2025 – Singapore to HK – Golden Triangle – Part 3 – Papua New Guinea to The Great Barrier Reef
We made three stops in Papua New Guinea, Rabaul, the usual one, plus Kiriwana Island and Conflict Islands, which is privately owned. At Rabaul, I took a ship’s tour to see some Mask dances. There was a lot of hot dusty waiting involved and the highlight of the day was the nice bath I took when I got back to my cabin. I fell asleep in it. I did get a couple of decent pictures of the dancing, though. Here’s one:

And the islands really are idyllic.
The next day, January 15, I got a late start due to working on arrangements to join my friends and clients aboard the Volendam in March. It’s all set, I leave Montreal on Tuesday, March 11, arrive in Buenos Aires on the 12th, have dinner with my BA friend, Eilat Jelin, and crash. Next day it’s Afternoon tea at the Alvear palace Hotel with my friends from the ship, who have an overnight. I’ll go back to the ship with them and board. Sounds like a very civilized way to start a cruise. By the time I was ready to board a tender, it was 11am and the last tender back was 2PM. I decided to give Kiriwana a miss, and enjoyed it from Aft on Deck 9, sipping a beer. That’s not the worst part of cruising. I had a very fun dinner with four of our DV people, checked out the “Dance on Deck” and repaired to Billboard Onboard, where I was well entertained by Megan and Gabe’s Dueling Pianos.

January 16, I focused on getting ashore because I had booked a reef snorkeling tour and I wasn’t going to miss that. It was a gorgeous island, what you would call a tropical paradise. There was pretty good snorkelling, right from shore, for free, I was told. Next time, maybe I’ll do that but this time, I had my heart set on the reef experience. It was a pig-hot wait and not all that well-organized, but, in the end, it came out as it should have, and it was wonderful. The reef they took us out to was teeming with fish of all colors and sizes, simply beautiful. Some saw baby sharks. I didn’t need that experience. I was content with the pretty fishies and the giant clam, pointed out by the local who attached himself to me as my protector. I was glad to have him, too. I am seriously out of practice and got way too tired doing what used to be almost nothing. I need to take my snorkel up to our pool and practice swimming. My shower was wonderful, dinner delicious and the Modern Dance company, Step One were fabulous in MOVE! It was their third show, should have been their second. That one turned out to be different because they were missing one dancer to illness. He was back and it was just great.

We were back at sea and playing Bridge on January 17 and I was working on my Hong Kong Presentation, which has now been scheduled for January 23rd. I poked my nose into the Masquerade Ball, but was happier with an early night and my towel elephant:

January 18, we docked in Cairns and I had booked myself onto the Kuranda Scenic Railway Shore Excursion. A bus took us up, through the rainforest, to the town of Kuranda, where we had an hour and a half to explore, shop and eat. I did not dare go into the butterfly or koala gardens, for fear I might miss the train, so I shopped and had an ice cream. I didn’t find anything to buy, except some Q-Tips, nail clippers and a package of M & Ms Peanut. Thay ended up being my lunch on the train, the ice-cream having been breakfast. The train certainly was scenic and very old.

I had a planned dinner that night, Canadian connections, and it was all very nice. The Australian comedian, Gavin Baskerville, was pronounced “rubbish” by the Brits I was sitting with. My word only had 4 letters.
Today we are cruising the Great Barrier Reef, which means there are nice views out the Bridge Room windows, but you can’t see the reef. It’s beneath us, of course. And this is a week old now. It has been a busy one. Report soon come. Enjoy it while I write more.