500 Yards off of Kiriwina lsland, Papua New Guinea...

Friday, February 6. Blue sky. Calm sea. Not a breath of wind. 29 C.

Fellette and I are recovering from our trip ashore yesterday. We were on the deck for some time, starting in the dark at 5:30 this morning. Fellette usually does not insist very often. Today she insisted that we appreciate the pleasant view laid out before us from the air conditioned comfort of our spacious cabin. I did not disagree.

We have never been beach bums, maybe in Maui in the morning, watching the sun come up over the volcano, but not during the day at 29 C!

I suppose when you are younger and you can spent some time in or under the water it may be OK. At home, when we are gardening we only work in the morning before what we call the 'Heat of the day' starts. Why in heavens name would we walk onto the beach in front of us when we are just miles from the equator??? Maybe some people don't know what causes skin cancer 60 to 70 years later.

There is no doubt that today will be a wonderful day, at a beautiful beach for many people, and I am happy for them. For us oldies, it was a wonderful day of rest, relaxation and recuperation with a wonderful South Pacific Beach just yards from our Picture Window.

R and R Day, Loving it...

From our Air-Conditioned room.

From our deck at 29 C.

Also from the deck, unbreathable out there.

Alouta Revisited...

Thursday, February 5. Cloudy. Hot. 30 C.

To those of you who are still following this blog you will know that Fellette and I were stranded here almost five years ago to the day. We did not have fond memories of that visit, but in spite of that we decided to walk off late this morning just for the heck of it and see how things have changed. Things have improved I am glad to say, remarkably. The place is cleaner, litter is less, still incredibly dirty though. People are happier than I remember, but the place is just so tired looking. It just needs a darn good rain to get the place looking less dirty. Even that would not help it. Mind you I am looking through a very old set of eyes that have seem much over these 90 years.

The heat was incredulous, the inside of my nostrils seem to be scorched! Walking was an issue, for me at least, nothing underfoot seemed to be level, everything sloped. We were unable to find our Hotel/Compound where we holed up five years ago and we hobbled back  to the ship where we each had a cold shower and changed clothes as we were soaked to the skin with sweat! At least we tried today. It took some time to get our bodies back into sync and we had to do that with food and drink. I can't believe how fast we got dehydrated!

I had a very long chat with Wally this morning, nice to get caught up with many issues at home. I always feel better after talking to family, it lasts for a few days and then runs out, if you know what I mean.

A Very Interesting Day!!! 

And we slowly make our way into port this morning, leaving only our wake to tell that we were here.

Holland America pays the locals to come and dance for the passengers. These are performers, nobody walks around looking like this in the town, maybe out it the bush a bit.

Many locals chew what they call Betel Nut and spit it out on the street. It give a bit of a buzz and destroys their gums. It is revolting.

Looks civil enough, this is inside a waterfront private property that can pass as acceptable for some time. It can only be for a short while as everything else is Third World unfortunately, and not in a fresh outdoorsy way. It's stale.

Sacks of coconut meat fill most of the local warehouses here.

This is where Fellette and I waited to board the ship five years ago.

The earth is so icky and dirty to walk on it is just degrading to be on it. And the  heat was so oppressive it was draining. It was not a good outing for us today.

Once again I find myself apologizing for the poor photos. It was hard enough just walking without taking photos!

A Quiet Day at Sea...

Wednesday, February 4. The Ocean a Mill Pond. Cloudy. 30 C.

Fellette and I slept like logs. Our bottoms were racked by that horrid little bus yesterday, the seating and bottom bracing did not seem that bad at the moment but we paid the price!

Fellette went for another swim this morning after breakfast and that was about the only physical exertion between the two of us today. We seem to have mastered the art of relaxation to  the nth degree! Not so sure that that is a good thing.

This meandering journey from San Diego to Cairns, Australia is coming to an end. On Sunday to be exact, this being Wednesday. I am not sure if much is going to change except everything will change: we will then be in OUR World. Our life aboard will not change, our life aboard for the last five weeks aboard has set the style of passengers we have become for the entire voyage I believe. We are non-participants in practically all the special things that most people do on a cruise. They hold little interest for us it seems. We are non-joiners at home, except for Fellette in her exercise classes. We garden, build things, fix things and just enjoy getting old together. That is us!

Tomorrow we are docked in Alotau, Papua New Guinea. That is where Fellette and I spent two full days and nights at in early 2020. We were joining a British Ship sailing from Cairns Australia [where we dock this coming Sunday.] The ship was sailing to Dubai in the UAR and then to Morocco for a month long Land Tour.

When we walked onto the ship in Cairns, that was when we discovered that we had left our Passports and money etc., in the Wall Safe in our Melbourne Hotel where we were lodging the nights before. Dah!

The ship allowed our luggage to go to our cabin but we could not stay on. So... I phoned our travel agent in Vancouver who booked me on a flight in the morning from Cairns to Brisbane, and then from Brisbane to Melbourne, where I went and picked up the goods from the hotel, then back to the Melbourne Airport and flew to Cairns . I got there a few hours after the ship had sailed. The first port for the ship was Alotau, where we dock tomorrow morning at around 8:00 am!

The next morning we flew to New Guinea on New Guinea Air. An experience but all good. We got a ride from a stranger at the tiny Airport to Alotau in his pickup, he took us to the only hotel in Alotau that a white man and his wife would stay at. I remember it being rather like a compound but we did venture outside a bit during the day because we were younger and more stupid. You might remember that year, 2020, when we got home in March that year, the World was shutting down because of our friend COVID, remember it?

We were delighted to see our cruise ship swing into the harbour, right on time on the appointed day! Another kind person from the Hotel drove us to the pier where we started another adventure!

Life is Good!

Fellette enjoyed the pool again today.

Having a Latte after the swim while the room was being cleaned. How Sweet it is!

The Ocean was so smooth today, our wake was the only thing visible on it!

There is a photo from that distressing day in January 12, 2020 when we flew from Cairns, to Port Moresby on Air Niugina!

And, there comes our Cruise Ship to rescue us from this predicament that we found ourselves in. Six years ago almost to this exact time.

Rabaul, on the Island of East New Britain , 600 km East of the Island of New Guinea.

Tuesday, February 3. Overcast, hot. 28 C.

It went a bit slow this morning, that's the way things happen here but things do get done.

It was a long and interesting day, endless it seemed. It was very hard to really get my mind into where we were and where we were going. Our guide was a young Native woman with a heavy but understandable accent, very polite and pleasant. The vehicle was a very beat up but serviceable little 10 passenger mini bus. The roads were absolutely atrocious, there were four mini-buses that travelled together in a sort of convoy with flashing lights. Like a police escort through New York City, [for us!]

Everybody waves and I mean everyone, it got to be contagious and soon seemed to become inappropropriate NOT to wave, and smile as we bounced around for over five hours. We had  several stops where we were addressed by a well spoken middle agent gent and we had a couple of younger men in an accompanying van. I suspect they were there to help if anything went awry during the day. There was ample warnings about security, theft etc., ample indeed.

We had a long stop at a Commonwealth War Graves site. At these, people generally do not speak. The gravity of the situation and the vastness of the simple headstones, row on row, seems to stifle my vocal cords, as  many, many others. Interestingly, there are no Japanese War Cemeteries on the Island, only monuments. I was also told that there are no Japanese who live on the island. 

The day was a rather sobering day, not only because of the War aspects but because of the immense feeling of respect that I have acquired for the patience and humility that these simple folks have, without showing any anger or resentment to us who have so much and they, who have so little, spread out there wares for us to look at then and walk on by. I feel like a darn Cad!

It Was However, a Great Day!

Here comes the Pilot and other authorities.

They only have had four Cruise Ships this year, usually six to eight.

The list of these sellers lines the street on the road outside the port gates, for a couple of hundred yards, sad. They were there when we came back five hours later!

More.

I got Fellette in the Big Gun picture this time. This was a site of a collection of Japanese relics that they stored at a civic museum. 

Apparently that is a Jap Zero.

Machine Gun.

A Tunnel for storage by the Japs, dug by their prisoners of war, the diggings were used for to make the airstrip.

Hmmm. Lots of Jap helmets but no war graves!

Anything to make a buck I guess. I just felt sorry for him.

These vendors set up this massive field full of their wares just for the mini-buses from our ship today.

More.

Mainly Aussies here.

Australians seem to have been dying here for over 100 years.

Papua New Guinea Tomorrow...

Monday, February 2. Rain early. Cloudy. 29 C.

A relaxing day at sea today, heading northish to the equator quite a bit. We also had some good news as well, the the next two ports that were to be Tender ports, we will be docking! Tendering can be a bit of a bother particularly, when coming back to the ship, the waiting conditions can be a bit iffy regarding the time and weather. Also the mobility of most of us is sometimes not the best for crowded and rocking and rolling about.

We took in two interesting talks this morning, one on The War in The Pacific, right in the middle of where we are and have just been. The second one was a very, very well done 3/4 hour presentation of the History of 150 years of Holland America Lines and its role in our lives since the days of Sail. Slickly done with live and recorded pieces seamlessly stitched together.

A Good Day.