This is another war memorial.
We walked quite a distance to reach the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden. These are some photos from our visit.
This Photo is of St. Andrews.
Welcome To Hobart, Australia Day 50
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Highlights From Yesterday And Today
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The highlight from yesterday for us was clearly the wonderful talks given by Ambassador Robert Hunter and Garrick Utley. We thoroughly enjoyed each of their talks. Their talks were informative, and they were delivered perfectly. These are two highly articulate people who are great communicators. Their superb communication skills were key to the successes that each man enjoyed throughout their careers. We are fortunate to be able to hear from so many wonderful professionals throughout this adventure.
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Before we begin we wanted to note how sorry we are for the town and to all of the people of Christchurch for the suffering that they have endured from yesterday’s earthquake. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to each of them along with anyone else who might have been visiting this beautiful town during yesterday’s catastrophic event.
When we were just in Christchurch five days earlier we had asked some of the locals about the impact of the September earthquake. The epicenter for that earthquake was more distant and deeper than yesterday’s earthquake so the destruction to the downtown area was far less than the one that occurred yesterday although we were told that close to 1,000 homes did have to be torn down. Walking around the downtown area it was hard to tell that there had been an earthquake except for some scaffolding that was in front of a few buildings.
The coverage that we were able to pick up on both CNN international and on a local New Zealand station via the Australia channel showed the areas that we had just visited looking like a war zone.
Having lived through the earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area of 1989 while we lived there for four years we realize that on top of all of the current devastation that there will likely be aftershocks for several days. In fact, they had a large aftershock not far after yesterday’s earthquake.
We wanted to mention something more about this area. Outside the firehouse was an area dedicated to the horrific event of September 11, 2011. They had some steel from the World Trade Building as part of the dedication and as we understand they are the only town outside of the United States Of America to have any remnants from the World Trade Center. Clearly, there is a strong bond between the Fire Fighters from the Christchurch Fire Station and the Fire Fighters of New York City.
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We wanted to mention that while we had a salad entrée for lunch yesterday there was a Grand Gala Buffet that was held in the Crystal Cove. It is always a very extravagant buffet featuring a very wide range of items for the guests to enjoy.
We enjoyed another pleasant evening on the ship last night as well as a lovely dinner in the Crystal Dining Room.
It was nice to be back in the Main Dining Room after being away for two nights.
There were lots of wonderful items on the dinner menu.
Appetizers included Lobster Enchilada, Vitello Tonnato, and Roasted Vegetable Terrine.
Soups featured Cream of Tomato Soup and Consommé Double with Wagyu Beef, Shiitake and Spring Onions.
Salads featured Assorted Lettuce Leaves in Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette, Garnished with grapes, Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts. And Iceberg Wedge with Warm Bacon Dressing, Garlic Croutons and Sliced Egg.
The Pasta Special was Involtini di Melanzane e Linguine that was Baked Eggplant Roll Stuffed with Linguine, Tomatoes, Fontina and Fresh Basil and the Salad Entrée was an Apricot Basted Roast Capon Breast accompanied by Baby Greens, Tossed in Honey Citrus Dressing, with Caramelized Pumpkin, Asparagus, Strawberries, Grapes and Walnut Granola.
The Main Fares featured Seared Ahi Tuna Steak, Sauteed Tiger Prawns, Slow Roasted Kurobuta Pork Rack and a Grilled Black Angus Rib Eye Steak. Traditional Main Fares included grilled Chicken Breast and a Grilled Black Angus Filet Steak.
The Vegetarian Entrée was Barley and Vegetable “Risotto” with Port Wine Reduction and Celeriac Chips and there were additional Vegetarian Selections and Lighter Side items to choose from.
Let us not forget the delectable desserts. The Sweet Finale for the evening included “Plantation of Nuts” which was a White Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Caramelized Walnuts and Butter Pecan Ice Cream and “Lilikoi” which was Creamy Passion Fruit Cheesecake with Chocolate Ice Cream.
The Sugar-Free items included Pistachio Cream Cake and Vanilla Cup Custard.
The Classic Desserts included lots of additional delectable items and there was also the Cheese Trolley to enjoy with several international cheeses and premium crackers.
Before dinner, we went to the Captain’s Quarters for cocktails. This is the third time we have been invited to the Captain’s Quarters on this adventure and it is always a nice opportunity to speak with the captain, some of his other senior officers and some of our fellow passengers. We also spoke with World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston for a little while. We had a very nice conversation talking with two sisters who are on just their second Crystal Cruise and also spoke for a while with another couple. We introduced the six of them to a few of the officers.
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Crystal Dining Room. We began our dinner with salad with Keith having his standing order salad and Anne Marie had the salad with assorted lettuce leaves in pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette, garnished with grapes, goat cheese and pine nuts. We each had the seared ahi tuna steak entrée and it was simply delicious. Keith ordered a few different side orders of vegetables for us to enjoy. Our dessert was mixed berries for Keith and a low-fat yogurt for Anne Marie.
Last night there were two sessions of the infamous Liars Club. Each Liars Club featured Rabbi Morris Hershman, Journalist Ken Rees, Singer Leo Andrew and Instrumental Steve Stevens. The guests put together teams to guess who is telling the truth. The game is played whereby each of the fib-tellers gives the definition of a very unique word that most people have never heard of. Only one of the fib-tellers is telling the truth and the other three make up the definition and each team must try to figure out which fib-teller is giving the correct definition. These games are always a lot of fun.
Under the circumstances, we slept well as we continued to sail to our next port of call in Hobart, Australia. The ship was still rocking and it seemed that every hour of so there would be some additional rocking and noises but then all of the would subside until an hour or so later.
Keith was once again up very early in the morning and this time when he walked up three decks the Fitness Center was open and he was able to get a nice workout on the Elliptical Machine after getting the “day off” yesterday. It was nice to get back to the Fitness Center. There were very few passenger’s working out the entire time of Keith’s workout.
After his workout, Keith stopped by the Lido Café and brought back some coffee to the room. He spoke with one of the Lido Deck Stewards, Mel, for a few minutes, and then he spoke with one of the members of the night crew who clean many of the public areas of the ship at night.
Anne Marie got in her one-hour walk. A few minutes after she got back to the room there was a knock on the door and it was Alexander with our morning breakfast. We enjoy having a nice quiet breakfast in the room. After breakfast we got ready to visit Hobart, Australia.
Hobart is part of the island-state of Tasmania. It is located between Mt. Wellington and the Derwent River. It is Australia’s second oldest capital after Sydney. Its population is about 225,000 people.
The city was founded in 1803 as a penal colony. It is set on a bay and is surrounded on three sides by hills.
The city is rich in its history and it has approximately 90 buildings with National Trust classification. Like Sydney, Hobart is also known for its nice Harbor and is recognized as having one of the most beautiful harbor cities in the world.
Originally, we had just an overview tour of the city but decided to see the sites on our own.
We were very fortunate to have wonderful weather. It was a little cool when we first walked off the ship but after about an hour it warmed up nicely with the high at around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Rather than take the shuttle into the city center we just walked ourselves from the Pier right into the city.
The city has many nice hills so we got a good deal of exercise in as well. We passed by several churches of various faiths including St. Mary’s Cathedral. We passed by St. Andrews and then we visited the University Rose Garden, which had several major displays of Roses, a couple of statues and a beautiful setting.
At one point we decided to visit the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden. The Crystal Map that is provided to us at each port stop was quite good and we just needed to verify one item so when we asked one of the locals if we were heading in the right direction he said we were but warned us it would be a long walk. We have learned through the years that what one person considers a long walk is sometimes not so long. We decided to continue and we enjoyed a lovely walk and at one point the water was on our right side and we had some spectacular views of the Tasman Bridge and the areas that the bridge carries traffic to and from. The approach to the Botanical Garden was also very pretty as we walked past the Royal Government House. The Botanical Garden was just spectacular. Just like at Christchurch there was no entrance fee and there was much to see. We spent about an hour walking the luscious gardens. On our way back we walked to the Cenotaph War Memorial, which honored the fallen from The Korean War, The Malayan Emergency, The Indonesian Confrontation, The Vietnam War and the Peacekeeping Operations. Before arriving to the ship we stopped off at a very nice wine store and we purchased two wines that are local to the Tasman Region. As we did in Auckland, we wanted to try a few of the wines that are local to the Region that we are sailing.
Once back to the ship, we enjoyed lunch at the Lido Café where we each made a nice salad entrée. Lido Deck Stewards Brian and Rauel and Johnny assisted us.
After lunch we went back into town.
The city has a very nice combination of architectures with many buildings with old facades. We walked in other parts of the downtown area and then we found a path towards an historic village with homes that date back to the 1800’s. We walked through that area and then over to other residential areas and shops that are oriented to the locals. We then went to another area with lots of stores, cafes and restaurants and that is where we spotted many fellow passengers who were having lunch off the ship and many members of the crew. We continued our walk to other areas and just had a wonderful time taking in all of the sites all around us. The people that we met who are local to the area were very friendly as they are in the other areas of Australia and we had a very nice day being out and about on our own.
Once back on the ship, we read, wrote and spoke with many fellow passengers and members of the crew.
This evening we will be back in the Crystal Dining Room for dinner and we will post more about the evening tomorrow.
Often the seas leaving Hobart on the way to Melbourne can be rough so we are not sure what exactly is in store for us. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY…….
“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” - Audrey Hepburn
Keith and Anne Marie
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