Adelaide, Australia

 

November 7, 2012

Yesterday, we were in Adelaide, a city of over 1 million people.  It is very clean, as have all the places we have stopped in Australia.  (Indonesia was not.)  The mall in the city center supplied shuttle buses to ferry passengers into downtown.  The ride took about 45 minutes, definitely not a walkable distance.  We had a list of things to accomplish and did them all.  We were able to spend 90 minutes on a free computer at the state library and cleaned up a lot of emails that we had ignored while onboard. 

When we arrived on the dock, there were four ambulances, attendants and several stretchers.  There did not seem to be a rush.  We think that maybe they were just there to transport patients to doctors ashore, as the universal medical insurance will not pay for on ship treatments.  There has been a lot of grumbling from the Aussies about the cost of the medical services on board, but we regard the cost to low compared to home.  John has been to the medical center twice, for routine blood work.

We also found that the woman who was taken off by a helicopter last week was having an appendix attack and is doing fine.

It is Wednesday here, Tuesday for you.  Election Day.  It amazes us how much the Australians know about our government and how much they are following the election.  They seem confused that so few Americans actually vote, as voting is mandatory here and not voting is a fineable offense.  We don’t see any ads, (thank God) but receive news coverage from the BBC and Australian stations.  We will happy when it is all over and done with.  Maybe we can go back to talking about sports, Dancing with the Stars and such?  It has been a long couple of years.

We have had quite a few British and Australian comedians on board.  They speak our language, but we understand maybe half of what they are saying.  Even when we understand the words, the jokes are too localized for us.  When they sing, we understand every word they say, but when they talk, it is challenging.

When Colleen researched this cruise while at home, it was only offered as a 33 day roundtrip cruise from Sydney to Sydney.  However, in Australia and New Zealand, it was promoted differently.  We have met passengers that got onboard with us in Sydney and got off in Brisbane, after only two days.  We have met people that were let off in Perth, about halfway around.  We have seen passengers getting on in Brisbane, Port Douglas, Darwin and in Fremantle.  Most recently, in Perth, we met two couples that were coming on for four nights.  This is new for us as we have never encountered multiple embarkation and disembarkation places for a single cruise.

This cruise there are two dinner seatings, early at 5:30 and late at 7:45.  Most cruises we have been on have a separate dining room, for an additional ‘anytime dining’ between 5pm and 10pm.  We almost always have early seating, we like to get to know the same group of passengers and visit with them every evening, sharing stories of what we did today and what shows we will go to later in the evening.  We are seated at a table for 10.  Our tablemates are all from Australia:  Lorraine along with her sister, June and June’s husband Peter; Keith, a winemaker and widower, who lost his wife of 63 years three years ago, and his friend Arni, a widow who lost her husband last year; Johnny, also a widower.  At the beginning of the cruise we also had a couple, Ian and Teresa and their friend Albert.  After two or three days, they moved to another table.  There has also been a single woman, Yvonne who has joined us for dinner a couple of times.  It is a very erratically attended table.

Tomorrow we will be in Melbourne, our last Australian port before heading to New Zealand.

Colleen and John