Melbourne, Australia As anticipated, we didn’t arrive back in Melbourne until after 5:00pm, so by the time we received clearance to leave the ship it was after 6pm.  When we were here the first time Mike took photos of the solar system that is on display along the waterfront, but we missed Pluto, so our first stop was the missing planet.  From here we went in search of food, and we ended up having pizza and gelato before heading back to the ship.  It was a little strange to b

Tauranga, New Zealand We’ve officially come full circle.  When we first retired in 2022, we set off on our first adventure where we bought a camper in New Zealand and spent six months travelling the North Island.  We had every intention of returning the following winter, but the opportunity to sail the world presented itself and we couldn’t resist.  Three years later we’ve finally found ourselves back in New Zealand.  We can honestly say that despite everywhere we’ve been sin

Tonga, Vanuatu, and more Australia Neiafu, Tonga (Vava’u Island) After five long, rolling sea days and jumping the international date line again, we arrived in Neiafu, Tonga. We went to bed on January 24 and woke up on January 26; January 25 just vanished for us.  We arrived late afternoon and by the time we were cleared to tender it was already almost 5pm.  The last tender back to the ship was set for 7pm, so we decided not to bother.  This added our sixth sea day, but at l

Bora Bora, Raiatea, Moorea, Tahiti and more... La Orana (hello) and welcome to French Polynesia. Turns out Starlink works just fine and we haven't had any internet issues outside of the normal questionable connectivity. I hope you enjoy reading about our time in these incredible islands. I apologize in advance because this is a long one. Vaitape, Bora Bora Well after 15 years of promises, Mike finally took me to Bora Bora.  It’s not quite the overwater bungalow I envisione

Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa In my last post I said we would update the blog in the New Year after French Polynesia, but I had the itinerary mixed up in my head, so we've actually got more to share before we reach French Polynesia. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Suva, Fiji Suva is the capital of Fiji and sits on a point.  We were docked right in the heart of the city, and we spent the first day walking all the way around the point.  There was a path along most of the wat

Darwin Australia You may know that I’ve always had strong reservations about visiting Australia.  It seems unnecessary to visit a place where everything that isn’t you wants to kill you.  However, we survived two full days in Darwin, and we did not encounter anything poisonous or deadly.  At least, not in the wild. The cruise terminal is next to a lovely waterfront area with swimming, shops, and restaurants. We took an elevator up to the town area above.  We did visit Croco