor and the Circular Quay area. Along with the beautiful flowers and trees there are even some very interesting residents, about 200,000 giant fruit bats or flying foxes that make these gardens their home.

From the gardens we headed to Circular Quay. Getting hungry we stopped at Smiles Meat Pies to try an Aussie meat pie.  Tasty but a bit too messy! After lunch we walked around the Quay and then headed back towards the hotel through the Central Business District or CBD. Here there were lots of old architecture meets new architecture and there were lots of people dressed in business attire moving hurriedly from point A to B.  No one looked particularly happy…

After realizing we were tired, thirsty and hungry we headed through Sydney’s central business district and we stopped at a local pub called the Three Wise Monkeys Pub where we stopped and sampled some Aussie beer and some yellow tailed snapper fish and chips. The Bank of Australia's 'Southern Branch' was established on this site during 1879 and was some type of bank until until its closure in 1998. After sampling a Toohey’s and a XXXX Gold we decided to head to the hotel and crashed at about 9:30 pm Sydney time.

Back from vacation… errr.. Holiday and part 1 of the journey…

Well we are back from our last vacation of our working lives.  We booked a cruise on Royal Caribbean International Cruises on the Rhapsody of the Seas Cruises. We left Texas on 10/27/2010 and headed for Sydney Australia for our 12 night cruise which would be preceded by a few days stay in Sydney.  The worst part of this trip would be the 14 hour flight from Los Angeles California and the time difference of plus 16 hours – so our 8am is their 12pm… this took some getting used to.

Saturday - 10/23/10 – We left our town for the two hour drive to Austin, Texas for our first leg of our journey.  We first flew to Houston, Texas and changed plans for Las Angeles (LAX). With a three hour layover in LAX we finally boarded our 10:30 pm flight for Sydney (SYD).

Sunday - 10/24/2010 – POOF!!!! With the time change and the length of this flight we lost this day while in travel as we crossed the International Date Line.

Monday 10/25/10 We landed in Sydney Australia at 7:10 AM after the 14h 38 min flight and boy were we ready to get off the plane… We caught the airport shuttle for the 30 minute “free tour” to our hotel where we checked into the Darling Harbor Holiday Inn.  I booked this on Priceline ($125.00 per night) and got lucky as it was centrally located near everything we wanted to see while we were in Sydney.  First lesson of the trip was that everything is expensive in Sydney especially since our dollar was depressed as much as it was so the free wifi from McDonalds right across the road was appreciated since the hotel charges 20.00 Australian per day (about 20 US $).

We arrived at hotel at about 8:30 am and amazingly there was a room available. We were told the best thing to do was stay up until at least 9-10 pm and then go to sleep and we would be nearly normal on Sydney time. So to combat jetlag we got into the room, unpacked, packed up a day pack and hit the road to explore Sydney’s Darling Harbor…