2 - 3 Sailing the Tasman Sea

 "That's Victoria for you" says a local Australian about today's temps. Weather is cooling down, today's high will be 65 degrees F. I know, that is nothing compared to US recent frigid weather. 

Mainland Australia is the world's largest island but the smallest continent.  The country is divided into six states and two territories.  Victoria is one of the lower states.

Yesterday we sailed away from Sydney at about 7pm, with music and Tom Collins drinks (provided for all passengers).  It was a little later than planned. They kept paging for Sheila .... to please report to Guest Services.  We guessed that she was missing from the ship, enjoying Sydney too much?  I hope they located her.!  BTY all the passengers who boarded in Sydney (about 700) had to take a covid test (Australian requirement), administered just before walking on the ship for the first time.  We wondered what happened to those that tested positive.

                This amusement park is near the Opera House.  We had good views during sail away.  I love the big face!

                                                    

Bye Bye Sydney.  We just might be back some day.

Uluru, also called Ayers Rock, is the 2nd most photographed site in Australia.  After so many photos of the Opera House, I wanted to know a little about Uluru because we will not see it on this trip.  It is sandstone monolith about 348 meters high and 3,200 meters long in Northern Territory.  It is considered sacred by the indigenous. This photo is from the talk this morning.

Other tidbits of info that we learned today: Emus and kangaroos can't back up, the British used Australia as a penal colony, the country is secular i.e. not very religious, early fortunes were made from raising and sheering sheep (by the convicts who were freed after serving their sentences), Australia is the 1st country in the world to grant women the right to vote,  Melbourne and Sydney fought (politically) over the right to be the capital of the country after never settling Canberra became the capital in 1913.

Other tidbits:  I finished my 3rd book today, Phil is on his 9th or 10th.  In fairness when I write the blog he reads.  I suppose I could be upto 5 or 6 by now. But even without a blog to do he'd read more books.   He takes every opportunity he has to read. Here we wait in line at Guest Services ( for 5 minutes) - they wanted to check everyone's documention for exiting Australia and entering New Zealand.

We met this couple at dinner the other night.  They were celebrating their honeymoon!!  They celebrate it every month or so.  They each were married for about 50 years then widowed.  They met via the internet, and started traveling together 3 years ago.  It worked well. Except that she lives in Arizona and he on the East coast neither wanted to give up their home.  So they live apart and travel together about monthly, celebrating their honeymoon with every trip.  Viking provided them with a beautiful pink cake for the celebration. Oh almost forgot the best part,  he is 87 she is 85.

The couple below met on the first ever Viking Ocean ship voyage in 2017.  They kept in touch and now they are together.  

Here is my favorite lunch, a seafood noodle soup from the Asian bar.

Today we ate lunch from the pool cafe.  I had asian chicken wings with chili sauce.  Phil had battered fish both with  onion rings. Neither selection was very healthy but oh so good.  We did skip dessert.  We will do even better tonight. We did walk and go the the gym today (weights and yoga) that should count for something.

Tonight is a new performer, guitarist Tom Ward from Australia - he was on Australia's Got Talent.   Tomorrow we dock in Melbourne at 9 am. We have booked a long excursion to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary 11am - 5pm.