Feb. 27

Our first port is Melbourne, so since we spent some time there earlier Mike and I choose a tour that goes up into the mountains to the east, where we haven't been. Our tour bills itself as a 4WD tour of ghost towns and the mining area from Victoria's gold rush of the late 1800s.

It's an absolute blast! There really isn't much to see of the mines and ghost towns, as most were dismantled and the bush has taken over. But the drive is pretty incredible, we're definitely off the beaten track and doing some real four wheeling - crossing rivers, climbing steep hills, and following what can only be call a bush track. Lunch at Walhalla is excellent, Cornish pasties and meat pies at the hotel which was rebuilt about 10 years ago after a fire. Walhalla was the richest Australian gold town, with a population of about 4000 at it's height. Now, permanent population is a grand total of 9. If you include tourists, there are a few more people around, but it's still a pretty quiet place. Only a couple of the old buildings have survived, but there's a lot of history here.

On the bus on the way back to the ship, our tour guide has what she calls a "Mintie quiz". It turns out that Minties are a chewy Australian lolly (candy to us), and anybody that answers a question right gets a Mintie. The delivery system is the best part of the game - she tosses the Mintie to the winner, so we have Minties flying all over the bus. The rules are that you can't answer another question until you finish your Mintie, we find out that it takes most of the way back into Melbourne to actually finish one of these treats!

Back to the ship, watch the sail out, clean up, and head off to dinner. So far all four dining rooms have had the same menu and no crowds. Only the buffet is packed. So we'll give the anytime dining a try, it does give us a lot of flexibility. But the menu doesn't really appeal tonight, so we decide to give the Italian restaurant a try. Wow, Mike decides this is a good time to try things - he actually tries prawns, caviar, prosciutto, calamari, and lobster, then sea bass for his main course and tiramisu for dessert. He likes everything except the caviar. I have langoustines for my main course, beautifully presented whole ones, but an exercise to get the meat out. We have a window table and watch the sunset as we eat.

Tomorrow's another day at sea, time to rest up for a full day after that in Tasmania.