One of my justifications for booking a 12-day journey from Auckland to the Great Barrier Reef aboard the luxurious Scenic Eclipse II was that the cruise ends today, on my 57th birthday.
Happy birthday to me!
Blimey, those 57 years went way too fast. As did the cruise.
We will be very sad to disembark in a few hours and make our way back to the real world.
It has been a lovely way for DD to spend some time with his cousins from Newfoundland, who he’d only met a couple of times due to geographical difficulty.
While I was cranky about Norfolk Island and Lady Musgrave Island being removed from the itinerary, it has been an incredibly restful trip.
I was feeling very frayed in the weeks leading up to the holiday and the cruise has been like a deep tissue massage for my mental health.
It’s been a week since I blogged about the cruise kicking off in New Zealand, which was followed by three nights of sloth and indulgence at sea … with the occasional stretch class.
Among the dining experiences was the Sushi & Sake Bar @ Koko’s, where we dined at the ocean view benchtop on delicious Japanese food, including amazing hand rolls served in Champagne glasses!
And check out this spot for a sunrise breakfast including avo on toast …
Not to mention an extravagant afternoon teas with croquembouche towers and piano-shaped cakes filled with macarons …
We also enjoyed an amazing dinner at a restaurant called Nightmarket, where only eight guests are seated around the hotplate while the chefs work.
We were served the most spectacular array of modern Filipino dishes – I am seriously regretting not photographing the menu so I could tell you what on earth they all were, but the meal concluded with a rice pudding wrapped in a thin sheet of mango gelato – wow!
We arrived in Brisbane several kilos heavier literally the day after torrential weather ripped through the Queensland capital. Our original excursion was to Sirromet Winery at Mount Cotton for a wine tasting and lunch, but it was cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions. I felt terribly sorry for the venue to miss out on the patronage.
Instead we travelled to Australia Zoo, which I was initially a bit blah about, but turned out to be such a fun place to visit. It’s a gorgeous zoo, compact but crammed full of wildlife.
It gave DD’s Canadian cousins a chance to get up close to everything from koalas, kangaroos, quokkas and crocodiles.
The famed crocodile show was quite something, although we almost expired from heat exhaustion waiting for it to start. It was terrifying to see the keepers stamp their feet on the banks of the ponds to entice the crocodiles to shore, then jump backwards several times with chicken carcasses while the creatures lunged at them!
I’ve realised there is too much to tell you about the cruise in a single blog post, so I’ll give you the lowdown tomorrow on the islands we visited.
PS we arrived at our cabin yesterday afternoon to find a bottle of Champagne and a birthday card from the Captain! Then last night DD and I enjoyed a romantic pre-birthday dinner in the ship’s French restaurant, Lumiere, which serves a seven-course degustation menu each night accompanied by superb French wines and Champagne. Very special!
Song of the day: The Sugar Cubes “Happy birthday”
housegoeshome 
Happy Birthday Alana.
Wishing you a wonderful day.
🍾🎉💐🥳🎈🎊