Melborne, Australia to Albany, Australia

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005

Feb 22 – These days at sea are getting to be very relaxing. We’ve settled into a pattern. Diana is taking beginning bridge classes in the AM and watercolor painting classes in the PM. I vary activities by the day but always start with tai chi and the morning coffee chat.

Feb 23 – Today we’re in Melbourne, Australia. In the morning we’re taking a city tour and in the afternoon we’re getting out of town to the Blue Dandenong mountains, a resort area just out of town.

The city tour was interesting. We stopped at the botanical gardens, and generally rode around looking at the sights. Pretty boring actually but it did give us a feel for the place. The population is about 3.4 million and the city is very cosmopolitan. Traffic is terrible. They have four seasons. The winter gets down to about 40 degrees and the summers up to 105 degrees. A little hot for me. The people are very friendly.

The trip to the mountains was much better. We stopped at a bird sanctuary on the way up. There were only two types hanging around while we were there, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and the Crimson Rosella. The cockatoo looks like you would expect with a bright yellow crest. It’s a large variety, about 18 inches tall. The Rosella is a parrot that makes a bell-like sound that had me looking for metal plates hanging in the trees until I figured out the source.

On the trip back down the mountain we stopped in Olinda Village. It had a lot of small shops with various wares. Some sold soap and oils, others Australian made carved or painted items. Diana bought a pair of Aboriginal rhythm sticks. I went in to a bakery to get a coke and on the way out I spotted something I’ve been searching for since New Zealand, Melting Moment cookies (left).

I discovered them in 2002 when we were in the Bay of Islands. We had lunch at a sheep ranch and there was a desert table with many very attractive offerings. Only a plate of nondescript looking cookies remained untouched. I knew they were home made so I took a couple to be polite. One bite and I was hooked. Melting Moments, yikes!! That plain looking, drab cookie was one of the best non-chocolate deserts I’ve ever had. It was a sandwich style cookie with the outside cookies made of shortbread and the filling was light lemon cream. They were fantastic. I mentioned them to several other people. Not a very wise move as when I went back to get some more they were all gone. I asked the lady of the house what they were and she told me Melting Moments. She had baked them herself and I told her they were the best thing I’d tasted in a long time.

The bakeries version was almost as good as the home made ones. They that is very good indeed.
After that it was back to the ship for dinner and sail away. When I got to the dinner table one of my tablemates had a surprise for me. They had stopped by the casino in Melbourne, something I had not had a chance to do, and gotten a $1 chip for me. Very thoughtful. I bought some good tea in Sydney and have intended to give Eric and Evelyn some to see if they like it.

Feb 24 – Another restful sea day. I’m feeling tired and don’t do much all day except read, eat and relax.

Feb 25 – Today we’re in Adelaide. This is a seriously beautiful city! A military man laid it out as a planned city and his plan pretty near perfect. It is exactly one mile square and is bordered on all sides by a park about 400 yards across. They call the areas of the park terraces and name them by the side of the city they border, for example, the North Terrace or East Terrace. Then in the city itself they have five of what they call squares. We would call them a park. The squares are laid out exactly as if you were looking at the face of the dice that has 5 dots, one in the center and then one in the center of each quarter of the city. They have wide streets and pretty good traffic flow. If they would just do a better job of timing their traffic lights, the traffic flow would be great. I was very impressed with Adelaide. I liked Sydney and Melbourne, but I think I would live in Adelaide if I moved to Australia.

We are on two tours again today, one am and one pm. I don’t like to do that but Diana likes to be going all the time. One tour that lasts all day is much better because you don’t duplicate the trek to and from the ship.

In the AM we are headed out of the city to an animal park. Diana just can’t get enough of the Koalas (above) and the Wombats. In fact almost any marsupial sends her into a state of euphoria, Wallabies, Kangaroos, whatever! This was a nice park and most of the animals were approachable. The exceptions were the Dingoes, Wombats and the Tasmanian Devils. The ‘roos and wallys were right out in the fields. There seem to be many varieties of each.

On the way to the park we stopped at Mt. Lofty for a view back over Adelaide to the coast (left). It was very clear, no sign of the smog we saw in Melbourne. We could see the city and its surrounding parklands and also the superstructure of our ship in Port Adelaide. It was probably 25-30 miles to the ship from atop the 2,100-foot mountain. The ship could be clearly seen with binoculars or a zoom lens. Very good visibility indeed.

After we returned to the ship for a quick lunch we headed back to the mountains and the historic city of Hahndorf. There’s a lot of German influence here in the Adelaide area. In the middle to late 1800s when the move to start a unified Germany was underway there was a second round of religious persecution that drove many people to emigrate abroad. Much like the disputes in the late 1600s that sent my ancestors packing to the Pennsylvania, USA. This time the dispute was not between Catholics and Protestants but among Protestants of differing dogma. Many of these people went to the USA following the example of the Pennsylvania Dutch. But others, seeking a less structured place where more opportunity existed and more land was readily available came to Australia.

Hahndorf still has many of the original stone structures built by the immigrants. In many ways they look exactly like those built by the early German settlers of Pennsylvania. Stone houses built essentially of stone recovered from clearing the fields for farming. I found some locally made Mittewurst in regular (beef and pork mix) and Kangaroo (beef and kangaroo mix). This type of sausage is cooked and then smoked so I don’t have to worry about refrigeration. But we will have to eat it on the ship, as it’s tough to bring meat products into the USA privately. We then went to the Beerenberg Strawberry Farm to get some strawberries and cream. They were very good. The farm produces a wide assortment of jams and jellies. I bought a small jar of Rose Petal Jam. We’ll have to have some with tea some afternoon.

Then it was back to the ship where they had a local show come aboard to give us a taste of aboriginal dance and music. They were very good as well. Robert, our Australian Tai Chi instructor, said they were the best he’s seen in a long time. At 11PM we cast off for out two-day trip to Albany, Australia across the Australian Bight. The waters of this area have a reputation for being unpredictable and rough. I’m sure that’s going to make everyone happy.

Epicurean Note: On our anniversary we ate in the upscale restaurant on the ship. Reservations are required and it usually costs $20 per person to dine there. Our travel agent included eight vouchers for dinner there during the cruise. The pictures below are (left to right): Huge ocean prawn with cappuccino sauce, halibut with crabmeat and the chocolate volcano. The first two are pretty self-explanatory but the volcano is a cross between a flourless chocolate cake and a chocolate soufflé. One of the best deserts I’ve ever had. The picture really does not do it justice.

Feb 26 – Another very restful day at sea. We started a new tai chi in Sydney and it’s coming along pretty well. We do several exercises to warm up. My favorites are the lotus and the green dragon. It’s the only exercise system I’ve ever really enjoyed.

Feb 27 – Ditto, except that today we had part two of the Australian wine tasting in the afternoon. They had a Lindemans Shiraz that was very good and a Cabernet from Rosemount, the Estate 2002, which was excellent. Tomorrow we’re in Albany (Al-bany, not All-bany as in the USA). It’s a small town and it’s the first time a Holland America ship has called there.

Feb 28 – Today we are in Albany, Australia. This is a really small town. They say that the population in about 30,000 but I think they’re including people from the surrounding countryside. The pier is right downtown. We’re on a very short tour today, only 2 hours. First the driver gave us a short tour of downtown Albany. That took about 10 minutes. It’s a very quaint place in a nice way. Nothing appears to be ‘put up’ for the tourists. Perhaps that’s because they just recently dredged the harbor and now it’s deep enough to accept smaller cruise ships like ours. They are not yet used to having a lot of tourists descend on them like locusts. It’s still a novelty and everyone was very friendly. “Are you off the ship?” they would ask, even though it was fairly obvious with our shorts, cameras and all. Anyone and everyone is ready to strike up a conversation. A very straightforward and open lot these Aussies. I really like it here.

Our tour headed out to town to the Torndirrup National Park (above & right). This is on a very rocky coast with sheer cliffs, blowholes and natural bridges. It was impressive. Early this morning we had a pretty rough patch of ocean starting at about 2AM. It woke me up and then rocked me back to sleep. Well, not the same waves are breaking on the coast and it is awesome. The breakers hit the rocks and the spray was shooting 100 feet in the air. The sight and sound was awe-inspiring, the raw power of nature on display. There was a large, granite natural bridge that the waves were breaking under creating the largest blowhole I’ve ever seen. I’m sure the place is always beautiful, but when these large waves are rolling in, it’s not only beautiful, it’s breathtaking.

After reluctantly leaving the show of nature’s power at the park we arrived at Whale World. This is a preserved whaling station that did not cease operations until 1978. They have retained the processing plants, the storage tanks and the maintenance buildings as well as the Cheynes IV, a Norwegian built whaling ship. The ship was one of three still operating when the business closed. The ship has a curved hull and one large screw for power. It looked very much like a child’s bath toy rather than a working ship. I’m sure it didn’t look very toy like to the whales.

When we arrived back in town the driver asked if we wanted to be dropped off anywhere special or if we wanted to go back to the ship. Diana and I opted to be dropped off downtown for two reasons. First, Diana has been on a mission to leave at least one lipstick in every country we visit so she wanted to buy another replacement. Second, our port lecturer has been talking about the Australian’s love for meat pies and I wanted to get one. I asked the driver if there were any good restaurants near where he was dropping us and he said that there was. I asked if it served any meat pies and he said, “Mate, every place in Albany serves meat pies!” We shopped at K-Mart for a lipstick. Yes, it is the same K-Mart. Then we stopped in at the Sails Café for a bite to eat.

Diana ordered what turned out to be the last peppered beef pie (right) so I ordered the chicken and fennel pie. Diana’s pie was in the traditional Australian dough and form. Mine was in a filo dough crust more in the shape of a turnover (below left). We shared the pies and both were great. I’ll never figure out how they keep the crust so flaky with all the liquid inside the pies. Amazing!! I’m pretty sure they were freshly home made. They would be a very different product if they were frozen or held for any length of time.

Diana’s peppered beef pie was filled with beef in very tasty gravy. No filler vegetables or anything else. They said it was a beef pie and that’s what it was. Mine was a chicken breast with fennel stalks and had a creamy garlic sauce. Both were delicious. I asked the girl at the counter what they drink with meat pies and she said, “I like mine with tea.” I remembered the lecturer saying something about meat pie and tea so that’s what I had. Went very well together.

While I was waiting for Diana at the shuttle bus stop I had time to wonder down the street. I came upon a tea and spice shop. They had all sorts of locally made chutneys, relishes, pickles and other interesting food items. As I was turning to leave I spotted a pedestal cake plate with a plastic cover, just like the old roadside diners used to use for displaying pies. Under the cover were what appeared to be Melting Moment cookies (below). They were large, about 3.5 inches across and about 1.25 inches thick. I asked the proprietor if they were indeed the cookies in question and he answered in the affirmative. I bought two and carried them back to the bus stop. Diana ate hers immediately and pronounced them the best yet. Very close to the ones we had at the sheep station in New Zealand in 2002. When I ate mine later I had to agree. They were absolutely great!!

Compare this one with the one I bought in Melbourne. This one is much larger and had a more homemade look.

After that it was back to the ship as sail away was at 2PM. When we made it out of the harbor and across the bay the big breakers were still waiting for us. I guess the Australian Bight got a nip at us after all. Thankfully they did not have a dance show scheduled for this evening. I’m sure they would have had to switch it to another night and move that entertainment up. The performer was a ventriloquist and he was very good. Did most of his act without a dummy, just tossing his voice in the air. He said he did it that way because he didn’t want the distraction so we could concentrate on his lips to see that they didn’t move. His thrown voice was very clear, not the usual speech impaired dopey voice most of them use. It was uncanny. The ship was rocking like mad and he was staggering all over the stage, which he managed to work into the comedy of this act. Very impressive. We’re in Fremantle/Perth tomorrow so we’ve got to get to bed.

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