I mentioned recently that I’d done a cruise on the Sun Princess as an ‘Enrichment Speaker’ – someone who delivers educational and (hopefully) entertaining lectures on a variety of subjects. I’m often asked what my lectures were on … so here’s a part of one: Cruise Ships Past, Present and Future. The idea of ships…
Dolphins with droopy dorsal fins; earthquake-damage apologies; French street signs; frigid teal waters; rose gardens; mosaic galleries – we’re talking about Akaroa, on New Zealand’s South Island. The town is on the Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the country, and it’s where the cruise ships come in to visit Christchurch, around 80km away. Akaroa’s…
Normally with my Sunday features, I try to conjure up something meaningful – taking a slice-of-life and extrapolating that into something more. But this week, I’m going to keep it simple. Go to Lifou. Take a snorkel and flippers. And enjoy. It’s really that simple! I saw a discussion on Facebook this week which related…
This post is a day late, because we’ve only just got back from a cruise though the South Pacific on the Sun Princess, and the internet coverage on the ship didn’t lend itself to blog posting 🙂 But as always, we had a blast. And part of the fun was the huge range of eating options.…
I was in an elevator last night, on the way to dinner, when a young family got on – a mother, and two of her children. They started talking about whether they would even get off the ship today, when we dock in Noumea. “So where are we tomorrow, mum?” asked one – “Can we…
As I type, the Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess is turning around in the Brisbane River, and I am typing frantically, to get this written while we still have cellphone coverage. You see, ship internet generally sux – especially for uploads – and there was a huge crowd at the reception desk anyway. So I have…
I was involved in an online discussion the other day, ahead of our impending cruise of the South Pacific when someone asked about whether there was clean water available – and whether the water in the bathrooms on board was safe to drink. The original poster was assured that while the water in the staterooms was safe,…
What do quake-shaken Napier New Zealand, cyclone-slammed Innisfail Nth Queensland and hurricane-hammered South Beach Miami have in common? An architecture more normally associated with New York, and LA, and Paris. How so? It’s largely a matter of timing. In 1918, Innisfail was slammed by a cyclone that killed around a hundred people. So bad was the damage in…
I recently had the good fortune to take a round-the-world trip with five middle-aged ladies. (Hmmm .. last time I said that, I got thwacked by my wife, and my sister – but how else am I gonna describe it? We are all well over 45, the dictionary definition of middle age …) Sigh. Take two…. I recently…
What do you call a South Pacific island paradise on a grey, windswept day? You call it still gorgeous. And also, Iles Des Pins – or Isle of Pines in English. A part of New Caledonia, the island (called Kwenyii in the local Kanak dialect) has around 2,000 residents – mainly Melanesian Kanaks. Like its…
Cairns Communications 