Circumnavigating Australia - week 3, the East coast
Having fulfilled our dream of snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef, we did wonder if we had reached peek excitement on our four week circumnavigation of Australia on Princess Cruises Coral Princess, but we still had two weeks to go and some major destinations to tick off. We started our third week on board with a second sea day en route from Cairns to Brisbane, still not tired of spending the day lounging in the Sanctuary, walking the promenade deck, swimming in the pool and visiting the gym. Our restful sea-day meant that we were up bright and breezy for our arrival into Brisbane and our early excursion which was due to leave at 8.30am. Today’s excursion was taking us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary for our first ever glimpse of a koala, along with kangaroos (we even saw a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch), a saltwater crocodile, a reptile house full of snakes and a platypus. It was a wonderful two hours seeing some animals we’ve never seen before.
From the sanctuary we headed to Mount Coot-tha overlooking the city of Brisbane, giving us a wonderful, view of the high-rise CBD. On the journey back to the ship our wonderful guide took us through the city centre pointing out all the various sites and sounds of Brisbane, stopping briefly on the river to take a look at the vibrant south bank before heading back to the ship. As Brisbane was a semi-turnaround port about 500 passengers had left that morning and we had about 500 new guests enjoying their first sailaway out of Brisbane port.
With another sea-day as we headed from Brisbane to Sydney we woke the next morning with a noticeable difference in the weather, the skies a little grey and the temperature quite a few degrees cooler. With it being a bit chilly outside we kept busy by going to the port and destination talks before heading outside to find the weather much improved.
Unfortunately the good weather didn’t last long and we arrived into a very soggy Sydney the next morning with heavy rain and gloomy skies making the sail in to Circular Quay a little disappointing. With Sydney being the king of brunching we decided to head off of the ship early and get breakfast in one of the cafes in the nearby Rocks district. After a delicious avocado on toast breakfast as we watched the rain clearing up, we headed to the CBD walking from there through to Darling Harbour, passing the Crown Casino and round Millers Head through Bangaroo reserve where we had lovely views across the water and towards the city.
Having walked 5km and with the weather warming up we dropped by the ship to leave our rain coats on board before heading out to the other side of the harbour for the Opera House and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The second thing we wanted to do today was to have glass of bubbles at the Opera Bar so with it approaching noon we went straight there and settled ourselves down to order a drink. Although the weather had improved there were dark clouds all around us so we chose a table under a large parasol in case it started to rain. We drank our first glass of bubbles then ordered another to have with some nibbles.
While we were eating them the wind suddenly picked up and the rain followed with everyone rushing under cover. Thankfully we remained reasonably dry where we were so we finished our food and thought we would sit it out, waiting for the rain to stop. But it never really stopped so after nigh on an hour we decided to try to make our way back to the ship using as many covered walkways as we could, almost making it all of the way round, only having to make a run for it at the last few hundred metres! Unfortunately the rain never really let up all afternoon. Nonetheless when the time was right we dared out to the pool deck to get a drink and wait for sailaway, which although it was in the dark was still very pretty with the rain stopping for just long enough for us to get some nice pictures.
After a wet day in Sydney we woke up the next morning to a lovely sunrise followed by blue skies with hardly a cloud in the sky for our sea-day heading towards Melbourne. After a relaxing morning in The Sanctuary we had arranged to meet Ren, the Hotel Manager, as he had kindly offered us a complimentary upgrade to a mini suite for the rest of our cruise. However when we met him he took us up to deck 9 and surprised us with one of the top four suites on the ship, which was ours for the rest of the cruise if we wanted it. By 5.30pm we had packed, moved and were all settled in so we ordered a glass of fizz to enjoy in our new suite while we got ready for another formal night.
Rudely awoken by the ship’s fog horns the next morning we stepped out onto our fabulous new balcony, surprised to see that the ship was surrounded by thick fog, delaying our arrival into Melbourne. Since we were now in a suite we were invited to take our breakfast in Sabatini’s restaurant so we made the most of our delayed arrival with a very leisurely, luxurious breakfast. As we were eating we noticed that the ship started to move again and slowly as we approached Melbourne the skies cleared and the city slowly came into view. Having been here a few weeks ago on our Holland America cruise to New Zealand when we had explored the CBD, we decided to simply walk along the front to St Kilda stopping along the way for a coffee. The weather was lovely for simply strolling along the seafront stopping every so often for refreshments and food. With a slightly later sailaway we lazed around the pool deck, taking in the night sky and city sky line from the aft of the ship.
Waking up to lovely blue skies as we approached Tasmania we decided to get off the ship early to explore Burnie. Again we had been here a few weeks before on our New Zealand cruise but we had taken an excursion previously so we though we would simply take the shuttle bus to the town centre and walk along the seafront and pretty beach.
Back on board and in our lovely suite we spent the afternoon on the balcony watching the gorgeous sunset over Burnie as we sailed away from Tasmania. That evening we had a return visit to our favourite restaurant, Sabatini’s, and though we were a little more refrained upon our return, we still left there quite full so we had a quick stroll around the deck before the show featuring speed artist Brad Blaze, who kept us enthralled with his amusing and talented display of portrait paintings of Elton John, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Freddie Mercury. After a lovely day and evening we went to bed having completed our third week on the fabulous Coral Princess, heading back towards the mainland for our last week exploring the South coast of Australia.
We would like to say thank you to Princess cruises for our amazing complimentary suite upgrade. All other costs on this trip were paid for by us.
For part one of this voyage click here and for part two click here. For part four click here.
If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy our New Zealand blogs, North Island and South Island, or our 72 hours in Sydney blog.
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