The next country we visited on our Circle Pacific cruise was Australia. We had been here during the 2024 World Cruise we did. Three of the stops this time were the same as last, with the addition of two more. Maybe because they were new, the two new stops were my favorites this time.
Sydney
Like our last time in Australia, Sydney, the largest city in Australia, was our first stop. Last time we were here it was a “tender” port, but this time we were docked at the cruise terminal. Because this was a “turnaround” day, meaning many people ended or started a cruise here (not everyone is on for the entire Circle Pacific itinerary), and maybe because of a change in policy since 2024, everyone needed to do face-to-face immigration and customs procedures in Sydney. So, we needed to leave the ship earlier than we normally do; they scheduled us for 8:10 am. We are generally up, but like a leisurely morning, even when in port. So, we had a very light “snack” on the ship (a bran muffin and some fruit) before heading to shore.
Our first stop after clearing customs and immigration was for a 2nd larger breakfast to fuel our planned mostly shopping day. After looking at a few options, we settled on the Fortune of War Pub, Sydney’s oldest. Many places claim to have “invented” avocado toast, Australia being one of them, so we decided to have some. It was a delicious start to our day, along with some tea.
Next, we spent literally hours looking in vain in various stores for some clothes to replace some of ours that had stains or were becoming worn. Our search was exhausting and a reminder of why we aren’t really fans of bit cities, particularly the core of downtown. Too many people, too many options, too crowded, and in my opinion most seem similar world-wide.
For some nature time, we did a short walk in the Botanic Garden, somewhere we enjoyed during our last visit.
After looking at several lunch options, we settled on returning to the Fortune of War. The food was good and it had nice outdoor seating (we sat indoors for breakfast). While our food wasn’t quite as good as it was at breakfast, we still enjoyed it and were happy with our choice. After lunch, we returned to the ship for a well-deserved nap.
Burnie, Tasmania
Our next stop was a new one for us, Burnie on the southern island of Tasmania. This was a port we were scheduled to visit in 2024, but it was cancelled when the cruise itinerary changed.
Burnie has a population of approximately 20,000 and is the fourth largest city in Tasmania.
Because we were docked at a commercial port, as is often the case, the city provided a shuttle bus for cruise passengers from the port into town. What was unusual was that when we got into town, the mayor of Burnie boarded the bus and gave us a talk about Burnie, asked us not to harass the local penguins (see below, no we didn’t harass them), and invited her to join us for her noon swim in the ocean (too cold for us)! We definitely have not had a talk from the mayor of anywhere we have been on a cruise in the past.
We started the day walking along the waterfront boardwalk. The area is known for Little Penguins, aptly names since they are the smallest penguins in the world. They are usually seen only in the evening when the adults come ashore to feed their young after fishing all day. But we were fortunate to see a baby standing in the opening to its borough and heard another one along the walk.
Also along the boardwalk, some other passengers on our cruise pointed out what they described as wallabies, but we later learned from our shuttle driver were Pademelons, a specific species of wallaby native to Tasmania. For those who are not familiar with wallabies, they are marsupials and look like small kangaroos.
Next, we headed for lunch at the Communion Brewing Company, seemingly with many other people from our ship. The beverages were good; the food was good but not spectacular.
After lunch we had a bit more successful shopping than in Sydney, once again a reminder that bigger cities are not necessarily better for shopping than small ones.
Port Melbourne
Our next stop was a repeat from the last cruise. Once again, we chose not to go into downtown Melbourne but instead stayed in the port area. We enjoyed a wonderful beach walk, ran some errands, and had lunch at Grey and Bliss Café. The food and beverages were enjoyable, and it is one of the few non-fast food type places in the port area that is open for lunch.
North Haven (Adelaide Suburb)
Our next stop was another new port that was scheduled but canceled in 2024. As usual, we chose not to go into the city center of Adelaide and instead stayed near where the cruise ship was docked, in the suburb of North Haven.
We started our day with a wonderful walk along the waterfront, enjoying many birds, particularly parrots! When we got back to the ship, we identified the following birds that we had seen: Australian Magpie (very common everywhere in Australia), Crested pigeon (only place we saw them), Little corella (a type of parrot), Rainbow lorikeet (parrot) and Scaly-breasted lorikeet (parrot). The birds are somewhat difficult to photograph, but I did capture pictures of a few.
Our walk included a nice beach, and then a walk through a neighborhood on the way to a restaurant. We had enjoyable visits with locals during our walk. We found it to be a very enjoyable marine-oriented suburb that would be nice to live in if you worked in downtown Adelaide, a short commuter train ride away.
We finished our day with lunch at the Sailmaster Tavern, overlooking a marina. The food was great, but the portions were larger than expected – quite a good value, but we could have shared a bit more than we did had we known. We saw two dolphins swimming in the marina while we were eating, possibly a mother and calf because one seemed larger than the other.
We returned to the ship along part of the same walking path with the many birds, completing a very enjoyable time on shore.
Fremantle
Our final stop in Australia was Fremantle in Western Australia, another repeat from 2024. Fremantle is a suburb of Perth, but we stayed in Fremantle instead of going into the city as usual.
We started the day with some productive shopping, mostly at Target – we were unaware that Target was outside of the US, you learn something new every day! We did try an Australian store first, but they did not have what we were looking for.
After our shopping mission, we took a while to find the lunch restaurant we were planning, Bread in Common. It was overpriced and mostly disappointing, the first true “fail” of a restaurant on the cruise. Considering we are almost two months into it, that isn’t bad. They also didn’t have internet, which we needed to update our Kindles.
We finished the day and our time in Australia at the Gage Roads Freo Brewery, somewhere we had visited last time. This time we only had beverages while we completed our Internet tasks, before heading back to the ship.
We enjoyed our time in Australia, particularly the smaller places where we had a chance to visit with friendly locals and see some wildlife.
The next part of the cruise is the part we have been looking forward to the most, with all but one stop being new to us. As mentioned in an earlier post, we had not planned to do another long cruise, but we decided to book this one because we would be able to visit Asia without flying. All of the other places we are visiting on this cruise, some new and some revisits, are a “bonus” for us, with Australia being part of that list.
