Regatta had its inaugural Pollywog and Shellback ceremony for crossing the equator. It was much tamer than other ones we’ve previously seen or been involved in. The ceremony consists of seafarers (or, in this case, cruise ship passengers and crew) asking King Neptune to be allowed to sail over the equator. To qualify, you have to kiss a fish, get wet and that’s it. Interestingly, I found in my father’s memories a card stating he was now a shellback from his journey on an US warship that took him to Singapore in 1942.

After a sea day, we stopped in Jakarta, Indonesia, a new country for us but the tours offered were dire (confirmed by those who went) and as the day in port was short and the weather was very humid we opted just to take the shuttle bus to a local shopping mall. The 20 minute drive showed us a little of the south of the city and the shopping was cheap. It also allowed us to eat lunch out. The menus in this area of the world shows how conservative we are, offering delights such as pig ear stew, fried or grilled bull frogs and a new one to us, jellyfish stew. Being adventurous, we chose vegetable fried rice!

Another sea day and then onto Bali, another first.

In religious terms Bali is a unique part of Indonesia, being primarily Hindu, whereas the rest of the country is Islamic; the history of this is somewhat convoluted but can be read about here. We’d heard about problems with traffic congestion but really wanted to escape the ship overnight so we booked a resort to the south of the port and spent a lovely 26 hours there, escaping from the rigours of being on a cruise ship in the southern seas.

The tamest removal of a champagne cork with a sword ever…

We chose the Balinese speciality restaurant

Making use of the saltwater pool the following day

Our day release was soon over and we headed back to the ship, next stop Darwin, Australia…..

Darwin is, as most people accept, best known for where Tali did a placement at the beginning of 2024. A lesser known fact is that Darwin was seriously impacted in the 2nd World War when it was attacked on numerous occasions by the Japanese who were trying to isolate Australia from supply by the western powers and had a greater tonnage of ordnance dropped on it than Pearl Harbour. For those of a younger vintage the most significant event of the past decades was Typhoon Tracy which hit the town on Christmas Day 1974, causing massive damage.

It’s a small town, very pretty in parts, but probably the highlight of the day was on our quest to visit every dress shop in every port, when for once, we struck gold in the form of a good story. The shop owner was a Kiwi who’d moved to Darwin when she was 16 and happened to be partying with friends on Christmas Eve 1974 when the power was cut-off during a show at one of the hotels in town. The next day she was drafted in to work as part of the clean-up, a process which required a huge influx of workers, all of whom needed feeding and accommodation. She was part of the catering crew, sharing the temporary accommodation as virtually all the houses in town were uninhabitable, not realising she was being paid until 3 weeks later! All workers were given 3 meals a day and in the evening 2 beers and a packet of cigarettes. Nowadays that would more likely be water and mung bean and quinoa salad!

Our next stop was 2 days sailing away, heading east through the Torres Strait, to Papua New Guinea. At midday on day 2 as we passed the tip of Cape Yorke we sailed through the narrowest stretch of water between Australia and Papua New Guinea, some 80 miles distant, in seas barely 50 metres deep. Thousands of years ago, when sea levels were lower, the two land masses were joined and that is when humans walked south over the landbridge from Papua New Guinea into Australia: to becomes today’s indigenous peoples.

Papua New Guinea must be the least well-developed country we’ve visited on this trip. We were warned repeatedly about pickpockets, about wearing watches, jewelry and flashing quantities of cash. We were advised not to get taxis and to avoid the back streets of Port Moresby, the capital. We went to the Varirata National Park to see some birds. On the way there we passed many betelnut stalls and our guide was chewing them all through our visit.

Most habitations were made of wood with corrugated iron roofs. Most are built on stilts, our guide said due to too many venomous black snakes, when that didn’t seem to get the correct response, he said maybe it was due to needing a cool space to utilise at home. We passed markets, schools, and lots of rubbish dumped on the streets. Although schools were open, there were a lot of school children wandering the dusty roads, waving and shouting at our minibus convoy. The driving was awful and our driver seemed determined to try and blow up both the engine and gear box as we wended our way to the park.

Once there, the groups split up and the birdwatching group undertook 2 trails. It was very hot and humid even with lots to drink and one of us had bottles of water thrown over her to try to stop overheating. Not too many birds seen, it’s the wrong time of the year, the wrong time of day but our guide knew his birds when we did see some.

There was a fabulous sunset as we made our way east overnight

Alotau, however, was a different story, although not at first. From the ship we could see some shanty huts, many of which we saw in Port Moresby, together with children collecting firewood from the shore. As in many poor countries, firewood is the only way people can cook, making it a valuable commodity.

This part of the island is run by the matriarchs of the families which is why it is clean, well run and crime free.

The chosen trip was to the Skull cave and then some snorkelling. It started badly as we were herded into a small prison bus, so-called because of the armour over the windows, the noticeable lack of air-conditioning and respect for personal space..

The journey of an hour or so passed quickly despite the occasional panic attack and, in contrast to the previous day, we drove through a sequence of well maintained, attractive and rubbish-free villages accompanied each time by the sound of children shouting and waving at us. Everywhere we went people waved, perhaps thinking we were on our way to death row.

We transferred to a boat and suddenly we had space to stretch, apply suncream and enjoy a delightful trip along the pristine, forested coastline.

Our first stop was the Skull Cave

Papua New Guinea has many tribes and in times of old, the initiation of young men required that they kill a member of another tribe and eat their brain. This was so they could benefit from the power of their enemies. The skulls in the cave are allegedly from that time. Luckily for the weak, Christian missionaries turned up on the island and persuaded them that chicken or pork was a more palatable choice of initiation foodstuff and the tradition died out.

Next we moved to a beautiful bay, did some snorkelling and ate, looking out over the magnificent sea

It was a good day and on the way back we passed what must surely be the archetypal image of life in the southern oceans, a canoeist with an outrigger

And finally, although it’ll be obvious to most of you, a frigate bird clearly visible over another canoeist..

Another day at sea, then a landing in Cairns, which is situated on the most beautiful river.

Our last stop before Sydney was Townsville and a trip to the rainforest. It took a long time to get there, the cloud was low so visibility was poor and it was quite cold and wet.

With a walking party of 40 guests, comprised mainly of ancient and noisy north Americans and their walking equipment, the chances of seeing anything vaguely mobile in the rainforest was slim. We were left with the deliberately immobile as all of us slowly accumulated a collection of tiny, waving leeches which had been lying in wait in the leaf litter, hardly believing their luck as a lifetime’s supply of blood walked past their ambush points.

Luckily our guide had already planned how to top up our haemoglobin as we were taken to the place he, his wife and in-laws had bought 2 years previously in the forest. 8 acres of wilderness, with lodges, a house and a fabulous BBQ area for groups like ours.

They host groups of walkers, American schoolchildren who, astonishingly, are sent to Australia to discover nature, and tour groups from cruise ships. The food was excellent and we all slowly regained strength before returning to the ship for afternoon tea.

The next day at sea was most likely the most ridiculous thing ever seen on a cruise ship, even eclipsing the crossing of the equator. This was the boat building competition, hosted by Billy, our congenial Canadian cruise director and perpetual child. Eleven teams each built a boat which was judged for aesthetics, the entertainment value of the team’s introduction, seaworthiness and the reaction of the crowd. Seaworthiness was assessed by floating it in the pool and one of the entertainment team jumping in to create a wave, followed by loading it up with cans of coke to see if it would float…the teams were encouraged to dress up and shout a lot. It was like being back at school, except it was fun.

Finally we arrived in Sydney, to be met by Tali waiting at her customary spot on the dock

We had 2 days in Sydney and enjoyed wandering around in the sunshine and even went to see Hamilton the musical which two of us enjoyed and one of us endured!

Having realised Tali’s car, loaded with camping gear plus 2 large suitcases and numerous smaller bags, was simply too small for 2 extra passengers, Andy decided to fly to Brisbane with the bags which took 1 1/2 hours ,while Helen and Tali went on a 2 day road trip.

We stopped at Nambucca Heads, a great little place.

View from our motel balcony. We ate dinner at the local Royal Sail Club where there was a meat raffle ongoing with every prize seemingly “ a haaam”. Unfortunately for us we were too late to buy raffle tickets.

The next day , we had a leisurely drive along the Pacific Highway stopping at Coffs Habour for a late breakfast

Driving on, we came to a small rural town called Chatsworth, famous for…….its flip flop tree.

We arrived in Brisbane late afternoon to meet up with Andy in our apartment for the next few days on the 73rd floor of the second highest building in Brisbane overlooking the river and the South Bank. Time for the second reason for this trip!