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Filbert entered these three photos in the MS Amsterdam's Grand Voyage Photo Competition. He didn't win, but they're still pretty good pictures:

People/Life: 36_King Neptune's revenge

Landscape: 28_Bali morning mist

Wildlife: 20_Humpback tail swipe

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty-four

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November 11 (Tuesday, Day 57, Apia, Upolu, Western Samoa - 2.80 Samoan tala to the dollar) -

Apia

We woke up early in order to snorkel right away. According to the Lonely Planet info on Apia (population 44,000) that Snookums brought with her, a great snorkeling spot was near the ship but it was shallow and high tide was the best time to enter the water. We had looked at the tide information and found out that high tide was at 4:56 AM and low tide was at 11:10 AM. So, we wanted to get off the ship right away.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty-three

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November 9 (Sunday, Day 54, At sea) -

Partly cloudy at sea

Snookums woke up since she had to go to the bathroom. When she realized that it was 9:32 AM, she threw on some clothes and walked up two decks for the Dam Dollars ring toss. She won both throws and walked away with three Dam Dollars before returning to the cabin and showering. Filbert woke up around 10:30 but didn't go to the Dam Dollars Frisbee throw with Snookums who only managed to win one Dam Dollar. We spent the rest of the morning on the verandah enjoying the cool breeze and glass-like smooth ocean.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty-two

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November 8 (Saturday, Day 53, Noumea, New Caledonia - Continued) -

The snorkeling was so good that it's overflowed into three posts!

Naturally, the photos are after the break . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty-one

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November 8 (Saturday, Day 53, Noumea, New Caledonia - Continued) -

We stayed in the water for probably an hour before Snookums got cold. We got out and warmed up and got back in and saw more of the same (but it was awesome!). We took the water taxi back at 12:30 and decided that it was the best snorkeling ever. The water was clear, the fish and coral were beautiful and there were no other snorkelers around. (Well, there were other people snorkeling, but we rarely encountered them since the snorkel area was so large and only about 20 people were snorkeling.) It was great.

Check out snorkeling pictures after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Forty

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November 8 (Saturday, Day 53, Noumea, New Caledonia - Continued) -

One of the first things we saw was a black sea snake. All of a sudden this "ribbon" that was about 2 inches wide floated up (vertically) to the water surface and took a quick breath of air. Then it floated back down (also vertically) and crawled under some coral. We had never seen a sea snake before and this one certainly took us by surprise. We saw several more during our snorkels and later found out that New Caledonia is famous for its sea snakes since there are so many varieties of them and a lot of them there.

Sea Snake!

Snake on the way down

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-nine

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November 6 (Thursday, Day 51, Cruising Coral Sea) -

Flowers on the Amsterdam

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-eight

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November 5 (Wednesday, Day 50, Sydney, Australia) - Continued

We hustled back to the ship for a 15-minute lunch before packing up our cold weather gear and walking to the other side of the Sydney Cove for Ocean Dreaming to pick us up for our whale watching tour. The 115-foot, three-deck catamaran picked us up and away we went. The seas were a little choppy but the wind was fierce and we were both glad to have taken seasick pills. One guy didn't and his full bag of vomit was overflowing and then being blown by the wind! Filbert was using his camera so he only had one hand to hang on with while it was all Snookums could do to keep steady using two hands. It was very rocky and very windy and everyone really hung on. No one was in any danger of falling overboard, although we were surprised that no one ever fell down on the deck. Anyway, we got out to the ocean and since the boat had some kind of tracking equipment, it knew where to go.

Sure enough, we found ourselves watching a pod of four humpback whales. We learned that whales surface and then go back down for 5-10 minutes before re-surfacing so we just stayed in that spot for about 45 minutes and watched the whales. These whales seemed to stay submerged for about 8 minutes or so. They weren't too active when they surfaced and just used their blowholes and did some fluke up dives to go back down. We saw a lot of their backs, but that was about it. The captain wanted to find a pod of whales that had been more active and breaching earlier in the day so we went to another spot.

Whale 1

More after the jump:

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-seven

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November 4 (Tuesday, Day 49, Sydney, Australia) -

Filbert woke up around 5 AM to watch our arrival into Sydney Cove. Snookums woke up at 6 AM when the port lecturer started narrating our progress. We docked and once again we had the great view of the Sydney Opera House while the other side of the ship looked at the port terminal. We continue to be lucky.

More after the jump . . .

The Grand Asia & Australia Voyage - Holland America Amsterdam, September 19-November 23, 2008

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-six

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November 3 (Monday, Day 48, Cruising Tasman Sea) -

We woke up in time to go to the golf putting for Dam Dollars and Filbert won two while Snookums got the standard one. After spending time on the computers, we took a tour of the Penthouse Suite since Gary wanted to see it. (We could easily arrange it since we have ready access to a concierge in the Neptune Suite.) It really wasn't very impressive. Unlike the penthouse suite that we got to use for two hours on a Regent Seven Seas Mariner cruise as we were docking in San Francisco, this was a poorly designed one. It had a single bedroom in it and did not offer a sofa bed so only two people could sleep in it. It had two televisions and a full-size Jacuzzi tub, a small shower, two toilets, a bidet, a dining room table for 8 and a sofa. It only had one balcony.

Photos after the jump . . .