P&ME Odyssey

 HAPPY NEW YEAR...2023....!!!! (Updated Jan 2)  Australia gives the world the first major  New Years Eve celebration.  There are actually little islands moving to the new year for the first four hours, then its a big bang with Australia.  We left Melbourne at 11pm and didn't see much of Melbourne's live fireworks.  Viking displayed the Sydney fireworks on the gigantic screen.  Here is one of the shots. New Year is celebrated over 26 hours instead of 24 because of quirky shifts of time zones in the Republic of Kirbati.  This Pacific nation is comprised of many islands scattered over thousands of miles.  The islands straddle the international date line, i.e. at the same time the day is different.  To fix this, they shifted the international date line out and around the eastern most islands, creating two new time zones (beyond the expected 24). We did dress up for the evening events... The Viking performers had an hour of testing/rehearsing.  They were having so much fun that we c

 Melbourne City tours - on our own.  Today we took the Viking shuttle into town and explored on foot.  Its nice to be free and not always guided in new places.  The shuttle dropped us off at the Eureka tower, one of the 17 skyscrapers.  The tower is 975 feet tall, visitors can ride to the 88th floor for about $40.  At one time it was the largest residential tower in the southern hemisphere.  This is the view of the city  from the ship.  Eureka tower is in the center, the 2nd highest scraper in this photo.  Our guides yesterday kept referring to it as the blue tower.  It doesn't look blue to me.                                                        The Yarra River flows through downtown. Yesterday on the drive to the Wildlife Sanctuary we were in the Yarra Valley, following the Yarra River.  Two weeks ago the area (outside the city) was flooded in the Yarra River valley.  Our original excursion for Melbourne was a train ride into the countryside.  But the floods caused so much dama

 Melbourne is pronounced Mel' bern (Melbun). The city is slightly smaller than Sydney with 4.91 million people.  It has been voted the most liveable city in the world several times.  It has more coffee shops than anywhere else in the world (per capita?).  It has 17 high rises and 30 more are under construction. When they are complete the population density will be higher than Tokyo. Today we visited an indigenious animal sanctuary, Healesville Sanctuary.  Finally we will get to see Koalas, and kangaroos! Isn't this koala just adorable!!!! We arrived in Melbourne this morning at 9 am.  The harbor waters were littered with jelly fish, lots of them.  They looked to be about 1 foot in diameter.  I prefer the dolfins in Newcastle!  There was a  large P&O Cruise ship sharing our dock. I had a Mamsen's kanelbolle (cinnamon roll) with breakfaast.  It wasn't as sweet as the American version (Lori's) nevertheless, it was really good.  I will have it again.  This is the di