On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — December 14-December 23, 2023

[AussieBoyTX]

Greetings from Hobart, Tasmania, where we’re boarding Ponant’s Le Lapérouse for a ten day trip around Tasmania. This was meant to be the third in a set of back-to-backs, but work got in the way, allowing for only this one.

 

We arrived in Hobart late last night and spend the day exploring Hobart’s inner harbor area. Le Lapérouse had arrived at 6am from New Zealand and settled in behind the mammoth Virgin Resolute Lady, doing a quick Melbourne - Hobart “MerMaiden Voyage”.

 

We arrived on-time at four PM and found ourselves at the end of the check-in line (as usual). Nonetheless, we were onboard in in our cabin within fifteen minutes.

 

We had some time before we needed to convene at the theater for eat “Life on Board” presentation and the safety drill, we went to the lounge for a drink. We found we had sailed with the bartender on Le Lyrial last year in Antarctica as well as the sommelier in Norway August last year. We maintain our unbroken streak of sailing on Ponant having met some of the crew before.

 

Also interesting, the performers, who are based on the Queensland Sunshine Coast, came to introduce themselves, as did some of the Expedition Team. We also noted that some of the guests were repeat visitors, knowing the performers as well as each other.

 

At the “Life on Board” presentation, it was confirmed we were in for the Anglo-Ponant experience — 90 of the 92 guests were non-French — and, actually were all English speakers. Australians, British, Irish, New Zealanders & a few Americans. Our cruise director was French, but grew up in Houston, so his English was impeccably American and his presentation was expedited as it was only in English. It’s been more than a year since we’ve been on an Explorer-Class ship, but nothing has really changed, including the safety drill.

 

Fortunately, we got that behind us and enjoyed dinner outside on Deck 3 as we sailed away from Hobart under sunny skies and mild temperatures.

 

After dinner, we were kind of tired, so we perused the Ponant catalogs looking for ideas on future cruises — and maybe take advantage of the 10% Christmas Discount.

 

Tomorrow: A Day at See

[jpalbny]

Welcome back, and have a wonderful trip!

 

Is this your itinerary? The map is from the Ponant site, but for the cruise following yours. I hate that you can't see the itinerary for ongoing cruises on any line's website. There are some really nice stops on this trip!

 

 

In Promise Bay, if they offer a hike to Winglass Bay, take it. Really nice views. And the Tamar Valley is another very pretty setting. With wineries!

 

Looks like fun, though I'm disappointed that you don't stop in the town of Penguin! I'll look forward to your ongoing reports while we are freezing up here in chilly Upstate New York.

[AussieBoyTX]

We have itinerary changes because permission wasn’t given to go to some original destinations. I assume this also affects the following cruise. 
 

The cool thing about the following cruise is that it’s in Hobart to watch the end of the Sydney/Hobart yacht race and has the perfect view of the finish!

 

Right now, 45 kt winds @ Stanley and the port pilot does not operate when winds are above 25 kts. 
 

YOUR REVISED ITINERARY:
DATE REVISED ITINERARY
Thursday, 14 December
2023 HOBART. TAS, AUSTRALIA
Friday, 15 December 2023 At Sea
Saturday, 16 December 2023 Stanley
Sunday, 17 December 2023 Grassy, King Island
Monday, 18 December 2023 Bell Bay (Tamar Valley)
Tuesday, 19 December 2023 Freycinet Peninsula
Wednesday, 20 December
2023 Maria Island
Thursday, 21 December 2023 Port Arthur
Friday, 22 December 2023 Tasman Peninsula
Saturday, 23 December
2023 HOBART. AUSTRALIA

 

The changes for this voyage concern Port Davey and Iles des Phoques. Tasmania’s National Parks have
denied us access to these ports, and we now offer you the following:
• Port Davey will be replaced by a day in Stanley where you will have the opportunity to undertake a
tour to various locations including Trowutta Arch State Reserve in the Tarkine Region, La Cantara
Artisan Cheese and Robotic Dairy, Highfield House and The Nut Reserve.
• The half day at Iles des Phoques will be replaced by a half day at Freycinet Peninsula (Promise Bay).
This will allow us to conduct Zodiac landings and walks into the beautiful Wineglass Bay.
We thank you for your understanding for these changes, and we are confident that you will enjoy the
replacement ports.

Edited December 15, 2023 by AussieBoyTX

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Friday, December 15

 

Today, we had a day at sea as we worked our way North along Tasmania’s west coast towards Stanley.

 

My preference is not to have the day at sea so early, but we had plenty to do, starting with English breakfast and fresh baguette in the main dining room. As is normal in Australia due to biosecurity, we had none of the sublime Beurre Bordier to enjoy on the bread. The Australian substitute was okay.

 

Next, shopping at the well-merchandised and Christmas-themed Boutique, where we added to our Ponant logo-wear. I stepped away from that after a few minutes to have a fascinating discussion with a Tasmanian naturalist about the mining industry in Tasmania, its ecological impact and, in some places, substantial damage. The oldest mines are being reopened because the tailings have sufficient minerals remaining to be extracted profitably with modern technology.

 

The same naturalist offered a lecture in the theater about the geology of Tasmania. I’m kind of into the topic and it was way more interesting than I expected. The tl;dr on that was that Tasmania was kind of ground between continents over billions of years and had a very complex set of minerals that showed it was connected to Africa and the Americas at various points. The punchline was that a unique plant fossil found only in Tasmania and Montana linked the two some 1.2 billion years ago!

 

Of course, Lunch was not far behind and we had a leisurely time working our way through our salad as we visited with guests on either side of us. One was a Commodore who had sailed with Ponant eleven times in the past year! She had strong opinions on a lot of things, including Ponant’s Australian service.

 

This is one of the few ships to have Ponant’s famous Southern Fried Chicken Burger, so I decided to have that. It was good and served on a brioche bun with a red cabbage slaw. The benchmark is still from Le Dumont d’Urville, where we were all astounded by the quality of that sandwich.

 

Due to prior cruise cancellations, we have substantial shipboard credit to burn and we put a dent in that with a visit to the Spa for massages. Great!

 

That really left only a short time before crepes were offered in the lounge, followed by a well done lecture by our assistant expedition leader on 50,000 years of human habitation in Australia.

 

We had a welcome cocktail and introduction to the senior staff and then we joined the Captain at his table for dinner, which was a great experience. He chooses a small table and only five guests joined him and our Travel Ambassador for a lovely dinner. It was great to actually be able to hear everyone — which is just not possible for me when at the larger table. We were among the last to leave dinner at 9:30 and we retired to our cabin to think about future cruises.

 

Our ship is sailing into a weather system that is putting our landing at Stanley at risk. We’ll see tomorrow…

[highplanesdrifters]

15 hours ago, AussieBoyTX said:

. I stepped away from that after a few minutes to have a fascinating discussion with a Tasmanian naturalist about the mining industry in Tasmania, its ecological impact and, in some places, substantial damage. The oldest mines are being reopened because the tailings have sufficient minerals remaining to be extracted profitably with modern technology.

 

The same naturalist offered a lecture in the theater about the geology of Tasmania. I’m kind of into the topic and it was way more interesting than I expected. The tl;dr on that was that Tasmania was kind of ground between continents over billions of years and had a very complex set of minerals that showed it was connected to Africa and the Americas at various points. The punchline was that a unique plant fossil found only in Tasmania and Montana linked the two some 1.2 billion years ago!

 

Fascinating!  Have a fabulous voyage. Rather jealous.

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Saturday, December 16

 

We were in the first expedition group, so we woke early to prepare for the day, only to find that we arrived outside Stanley with 45 knot winds — well beyond the 25 knot maximum set by Stanley’s port pilot. This relieved us for another relaxing day at sea, with the chance for a landing in the afternoon.

 

After breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning in the Observation Lounge, enjoying the Tasmanian coastal views as we motored slowly towards Burney to pick up the pilot for our landing at King Island tomorrow.

 

On the lower levels, the Naturalists had a string of lectures and events on various topics scheduled all day — with topics like the migratory pattens of whales & birds, reading nautical charts and even how to get the best pictures from your mobile phone. Some of the events were held in the Blue Eye, which was nice to see — on some ships, the unique underwater space feels neglected, but on Le Lapérouse, there are a couple opportunities every day to spend time there.

 

This reminds me that I neglected to mention yesterday’s Expedition Team introductions and Zodiac training… There are fifteen expedition team members for the ninety-two guests. Two French, two South African, including the Expedition Leader, and the remaining are Australians, with a broad array of education & interests. The other thing that was interesting was that many of the guests knew each other at least somewhat — from prior cruises, either on Ponant or other lines and many made a point of sailing on the periodic Chairman’s Cruises hosted by Ponant. Actually we also knew some other guests, at least by name, from Ponant’s official forums.

 

I also neglected to mention that I visited the bridge. Ponant has an “open bridge” policy so in normal times, guests are usually able to visit the bridge when they wish. This tends to be implemented differently by each Captain based on local operational requirements. Here, the bridge was open for several hours in the morning and again in the afternoon, so it was easy enough to visit when it suited me.

 

We enjoyed lunch in the main dining room and had a great conversation with the occupants of the Owner’s Suite, seated next to us. They effused about their last Chairman’s Cruise to Papua New Guinea — a cruse we have scheduled for later this year. I also noted the Southern Fried Chicken Burger was a popular choice, though we enjoyed a very fresh salad, with all of the greens in perfect shape.

 

Aside from the lectures, we spent much of our afternoon planning future cruises — the task was much easier since we had 4G and sometimes 5G mobile service from the nearby coast and didn’t have to depend on the ship’s internet. In the past year, Ponant has added a Travel Ambassador to their crew and I think this is a good addition. In our experience, they are quite familiar with the itineraries and ships and can help weed out itineraries that are not optimal for us.

 

All this led to a lovely Tasmanian wine and cheese tasting, followed by dinner in the main restaurant at the sun set. We were running late and arrived 30 minutes after the service opened. The staff had no problem pacing our meal correctly even though we were a couple of courses behind most other guests and had the dining room mostly to ourselves at the end. I had the chef’s recommended menu, which was great: white cabbage soup, zucchini fritters, and paprika chicken with prawns, ending with cheese and a raspberry meringue. At the table, we also had a beetroot salad and wahoo fillet — all were attractive and well prepared.

 

Our day ended with a little “Name that Tune” in the main lounge.

 

Tomorrow, King Island?

Edited December 16, 2023 by AussieBoyTX

[AussieBoyTX]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Sunday, December 17

 

We had an early 7:30 start scheduled, so we woke at 6:45 to continental breakfast brought to us by our butler. She anticipated we’d need some extra time to enjoy breakfast and get ready, so she arrived before the posted earliest delivery time. While we enjoyed our pastries and coffee, we could see the weather didn’t look all that much better than yesterday. But we also knew we were on the leeward side of King Island, so we didn’t have the same open water issues to deal with. We could also see the Zodiacs out on the water and assumed it was a “go.”

 

Arriving at the main lounge with our life jackets in hand, we found plenty of other guests ready to go, all being helped to get ready by our cruise director and front desk team. Also noted there were a fair number of men wearing shorts, which made me feel better, since I’m usually the one woefully underdressed. The swell was significant — not the worse we’ve seen, but definitely needed good timing, as the Zodiac was moving a bit more than a meter compared Le Lapérouse. Fortunately, the three sea men ensured that we all got situated safely.

 

The ride to the small port at Grassy was not especially bumpy, but a little slow as we navigated between the swells. Even so, we made it to a dry landing at the pier in less than ten minutes. From there, busses were waiting for us for our morning tour of bucolic King Island.

 

Our first leg was a drive to the northern part of the island to the former primary school at Reekara to see local kelp craft and a memorial to some women and girls who died in the shipwreck of the female convict ship Neva in 1835. Needlepoint clothing, mostly head coverings were made with a woman’s name, age and the crime she was convicted of stitched into them. Australians would know that most of the crimes were petty — a loaf of bread…

 

But I’ve jumped ahead. The drive was about 30 minutes through pastures with grazing cattle — and wallabies almost everywhere. There are well over 500,000 wallabies on King Island and they can be seen along the road, in the pastures, in the towns, on the roads… everywhere! And we saw feral peacocks, American turkeys, llamas and a few sheep. It was quite the menagerie.

 

We also passed by the island’s wind and solar farm (and Diesel generation station). Our guide said that the system ran mostly on renewables, with battery storage and a giant flywheel that can keep power going for the two minutes it takes to switch to Diesel.

 

After that, we drove to the King Island Dairy for a cheese tasting. I particularly enjoyed the brie and bleu cheeses they offered.

 

Then, off to Currie, where we only passed through, as we were running late. Then the kelp drying racks and finally a few minutes walking around Currie harbor before we returned to Grassy to get Zodiacs back to the ship.

 

Lunch was waiting for us. We tried to eat downstairs, but we were savaged by flies, so everyone went upstairs to the main dining room. I had the classic Ponant Egg 65 degrees, which is always served a little differently. This time on a bed of eggplant.

 

In the afternoon, we went ashore again to hike to Penguin Island — only 1500 meters from our landing point in hopes of seeing Little Penguins, probably commonly known as Fairy Penguins or Blue Penguins. We found three hiding in holes in dense brush waiting for their mates to return at dusk. On the way home, we visited with locals fishing in the sheltered bay before returning to our Zodiacs to find that the sea had gotten a bit more treacherous, making the return to Le Lapérouse a bit more difficult. With help from Ponant’s sea men, we all boarded safely, of course.

 

We then went directly to the lounge to try the cocktail of the day — the gorgeous SoHo Sling. An excellent drink! Also, it was tea time, and our pastry chef presented a fantastic Pavlova (we had seconds).

 

Soon enough, it was time for the evening briefing, where we learned bout the kelp ecosystem and how ocean temperature change was allowing spiny sea urchins to venture further south and decimate the Tasmanian kelp forests.

 

Then dinner. where the highlights were the rack of lamb and a delicious ice-cream-like desert served on a macaron with exotic fruits.

 

In the lounge, our entertainers were taking requests from the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s. There was little overlap with our preference for 80’s, 90’s & 2000’s, so we went back to plan for tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow, we explore the Tamar Valley. No Zodiac required!

[AussieBoyTX]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Monday, December 18

 

Ponant has a policy of not broadcasting announcements into the cabins. Fortunately, this does not apply to the captains and we’re always anxious to hear what they have to say. This morning was to announce our arrival at the mouth of the Tamar River for our hour-long sailing to the commercial port of Bell Bay just south of George Town.

 

Docking & biosecurity inspections took some time, but our busses arrived at 9am and we all set out on one of three included excursions — effectively maritime history, mining history or wine & gin tasting. We chose mining history and had a forty-five minute ride to the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre, filled with commentary (and some tour information) from our driver.

 

The Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre was very interesting. We had a walk through most of the mine’s surface buildings, covering the mine’s history from the 1800s to its final closing in 2012. This was also the site of the 2006 mine rescue that captivated Australians and there was a large exhibit dedicated to that event almost one kilometer beneath the surface. We had ninety minutes and it wasn’t enough time — we’ll come back and see the rest on another trip.

 

After the mine, we had a wine tasting at a “mostly organic” winery — their caveat is that they’re not willing to lose a crop to keep the organic certification and will use non-organic means to rescue the crop when necessary. The wines were fine — we would have preferred a hike or some other activity.

 

We got back to the ship at 1:30pm, just in time for late lunch outside — whole roast pig was offered, though I had a tuna steak.

 

Shortly after we finished lunch, Le Lapérouse pulled away and we made our way out the Tamar River for our long sail to Promise Bay. It was already fairly late in the afternoon, but there were still a presentation on marsupials, salmon tasting and the daily recap to attend. The recap covered some of the sailing technicalities of the Tamar River and then could have segued into an hour-plus presentation on Tamar Valley wines & spirits — perhaps that presentation will be offered later this week, as the naturalist appeared to have enthusiasm for the subject.

 

Tonight was White Night and also a chance to dine with the ship’s officers. The dining room was quite full as many tables had one or two officers. My Egg 65 degrees was offered again (with a different preparation style of course) and I had a nice port dish as well, followed by an After-Eight mint-inspired desert. We dined with a couple from northern New South Wales and were among the last to leave as we covered all sorts of topics.

 

Dancing with the officers was on offer and then we called it a night.

 

After our long overnight sail, we arrive at Promise Bay, Freycinet tomorrow for Zodiac tours and what it promised to be a long, muddy hike. We can only hope.

[AussieBoyTX]

 

 

 

 

 

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Tuesday, December 19

 

It was a cold, windy & rainy midmorning as we arrived at Freycinet peninsula. Nonetheless, we were looking forward to our Zodiac cruise of Promise Bay. The rain had stopped and there were glimpses of sun, so we were optimistic. As it turned out, the wind made for substantial swells that broke over the Zodiac, ensuring those of us on the windward side got drenched. I was dressed appropriately and was reasonably comfortable, though waterlogged. As for the sightings, we didn’t get that far from the ship and only saw several cormorants on a small island, along with sea gulls.

 

Back aboard the ship, we warmed up with hot showers and had a delightful lunch. I wasn’t really hungry, but had a club sandwich and salad. The greens are still in great shape!

 

The afternoon offered two hikes from Promise Bay to Wineglass Bay. The weather at sea was deteriorating and only thirty-odd guests decided to give it a go. The Zodiac trip was rough and wet, with a very wet landing at Promise Bay, But once we got on land, conditions were fine.

 

Because of the recent rains, we were warned the long hike was an 8/10 and the short a 4/10 difficulty. We were also warned we needed to stay with our guides. We took the short hike and found the path to be extremely well maintained and rated the difficulty as 2/10 due to the occasional rough surface. We also found many visitors walking in thongs from a nearby car park, so that really verified the true difficulty of the walk (not hike).

 

The walk itself was pleasant and we saw lots of wallabies and enjoyed the eucalyptus scent (and the toilets at Promise Bay).

 

The weather had closed in for our return to the ship and we found the true difficulty was getting the guests back into the Zodiacs in the pitching waves — there were as many as six expedition guides, waist-deep in water helping to push & lift some of us in. Everyone on our Zodiac got completely soaked during this procedure, but the ride itself was not too bad, as we had the wind to our backs.

 

Safely back on board, we had more hot showers and cleaned the sand out of our gear before returning to the spa to work out some Zodiac-incurred kinks.

 

Meanwhile, our captain decided to sail to Moria Island such that we would arrive at anchor before dark. Though it was cold, we decided to eat downstairs with the expedition team and a handful of other hardy guests. We were rewarded with our arrival at dusk, greeted by a pod of dolphins. We finished our dinner of duck Magret & Brussels sprout salad as the sky darkened with the sun behind heavy clouds.

 

Tomorrow, wombats on Maria Island?

 

[AussieBoyTX]

 

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Wednesday, December 20

 

We woke to perfect skies and temperatures at Maria Island and we were so ready to go ashore, but had to wait for the Biosecurity Officer to come from the mainland at 9:30. We got ashore around 10 and we were really ready to spend the entire day exploring — but no food at all could be brought from the ship, so that would have been challenging.

 

We left the guided groups behind and went on a separate track looking for wombats. It didn’t take long before we found our first — the largest I’d ever seen — maybe a meter long. We continued past ruins before finding another wombat and then some pademelons and wallabies.

 

The hike culminated at the crest of the northern Fossil Cliffs with spectacular views of the shoreline far below as well as Mount Maria. The plateau we stood on was obviously quite popular with the wombats — their cubed scat was everywhere, but they were not to be found here.

 

Too soon, it was time to head back. We found a mother wombat with joey and then two more large wombats right at the head of the trail at Darlington.

 

We then caught the last Zodiac back to Le Lapérouse for lunch, which was a huge serving of chicken Milanese and salad.

 

In the afternoon, we were offered a Zodiac cruise of the famous Painted Cliffs, but we chose to go ashore again and walk to the cliffs as we searched for more wombats.

 

The excitement began early. We were the only guests on the Zodiac and told our naturalist he could “punch it” and we made the transit ashore in two minutes instead of ten! Then, immediately after we got off, we saw a small wombat was at the edge of the jetty scratching himself on luggage carts left for campers’ convenience. That gave way to a tiger snake that was a bit more than a meter long. It came out of a metal grate and passed by us on the way to water. We decided to move our life jackets that were less than a few centimeters from its path and then after letting the naturalists know, continued our trek to the cliffs.

 

Fun Fact: All Tasmanian snakes are venomous. It really saves time on identification.

 

The walk to the cliffs along the “main road” was lovely and since we were getting into the late afternoon, more wombats had come out. We had a point where there were nine wombats fairly close together — a wisdom of wombats — which was unusual, because wombats are generally solitary animals and do not often form large groups like some other mammals. They tend to live in their own burrows and may have overlapping territories with other wombats, but they don't typically engage in group or herd behavior.

 

We made it to the cliffs and then turned around to catch the last Zodiac back to the ship at 5pm. Back on board, our captain was meeting with the travel ambassador and he stopped us to ask about our day, as he had wanted to go ashore, but was too busy. We showed him a couple of wombat pictures, including one of a wombat with his ship and the snake of course. He was somewhat less anxious to go ashore after seeing that snake.

 

Actually, we got to see the captain and some members of his staff again at a cocktail party he hosted for us on the deck of the Owner’s Suite. There were about ten of us there and we enjoyed an hour of Champagne, hors d’oeuvres and conversation (including playing “Who’s the Commodore” — there were no winners — the Commodore was not present).

 

Dinner in the main dining room was good — though having to choose between a beetroot salad and escargot as an appetizer was difficult, as I’m a fan of neither. The beef cheek, however, was very nicely prepared.

 

We were also offered a cheese buffet, Australian-style. Because of biosecurity, most of the cheeses were from Australia and New Zealand, with two Pasteurized cheeses from France. the Australian camembert and a New Zealand triple cream bleu cheese were both memorable.

 

Having hiked 10K today, we were a bit tired and didn’t feel guilty about skipping the evening entertainment.

 

Tomorrow: Port Arthur

Edited December 20, 2023 by AussieBoyTX

[AussieBoyTX]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jpalbny]

Great scenery, and the wombats are adorable! The snake, not so much...Chris would most definitely agree with your captain!

[AussieBoyTX]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

Great scenery, and the wombats are adorable! The snake, not so much...Chris would most definitely agree with your captain!

 

Yeah. Coming across snakes in the bush is one thing and I'm ready for that. Was not at all expecting this guy to be part of the welcoming party right where we landed. He came out of the grate where you're supposed to wash off your gear for biosecurity... I'm less anxious to comply now!

[AussieBoyTX]

On Board Le Lapérouse — Tasmania Circumnavigation — Thursday, December 21

 

We woke moored very close off the shore of Port Arthur and made our way to the Marine Deck to find the same Biosecurity officers as yesterday waiting to inspect our bags. They had had breakfast on board, so they knew what contraband we might have brought ashore from breakfast.

 

The Port Arthur Historic Site was well maintained and we began with a tour. The guide was interesting and had many stories about convict life. After the tour, we wandered around the facility well past noon. It was interesting to see that the parts of the facility that became private houses were well maintained compared to parts of the prison itself, which had been partially dismantled so the brick & steel could be put to use elsewhere.

 

We also found the Asylum & Separate Prison very interesting and took a few seconds to try out solitary confinement. The exhibits on the advances of asylum and prison technologies were also fascinating.

 

We were then distracted because our son got accepted at his first choice university with a good scholarship, so that’s all I remember about Port Arthur.

 

We had lunch upstairs as usual. It was an Asian-themed menu and I enjoyed the gyoza and Ponant burger — it’s never a mistake to choose the Ponant burger…

 

Then, we lounged around, doing spa and university stuff until the introduction of the crew at six by the pool. Le Lapérouse was offshore the dramatic cliffs of the Tasman peninsula and they served as a backdrop for our festivities. It was a gala dinner night, but the weather was fine, so many guests chose to eat downstairs, outside on Deck 3. We were upstairs and enjoyed the Classic menu.

 

Afterwards, our Cruise Director offered his own vocal performance in the main lounge. He was followed by our musical duo, but it was past our bedtime…

 

Our final day: The Tasman Peninsula

[Host Jazzbeau]

41 minutes ago, AussieBoyTX said:

We were then distracted because our son got accepted at his first choice university with a good scholarship, so that’s all I remember about Port Arthur.

 

We had lunch upstairs as usual. It was an Asian-themed menu and I enjoyed the gyoza and Ponant burger — it’s never a mistake to choose the Ponant burger…

Good priorities!  Son first, but not so much as to forget lunch!!!  😅

 

And congrats to you all.

[AussieBoyTX]

8 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Good priorities!  Son first, but not so much as to forget lunch!!!  😅

 

And congrats to you all.

 

Of course!

 

Now that we know he has a scholarship, we may be able to continue cruising now and again...

[Host Jazzbeau]

16 minutes ago, AussieBoyTX said:

 

Of course!

 

Now that we know he has a scholarship, we may be able to continue cruising now and again...

Taking SKI trips:  Spending the Kids' Inheritance 😉