Brisbane and Disembarkation in Sydney

As we near the end of this great trip I just want to mention the contribution that our restaurant table have made to our enjoyment. They have been terrific and every evening has been fun. Stella and Mike from Farnham plus Margaret and Jim from Norfolk are doing all 95days. From early on in the voyage they realized that we had coffee in Raffles about 11 every morning and they nearly always joined us to continue the fun. The other couple were Maureen and Colin from Plympton, also good company despite Maureen´s mum having a stroke when we were in the middle of the Pacific. They nearly flew home from Tahiti instead of Brisbane but were persuaded that there was nothing they could do even if they got home early. As I said before the food was excellent and served by 2 always smiling guys from Goa, Bipin and Josten. Not to forget our happy wine waiter Ajay.

Entertainment wise there was much variety and latterly Richard Digence was good but don´t know why he had to finish his act trying to get everyone to sing along to Last Night of the Proms songs. Roy Walker was funny with some new material in his first show but the second not so good. 3 talks were given in afternoons by Lempik Opik the Liberal MP who lost his seat at the last election. He talked about being in the Jungle on ITV, about the election and being on Have I got News for You, and also about Armageddon. He was very amusing.

Our day in Brisbane on Sunday was in glorious sunshine and a good shuttlebus service was run from Portside Passenger Terminal into the centre of town. Thanks to P&O all Australian Immigration formalities had been done at sea the day before so no queuing. All of the shops were open at 10am and it was fun walking round and being able to speak the language! The city is clean and modern and has a great feel. We couldn´t see any signs of the devastating floods apart from one part of the riverfront that was closed off.

We of course had to sample a couple of  local beers and were back aboard in plenty of time for our 6pm sailing. Being Sunday and not being stuck on a container terminal it was nice to have a crowd of wellwishers to see us off waving enthusiastically. In the Brisbane River we had to pass under a road bridge with only 4ft clearance and this produced sighs of relief when we made it!

Our last sea day was very calm and very pleasant but Brian had a terrible cold so we missed our usual exercise and only walked 2 miles. Sometime was of course spent packing.

On Tuesday morning we were up around 0530 to see our entrance into the magnificent Sydney Harbour but by that time we had already passed through the Heads. We were alongside at Circular Quay about 0630, 15mins before sunrise so photography was difficult. It was stunning to see the sunrise behind the Opera House and people were getting quite emotional about this and being so lucky to actually be in Sydney.

Our last day before disembarking was spent walking to Lavender Bay to check on our accommodation for the next 6 weeks then walking to Kings Cross to meet our friends Steve and Alan who we originally met on Aurora in 2008. We had a good time and more Aussie beer was drunk. The evening was spent on board having our last meal with our table companions and doing final packing. It was sad to leave but we look forward to our Sydney stay.

On disembarkation Wednesday we were off the ship just after 9am and in the house by 0930, unpacked and washing on by 11am. Thanks to Aurora and all of the fabulous staff who made it so enjoyable.