11th November 2009

Just 150 miles across the Bass Strait from southeast continental Australia is Tasmania, 26,000 square miles in area and with a population close to half a million. Our first port of call is Burnie, a small city on the northwest coast of Tasmania. The town, founded in the early 1800s, was at one time a major lumber processing centre. Papermaking remains an important industry.

Having said all that, Burnie has suddenly realised how lucrative the cruise ship business is and to that effect, when we disembarked this morning we were greeted by the Mayor of Burnie, whilst members of the community handed out souvenir pins!! Our first view of Burnie led us to think that it was no more than a one-horse town but on further inspection we quickly revised that opinion and it is actually quite a pretty little place. We only had six hours ashore, but it was ample time for us to have a good look round. We quickly discovered a shoes & clothing supermarket where we made a number of bargain purchases. The supervisor told me quietly that the tourists from the ships were now the life-blood for the area. They do have a potential problem looming though as some of the bigger ships can no longer get into port.

As today was 11th November we did wonder if Remembrance Day would be marked, however we were shopping at the time and nothing appeared to have happened although it was marked in the big cities.

After the fierce temperatures of Adelaide and Melbourne it was a relief to find the temperature at around the 20C mark. We returned to the ship for lunch and sunbathed for a while; however, once we set sail about 3 pm, having been piped out of port by by a kilted pipe band, the wind picked up and in consequence the temperature dropped. We moved into the solarium for the rest of the afternoon. I suspect we can say goodbye to the hot weather now for the time being, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong because after our stop at Hobart we have two days cruising to the South Island of New Zealand.