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Australia & New Zealand 2025Australia & New Zealand 2025
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We hook up with our 2023 around-the-world cruise ship, Insignia, on its 2025 ATW cruise for a segment from Perth, to Sydney, Australia before heading to New Zealand’s North Island followed by a side trip to Milford Sound on NZ’s South Island Read more

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  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    1

    Perth, Western Australia (WA)

    May 2 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    After 23 hours on two flights and a day lost to the International Date Line, we arrived in Perth in the state of Western Australia. We have now visited all 7 continents. Our first impressions of Perth: clean, modern, and safe. Definitely worth a visit. Our first full day happened on Election Day (50% had already voted and the PM named by 9:30 pm!). Much like recent results in Canada, it was a resounding victory for the incumbent, embracing multiculturalism and rejecting growing nationalism throughout the world. Our first activity was a free walking tour organized by the city. We learned about the prisoners that England shipped here in the mid-1800’s, the two gold rushes of the late 1800s, and a large earthquake nearby the city. The city was named by Sir George Murray, a Scot born in the city of the same name. He was the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the early 1830s. After lunch, we walked in King’s Park with fantastic views of the city and Swan River. There, a beautiful walk took us through the Western Australian Botanical Gardens which contains flora including sacred Boab trees transported 800 miles from northwestern Australia. They have massive trunks that store water in the wet season and can be 1,500 years old. We had dinner in the Northbridge section of Perth at a Chinese restaurant which had some of the most succulent scallops we’ve ever eaten. In the morning we’ll hit the museums and then off to embark on our ship in Fremantle about 30 min by car.Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025

    Day 2 Perth, WA

    May 4 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    Today we visited an excellent natural history museum in Perth known as the Boola Bardip. From huge 5-ton wrecking balls that cleared Australian forests for farming to delicate sea coral, it had it all. There were displays of 6 foot high termite colony hills. There was a sad display and video testimonials about the massacres of aborigines that stretched from the 1800s into the mid 20th century. We Ubered 30 min to Fremantle to join our ship and quickly ran into several friends from our 2023 ATW cruise on the same ship.Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025

    Fremantle and Busselton, WA

    May 5 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We spent Monday exploring Fremantle, the port city for Perth. It’s a quiet city steeped in maritime lore, mostly shipwrecks. The Dutch and English first made forays to Australia in the 1600s and without ways to determine where they were often ran aground and sank.

    We left Fremantle later on Monday and docked in Busselton to the south around 7:00 am Tuesday. The weather was perfect, 70 and sunny. Busselton claims the second longest jetty in the world at 1.8+ km. It’s so long that they have a train to take you to the end. We walked the jetty both ways and felt every meter of it. Then we took a stroll in the center of town and sat at an outdoor cafe for iced coffee. Australians are big on coffee and some would say coffee snobs.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    1

    Albany, WA

    May 6 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    As we pulled into the sheltered port town of Albany (pronounced owlbany), we encountered granite formations and hills for the first time. It was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the low 70’s. Albany was settled in 1827. Interestingly, all towns now have dual names: European and Aboriginal.
    Climate: 45 for lows in winter and high 80s in summer.
    We hopped on our tour which took us first to Torndirrup National Park with its rock formations being pounded by the surf of the Southern Ocean. The surf carved out a natural bridge in one area and a blowhole where the water sometimes engulfs sightseers on a platform 100s of feet above the sea. Just last week an unsuspecting fisherman was swept out to sea by a King Wave of 3-5 x the normal height, and presumed dead.
    Next stop, a whaling station that closed in 1978 due to a dwindling market for whale oil. Spotter planes would go out and radio the coordinates of the whales. Only the captain manned the harpoon launcher on the whaling vessels because if they caught the wrong type whale they were fined as much as $2,000. Once the ship brought the whale back to the processing facility, the flensers took over in just t-shirts, shorts and boots as the slop and smell were worse than in an abattoir.
    Our tour ended in an animal preserve filled with kangaroos, wombats. birds and reptiles.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    1

    Adelaide, Southern Australia - Day 1

    May 10 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    Today we strolled the beautiful botanical gardens in downtown Adelaide and had a tour of the National Wine Center of Australia including a private tasting with our guide Maria, originally from Colombia. We tasted wines from two local regions, the Barossa and McClaren valleys. Afterwards, we took the convenient tram system to central Adelaide where a once a year food festival was happening. A Taste of Australia. Just our luck! We walked on a pedestrian mall mobbed with people enjoying the sunny, mild and dry weather. Stopped by the well-known chocolatier, Haigh’s, One has to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime events after all. Next, we visited the South Australia Art Museum which had some interesting pieces including a bull’s hide hung from its hind legs.Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025

    Adelaide, SA - Day 2

    May 11 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    On our second day in Adelaide we took the light rail again about 40 min into the center. We were headed to the Migration Museum when we heard a band playing the overture to Carmen. We followed our ears to the lawn of the Governor’s mansion where they were holding a yearly open house. The band we heard was the South Australia (SA) police band. The governor of SA is the king’s representative to the state, a largely ceremonial position. She is in office for 5 years. The title is her Excellency the Honorable Frances Adamson with whom we snagged a photo. Those “pushy” Americans getting in there again! After chomping down on a sausage on white bread sold by the Girl Scouts of Australia, we listened to the Girls Choir of Australia. They travel the world representing their country. The Migration Museum told the story of how Australia developed into a multicultural society that became less reflective of its British heritage over time. With a population of only 27 million, Australia encourages immigration to keep its economy humming. It was back to the botanical garden to see the fruit bats hanging like leaves from the trees. On the ride back, we stopped at Port Adelaide which has a rich seafaring history. Right next door is Port Dock where the federal government has invested billions in submarines to counter Chinese power in the region. It is a huge economic boon for the region and is the result of the alliance created between the U.S., Japan and Australia.Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    11

    Kangaroo Island, South Australia

    May 12 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    We had arranged an early wildlife tour of Kangaroo Island. Lying south of Adelaide, the island while 90 miles long has only 4,500 inhabitants. The economy is based on agriculture (mainly grains and sheep) and tourism. After WWII, returning soldiers were given 1,200 acres each, 900 of which were cleared.
    First stop was a beach on Seal Bay, incorrectly named for the sea lions who rest there. They go to sea for 2-3 days at a time to get food for their pups and can dive to depths of 300 meters. So the rests are well deserved. Even the pups were fast asleep.
    No, the kangaroos are not running helter shelter everywhere. Just like any wild animal, they stay away from humans for the most part. That’s where the wildlife shelter comes in. There we fed kangaroos and wallabies, petted koalas and were given an outstanding raptor and predator show.
    A stop at a eucalyptus oil farm and a picturesque beach (Pennington Beach) rounded out the day.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    2

    Portland, Victoria, Australia

    May 13 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    Portland was a pleasant stop with mild temps and sunny skies. Dee needed to replace a belt and she found a perfect replacement in a leather-goods shop. There was a small maritime museum with facts about the same wreck that almost every town we visited laid claim to. Must have been as traumatic for the townspeople as it was for the shipwrecked crew. We met a shopkeeper who also ran a sheep farm. Walking down the street, we met a couple who had just finished their potato harvest. They had come to town from 2.5hrs away to see it as they are normally too busy and the husband only came to town to drive his produce to the port. They had big plans for travel in the North America and Europe and enjoyed swapping travel stories.Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025
    11

    Melbourne, Victoria

    May 14 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    As our ship approached Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, it was shrouded in a mist that turned out to be smoke from local fires. Australia’s original capital, it is a continuous battle with Sydney for supremacy. The rivalry got so bad that the country decided to place the capital elsewhere, in Canberra. George Batman first settled Melbourne as Batmania. He sold plots to settlers despite a treaty he signed with aboriginals. He renamed it Melbourne for the lord who was then Great Britain’s prime minister. It quickly became the 2nd largest city in the British Empire.
    The big yearly indigenous festival is called Moomba. The Europeans thought it was a traditional native gathering, but it means “up your ass” in the aboriginal language.
    The city has the largest tram system in the world and the parts around the central business district (CBD) are free as is a classic trolley that runs around the perimeter of the CBD. Melbourne’s iconic landmark is the Victorian era Flinders street station with its 13 clocks showing the arrival times for each track, where people meet and show times of each train. We had a delicious lunch with friends from Vancouver in Chinatown at the Shanghai Village Dumpling House. We ended our day in the beautiful State Library of Victoria where an exhibit of master criminal/folk hero Ned Kelly’s armor was on display.    Read more

  • TravelerAustralia & New Zealand 2025

    Sydney, NSW, Australia - day 1

    May 17 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Sydney, Australia’s largest city, is a vibrant mix of history, business and art. We managed to fit in a walking tour before the matinee concert at the Opera House and boy did we walk, about 7 miles for the day. Sydney has its own, beautiful Hyde Park. Its first hospital was built by laborers who were paid in rum. It was constructed so poorly that it had to be rebuilt this time by sober workers. Upon reaching the theater of the iconic Opera House in Sydney Harbor, we overheard comments like: “I can’t believe I’m in the opera house; “WOW!” It was a very festive atmosphere; not as reserved as our orchestra . Everyone was taking selfies, us included! The performance of Rossini’s last two pieces of his life (in Paris), included a rousing rendition of William Tell (theme to the Lone Ranger) followed by a 450 member chorus, 5 soloists, and an organist suspended 30+ feet above the stage, who we’re told needed to take motion sickness meds to get up there. It was quite a spectacle.Read more

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