Author archive
25 June 2010
I caught up with a friend from Uni for a coffee lunchtime today … something which was unexpected and arrranged at short notice. What I had been waiting for was dinner with Natalia, a former school-mate and hostel-mate from my days in Yemen. She took me to a Yemeni restaurant in Ascot Vale (Union St) […]
24 June 2010
Above: Flying to Melbourne with Emirates. Today I departed on a 5 week journey but it didn’t feel like I was going anywhere. There was no real sense of excitement as the first leg was only to Melbourne, flying Emirates Airlines departing at 1745. Melbourne is somewhere which is not too different from New Zealand […]
15 June 2010
We arrived back in Auckland early in the morning. It had been an awesome trip combining great landscape, too much food and good entertainment. I enjoyed myself tremendously even though it was a lifestyle that I wasn’t accustomed to. Having said that, I’d take adventure over this any day … my next trip will be […]
13 June 2010
Above: Float planes at Vancouver Harbour. We arrived at 0700 into Vancouver but disembarkation was conducted by groups so we were able to fit in breakfast on board before our group was due at 0830. We had settled our bill beforehand. The cruise company applies a pre-set tip for their staff which one can ask […]
12 June 2010
The poor weather continued and it was a rocky ride back to Vancouver. Our amazing inhouse acrobats Duo Velikovi were scheduled to do a dedicated performance this afternoon but this was cancelled due to rough seas. It was quite helpful to have bad weather and rough seas … it takes away the sad edge off […]
11 June 2010
Ketchikan was once the canned salmon capital of the world. It is a rainy place … we’ve been told that if you come at anytime and stay for more than one hour, you will encounter rain. We’re so glad we didn’t pre-book any activities as it wouldn’t be a nice day to eg. go flightseeing […]
10 June 2010
Above: Big waterfall by Mendenhall Glacier, along with floating ice. You don’t realise the size until you see the people in the photo. Juneau We pulled in bright and early into Juneau but as it was a long stop (until the evening) we didn’t wake up early for the arrival. Juneau (despite its population of […]
9 June 2010
We cruised into Yakutat Bay after breakfast and headed up towards Hubbard Glacier. This is the largest tidewater glacier in the North American continent because it begins some 76 miles upstream. At its face, it is about 100 m high and over 3 km wide! With the chunks of ice and the smaller pieces floating […]
8 June 2010
In the morning, we took a tour of the main galley of the ship. The scale and complexity of feeding over 2000 people (including the crew) was an enormous. Text continues after this gallery. We pulled into the tiny little town of Hoonah or Icy Strait Point which was once home to a […]
7 June 2010
Above: On the Celebrity Mercury. Today we were at seat making our way towards the Inside Passage off the coast of Alaska. That gave us the opportunity to fully explore the ship and all it had to offer. It’s an endless buffet on board … apart from restaurant meals, there’s buffet meals at the cafe […]