It wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t even my second, third or fourth choice, but we are still bound for a place we’d never heard of before:
It’s a really nice place,” my travel advisor said.” But I merely shook my head.
“Where the heck is
“It’s right on the
“Yeah, but I’ve never even heard of
“Trust me,” she said. “The price is right, and you’ll love it.”
Yes, I never planned in my wildest dreams that I would be bound for
It’s that time again; I’ve resisted long enough. I must return to one of my favorite spots in the world:
Airfares from
Read on…
You’ve just returned from your vacation. You had a good time – partied hard, did a few things that maybe you shouldn’t have done, and took the pictures to prove it. But now you realize you have misplaced your digital camera. Is there anything worse than a lost camera full of vacation photos? Yes.
It’s having those private pictures show up on the Internet for the entire world to see.
That’s the brainchild of University of Winnipeg student, Matt Preprost. This newest Web guru has created a site designed to help unite lost digital photos and cameras with their (embarrassed?) owners. It’s called, www.ifoundyourcamera.net.
Preprost’s wild idea has already netted results. In only the first few days of the ifoundyourcamera.net site’s launch, photos were reunited with their takers.
A combination of your creativity and Matt’s site, could be your ticket to fame…read on…
Actually, it was more like 12 hours, but I had already experienced enough derision from my travel mates. So, I didn’t fess up to the real amount of time. But…
I had precious cargo to transport. And I wanted it to survive the ravages of airline luggage wranglers, airline conveyor belts, and airline scales.
I was not about to leave my hand-selected New Zealand wines behind; but neither did I want to ship the bottles only to have them broken in transit. And I didn’t want to pay an overweight baggage fee at the airport. So, logistical plans take awhile. Okay?
I have brought back many fragile things in my suitcases — with almost complete success. Especially wine. I haven’t lost a bottle, well, except one to an unscrupulous airport security inspector, but that’s another story…
A Quick and Easy Guide
Here is a quick and easy guide for the supplies you will need, and tips for how to pack your imported wine for safe and secure transport in your suitcase….
“It’s just not fair,” I wailed.
I wailed because I saw buttery yellow sunlight creasing the clouds, and because it was disembarkation day for our 14-day cruise of New Zealand and Australia, and our last day in Sydney, Australia.
We had arrived in port two nights prior, but had only one rain-filled day to explore this massive port city, with its famous Opera House, gorgeous old heritage buildings, and infamous convict history.
But that’s beside the point ‘cause now I am just mad at you, Sydney. And that’s very strange since we (my husband and I) had vowed we had no interest in visiting Sydney. Ever. And that makes me even madder.
You could have told me sooner that I was going to love your harbour, that I was going to love your city streets and your people, that I was going to adore The Rocks, and that you had so much to offer. I would have made different plans.
And now it’s too late; we are leaving. (Or so I thought.)
Things are never as they seem…read on…
My recent cruise to New Zealand and Australia was fraught with troubles from lost luggage to missed airline connections. My husband and I didn’t experience any problems besides cramped seats on a very long Air New Zealand flight, but hundreds of our fellow cruisers really suffered.
Traveling and troubles go together; they just do. The way to cope with travel troubles is to plan for mishaps, as best you can.
Here are 12 tips to help cruise ship travelers prepare so they can enjoy their expensive cruise, come what may:
I have become a traitor, an unfaithful lover, if you will, for I have fallen for another – another with charms equal to, if not greater than, one of my dearest loves, New York City.
My new love?
Melbourne (pronounce that mel-ban), Australia.
Our short day in port (during a recent 14-day Celebrity Mercury cruise of New Zealand and Australia) was almost criminal when we saw what this bustling city had to offer, and that’s besides the fact it was hosting the Australian Open Tennis Championships.
From its gardens, to its museums, to its handsome old architecture, including the old Melbourne Gaol (jail), it became clear that a mere 7 hours in this city was just…silly. And that a return trip was most definitely in order.
But in the meantime, we had to make the most of our time, and decide wisely. Here’s how we spent our few hours in Melbourne, Australia.
Read on…
After docking relatively early in Port Melbourne, our ship and its passengers had to endure two hours of Australian customs clearance. This included a 20-minute walk through customs complete with a cute little bag-sniffing beagle dog (NO foreign foods are allowed into Australia) and this enthusiastic little fellow will find you out! Even two days AFTER you have had fruit in your bag, as a fellow passenger discovered.
Once through the bag-checking and passport-checking gamut, we bought a “day-use” tram ticket, walked for about 5 minutes, and then boarded a spiffy high-tech tram headed for the heart of Melbourne. The trams have very few seats, but are fitted with many overhead hooks (I suspect the average Australian is much taller than the rest of us, because I ended up swinging like a chimp).
We had no clue where we were going, or where we should get off, so we tried questioning the locals. Our first encounter, with a lovely college-aged lady, was a huge hint at what was to come; the Melbournians are amazingly friendly and helpful people. (Wait till I tell you what our sightseeing tour bus driver did!) The young lady told us which stop to get off at, and which way to walk in order to find the Melbourne Visitor Information Centre. She even came back to us before she left the tram to ensure we knew to get off at the next stop.
And that’s exactly what we did. I was stunned by the sights I saw as I alit from the tram: the crowds, the traffic, the buildings, the bustle – why, it looked just like New York City. My heart beat quicker because I love all the noise and the hustle of the Big Apple. And so my alienation of affections began.
We marched up Swanston Street and arrived at Federation Square, just across the street from Flinders Street Station (what a gorgeous old building in its rich butterscotch hues!). We found the information centre, and were amazed by the expert set-up. This metropolis is so used to dealing with tourists that it has a high-tech help system in place; you actually have to take a number to get assistance. I’m serious. But the place is so well laid out, with brochures catalogued under a variety of titles from tours to theatre, that it was easy to help ourselves. And so we did.
Now the hard part was making a decision on what to do in our quickly diminishing allotment of shore leave. We sat down outside in intense bright sunshine to peruse the tour booklets; a street performer was just starting his show; an official Australian Open souvenir booth to our left was doing a brisk business (I now have a stuffed kangaroo wearing a jersey as my memento). Our eyes adjusted to the brightness, and we began to read.
My husband had earlier indicated an interest in the Old Melbourne Gaol, and so we located that on a map. Okay, now how to get there? We studied a couple of tourist shuttle buses like the Melbourne City Circle Tram, and the city’s FREE Tourist Shuttle, both of which can be caught just across the street from the Info centre, and both of which would get us to the gaol. We opted for the free shuttle which ran every ½ hour.
(Something really cool about Melbourne that I haven’t seen in New York City is the city’s “greeter” service. These helpful “city ambassadors,” identified by their red tunics, were all over the place. And, as we discovered, they didn’t just point you in the right direction; they were prepared to walk you there. That’s how we found the toilets in Federation Square. Thanks Melbourne!)
We boarded the tourist shuttle at Stop #2, took the full circle trip, and then advised the bus driver we had designs on the old gaol. He confirmed that Stop #4 would get us there. Now here is the story about the driver.
The gray-haired fellow (his name was Lance) called our stop. We left via the back door and stood for a moment trying to get our bearings. We must have looked confused (we were) because the bus stopped, the driver jumped off, ran up to us, and gave us detailed directions on how to get to the gaol. Now I ask you…how many bus drivers in your city would do that? We stood with our mouths open, both stunned and delighted. And then we headed down the hill to the gaol.
The old Melbourne Gaol is a must-see adventure; I promise. It is not for the faint-of-heart, but it is an experience you’ll long remember. Especially if you take the tour where YOU are booked and thrown into a cell, like a common prisoner. Really! But that’s for a future blog.
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Yes, Melbourne, Australia has not seen the last of me. Now if I can just gear myself up again for that 14-hour plane ride. Oh heck, of course I can. I simply must see the Melbourne Werribee Open Range Zoo, the Healesville Sanctuary, the Great Ocean Road, the Witches in Britches theatre, the Queen Victoria Market, the…
New York City will just have to wait.
If you’d like to book tours or attractions tickets in Melbourne, Australia ahead of time, try Best of Victoria.
Cheers,
Sheree Zielke
If you are native to the lands of the Northern Hemisphere, then Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds may mean very little to you; Nancy, Charles, and George Sound will mean even less. But if you visit New Zealand, down in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll find all these places; they are part of the Fiordland National Park, on the southwesterly corner of New Zealand’s south island.
But if you have ever visited North America’s northwest coastline, in particular, the coasts of Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska, then the topography of these wild and richly forested terrains may seem familiar.
Perhaps the most satisfying way to visit these New Zealand Sounds is by land but local tour companies offer exploration nor only by foot, shuttle van, and tour bus, but via watercraft, and by air. Air seems to be the most efficient way to take in the 1.2 million hectares of wilderness that make up the Fiordland, but a guided walk might be considered more effective. That’s if you have the time. Try these sites: Hike South and Ultimate Hikes.
But failing that, take a cruise up into the sounds. Besides the huge cruise lines that visit the Sounds, there is also a large assortment of smaller cruise vessels. Expect rainy weather and heavy mists; this is a temperate rain forest. The rains give rise to pretty multiple waterfalls coursing down through lush green forested mountains. You might even catch a glorious rainbow as it cuts its way through the grey mist.
Our ship, the Celebrity Mercury, had three Sounds on its itinerary: Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds. We reached Dusky Sound early in the morning, amidst gray skies, churning waters, and heavy mist. The short trip into Dusky was interesting, but the light was such that no outstanding photographs could be taken.
Doubtful Sound was just that, doubtful. And in fact, high winds and rough waters meant that our ship, including a fellow cruise ship, the Statendam, had to pass by. But the picturesque Milford Sound still lay ahead.
Milford Sound (it was agreed by other passengers who were experienced in the Sounds) was the more majestic and more beautiful, with its dozens of waterfalls and pretty coastline. Many compared it to Alaska or the northern coastline of British Columbia with its misty timber forests, and moody gray waters.
Wildlife is supposed to be abundant in these largely uninhabited sounds although we didn’t see any of the fur-bearing seals, penguins, or dolphins said to make these sounds their home.
For more information on the New Zealand Fiordlands, read this stunning National Geographic account by author, Kennedy Warne.
Photography Tip: When taking photos in the Fiordland sounds, push your digital camera’s “exposure compensation” setting to a “negative” number to ensure a clearer, less misty picture. You can always brighten your shots later in your computer’s photo manipulation program.
Cheers,
Sheree Zielke
If you ask, you’ll be told, “Oh, New Zealand is more like Canada; Australia is more like the United States.” While that may be true, politically and geographically speaking, there is one major difference — no Canadian I know dislikes Americans as much as some New Zealanders dislike their Aussie neighbors to the North. But here’s a quick comparison of the two countries — apart from the rivalry.
As a tourist, the biggest factor in deciding whether to like New Zealand over Australia has nothing to do with humans but rather to do with the native animals. As the resident New Zealander, whom I met on a double-decker bus in Rome, said, “You should visit New Zealand because there is nothing that 
will bite, sting or kill you in New Zealand.”
He’s right. And I am glad we took is advice. My husband and I just completed a 14-day cruise that took us on an extensive cruise ship tour around New Zealand, beginning in Auckland and ending in the Fjordland sounds. From there we traveled up to the eastern shore of Australia.
In New Zealand, a human can walk anywhere, at anytime and not worry about an animal attack, while Australia is home to some of the world’s most deadly predators. In fact, Australia is home to the top 6 most venomous snakes in the world like the taipan and the brown snake (see these live at Sydney’s Wildlife World on Darling Harbour), the tiny yet deadly red-backed spider, the furry funnel-web spider, the massive saltwater crocodile, and wild dogs or dingoes (so much a problem they necessitated the longest manmade structure in the world – a wire fence 3,500 miles long engineered to keep domestic cattle safe from voracious wild dogs). And if a visitor ventures into Australian waters, they run the risk of bumping into one third of the world’s species of sharks, including 25-foot Great Whites, the fiercest and most terrifying predators of the world’s oceans. But back to our human issues.
It was uncomfortable and mystifying to hear the animosity in our New Zealand taxi driver (David’s) voice when we accidentally identified his accent as Australian. He quickly, and with great vehemence, corrected our error informing us that he was a “Kiwi” not a “bloody” Aussie. As a visitor, I liked both nationalities just fine.
I asked him about the term, “fair dinkum.” “Just an Aussie bullshit line,” he said. “It usually follows a story that an Aussie wants you to believe.” Instead of fair dinkum, you might hear an Aussie end his or her story with, “true story,” as though they are used to being doubted. And perhaps they are. At least by New Zealanders.
But back to the tourist attractions.
New Zealand is home to the world’s southernmost winery (Black Ridge Wines), but Australia has camel races across the desert. New Zealand has the fiordlands of the Southern Island, while Australia’s northeastern coast is home to the magnificent Great Barrier Reef which covers 120-thousand square miles.
Here are some factors you may want to consider when deciding between New Zealand and Australia as vacation travel destinations. Or do what my husband and I did and take a cruise around both countries: safe, secure and absolutely delightful.
Travel the curvy roads of New Zealand through mountainous emerald terrain, and never run out of signs of civilization, or trek across the hot barren Australian Outback, 2000 kilometers between Perth and Sydney, and rarely run into another living thing, except maybe a triple-trailer transport truck.
Australia has cornered the market on camels, playing host to 500-thousand of the gangly imported beasts, while New Zealand boasts of being home to the endangered Kiwi, a bird with feathers more like a cat’s fur.
Australia has a bronze boar out front of a Sydney hospital that, if you rub his nose, will bring you good luck. New Zealand was just lucky in being the chosen location for Peter Jackson’s hugely successful Lord of the Rings movies. (Many tours like the Flat Earth and the Trails of Middle Earth are available that will take you to old film shooting locations like Hobbiton and Lothlorien.)
New Zealand plays host to the world’s only Antarctic Interactive Centre, compete with a fabricated Antarctic winter storm; Australia has the Sydney Opera House, and the huge Powerhouse Museum, currently hosting a tribute to the late Princess Diana (this one deserved its own blog entry).
Whichever country you choose to explore, give yourself plenty of time; we found 14 days a ridiculously short time to visit even just a couple of the cities on our itinerary, let alone, BOTH countries.
Cheers,
Sheree Zielke
Ocean view? Porthole? Verandah? Penthouse suite? Desolate mushroom pit? Which is best for you? Well, that depends. Read on.
If you book your cruise early enough, you should be able to tell your travel rep where you’d like to live on your ship. Choosing a cabin suited to your personality and biological needs is the first step in ensuring a memorable and happy cruise.
Amidships has its positive aspects especially for those prone to seasickness. Consider this the middle of the seesaw while the fore (front) and aft (back) are the ends of the teeter totter yielding the most noise and hardest wave action. The fore can be extremely noisy in rough sea as the hull is beaten by waves, but the aft, in calm waters, can provide a more private place to sun and rest.
A ship like the Celebrity Mercury houses its Shipmates Fun Factory at the rear of the ship on the Vista Deck, Deck 9. Most people view a cabin near this area to be a negative placement, but quite the opposite is true. You rarely hear the kids, and when you do, it’s usually a happy noise. And you are only steps away from a quiet back area. It’s an especially nice bonus for those not able to secure a private verandah or balcony.
A balcony is a must for very warm cruises, like through the Mediterranean, but definitely not in colder climes like
If you can’t get a balcony, an unimpeded deluxe ocean view cabin is wonderful. While you can’t step outside, you do get natural light, and you will always be able to see out in spite of salt-grimed glass.
An inside cabin (for me) is to be avoided at all costs especially by those suffering from even minor forms of claustrophobia or SAD (seasonal affective disorder). An inside cabin is akin to a tomb or a coffin. It is always dark, and upon awaking there is no way to tell the time of day. But if you can stand living like a mushroom, then book an inside room (you will save a whack of money.)
Then there is deck height. The higher the deck, the more you will feel the wave action. But those passengers housed in lower decks will SEE the wave action, right outside their window.
Keep in mind, when booking your cabin, the side (port is left, starboard is right) of the ship it’s located? Ask your travel agent the direction you’ll be cruising when alongside land; you’ll want to book your cabin on the side closest to the land, obviously.
For help in making a more informed decision about your particular ship, try CruiseMates or this USA Today article. Other really good research sites are CruiseCritic and SecretCruises.
Above all, if you are picky, book early so you can secure a room to your liking. Check if your travel agent or the cruise line is offering any deals; in many cases, upgrades may be available. An upgrade could mean the difference between an unobstructed and an obstructed ocean view room. You will appreciate the difference when you find your “ocean” view filled with a life boat or a window-cleaning platform.
Oh, and a room with a porthole? Imagine having a view on the world about the size of your toilet bowl. If you can stand this peephole outlook, you’ll have money left over for those other expensive ship extras like shore excursions, and soda pop (an endless pop on a 10-day cruise for two people is 100-bucks).
Cheers,
Sheree Zielke
