Geelong to Melbourne on our Own

Adelaide, the state of South Australia’s capital was our next stop, but before we begin, a few points of interest…  

The Stranded Viking Sky on Norway's Coast

First, one of our sister ships, the Viking Star, made the news today. Last night, while sailing along the Norwegian Fjords on its Northern-lights cruise, the one Phil and Kathie (Carol’s sister) took last month, its four engines failed, and as it rocked back and forth in a violent storm nearing the jagged shoreline, the captain called to abandon ship. Helicopters began airlifting people off 30 at a time, and as of now about one-fourth of the 900 passengers have been removed. The Sky regained the use of one engine and continues to remove passengers as it limps in for repairs.

Secondly, Australia is being hit by two cyclones simultaneously, one to the north and one to the west.
Currently, we are in the south crossing the "Great Australian Bight" a 720 mile bay known for towering oceanside cliffs, calving grounds for the southern right whales and sea lions, and rough waters. Our ship is sailing as fast as it can away from another storm area with 30 foot waves. Outside decks, the pool, and the weight room have been closed, and ginger and green apples are once again available to all who need them, and Mark once again did.

With all this happening… we’ll tell a bit of Adelaide’s “stormy” past. All the first Australian colonies had a penal past and were having problems. So, someone decided it was time to begin a new venture without convicts as its forefathers. That person was Edward Wakefield, who came up with this plan while sitting in prison for running off at the age of 31 with a 15-year-old heiress. Over his lifetime, he would be in and out of various business ventures, both in Adelaide, New Zealand, and later back in England. Is that ironic or what, that a man who made his money womanizing, would name the city after King George IV’s wife? Anyway, Adelaide was colonized as a free colony in 1836. The surveyor for this planned city, William Light, was given two months to come up with a place and to plot its streets and parks, which he did. Founded on religious tolerance, it was soon nicknamed the "City of Churches" due to the many faiths represented.

Fountain using all Reclaimed Water
Adelaide is Proud of its Water and Green Electricity 

One of the Many Cathedrals 
in this "City of Churches"

Downtown was an hour from the port so Viking gave us a free day pass to use the trains and buses throughout the city.

We took the included bus tour into downtown Adelaide and after hopping off for what was to be a 45-minute stop, tipped the guide and took off on our own, skipping the second stop on the tour so we’d have more time in the city.

Note the Emu and Kangaroo
on the Adelaide Arcade

Adelaide Arcade's Ornate Interior

Rundle Street Statues

Rundle Street, a pedestrian mall had it all…street musicians, side malls, pubs, restaurants, the ornate Adelaide Arcade, and even a Target. We loved the unique sculptures and leaf people that we later saw all around the city.

Aussie's Favorite Chocolate Shop 

Leaf People All Over the City

We saw our Viking Chefs at the Adelaide Market

Several blocks to the north were the government buildings…the Governor’s mansion (the current governor is a Vietnamese immigrant), WWI War Memorial, and three great museums. The South Australian Museum included several floors dedicated to the Aboriginal Australians.

Their history had been a combination of the horrors experienced by Native Americans and African Americans. By the time Europeans arrived in Australia, the Aboriginal People who had migrated from Africa, had been here for 35,000-65,000 years. After helping the settlers acclimate, their land was taken and due to imported diseases and alcohol, extermination, war and displacement, the population dropped significantly. They were finally given the right to vote in 1962 and equal citizenship in 1967, yet their children were taken away to “civilize” them up until 1972. In 2008, the prime minister issued an official apology to the “stolen generation”. Today most live in or nearby cities in the west and north in terrible conditions. They are struggling with poverty, unemployment, high crime and alcoholism. Some work on cattle ranches and about 9% still live off the land hunting and gathering “bush tucker”. They are experts at seeking out water in seemingly uninhabitable lands.

South Australian Museum and Parliament

At the museum we saw an Aboriginal School’s doors that had been painted with the traditional dot paintings that tell stories. Dreamtime is their term for describing creation, when the Ancestral Spirits progressed over the land creating life and important geographical formations and sites. One of their most sacred is the Rock of Uluru, Ayers Rock, a huge granite monolith in the Outback Desert which in 1985 was returned to the Aboriginal People.

Tradition Aboriginal Dot Art on School Doors

Although they make up only 3% of Australia’s population, the Aboriginal flag is now flown next to the Australian and state flags at all governmental buildings. Public ceremonies begin by recognizing the Indigenous Australians of the area. Some of our guides began our tours with this acknowledgment. Their traditions that were once banned are now being taught as they try to gain back their identity, self-worth, and pride.

Next was the Migration Museum where we learned Australia’s methods once used to prevent blacks and Asians from entering the country. If a nonwhite fulfilled all the criteria to enter, they were given a 50-word test in a foreign language not known to them, such as Hungarian which of course they would fail. These obstacles persisted well into the mid-20^th century because Australians wanted Australia to remain white… just as some want America to “remain” a white Christian nation, even though neither country started out that way. An event was taking place in the Museum’s outer courtyard to celebrate the city’s newest immigrants mostly from the Middle East…children and adults in their native dress taking part in a day full of activities with music, food, and speeches.

Celebrating Recent Immigrants at the Migration Museum

Recent Immigrants by Statue of First
Immigrants 

At the neighboring art museum, modern art was intermingled with Aboriginal and classical art… beautiful, interesting, strange, and thought-provoking, with the works of art displayed in such unusual ways.

Such Unique Arrangement

Interior of the State Library

String Art Filled a Whole Room

Down the street we entered the Botanical Gardens, part of the green space that William Light had planned for his city. The green space surrounding the town was to be wide enough that an enemy cannonball could not cross it. As far as we know, no cannon balls ever tried. This also earned Adelaide the nickname "City within a Park".

Enjoying the Various Wine Bouquets

In the Botanical Gardens was the National Wine Center telling about Australia's long wine producing history dating back to the first European voyages when the vines were brought from France and South Africa. Thousands of bottles of wine were kept there under perfect conditions. We smelled aromas of the different wines, noting the citrus, peach, peppery, or flowery smells of the different grapes. Despite this experience, our wine taste buds are still not very discerning.

Where's Carol???

A Tree Full of Fruit Bats

It was Saturday, and as we walked along the Torres River through town we saw how many Adelaidians spend a beautiful day. Many of the immigrants from the museum event were picnicking under trees along the banks, while other Aussies were floating down the river in big tubes while oversampling the beers and wines of South Australia.

And thousands were on their way to the Oval to watch their favorite state football team. Each of Australia’s six states has two teams in the “AFL”. According to the friendly railway worker their football, which has four goalposts, is neither soccer, rugby, or American football, but a hybrid of all three and more.

A River of Fans

It was fun to watch the river of fans, many in red, blue and gold, flowing over the walking bridge to the stadium. We still don’t understand the sport, but we can appreciate their love of the game…    Aussie-Aussie-Aussie…Oi-Oi-Oi!

      Just for fun we're including pictures of the charming seaside town of Gleneig that we missed...

...and more amazing food courtesy of  Chef Wyann at the Chef's Table

          ...and yes...80 days at sea and thankfully still in love... at the Wine Center's Wedding Garden

Devil Country...Hobart, Tasmania

Hobart Harbor with Mount Wellington
Locals tell the day's weather by looking at the
mountain 

From the perspective of a non-Aussie, the only thing we really knew of Tasmania was that of the Tasmanian Devil. It had also roamed mainland Australia, but for the past 3000 years has only been on Australian’s smallest state, the island of Tasmania. Because of its viciousness, ability to open its jaw to 80 degrees and the fact that it has the most powerful bite of any animal its size, this creature deserves its reputation. At the Bonerong Wildlife Refuge we were able to see a few of them in different states of action.

Tasmanian Devil

One had developmental defects including growth stunting and cataracts but did its best to bite its caretaker’s pants. Another showed incredible hyperactivity, pacing quickly back and forth in its cage, and one showed what its jaw could do.

Bonerong, meaning “native companion” in the aboriginal language, was probably the most popular of all the Viking Sun Hobart tours. Set up for rehabilitating injured Tasmanian wildlife, it was also the best chance for us to see these native animals up close.

In Cage with Koala

Prior to entering, we were given a brief talk on how to feed and where to scratch kangaroo chests. As we got off the buses, we were almost as numerous as the kangaroos freely hopping on an acre of land with low fences they could easily jump over if desired. Some do, but they have it so good here, they often jump right back. Hundreds of kangaroos were awaiting our arrival. As we held out a handful of grain, they would slowly hop over and at times even grab our hand to munch the food. The main danger in the park was stepping on kangaroo poop… and, yes, they did love getting their chests scratched. 

Besides these, we got right up to cuddly koalas and wombats and saw many of the country’s exotic birds. All the animals were being rehabbed to be released when ready. We were told the wombats are incredibly cuddly up until two years of age when suddenly
they start pushing people away.
They will even kick their mother out of the den. 

Year old Wombat...
Still Cuddly

Vineyards with bird netting over the ripening plants

Stone Bridge in Richmond

Charming Homes and Gardens

Convict Built Lutheran Church

The bus took us through wine country on the drive to and from Hobart and stopped in Richmond, a charming village, again filled with beautiful convict-built sandstone buildings and Australia’s oldest continually used stone bridge built in 1823.




Earlier that morning on our included bus tour, we rode through the old city center with its sandstone government buildings and museums, passing the Salamanca Place District where old wharf buildings had been repurposed into boutique shops and businesses.

Salamanca Place...Repurposed Warehouse Buildings

Abel Tasman

 Parliament Building at the Waterfront

Tasmania's Oldest Brewery

We returned on our own after the tour to walk from this area to Battery Point, a charming neighborhood. Here, Prince’s Park had originally been a battery hill, prepared at first for a French invasion, and then later a Russian invasion, neither of which ever happened. Not one shot has ever been fired on a foreign enemy.

The Aboriginal People were not so lucky. From the beginning, their lands were taken from them with no payments, and soon fights began with the convicts and free settlers...first for loss of land, later as their hunting ground greatly diminished. With food becoming scarce the Aboriginal People tried to steal cattle for food. The conflict grew and Britain sent soldiers. The Black War ramped into full steam in the late 1820s culminating in a six-week push from combined settler and soldier columns called the  Black Line. Out of an estimated original 6000 in population, the remaining 400 were either killed or pushed to one corner of the island. In the end, the 40 that remained were transported from Tasmania to the nearby island of Flinders. By 1876, the last of these full-blooded Aboriginal Australians died.

                                   Springing into Fall at the Beautiful Royal Gardens

The Tasmanian Royal Garden tour had a much more cheerful story. Lady Jane Franklin, whose wealthy husband had died searching for North America’s northwest passage, pushed hard to turn Hobart from its stigma of a penal colony into a respectable city. She donated 130 acres to start the Royal Gardens, then later gave away 100 lots, 130 acres each, to farmers who would work the land. She saw apples as the way to succeed. By 1849, Tasmania was exporting apples to Australia and the US and is now known as the “Apple Isle”.  As in other ports, whaling had been an important industry.

Another boon to Tasmania came from the painter John Glover, who in the mid-1800s sent 150 watercolor paintings of the beautiful Tasmanian landscape back to England, causing tourism to begin. Tourism is now Tasmania's main industry. We were impressed with the fact that 90% of its energy use is from renewable energy. We would have loved to see Tasmania's beautiful interior lakes and rugged mountains, but alas, it was time to sail on.

Dinner That Evening