Hi David, Becky, Jenna, and everybody else who plans to be on the Star, departing January 31. The fires are down to smouldering, ash is no longer falling from the air, and the lungs are starting to clear, preliminary cruise docs arrived, Princess is taking shore excursion reservations on the website, and I'm finally getting excited about this cruise!
Wellington is supposed to be a good walking town; lots of good views from the hills and stuff. Think San Francisco, is what I've heard. Additionally, the Red Car funicular is supposed to lead to good sights. Mike and I might ride the Red Car, then get some walking in, followed by our own pub tour in the afternoon. My quilting days ended with Girl Scouts, and that was a mighty long time ago, but hats off to your wife, David, for her handicraft.
Christchurch has a good botanic garden, I've heard, with some kind of a boat return to town that is reminiscent of Venice's gondolas; I'll check further into that soon.
In Melbourne, we've booked the MEL-B Puffing Billy tour, which goes to a wildlife sanctuary with lunch at a winery. Billy isn't air conditioned, but it's only a 20-minute ride so I think we'll be able to tolerate it, no matter what the temp. The mine tour does sound interesting, but in Tahiti we decided that our backs just didn't much care for the way 4WD vehicles handle bumpy terrain.
On another Board an Aussie suggested that (after visiting the opal mine store in Rundle Mall) we take the tram outside the mall to Glen Elg at the end of the line. He said that the views from the tram and the town of Glen Elg were the highlight of his trip to Adelaide. I think we'll try that; it's a fairly large city so I was at a loss there.
In Hobart we've decided to grab a taxi and see the Bonorong Wildlife Park in the morning. If anybody would like to share the taxi with us, let me know; I'm sure it will be cheaper than the Princess tour. In the afternoon, we'll most likely do our own pub tour there, too.
Finally, I've gleaned all the information that 38 fellow shipmates have posted on Cruise Critic, CruiseMates, and Cruise-Addicts, compiling it into an X-Cel spreadsheet. Would be happy to share with people on the January 31 cruise; e-mail me at craven3 at adelphia.net, omitting the spaces and substituting the "at" sign for the word, of course. They come in handy for contacting those we've met on the Boards when aboard. By the way, I was thinking of having the Cruise Critic/CruiseMates/Cruise-Addicts Party the first day at sea. Any thoughts on that?
Here's to a great cruise,
Charlotte
