This winter
we’re taking another extended holiday.
This time we’re are going to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. Australia has been on our so called bucket
list, ever since we took a river cruise with the Australian tour company
Scenic. We made many friends on that
trip from Australia, including John & Ellen Kelly, with whom we have had
several vacations together.
Our first
stop, on February 11th , will be the South Pacific island paradise
of Fiji. We will be staying there until
Saturday when will leave for Auckland New Zealand.
We will
have a short stay in Auckland. On the
following Monday, will embark onto the Celebrity Solstice for a twelve night
cruise around New Zealand, ending up in Melbourne Australia. We will be
traveling the same people we travelled with on our cruise of South
America. There will be several other
couples from British Columbia, who are friends of Coleen and Ron Foster, so it
should be a great time.
When we
disembark from the ship, we will immediately begin a twenty day land and air
tour of Australia. During our stop in Adelaide, we will be visiting with Ted
and Sheryl Beagley. We meet Ted and
Sheryl on the river cruise.
The tour
will terminate in Sydney, where we will meet the Kelly’s. We will be staying with them in their home in
St. George Basin for a few days, before we head home.
We expect
to be home on March 26th.
Of course,
Australia has had an extremely horrendous fire season this year.
All the areas we are going to are now
considered safe, but the I doubt if the air quality could be considered
pristine.
Also a lot of the wild life on
the continent has been destroyed, which was one the highlights for us.
Now there
is the possibility of a new major viral epidemic, that is originating from China. In the enclosed spaces of a ship, it can be
the breeding grounds for any air borne viruses. So we’ll be bring lots of hand
sanitizer.
Itinerary:
TUESDAY, FEBERUARY 11 FIJI
WEDNESDAY, FEBERUARY 12 FIJI
THURSAY, FEBERUARY 13 FIJI
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 FIJI
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 AUCKLAND
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16 AUCKLAND
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17 EMBARKATION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 BAY
OF ISLANDS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 TAURANGA
THURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 AT
SEA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 AKAROA
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 DUNDINE
& CHRISTCHURCH
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 DUSKY
SOUND & DOUBTFUL SOUND & MILFORD SOUND
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24 AT SEA
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 AT
SEA
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 SYDNEY
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 SYDNEY
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28 AT
SEA
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 29 MELBOURNE
SUNDAY MARCH 1 MELBOURNE
MONDAY MARCH 2 MELBOURN.
TUESDAY MARCH 3 MELBOURNE
to HOBART
WEDNESDAY MARCH 4 HOBART
with EXCURSION TO THE TASMAN PENINSULA
THURSDAY MARCH 5 HOBART
to ADELAIDE
FRIDAY MARCH 6 ADELAIDE
with EXCURSION TO KANGAROO ISLAND.
SATURDAY MARCH 7 ADELAIDE
to ULURU (AYERS ROCK)
SUNDAY MARCH 8 ULURU
MONDAY MARCH 9 ULURU
to ALICE SPRINGS embark on the GHAN TRAIN.
TUESDAY MARCH 10 GHAN
TRAIN to KATHERINE to DARWIN.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 11 DARWIN
to KAKADU NATIONAL PARK.
THURSDAY MARCH 12 KAKADU
NATIONAL PARK to DARWIN.
FRIDAY MARCH 13 DARWIN
to CAIRNS and the GREAT BARRIER REEF
SUNDAY MARCH 15 CAIRNS.
MONDAY MARCH 16 CAIRNS
to SYDNEY.
TUESDAY MARCH 17 SYDNEY.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 18 SYDNEY
THURSDAY MARCH 19 SYDNEY
to ST GEORGE BASIN
FRIDAY MARCH 20 ST
GEORGE BASIN
SATURDAY MARCH 21 ST
GEORGE BASIN
SUNDAY MARCH 22 ST
GEORGE BASIN
MONDAY MARCH 23 ST
GEORGE BASIN
TUESDAY MARCH 24 AUCKLAND
Last night we had a scare.
During the day I developed extremely painful spasms in the area directly
below my belt buckle. So during the evening we went to the hospital to get it
checked out. My first thoughts were that
I had a kidney stone or possibly something even worse. The ER doctor couldn't
find any swelling or tenderness in that area and the spasms had subsided during
the wait time in the ER. So I was
scheduled for an Ultrasound today.
