We have arrived back home in Brisbane and have been perusing the held mail pile that has been delivered. Slobro is puzzled about all the post cards we have received from some people signing as ‘R & L’ travelling overseas.

“They have been to the very same places we have just been to”, isn’t that strange? Allthego suggested it was just an odd coincidence. Slobro has now been put in a cupboard until next time.

On the sail across the ‘ditch’ from New Zealand we experienced the heaviest seas of the whole cruise. Some 4 to 5 metre swells and strong winds, the ship was getting along at 21 knots for most of the time. A bit of harmless rocking and rolling with the occasional ‘bump’ as the ship nosed into a wave.

We had planned to rise early for the sail through the Sydney Harbour Heads, timed for about 5 am. Slobro rose early around 4 am, but rolled over and didn’t wake us till after 5.30. We were coming into Circular Quay, next to the Bridge and opposite the Opera House. Great spot but we had missed the sail in!

We had 1200 or so fellow passengers getting off the ship here, to be replaced by a similar number joining us for the ongoing cruise after Brisbane. We had planned an easy morning aboard the ship before walking around to the Opera House to see the current run of Miss Saigon. The rules in Aus are similar to what we experienced in New York, everybody off the ship to go through immigration and then you can get back on! Duly done we returned to the ship for a light lunch before heading to the show.

‘Miss Saigon’ was a block buster a really spectacular spectacle of stage, light and sound. Singing pretty good too! Allthego liked the holographic helicopter scenes when the evacuations were being done from Saigon at the ‘end’ of the war. The theatre was filled with the throbbing of engines and blades. Amazing work!

Back on board the ship we sailed away around 7 pm as the city lights were coming on. Truly one of the great harbours of the world! Disappeared into the blackness as we passed through the Heads and turned north for Brisbane.

On the last night before Brisbane we managed to get in another episode of ‘The Love Boat’. Dear readers will recall this classic show from way back dealing with life and love aboard the Pacific Princess. What characters and plots, days before political correctness. We managed to see about 24 episodes. Allthego has refreshed his joke repertoire with some classics. Just has to remember the punch lines!

We have been blessed to have seen much on this cruise. Snapshots of places we will probably not get to again. A few bucket list places; Iceland and Greenland, Easter Island, the Suez and Panama Canals. Along the way we also saw places where the ‘other half’ live and work. ‘Other half’ though is more like 70%. We live in a fortunate part of the world and should do a lot more for our own perhaps 15%.

‘It’s good to be back home’, that’s a John Denver song Homealone recalls.