Burnie Park

From the boardwalk I walked to Burnie Park. It was a gorgeous park with beautiful paths. I stopped to ask a ground's keeper about the attractions and found out that walking through a park in Tasmania is called 'bush walk'. I felt very adventurous going through the 'bush'. There were very large tree ferns beside the path which gave it an exotic quality but it was mostly a man-made area. However, it was very pretty and excellent exercise as you go up a steep hill to view a waterfall at the top.

From there it was back into town where I stopped at a Indian curry restaurant. No sooner than I had sat down with my curry then some of the ship's staff came in to get their fix also.

Next up, ship's tour.

Wings Wildlife Park or Tasmanian Petting Zoo

This was a fabulous experience! Wings Wildlife Park allows you to see Tasmanian Wildlife and interact with it in a way that you probably couldn't in the US due to insurance issues. We were petting and in the enclosure with animals that it was fabulous to see close up. Unfortunately I was so engrossed in feeding and petting them that I probably didn't learn as much as I ought to have from the park personal that were telling you about them throughout the park. There were also helpful signs that I should have taken pictures of so that I could read later but did not. At least I have an excuse to go back if I ever get in the area again.

The first photo is of 3 Tasmanian Devils that were being fed. A brave park person went in the enclosure and waved raw meat in their faces while we snapped photos. He then scampered out (the park person not the Tasmanian Devils) when it appeared they might get a little frustrated that he would not release the meat. They grabbed the meat and ran into their log to eat or off to the back of the enclosure.

The second photo is of a baby Wombat. The baby was available for petting while a park person held it and then toddled around on the ground while we all took photos. Poor thing just tried to hide under squatting people. I think he felt vulnerable with so many towering people around.

The third picture is of a Koala who was eating. He and his fellow Koala did their best to ignore us as we all stood behind them petting them and getting our photos taken while doing so. There were a couple of kangaroos in this enclosure which were over dosed on people too. Frankly the animals just weren't into us unless we were offering food. Hopefully they are rotated out pretty frequently to give them time away from the people.

Kangaroos!!!

In the last post I tried to reflect the animals situations. They all appeared well taken care of and were in nice natural enclosures but I always feel bad for animals on display so some of that comes through in my observations.

Similarly the kangaroos could probably have done without us. But we had food which they wanted and could offer good scratches and scritches which they adored. They particularly liked to be rubbed under the jaw, along the cheek and scratched on their upper chest. It was wonderful to see their facial expressions.

The first pic is of a kangaroos scratching his arms and later he moved on to his tummy.

The second pic is of me rubbing the jaw of a baby kangaroo just after giving him a snack.

The third pic is of an adult getting a nice scratch after a snack.

These kangaroos were in a large fenced in area of a field. They weren't hungry or hopping up to get the snacks but seemed interested if you approached them and held out the food.

Other animals at the park

The purpose of the Wildlife park was to take in sick or injured animals and release them back into the wild if they could. If not then they were kept (maybe used as food for the Tasmanian Devils). Animals bred there could not be released. They had a wide variety of animals, birds and fish. Many were available to feed. The handsome goat, pic 1, was the most pushy one. He would run all the other goats off to make sure he got any offered food. Pic 2 is of an Emu (I believe) these animals were pretty sneaky, posing for a photo and then as you raised your camera to get the pic, they would dart out to grab your bag of food. There were a large variety of birds ranging from owls, hawks, cockatoos, pigeons, parrots etc. to finches. Also a large variety of animals you could feed, including deer, burros, miniature horses, bunnies, ducks, geese, ostriches, emus, pigs, goats, kangaroo etc. There were 2 camels and some bison.

All in all it was a great day. I would go back again to this type of wildlife park. They indicated that park visitors were a major source of funding as they were not government supported. Most of the enclosures were just fenced in areas of the land so they had a nice natural environment that extended in some cases, quite far from where people were, thus allowing them to get away if they wanted to. And being that they were indigenous they had a natural environment with the plants, trees and climate that they were naturally suited for.

Burnie sailaway

Back at the ship the local Scottish bag pipe and drum band came out to give us our send off. They were dressed in great costumes and marched down to the end of the pier as we sailed out of port.

I took my dinner out on the back deck to watch Tasmania recede into the distance as the weather was very pleasant. Then with one final snap shot of the sunset it was back to my cabin for a welcome rest.

Tasmania - Land Ho!

We got our first sight of Tasmania this evening. I took the picture just after dinner. I believe it is an island as opposed to the main body of land.

Today I attended the culinary demonstration. Our Maitre D', Executive Chef and Pastry Chef put on a nice show. They were pretty funny. Who knew? We then had a brief galley tour. The galley is on two floors with an escalator for coming up but stairs for going down. They keep a very clean galley.

I also went to the Engineer's get together. They didn't have any ship's engineering personnel to answer the many questions which was disappointing.

Due to an excessively long time in the laundry room I missed the 4th and final espionage talk which I heard was good. I will try to catch it on TV.

Tonight was a formal night. The staff did the baked Alaska parade as well as a parade by the kitchen staff. Both were to vigorous applause.

Calmer day at sea

Yesterday was a calmer day at sea and today is starting off the same way. I got some exercise in yesterday morning by walking around the deck. Although some brave folks are using the pool it is getting chilly out so I have not gone in. We had the passenger talent show last night, unfortunately I missed it. It was at 10:15 at night and with having had a time change yesterday, I just couldn't stay up. I have yet to talk to anyone who did see it, but perhaps they are all still sleeping. We had another espionage lecture which was pretty good.

We all breezed through Australian immigration so are set to land in Tasmania tomorrow. One of my fellow passengers had a brilliant idea and we bought Sydney Opera house tour tickets on-line so have something to look forward to in Sydney. Other than that I am planning the hop-on/hop-off bus. There are two Australian tour books in the library which are kept in a locked glass cabinet. They are available under supervision for only 2 hours per day. I have yet to get hold of one so have not done as much research as I would like. If there are any Sydney based readers please let me know your opinions of the best things to do in Sydney that are available from the hop-on/hop-off bus.

Tomorrow in Tasmania I am going to the Wildlife Park via a ship's tour in the afternoon and have the morning on my own. I am pretty excited to be going ashore again! Each place we have been has been fabulous so I can't wait to find out what I will discover in Tasmania.

Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentines Day for us due to having crossed the international dateline. We had rough seas so I kept to my room. I tuned into our espionage expert talk. It was on Ian Flemming and the history of 007. Very interesting. I tried to see Estelle Harris, the Seinfeld actress, but could not handle the up/down back compression in the front lounge. I may catch it on TV today after the Australian passport inspection this morning. Were also having an outlet sale from the gift shop so we will see what leftover goodies there are to purchase.

Tonight is the passenger talent show but it is at 10:15 p.m. I'm going to try and stay up for it. Let's hope for calm seas.

CNN is back!

The big news on the ship is that CNN is back! We've only had outside news from Fox news across the Pacific. We were starting to get a little desperate.

Kiwi Kruzer

Thanks for the note. My impression of Auckland is that it would be a wonderful place to live. Everyone seemed fit and healthy as well as laid back. I also thought the prices were excellent! When things translated to US dollars I felt like I was getting a great deal!