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Viking World Cruise

dicembre 2017 - maggio 2018
We had the privilege of participating in the innaugural round-the-world cruise for Viking Ocean Cruises onboard the Viking Sun. Leggi altro
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  • 103impronte
  • 34paesi
  • 142giorni
  • 520fotografie
  • 0video
  • 53,2kmiglia
  • 8,3kmiglia
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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 48

    Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty

    31 gennaio 2018, Nuova Zelanda ⋅ 🌬 72 °F

    We docked today at the beautiful port of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. Before reading our ship’s itinerary, I had never heard of this place, but it is truly a land of fantasy. It is the busiest port in New Zealand, and the fastest growing city. About 130,000 people live here now, but more are coming daily. A very nice home will run about 1 million dollars, making it the second most expensive real estate market in this country. The terrain and the lifestyle remind one of the Coast of Monterey Bay in California. Our excursion took us inland to Rotorua (meaning “Second Lake” in the Maori language). This volcanic region provides the rolling hills that make the lovely scenery filmed in The Harry Potter movies, as well as The Lord of the Rings. We saw a demonstration of Maori culture and dance and enjoyed some of the local cuisine. We also marveled at the hot springs, geysers and boiling mud pits around the geological fault that runs near Rotorua. Extinct volcanoes dot the terrain and the green grass growing on them feeds multitudes of sheep. I was surprised to learn that overpopulating possums had become a nuisance, so the resourceful Kiwis have started trapping them and using possum fur to make valuable, lightweight sweaters and blankets. It is warmer, drier and lighter than Merino wool. Looks like there’s a future for North Carolina possums.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 49

    Napier

    1 febbraio 2018, Nuova Zelanda ⋅ 🌙 72 °F

    Our ship had to bypass Napier today because of strong winds, rough seas, and a very small port. The captain cruised by so that we could take photographs and my new friend Bob and I took advantage of the opportunity.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 50

    Wellington

    2 febbraio 2018, Nuova Zelanda ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    We had a perfect day in Wellington today, the southernmost capital city in the world. The temperature is about 63°. The Viking Sun has left the tropics for a while, and Glenda couldn’t be happier. We took an inclined railway up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens, where we encountered And unbelievable number of beautiful plants and flowers. There we also encountered the Carter Observatory. I marveled at the beautiful Cooke Telescope. It was built in 1866-67 in York, England. Around the turn of the twentieth century it was shipped to Napier, NZ. Eventually it found its way to Wellington, where it continued to be used at the local university. In 2001 the observatory had planned to renovate the lenses, but found that the optics on this old 19-inch refractor were not worth repairing. A generous local benefactor financed the grinding of brand new lenses, and the telescope is still in use today. Note especially the jeweler-engraved setting circles to set declination and right ascension. As exact as they are, however, the assembly still requires four collimated spotting scopes. Note also that the mechanical, weight-driven clock drive on this apparatus was crafted by a master clock maker. It really is a remarkable and beautiful work of art. I had wanted to see the Magellanic Clouds and Alpha Centauri while we are south of the equator, and the planetarium show helped me to orient myself in these unfamiliar southern skies. Unbelievably beautiful flowers and birds surrounded us as we made our way to the rose garden and lunch at the appropriately named Begonia Cafe. There was a woman there working on a laptop computer the whole time we were in the restaurant. I couldn't help thinking about J. K. Rowling writing the Harry Potter novels in an Edinburgh coffee shop. I like to think that at some point in the future I can read a novel written by a famous New Zealand author, then learn that she wrote it at the Begonia Cafe.

    Our visit to the New Zealand Parliament building revealed next door their state executive office building, known as the beehive. Two architects were just noodling around on a paper napkin one day at lunch and playfully came up with the beehive design. Surprisingly, the idea stuck and now the executive office building is a manifestation of their scribbles on a paper napkin. We returned to the ship just before the rain started and settled in for dinner and for our overnight voyage to Christchurch, where we will tour the Southern Alps and Gandalf country.    Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 51

    Gandalf Country

    3 febbraio 2018, Nuova Zelanda ⋅ 🌙 50 °F

    Today we went to New Zealand’s Southern Alps, where the Lord of the Rings motion pictures were filmed. The terrain was magnificent. Director Peter Jackson wanted to find a place that corresponded to the description given in Tolkien’s books for the various sites, if such existed. Otherwise he would be forced to use a computer generated model of the fortress. The people of Rohan, the horse people, were said to live in a fortress on a high rock outcropping, surrounded by a broad plain, laced with streams and rivers. He had given up on finding an actual location with all three qualities when on an airline flight over the southern island of New Zealand, he happened to look down and see Mount Sunday west of Christchurch. It had all the necessary features. Eight months of construction preceded three weeks of filming, and the fortress of Edoras became a reality, at least on film. At the site of the fortress in the movie, Glenda Cook and I got to have our first sword fight. On our way to the Southern Alps, we drove through the farmland of the Canterbury Plains. Sheep and cattle graze in pastures sheltered by the mountains. Every part of New Zealand is stunningly beautiful. The community at Mount Somers welcomed us to a delicious lunch in their War Memorial Hall. The people are genuine, honest and warm. This is a special place, and this was a memorable day.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 52

    Dunedin

    4 febbraio 2018, Nuova Zelanda ⋅ 🌙 52 °F

    At 7 am we sailed into a corridor of breathtaking green mountains towering above us on both sides of the ship. Sprinkled upon them were a goodly share of New Zealand’s 30 million sheep, grazing peacefully. Unlike Christchurch and the rest of English New Zealand, Dunedin was settled by Scots. Our bus took us from Port Chalmers through Dunedin, all the way to Moeraki. We stopped for lunch at Fleur’s, a seafood restaurant in a corrugated tin shed that serves some of the best seafood in the world. Years ago the owner, whose name is actually Fleur (like Michaelangelo, she needs no last name), survived cancer, moved to New Zealand, and decided to start her life over again. There is much more to her story. We’ll tell it to you when we see you. Let’s just say that the meal was memorable. After lunch we went down to the beach that surrounds Fleur’s to see the Moeraki Boulders. Some are the size of an ottoman, some as big as a car. These mudstone nodules formed in this volcanic soil during prehistoric eruptions. When the level of the sea changed, some of these huge stone spheres rolled out onto the beach as the ground holding them was eroded by the sea. When we left the beach we had time for a quick drive through Dunedin (the original Gallic name of Edinburgh) and a stop at its lovely Victorian train station. Since the destruction of many of Christchurch’s Victorian buildings in the earthquake seven years ago, Dunedin boasts the highest concentration of Victorian buildings in the world. We returned to the ship, and as we prepared to sail away, a young girl, maybe thirteen years old, appeared on the dock in full Scottish regalia. She started playing the bagpipes as the dock workers slipped the hawsers from the cleats. As we sailed away she started playing Amazing Grace. We could barely hear her final notes, but as she finished, she saluted our ship, executed a right-face, and marched back to the gate of the port area and back into town. We have fallen in love with New Zealand. There is nowhere in the world where the terrain is more beautiful, nor the residents as welcoming or sensible. We will do our best to return to this wonderful place. Until we do, we will carry this amazing country and these delightful people in our hearts.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 53

    Super Bowl Sunday

    5 febbraio 2018, Tasman Sea ⋅ 🌙 48 °F

    Here is super bowl on the Viking Sun. Beer, nachos, chili, wings, hot dogs, burgers,fries, onion rings and loads of desserts. Because of the storm, the roof of the pool deck is closed and the game is on the big screen. I don’t care about the game but the chili was great. Today we are in a storm in the Tasman Sea on our way to Australia. High waves and winds are making for an interesting day at sea. Coffee pots went flying in the breakfast area when one wave hit us straight on. The world is gray and rainy and the wind is whistling outside. Thank God for handrails. Barf bags are scattered on tables around the ship just in case they are needed. Winds are between 50 and 80 knots. It is Monday here so the super bowl will be broadcast starting at noon here.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 56

    Melbourne

    8 febbraio 2018, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    Our first day in Australia started with a drive through Melbourne on our way to a wildlife sanctuary. Glenda fell in love with the furry little koalas. They eat very low energy eucalyptus leaves, so their normal habit is to sleep 18-22 hours per day. Only a God who has a wonderful sense of humor could have made their faces, probably after a second glass of Chardonnay. There were also wallabys, echidnas, kangaroos and my favorite, the platypus. It’s the only mammal in the world that lays an egg. Next we took a train ride on a little narrow gauge coal fired steam engine known as Puffin’ Billy. The small railway was devised as a depression-era scheme to provide jobs. It also had the effect of uniting several of the very remote towns in the mountains around Melbourne. Its other claim to fame is that it inspired a composer to create a piece of music also called “Puffin’ Billy”, which was chosen in 1955 to be the theme song of the CBS children’s show “Captain Kangaroo.” Finally we went to the Yarra Valley, known for making some of the finest Australian wines. We had a wine-tasting, followed by a gourmet meal, complete with appropriate wine-pairings, at the Rochford Vineyards. As the cultural capital of Australia, it is easy to see why this “veddy, veddy British” city of Melbourne is repeatedly voted as the most livable city in the world.Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 57

    Sea Day Lectures

    9 febbraio 2018 ⋅ 🌙 64 °F

    Today is a sea day. We are skirting around the southeast coast of Australia cruising from Melbourne to Sydney. Seas are very calm, and Captain Atle Knutsen has slowed the Viking Sun down to around ten knots. Everything is very smooth today. I attended a lecture this morning by a university professor on the current economics of Australia and New Zealand and their relationship to Asia and the Pacific. This afternoon I will go to another lecture on Australian use of nuclear energy, both for military uses and for the production of power. It seems that Australia has been very resistant to the use of nuclear energy for any purpose. They are very much in favor of ecological awareness and responsibility. The Australian people see global warming as a real threat. Yet, their over-dependence on coal for power production places Australia among the worst environmental polluters in this part of the world. It seems that there are no easy answers. Glenda has gone to a cooking class. Meanwhile, I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings. We love sea days!Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 58

    Sydney and Carmen

    10 febbraio 2018, Australia ⋅ 🌙 72 °F

    We spent the day in Sydney, Australia wandering around this beautiful harbor city. We spent our morning in the historical area founded by convicts. Stealing a handkerchief or a loaf of bread in England meant a sentence of 7 years in the penal colony of Australia. Practically, that sentence was for life because there was no way to buy your passage back to England. Essentially, England was simply attempting to export its surplus of poor people. By hard work and the Grace of God Australia became a success. Settlers came to see that in many ways relatively classless Australia was better than England. Certainly the weather was more comfortable. Tonight we go to see Carmen at the Sydney opera house.

    As soon as Carmen died (we knew she would) we got up from our seats to leave Sydney Opera House and we were surprised to find that it was raining kangaroos and koalas. The forecast had a ten percent chance of rain, but there was thunder and lightning and a south-of-the-equatorial downpour. We were all in our glad rags, so all of us Wikings waited in the opera house for some break in the rain. But soon it looked as though Carmen would get resurrected before the rain slacked off. We and our shipmates were the only people remaining in the building, and a few tired Australian security guards looked as though they wanted to get home to their supper of krumpets or whatever these people down under eat. They quietly started pulling these velvet ropes across the exits, so we figured we better brave the deluge and get out. Our ship had relocated to the west edge of the Circular Quay, so we had about a half a mile to walk through a downpour. Thor’s hammer was kicking up a fuss, and buckets of the South Pacific soaked us down to our underwear for about a twenty-minute walk-run back to the ship. At some point in our hurried journey, about the time I felt little rivulets running down my legs, the situation got silly and we started giggling like a couple of fools. We finally saw the international passenger terminal ahead. Safety at last! As we walked quickly toward a young security guard he wanted to see our security pass. I dug it out of a drenched sport coat from a pocket filled with rainwater and he said, “Romantic! Just like Fred Astaire.” I said that “romantic“ was not exactly the word I had in mind. But he let us in and we came back onto the ship. Without even going back to the stateroom, we sloshed up to Mamsen’s and got a bowl of hot pea soup, a hunk of delicious brown bread, and a little glass of sherry. Now my heart is warm, my soul has been enriched by the wonderful music of Bizet, my girl is laughing, and I’m going to bed. Amen.    Leggi altro

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  • Viking World Cruise
    Giorno 60

    Finishing Up in Sydney

    12 febbraio 2018, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    Today we finish in Sydney and then sail to Brisbane. We spent the day on an urban adventure in downtown Sydney. As we started out before 8 am, we stopped at a place called Georgie Boy’s Coffee for breakfast. The charming and articulate Chinese kid who took our order noticed my camera and asked, “Is that a Canon 70-300mm f/4.5 lens?” I answered, “Yes, would you like to take a look at it?” I handed him my camera. He took it confidently, turned off the auto focus, turned off the auto exposure, set the camera on manual, manually focused the lens, held up the camera and took the best picture of me that I have seen on this world cruise. Later I handed him that camera again and asked, “Would you take a picture of my wife and me?” He answered, “Sure. How do you want it?” I told him, “You’re the photographer—however you want to do it.” By that time I had the 50mm f/1.2 lens on. Without missing a beat he took the camera, backed out just beyond the opening of the front door, manually set the camera and snapped 3 perfectly framed, perfectly exposed photographs.

    We walked the 1.5 miles from the Circular Quay (pronounced “kee.” I don’t know why. Ask the Scots.) to Paddy’s Market. This huge emporium is smack in the middle of China town. The Chinese have been for centuries the merchants of Asia. We shouldn’t be surprised that the top 2 floors are an upscale mall. However, the bottom floor is a hodgepodge of a thousand little stalls and booths that resemble a middle eastern suq. We bought some Christmas presents, and I got Glenda Cook an Australian opal pendant. I charted out a path to the Art Museum of New South Wales. Quickly leaving the shops and traffic, we walked most of the way to the art museum through Hyde Park. This heavily treed greenway serves as the communal front yard for the Sydney dwellers who live in apartments. It contains the Australia-New Zealand War Memorial, and skirts the close of St. Mary’s Cathedral. We slipped in just in time to see the elaborate recessional and to hear a magnificent postlude played on an organ that rattled the stained glass windows. Our first stop in the gallery was to allow Glenda to pay homage to Monet. A temporary exhibition of some of Rembrandt’s paintings was on loan from the Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam, which we visited in 2015.

    The art gallery grounds adjoin the Royal Arboretum, so we were able to continue our track through the city in beautiful, green public parks without having to dodge traffic. Getting a bit hungry by 2 pm, we noticed a little creperie named “Four Frogs.” Sure enough, the owners were four in number and all French. (I hope I’m not insulting anyone by pointing out that a common British slang term for a Frenchman is “frog.”) I washed down a ham and Swiss cheese crepe with a glass of Cabernet, and Glenda had a Galette, a savory French salad atop a toasty buckwheat crepe. We took the shuttle boat back to the Viking Sun in time to relax with chocolate chip cookies and espresso. Tonight we will have dinner at the Chef’s Table onboard the ship as we begin our voyage to Brisbane. On the menu tonight is five-course dinner of Australian haute cuisine with appropriate wine pairings made by the sommelier onboard. What a wonderful world we are discovering!

    I’m subjecting our stateroom stewardess Pei Syu Yeng and our waitress Yang Yang to cruel and unusual punishment as I try to recover my Chinese language skills. It was interesting at the Sydney Opera House: translations of the French libretto were projected in English and Chinese. I was a bit relieved to be able to recognize at least some of the Chinese characters that I learned as a young GI in the Vietnam War. There was a coffee this morning for veterans. Onboard we have Porter Hallyburton, the longest-held American POW in Vietnam. Today is the 43rd anniversary of his release from captivity. We also have a retired Navy admiral among our shipmates, a WW2 survivor of the Battle of the Bulge, plus all the rest of us assorted grunts, swabbies, jarheads and zoomies.    Leggi altro

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