16 - Newcastle, Aquarium, Ocean baths, coal, Tim Tams

 Today is boxing day, the day after Christmas, in Australia and a holiday.  So not much was open. Everyone is at the beach. We took the included bus tour today, an easy ride to various beaches.  My favorite stop was near the Merewether beach, the Aquarium.  An aquarium without fish!  It was a tunnel painted with all sorts of fun fish like creatures.  Just plain fun!

Newcastle's big business is coal. Coal comes in by rail and goes out by ocean ships. China receives a lot of the coal. Newcastle is the largest coal exporting port in the world.  in 2008 a coal ship ran aground, it took 25 days to get it off the beach.  

New castle is the 2nd largest city in New South Wales.  Sydney is the largest.

                                                The Aquarium's special critters.

                                        

A white light house guards the entrance to the harbor.  It was on an island, then later a walkway/road was built to connect the island to the mainland.  It took us 20 minutes to walk (up hill) to the lighthouse. 

Here is the island, with the light house at the top.

On the way up to the light house, we saw colorful kites in the sky over the beach.  Guys were kite surfing.  They loved the high winds.  Phil was in awe when some were air borne about 20 ft. It was nice to see that they worn helmets.

The beaches were beautiful.  We visited several beaches: Merewether, Nobby, and Bar.  

Merewether Beach had Ocean Baths, man made giant swimming pools at the coast line, concreted and filled with filtered ocean water.  One side has sand, just like a beach, but two sides have concrete decks like a swimming pool.  They are emptied and cleaned every week or two.  It is cleaner and safer than ocean swimming, no jelly fish, and not much in the way of waves. One of the baths (no photo) is for the kids. It is round and is a map of the world, where kids can paddle in small boats in all the world's oceans.

                                        Sunbathers on on the concrete decks.

                                 A very windy day.  I gave up on the hat.

                    Dolfins were playing near our ship in the harbor. Finally, we saw a lot of sea life!!! This happened just as we were talking with Mark.  Sorry - Mark - for getting distracted by the dolphins! There were at least five groups surfacing.  It was  hard to catch a photo of the dolphins.

After the beaches, we stayed in town and went in search of a local candy bar:  Tim Tam.  It is a chocolate wafer covered in chocolate.  We split one, trying to limit calories where we can.  Not many places were open, we found it at a convenience store.  2 candy bars for $5, and a diet Coke for another $5 AUS.

Coal processing and loading near our dock.  Viking Mars is docked in the industrial docks.

Last night's Christmas show was Bradley, the piano man again.  Another good show.  We sat halfway back this time, avoiding the front row!.

The last craft session was today, with macrame key fobs.  Viking set up an art show, to show off the projects. I made four of the six: Christmas Bauble, Christmas cards, Key fob, and sun catcher.

                                                 

Here are the finished crafts from another cruiser.  I missed out making the Christmas bells (water color) and the bracelet.

Today is packing day.  Tomorrow is disembarking for about 500 guests.  We stay on (along with 200 + others) for the New Zealand cruise.  We received a note that we will need to move to another cabin, 4055.  So we will be 'lightly' packing too.  Our room steward will help us move tomorrow.