Queen Elizabeth Cruise

We were due to board Queen Elizabeth for a two week cruise around New Zealand, leaving Melbourne to tour the Fiordland National Park as our first trip. We move on to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Bay of Islands and Auckland before returning back to Melbourne and flying to Sydney. That didn't happen!

The day before we were due to board we had seen on FaceBook that the Queen Elizabeth had been refused entry into New Zealand waters although we were not officially informed by the travel agent until the morning of embarkation. Instead the ship was going to go up the east coast of Australia from Melbourne, Victoria to visit Eden in New South Wales, then Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland, before turning south and stopping at Sydney in New South Wales before returning to Melbourne. We have not visited Australia before and although disappointed to not get to the beautiful country of New Zealand we hadn't seen any of these places in Australia and NZ was currently coping with the fallout from a cyclone so it was probably for the best. Not much we could do about it anyway and we were offered 50% on the cruise fare so clouds and silver linings and all that!

14 Feb (Day 20): We had breakfast in the hotel in Melbourne and then decided to revisit the botanical gardens as there was so much to see there and we had the morning to spare. Had a lovely sunny morning wandering through the gardens, getting our steps up, until we were picked up and taken to the Port of Melbourne to embark on the Queen Elizabeth. We sailed from there in the evening as we were eating dinner at a table with a fantastic view, which we had for the whole cruise.

15 Feb (Day 21): A day at sea as we sailed north towards Eden in New South Wales. We sat and tried to sort out where we wanted to go on trips with the new ports we were visiting instead of those in NZ we had expected to visit. We needed to make decisions very quickly, with little research, so that we could be more sure of getting the best trips. Mostly this worked out, all bar the Brisbane trip which we didn't get right, although to be fair there weren't any great choices really.

A day of relaxation and basically doing very little. We decided we would not pay the exorbitant fees for internet access whilst we were at sea so any day we were away from port we were also away from social media, a real break. We lay about on sun loungers and read for a bit (not like us but the weather was nice) and then we walked around the deck for a while and we attended a talk by a guest speaker on how rivers move away from their course to a new course, interesting.

Guess what - I had a day off from taking photos - none at all today. No mobile, no camera, no internet - just a day off from everything.

After dinner we went for a drink and there was a small screen showing news from the UK. Ray saw that Sturgeon had resigned. Made his day!

16 Feb (Day 22): We arrived in Eden, New South Wales, in the morning and we had booked to go on a boat trip around the two harbours of Eden. A lovely hot morning, sitting on the top deck of a boat and being informed about the history and wildlife of the local area. Most interesting and exceedingly enjoyable when we came across a large pod of dolphins in fairly shallow clear water so that we could easily see them below and as they leapt in the water. Some videos below.

When we returned to shore we walked into the village of Eden and then along the coastline, back towards the ship. We explored a little further, walking up a steep hill so that we could look out over the harbour and take in the great views. We then sauntered down the hill and back onto the ship which was waiting in the port.

More photos from Thursday 16 February Videos from this trip

17 Feb (Day 23): A day at sea, travelling from Eden up to Brisbane. Some might think this could be boring but actually it forces us to stop and relax for a while, which is a good thing. There are still many things to do onboard ship should you be so inclined. We tend to walk and talk, using the promenade decks at the top of the ship where it is quieter. We also sometimes attend talks given by guest speakers. We listened to a series of lectures during the cruise by a dental pathologist who informed us about her times helping identify bodies after the Thailand Boxing Day Tsunami and other times helping police or pathologists in their detective work. She also spoke about the number of crocodiles in the Northern Territory...….and their teeth! 

As we were sailing along the east coast of Australia and were somewhere roughly between Sydney and Brisbane we saw a number of dolphins swimming alongside the ship. The water was so clear that we could see them in the water beside us and we could also see them leaping from the water a bit further away. Not sure how many as they were moving around so quickly but lovely to see out in the ocean. VIDEO

18 Feb (Day 24): This was the day we were docked at the new Brisbane International Cruise Terminal. The Queen Elizabeth was the first cruise liner to use this very modern facility. Quite a long drive into Brisbane CBD but we had chosen to go to the Gold Coast on a trip because it sounded a nice place to go. How wrong we were, not the place for us. Surfer's Paradise is the Vegas of Australia and not our scene at all. We had a coffee sitting at a table outside a small café and we watched couples and families as they passed us by. We went for a walk through a tree-lined avenue of shops and made our way to the beach, which was a vast sandy stretch filled with strutting bodies eyeing up the others in the vicinity. Oh dear, we are both about half a century too old to be there. We did find a place to sit in the shade alongside a wide promenade so we enjoyed the view from there and caught up with social media for a short while - how sad is that? The weather was lovely though and we did help a young Japanese couple who were wanting a photo taken of themselves together with Surfer's Paradise in the background. They were trying out their English on the Australians, only to find they were talking to Brits instead! They were so polite and thanked us so many times. 

We usually try and have foods that we haven't tried before or that are famous in the area when we are away from home. The food offerings were certainly different at Surfer's Paradise. Burgers and other fast food were strongly evident and not really our thing so we thought we'd try the 'world famous' Pancakes in Paradise. Well, nothing like a pancake I know and mine was stacked high with bananas, chocolate sauce, nuts and ice-cream, Ray's with cherries, chocolate sauce and ice-cream. Neither of us finished what we had ordered, just far too sweet and far too much for us. It's all about the experience though, right? 

The only saving grace for this trip was the coach driver, who for 2 hours in each direction, kept up a hilarious banter to a certain level such as 'I've been married twice; my first wife left me, my second wife won't'. He was from Scotland but had emigrated when the pits closed down in the 80's. Said it was the best thing he'd ever done and that Margaret Thatcher had done him a huge favour. 

19 Feb (Day 25): Relaxing at sea again today as we travelled from Brisbane to Cairns for two days. Only 4 days in port on this rescheduled cruise but actually it was quite nice to enjoy the weather from the sea and to spend time talking about the changes we are going to be making to the house over the next year and what those changes will mean for how we live. We relaxed on the sun-loungers on the top deck and mid-afternoon we were served afternoon tea by stewards bringing around tea, sandwiches and cakes. Other days they brought ice-cream as well. Not used to this lifestyle, and not sure I could get used to it either.

We saw a wonderful sight today from the ship. A rainbow started to appear as although we were in sun we could see rain passing through just a little way from the ship. We watched this rainbow from our cabin balcony as it got higher and higher, rising from the sea in a curve. We watched as it made a complete arc over the water and then the rainbow continued beyond the horizon and appeared to be more than a half-circle. it also had a secondary rainbow alongside it as well. Wow.

Today we went to listen to a biomedical engineer speaking about his use of AI (artificial intelligence) to help support children who have severe MS. He then went on to tell us about how robotics can be used to help a number of people in all sorts of ways, including a elderly lady who he was able to pull together a means of her being able to 'talk' to her husband and have him answer with his typical responses. This husband was still alive but he said that this could be done, using just some photos, for those whose loved ones are deceased. He showed all manner of ways that robotics could help people have an excellent quality of life that they may not have otherwise been able to even think about. He was a very dynamic presenter and I could have listened to him for hours. He was immensely inspirational and has a school named after him in Sydney, voted for by the young pupils there. If you want to know more his name is Dr Jordan Nguyen and his book is A Human's Guide To The Future. 

20 Feb (Day 26): Another day at sea, enjoying doing nothing much. We did have a number of birds flying alongside the ship so I practised taking some photos of moving objects, quite handy for later when we went out with Adrian on a boat. 

We did go and listen to another guest speaker, Michelle Payne, who is the first and only female jockey to have won the Melbourne Cup riding Prince of Penzance. Her family history and the story of how she got to where she is was fascinating. There was also a showing of the film made about her achievement called 'Ride like a Girl' which we watched at another time whilst we were on the ship. She is now a horse trainer and has an establishment which she runs with her brother who has Down's Syndrome and featured as himself in the film. Horse training and gambling obviously go together and we noticed that she and a couple of her sisters spent several hours at a roulette table as we went past on the way to and from the theatre this evening. There was a Gala Dinner this particular evening and it was a Masquerade Gala event. Ray was in his kilt and I had a long evening dress and a masquerade mask on, the first time I have worn a formal long evening dress for many a year as I have no occasion to do so these days. 

More photos from Monday 20 February

21 Feb (Day 27): We arrived into Cairns, Queensland, early this morning and had signed up for a trip to Kuranda. This village in in Far North Queensland and is known as the Village in the Rainforest. Cairns can be very humid in the wet season and Kuranda, being in the forest, is cooler and less humid so we thought it might be a good choice. It turned out to be a delightful visit.

To get to the village we were taken to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, a series of three cableways rising above the rainforest. At each change of cableway there is an opportunity to walk into the forest on boardwalks, to be able to see vegetation and wildlife up close. There were also several viewpoints looking down into the valley below. Most of the people on the trip were more elderly and less mobile than us so we found that the walks were pleasantly quiet through the rainforest. 

The rainforest itself was very interesting to look down upon as the trees were dense and very tall, good perspective from the cableway, not so great for taking photos as you get no real scale of what you are photographing. The birdsong that could be heard from the quiet of the cable car was delightful. 

We had an iced coffee and a piece of cake at a cafe in Kuranda and we found a shop, in amongst all the hippy culture abiding there, of photographs mounted in acrylic and being made into wall art. The colours, once mounted onto acrylic, were absolutely stunning. Made me think about looking at some of my photos and perhaps making a splashback for the kitchen or putting on the wall if I can find some decent photos amongst the thousands I took!

We took the famous Kuranda Scenic Railway to descend through the Barron Gorge National Park. Beautiful heritage carriages which passed through hand carved tunnels and over bridges, past waterfalls and through rainforest before reaching Cairns again below. It did stop for 10 minutes for us to view the Barron Falls and the gorge into which it was tumbling. This was a huge expanse of water cascading down a vast mountainside and the scale of which just doesn't translate into the photographs, the video gives a slightly better perspective. VIDEO - large file

More photos from Tuesday 21 February

22 Feb (Day 28): Having travelled 1950 nautical miles in a northerly direction from Melbourne to Cairns we now turned south east to get out of the Great Barrier Reef area and be able to then turn south to head back towards Sydney and return to Melbourne. We had not actually visited the reef as a cyclone had very recently passed through on its way to New Zealand and had stirred up sand and other debris that those in the area were struggling to keep away from invading the coral.

The next three days were to be spent at sea and the ship was to travel outside the reef, where there was more room for bigger ships, rather than between the coast and the reef which would have been a constant worry all the way through for a ship the size of the Queen Elizabeth. We did have a Reef Pilot on board as all the time any ship is passing near or between the coral reef they have to have a pilot who is experienced in the area. The only exception to this is Australian Navy vessels and some other military ships plus any ships with a draft of 8m or less. Once we were beyond the reef the pilot still monitors the ship until we reach Sydney where he disembarks. He then has a stipulated 4 days leave before becoming available for contract again. Ships contract a pilot on a first come, first served basis. Whichever pilot is top of the list is the one to be allocated, whether it's a oil tanker or a cruise liner, a smaller vessel or a ginormous one; he attends whatever.

.As we left Cairns we passed Willis Island, the only permanently inhabited island in the Coral Sea Islands Territory. It has just four meteorologists living there who monitor weather conditions and are right in the path of any cyclone coming through. The island is 500m long (metres not miles) and 150m wide. They launched a weather balloon as we passed and were speaking by telephone through the ships tannoy, shame the sound was so distorted we couldn't hear a word! We did see the balloon go up but it had risen above the cloud layer in seconds so some people missed it entirely. We did see a number of seabirds coming off the island though so another opportunity to photograph birds in flight with sometimes a background of sky and sometimes of sea. 

23 Feb (Day 29): We watched a noodle making demonstration by a chef onboard (not for me to attempt) and then we listened to a talk from the onboard Reef Pilot and heard about the way that he monitors the ship and where it is and the penalties for getting even close to the reef. He was talking to us once we had got beyond the reef but he still had his iPad going in front of him, monitoring the position at all times. I do love to learn about the areas we pass through and the wildlife, inhabitants and other matters and it is always interesting to hear about totally different jobs from those we interact with.

24 Feb (Day 30): Our third consecutive day at sea. Still not bored, still easily finding ways to keep ourselves amused. We listened to a talk on tides and how tides 'work' around the world. The rise and fall of tides from the greatest tidal range at the Bay of Fundy (11.68m) and our own River Severn to the smallest tidal ranges, one of which is Perth in Western Australia with 0.7m. Interesting moving graphic on swirling tides and 'where the water goes' when it is low tide. Particularly interesting as we had been in Cairns on the morning of a King Tide, an especially high Spring Tide, and seen what it could do to the coastline areas.

Spectacular sunset this evening after a lovely warm day. We usually saw the sun going down as we sat in the Commodore Club onboard, having pre-dinner drinks and listening to live music. How the other half live! 

25 Feb (Day 31): Set my silent alarm for 5am this morning as we were due to arrive in Sydney, New South Wales, at about 06:40 and we had been informed that passing the Sydney Heads as the sun rose was not to be missed. I had worked out though that it would still be dark when we were coming into Sydney Harbour through the Heads but wanted to be up on deck for first light. Luckily, with the cabin grade we had, we were able to get onto top decks so this enabled a better view as we came in. I had thought that I might be one of just a few stupid enough to get up early to take a photo but I was surprised by the number who were on deck by the time we were within sight of the Opera House. Photos taken from far out by the Heads and looking towards the lights of Sydney did not come out well as the lights were not good enough to cope with sharp focusing from a moving ship but as we got nearer I was more able to get better photographs of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in darkness, at first light and then at sunrise and into daylight. A very enjoyable hour (almost) from 05:37 to 06:34, just snapping 93 photos by camera and  63 by mobile phone. Glad we don't have to rely on rolls of film any more, that's 4.3 rolls of 36 and 2.7 photos per minute!

This day in Sydney was a 'bonus ball' for us as we knew we were coming back to Sydney for a day and a half at the end of the voyage as we transfer to the Indian Pacific train. I had wanted to visit the Blue Mountains during that time but as they are quite a distance out of Sydney and we only had such a short time there I felt it was wrong to not see Sydney itself. When we knew the cruise ports had changed from NZ and that Sydney was included we agreed that to spend a day going out to the Blue Mountains was perfectly acceptable, knowing we were coming back to 'do' Sydney in a few days. 

Another beautiful hot day for us to enjoy and a good day for the Blue Mountains as the 'blueness' is the eucalyptus vapours given off by the mass of those trees in the area, therefore a hot day gets more vapour and more blueness. We were first of all taken to Echo Point, a viewpoint over-looking the Three Sisters rocks. Slightly disappointed with this as we were given just 20 minutes there and once all the old foggies had tottered off the coach and we had popped to the loo and done the 5 minute walk to the lookout we were already late as we had another 5 minutes to walk back to the coach. VERY quick photo session and then almost a run back. No time to enjoy the view or explore the lower lookout stations and viewpoints. However, this was rectified by chance - more on that later dear reader.

Back on the coach and taken to the Blue Mountains Scenic Railway, the steepest railway in the world apparently at 128% incline or 52 degrees. It was built as part of the mining tramways in the late 1800s. You are given the opportunity to change the incline of the seat you sit on as you descend, to make it laidback at 44 degrees, original at 52 degrees or cliffhanger at 64 degrees. We went for the cliffhanger! 

When we got off the railway we walked through the forest, enjoying the (mostly) peace and quiet. There was a Gruffalo trail for children so it wasn't all peace and quiet and we did come across a HUGE flower, which I took photos of Ray standing beside, until we realised it was plastic and part of the Gruffalo Trail - duh! We did spot a bird walking in the forest who was making a lot of noise, looked a little like a pheasant or a strange peacock but not quite. We later learned it was a lyrebird and that they have a reputation of being able to mimic natural and artificial sounds, which this one was certainly adept at. 

We stopped for lunch at a heritage hotel, one that had maintained the look of buildings from many a year ago, and enjoyed the view of the Blue Mountains in the distance as we ate. A relaxing meal and then we sat in the garden of the hotel and enjoyed the view in the sunshine until it was time to leave to go back to the ship. 

When we reached the ship we decided to have a late afternoon tea in the main restaurant, overlooking Sydney Opera House - because we could! So much activity in the harbour, so many different things going on with all sorts of leisure craft and ferries, canoes and sailing barges, double-masted vessels and double hulled vessels, lifeboats and safety vessels. We had decided on a late afternoon tea so that we could go to dinner later as we were due to leave port at 18:55 and we knew the Sydney Heads would be an hour or so after that if we wanted to see them. We dressed for dinner and then went to the top deck for 'sail-away' where first of all phoned Henry, my grandson, before the ship started to pull away. This was the first opportunity to catch up with Henry, who had just had his birthday. He spotted the Sydney Bridge in the background as we were talking and that I was dressed for dinner, whereas he was dressed for breakfast, on this Saturday and he said 'Granny, WHERE are you?'. When I explained where we were and showed him what we could see from where we were standing on the top deck of the ship his answer was a nonchalant 'Oh, OK'. How times have changed when it is so easily accepted that you can do a videocall from the other side of the world. 

As we were on deck and waiting for sail-away I spotted another photographer with a camera like mine so knew he'd know how to use it. I politely asked him if he would be kind enough to take a photo of Ray and I together by camera instead of by mobile, which is what we normally get when we ask for a photo to be taken. He very kindly agreed and took several for us before we started moving out of port and I took many more photos as we passed across the front of the bridge and out past the opera house again. Our photographer friend, from Melbourne he said, pointed out the Australian Prime Minister's residence as we passed it and other landmarks such as Fort Denison, a former defence facility. We arrived for pre-dinner drinks in the Commodore Bar just as we passed the Sydney Heads and the light was fading. This bar is perfectly positioned on the bow of the ship with big glass windows, perfect for photos. Loads and loads of photos in the linked folder.

More photos from Saturday 25 February 

26 Feb (Day 32): We saw some poorer weather today whilst we were at sea after leaving Sydney behind and were now making our way back towards Melbourne. Some people on our trip had chosen to remain in Sydney rather than proceed to Melbourne because we would be back in Sydney in a couple of days to catch the train. We chose to not stay in Sydney but continue on the cruise and return to Melbourne for the flight up to Sydney. Relax on ship instead of stay in a city. 

We travelled along the coast of Australia and we could quite clearly see the coastline and mountains. Apparently this is fairly unusual and the big ships are usually much further out to sea. Nice to see the shapes of the shoreline even if the weather wasn't great for viewing as we made our way around Wilsons Promontory National Park, the most south-easterly and then southerly point of mainland Australia. We would later visit the most south-westerly point when we reached Perth. 

27 Feb (Day 33): We arrived into the Port of Melbourne for 06:30 and were off the ship just after an early breakfast.