Patsy buying squid which incidently were delicious

Birthing at Kobe

And the band played us in

Kobe nearly there

Entering Kobe weather overcast temp about 15 C

The trip to Japan was beset by bad weather, did an approx 1000 mmile detour dodging cyclone Pam and Bavi apart from a bit of rocking and rolling the trip was pretty good if somewhat boring as far as marine views go nothing but water .

Due to bad weather in and around Nagasaki and Yokohama, the Japanese authorities weren't happy about us berthing so we have had to divert to Kobe. We had a couple of trips booked to see Nagasaki and Mount Fuji which have now been cancelled, really disappointed as we were looking forward to these trips.

On the way to Japan we passed a newly formed volcano which is creating a new island, as it was twelve miles away we couldn't see much detail.

Lots of people were due to get off in Yokohama for onward travel or to fly back home, they have got to get the bullet train in Kobe to travel back to Yokohama.

We have got tour info for Kobe so have booked a couple of trips. Talk about how the other half live we went to the pursers office to get Japanese Yen for Kobi only to be told that they had run out of Yen! Due to our upgrade we have a personal concierge so we had a word with him who made a quick phone call and miracuously came up with $100 worth of Yen which is about 10,000 Yen!!

Every time we leave the ship and then get back on we have to put any baggage we bring back through an on board x-ray scanner....needless to say they had fun with my back pack as it was full of volcanic rock :)

Hot spring at base of volcano

More pics from Rabaul

Rabaul was interesting visited a recently active volcano and visted the observatory where they monitor the siesmic activity for the island.

Bob checking the weather

Ready for dinner

What's for dinner tonight?

Spent ages wandering around looking for places we had visited 11 Years ago but all are gone. Gone were the fantastic Noodle bars in the Pier which used to be heaving with people eating every kind of Asian dish you could think of. Now it's all been replaced by very expensive shops and is a bit of a ghost town compared to all those years ago.

Picture taken from tender as we headed for Cairns

You can just see the Queen Mary in the distance

Went past Queen Mary anchored off of the Whitsunday Islands

Aboard Queen Elizabeth

Sat 7th March

Formal dress night and cocktails with the captain along with about 50 others in a queue to meet the captain and have a picture taken!! It was great to meet Inga again who recognised us straight away, so we held everybody up chatting about how the family were doing :).


Sunday 8th March about 680 miles from Brisbane traveling at 11 knts parallel to the Barrier reef to Cairns. Temperature outside is hot hot hot!
Got back from lunch today to find an invite to have dinner with the captain on Tuesday evening.... P blown away.

We get into Cairns early on Monday morning where we will anchor off Yorkeys Knob a small town about 5nm North West of Cairns.

We haven't booked any excursions for Cairns as it's our second visit but we will take a tender to the shore to have a walkabout. Turns out we get priority access to the tender.
The extra privaliges this upgrade has given us just keep coming, spent afternoon on private top deck being fed ice cream, juice and then cold flannels. Unfortunatley never to be repeated unless we are lucky enough to get another upgrade in the future.

Just passing through the Whitsunday Islands saw the Queen Mary anchored off of one of the inlets.
After we leave Cairns we are on our way to Rabaul Papua New Guinea and have a tour amongst the volcanoes booked.
Will update if I find some free wifi in cairns

pics

More pics

Aboard Queen Elizabeth

Amazing room, has more storage than our house! Fresh fruit everyday, complimentary 2 x 1 litre bottle of spirits our choice. Fridge stocked daily with soft drinks, beer etc.

As we are are now upgraded to the Queens Grill, only accessed privately by are room card, we were rather taken aback on our first visit to the Grill to be greeted by the Maitre d' who knew who we were by name?

We are on a table of 8 populated by, I should think multi millionaires, so we are well at home there then! :)

More pics

More pics

Currumbin

Dave took us to Currumbin for a spot of swimming and paddle boarding great day.

Having a fantastic time staying with Dave & Gay.

Complete change of life style going for early morning 05:30 walks and then swimming in the surf to the amazing breakfasts. Then going to bed at 9:00pm something we must strive to do when we get back home "apart from the surf thing"

Dave's taking us up to Brisbane on Friday 6th to catch the Queen Elizabeth...that is if the extra suitcase we've had to buy will fit in Dave's car!!

Here's a view from Dave & Gays veranda I could sit there all day long listening to the surf.

Arrived in Hong Kong 08:30 UK time 4:30pm our time trip ok but a long 11hours both with backache unable to get comfortable even with leg room. Filled up the overhead baggage lockers 😰 Watched a new film called the "Matrix" yes really that old! Just gone through to transfers waiting for another 11 hours flight. Takes off 7:25pm Hong Kong time 11.25 UK time flight CX103 to Cairns then Brisbane.
Temperature here 25C foggy.

Sent from my iPad

Had to leave a few things out but thankfully Dave's got a big car.

Thinking of packing the suit cases do they take kitchen sinks for hand luggage?