A Different Mode of Transport
1st February – 28th March 2026
As you know, our last trip was cut short when we hit a broken culvert and had to get towed back to Port Macquarie. Unfortunately, there was more damage than we had hoped, and it took quite a long time to get the repairs, plus the full service done. But done it is.
So, instead of hitting the road as planned, we took a drive out to Gloucester, a really pretty little town, and pottered around Port Macquarie. We did a bit of beach walking, shopping, coffee-ing, lunch-ing and dinner-ing. You get the picture.
We also enjoyed a bit of kayaking at our favourite spot. That is, it was our favourite spot until we had a little run in with a tree. It backed into us, I swear.
So, we then had to schedule, and wait, for those repairs to be done. As we sat and waited, our travel time slowly sank into the abyss, and by the time all our repairs were complete, we only had two weeks left before we had to be in Sydney for our cruise. Still enough time for a short trip.
Off we went.
We planned our first stop to be Kingaroy, then Maryborough, and Hervy Bay, Brisbane then a slow trip back inland, to Port Macquarie.
A nice little circuit we thought.
About 5 days into our trip, we got a call saying mum was back in hospital. Out the window went our plan, and we had a quick three-day (via Brisbane to get our suitcases from storage) trip back to Port. Mum had a pinched nerve in her lumbar, weakening her leg and causing her to fall, nearly. The gentleman who had taken her shopping made sure she didn’t hit the ground.
This was ten days before the cruise, the cruise that we had booked almost a year ago to celebrate mum’s 90th birthday. And here I am thinking nothing much has happened over the last two months.
Mum worked really hard and got that “stupid leg” (her words not mine) working again, so the cruise was well and truly on, and what a way to celebrate her 90th birthday, though she was quick to remind us that she won’t actually be 90 until the 15th of May. We stayed with our good friend Chris, and once again he was the perfect host. On our last night with him, he took us to his regular Chinese restaurant, and we had a fantastic time.
The following day, Chis dropped us off at Sydney Harbour where we eagerly, and very smoothly I might add, embarked on our ship, the Discovery Princess. We boarded at 2:30pm and left at exactly 4pm, as planned. We managed to find our way around this huge ship, up to the 17th level, and farewelled Sydney.
The cruise took us from Sydney Harbour, to Suva, Dravuni Island and Lautoka (Fiji). Heading back home we stopped at Mystery Island, (Vanuatu) and Noumea (New Caledonia). Thirteen nights of pure luxury.
We had a suite, mid-ship on level 16, which was serviced and cleaned twice a day, and our own balcony so we could just sit and watch the ocean drift by
I didn’t realise when I booked, but this was the first, and only time that the Discovery Princess will cruise from Sydney, so that was special. She also celebrated her fourth birthday on the 27th of March, the day before we arrived back in Sydney. She has a capacity of around 3,660 guests and 1,346 crew members. I believe we had a little over 3,200 on our cruise, but even so, she is so big, we never felt crowded and with the variety of bars, restaurants, and entertainment areas, you could always find a quiet spot.
The Discovery Princess isn’t the biggest ship in the world but she’s certainly no tinny: Over 330 metres long and weighing in at 145,000 tonnes – that’s huge!
There were three formal nights on board, the best being the captain’s ‘Welcome on Board Party’. This happened to coincide with St Patrick’s Day, so our Champagne waterfall was turned green for the occasion. And mum was one of the few, and I do mean few, who had her photo taken with the captain.
We did of course get the chance to go ashore at all of our ports of call. Some we did with organized tours, others we found our own transport and/or simply strolled around the towns. Only Suva had ports big enough for us to dock. We had to weigh anchor at sea for the other islands and go ashore by dingy. This added a bit of excitement, especially at Mystery Island where it was quite choppy and it really was a challenge getting on and off the rapidly bobbing dingy.
Mum was worried we might get lost if we just wandered around. One of the crew said, “If you get lost, just look for the biggest building in town.” We didn’t know what they meant until we headed back to the ship.
There was something to do onboard, on the hour, every hour, from 7am to 10pm. Of course, you only did what you wanted, or nothing at all. Discovery Princess has four swimming pools and ten hot tubs. There were three movies each day on the open deck, including a nighttime viewing, loved those, and shows, and bars, live music in various areas, and pubs and…you name it, they had it.
Mum and I treated ourselves to a lush, three-course meal at the Crab Shack. I’ll let the pictures of our main course do the talking.
The weather was perfect. The only hiccup we had was on the last full day at sea. There was a cyclone heading our way and it got a little bit choppy, though we could hardly feel it on the ship.
As we were packing up, I took a few photos of our cabin. In hindsight, I should have done this at the beginning of the trip, when everything was tidy. The cabin slept four; we had two single beds, and a sofa bed which was turned down each evening, and made each morning by our steward. If we had needed a fourth bed, a bunk would have been pulled down from the ceiling above the sofa bed.
Because of the cyclone, the captain picked up a bit of speed and got us back to Sydney on the afternoon of the 27th instead of the morning of the 28th. We weren’t going to complain, I mean you’d pay a couple of grand a night to stay in Sydney and have the views we had.
So that was our different mode of transport. I mean you couldn’t get much more difference between a one-hundred and forty-six thousand tonne luxury cruise ship and a six-tonne car and caravan. Life’s never boring.
See you out there somewhere
On tow and on the go!
