From 9th - 16th September this year, Gemma, Bill, Jenny Garland and I were able to take advantage of a delightful 7 day cruise on P&O's Pacific Dawn.
We departed from Brisbane, and called into the ports you can see above. Sadly Dympna was in hospital with a fractured pelvis, and our sister-in-law Joy was sick with the flu. Rose was having some medical investigations happening (thankfully all turned our well) and Ret stayed back to hold the fort visiting Dympna - she visited every day, as did Murray.
Needless to say, on board we enjoyed many lovely dining events and Bill was the only male amongst 3 females. We tried to make his job of protector easy, and I'm sure he really didn't wish to attend the waiter staff's towel demonstration in the auditorium, but he suffered our company, and had a smile on his face in most of the photos!
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| Sandwiches, Scones and treats for our afternoon tea platter |
As you can imagine, we saw some beautiful sunsets, and some nice sunrises - well, I think I caught one or two of the latter! We had glorious spring weather, and were wearing t-shirts until the second last day which turned cool.
Saw this sky as I was heading to dinner - had to pull out the iPhone!
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| Jen and I made the most of our balcony - loved having our morning cuppa out there |
A highlight of the ports was a tour Jen and I did in Cairns. We caught the bus up to Kuranda to visit the Butterfly Sanctuary, and we caught the SkyRail back down a few hours later. I had spied the butterfly place when Murray & I took Joe Bill and Sandy (our friends from Arkansas) up to Kuranda several years ago, but sadly we didn't have time to call in on the butterflies. Mind you, we did have time for Joe Bill to buy a Drizabone and an Akubra! So this time, I was determined to pay the pretty butterflies a visit, and I wasn't disappointed. It was so peaceful in the enclosure with all different butterflies fluttering about. We were lucky to see the beautiful blue Ulysses (Dunk Island) butterfly, as it is rarely spotted.
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| Blue Ulysses Butterfly circled. It was quite a way from us, and was gone in no time, so this was my best shot |
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5 Beautiful creatures (the yellow one has wings closed so hard to see)
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