Day Nineteen: Stranded in Melbourne & Day Twenty: At Sea

Dear All,

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) when we woke up, we were still in Melbourne, much to our surprise. The plan was that our ship would set sail from Melbourne at 10:30 PM Tuesday night and be at sea all day yesterday, arriving in Sydney by 11 AM today. The ship’s captain came on the loud speaker and said there were mechanical issues, as well as inclement weather. Long story short, we left fourteen hours later than we were due and will not get into Sydney until midnight tonight. Our flight is tomorrow morning, so rather disappointingly, we won’t have any time in Sydney. On the bright side, we will make our flight home.

By the way, if it’s seems like I’m on the wrong day above, that’s because we lost Tuesday, February 4th when we crossed the International Date Line. So we lost the 4th, but we will have two February 21sts, both of them this Friday. I looked up the International Date Line and this is what it says: The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line of demarcation on the surface of the earth that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. It’s imaginary? I thought it was a real red dashed line, didn’t you?

Today they have this huge fancy brunch set out all around the pool deck. Not sure what the occasion is, but it seems like something they cooked up (no pun intended) to make up for not getting us to Sydney in a timely manner.

Tomorrow we will board a plane at 11:20 AM in Sydney and fly a little under fourteen hours to Los Angeles. From there we will fly the fours hours or so to Atlanta.

As the sun sets on our “Great Down Under Adventure,” I can’t help but think that there is so much more we could see here had we the time, patience and money. But, Australia is huge, with large stretches between cities and limited highways. For instance, if you fly into Sydney it’s another 900 miles on to Melbourne. If you want to see Uluru (Ayres Rock) near Alice Springs, it’s another 1400 miles from Melbourne. Australia is not a road trip friendly country.

I am sitting in the front of the ship right now doing my favorite things, reading, writing and eavesdropping. I just heard a guy say, “I could have done with more Australia and less New Zealand.” But, as I just explained to you, that is not really possible. One can’t see Australia this easily and most people don’t want to make the effort to drive or fly all over the country. Also, I loved New Zealand and the people there. If fact, I have enjoyed the entire journey, and I hope you have been able to enjoy a little bit of it with me.