Thanks for coming along!

OK, we've flown the 10 hours from Sydney to Honolulu and the subsequent 50 minutes to home-sweet-home. I remember in a New Zealand airport, seeing this same wonderful "status" description on the airline info boards. Love those Aussies & Kiwis.

 

Arrived in Sydney for the flight to Honolulu. Not a bad view out the hotel window.

 

We’re now in Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands. Naturally, the main attraction is the WW2 memorial.

Departing Papua New Guinea, on to the Solomon Islands, which I believe is country #105 on the ol’ checklist. Then the (long) slog to Sydney.

 

 

 

Oh boy, the submersible!

When we first boarded in Broome, I selected and charged a ride on the ship’s submersible, but they didn't know, at that point, what day it would  be offered.  Today was that day, in the Conflict Islands, Papua New Guinea.  They ran 8 trips, 45 minutes each, throughout the day.    My review would be:  great piece of machinery, not so great viewing experience.  I mean the unit itself is cool beyond words.  And small.  Very small.  (and I’m not).  The day of the trips they will have taken the submersible to the dive site area, and then 6-people-per-dive take a zodiac to the area, to access the sub.  The surface access wasn’t bad, there’s a railing on the top of the zodiac, to grab onto, as well as the usual “sailor’s grip” thing with crew members.  Then one descends a ladder into the unit and crawls a few feet to a seat - three on one side, three on the other.  It’s just that these units are apparently designed around people about 4 feet tall, which I am emphatically not.  Very cramped, knees in chest.  Then, as it turned out, the actual viewing was a big disappointment.  We descended to about 50-60 meters (~170 feet) to the sea floor.  On the way down, I caught a momentary glimpse of a reef shark, but he disappeared before I could try to take a pic.  The sea floor was just not very interesting, some small coral here and there, but nothing of particular note.  Obviously the cruise company is not responsible for the quality of any given reef, and the clarity this day was not helped by the very windy conditions on the surface.  It was just not impressive, had I done and seen the same thing with scuba, I would have classified it as a dive that was, at best, mediocre.  Win some, lose some.

Four of the last five days were sea days, thus the dearth of port-reports lately. But there’s a little something coming up later today that I hope will be a highlight. Stay tuned.

Rained most all day in Alotau PNG yesterday. 🌧️🙁. But last night was my fave….Indian Market dinner. Curries (rogan josh, vindaloo, tikka masala), veggie pakoras, naan, mango chutney, & basmati rice. Yum.

Never, ever ever gets old. You come back from dinner, and this is on your veranda, just outside the sliding door of your suite. Every night. *sigh*

 

For any die-hard foodies - pix from that Chef’s dinner.

Shenanigans onboard.

 

“Chef’s Dinner”. The curry squash soup was the clear winner.

Lunch out on deck - I killed a fly by smacking it with my fork. First time for everything, I guess.

Snorkeling the Raja Ampat area. Winds were a little high which always stirs up the water, but it was still fun nonetheless. There’s a welcoming committee at the snorkel site….champagne is never too far away.

The ship’s head chef is perusing local markets for fresh seafood . Run, little guy, run.

 

Ok, back to the ocean…..

Also, Arabic-spiced lamb chops.

We’re now in the Raja Ampat area of Indonesia, we’re told it’s one of the world’s most biodiverse underwater areas. Internet photos below, to just give an idea of how it looks from above.

Saw this bottle opener in a shop window in Darwin last week. (Presented without further commentary 😳)

*Finally*! We’ve been in very flat waters for the last couple of weeks, but as we head across the Arafura Sea to Indonesia, things have gotten slightly more interesting - although I didn’t hear the Captain’s usual weather/condition announcement this a.m. reporting surge height. I just always *like* to be reminded frequently that we’re not in a hotel.

Ok, we’ve said “hooroo” to Australia and have now set sail for Indonesia - Misool Island will be our first stop.

Took an escorted food tour in Darwin today, we went to a few local restaurants and “grazed” for lunch. Nothing legendary, I liked the salt-and-pepper kangaroo, but it really did “taste like chicken”.

Final zodiac stop on the Kimberley coast - King George River. Normally there are twin waterfalls (internet pic first, to illustrate) but we’re in the heart of the dry season so more like a twin trickle. The rock formations are a geologists dream though. And a second croc sighting.

My favorite dinner aboard the ship is, and always will be, “Indian Market Dinner” in the less formal restaurant on aboard. Buffet style. Tonight I’m thinkin’….multiple curries, pakoras, basmati rice and chutneys, right?

The plane is owned by the Paspaley Pearl company - we visited their venue on Kuri Bay and got a demonstration in pearl farming.

At Talbot Bay, we took a ride on a seaplane, over the beautiful water and topography. A Grumman Mallard, only 50-some were built, in the late 1940’s. Flightseeing!

Case in point, the “Horizontal Falls”. At low tide the water rushes through a channel in the rock, to seek an equal level, much like the Montgomery Reef thing. The zodiacs in these clips look like they’re just floating, but make no mistake, they were bouncing and sliding all over the place, and pretty much at full throttle forward, even though they look virtually stationary. Just a riot of currents and eddies and whirlpools, with just awesome power. (First pic is an internet shot, to give you a better overall idea of how it works)

 

Posting this pic only to highlight the amazing tidal range here. Obvs all the darker stuff, many meters high up onto the rock above the zodiac, is the water level at high tide. The tides do weird things in these parts!

Sailing away from Montgomery Reef at sunset. Hmmm, which venue should we pick for dinner?

……and our first croc sighting. He seemed to be checking out the ship.

 

Just LOVE the zodiacs. Wish I had one. 😉

Oh, and some humpbacks off our port, too.

And the icing on the cake was….a sea snake. Seen hundreds and hundreds of eels but my first sea snake. Our zodiac driver claims he thinks sea snakes are the most wonderful creatures on the earth, and that this was as good and close a sighting as one could hope for.