February 24th - Darwin Australia Day 1

Darwin is up at the top of Australia and the capital of the Northern Territory with a population of about 127,000 people.  We are pretty close to the equator here and we certainly felt it today.  The temperature was around 92 degrees with 100% humidity.  It was tough to take but we’re tough vacationers!  Although the city has been a boomtown in the past, right now they are struggling a bit.  They’re glad to see the cruise ships coming and adding a little to their economy.  The tourist bureau people were at the dock handing out all kinds of information.  I snagged one of these maps of the city that doubled as a fan and believe me I used it throughout the day.

Today we took a shore excursion to learn about the Defense of Darwin.  Darwin was the only place in Australia to be attacked by the Japanese during WWII.  On February 18, 1942, the Japanese conducted two bombing raids on the town, sinking many ships in the harbor as seen on the map below.

The Japanese were concerned about the buildup of ships in the area.  There were Australian, American and British ships using Darwin as a base.  Japan had already taken over areas very close to Australia and they wanted to destroy the threat posed by these ships. 

Most women and children had been evacuated from the town after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, still there were many civilian casualties along with of course the sailors on the sunken ships.  We went to the Defence of Darwin Museum (that’s not a spelling error, that’s just the Aussie spelling).  The museum was fascinating to us.  The exhibits were well done and they had examples of the guns that tried to protect the city that day.

One of the exhibits I found interesting was an actual gun turret from a WWII era plane.  How on earth did a grown man fit into this thing?  This turret would hang from the belly of the plane and in combat the gunner would be shooting at the enemy.  It must have taken amazing courage.

Just a few years after the war the Australian government put out a contract to salvage the ships at the bottom of the harbor.  Interestingly enough, the contract was awarded to a Japanese company.  Another story told us by the guides involved a natural gas well and pipeline recently built off the coast of Australia by the Japanese.  The gas will be piped ashore near Darwin and be shipped to Japan, if Australia wants some of it, they will have to pay.  The guides did not seem happy about this!  In a twist of fate, while the Japanese were building the plant they came upon an unexploded Japanese bomb (this part is true).  The company called the Australian government and asked them to remove it, supposedly the government said something like ‘you put it there you remove it’.  I’m not sure that was actually said but the guides liked the story.

We got to see some of the city while driving around including some very nice homes along the shore and then of course there is our view from the ship. 

After the tour we asked to be let off in town and we walked around quite a bit despite the heat and humidity.   All over town there are art displays using recycled materials.  This one involved the clever use of plastic bottles that somehow stayed together with wire, though we couldn’t really tell how. We will be here overnight and we’re going back into town tomorrow.  It’s supposed to be windy because of a Cyclone to our east.  It shouldn’t affect us because the latest track shows it going in land where it will weaken (fingers crossed). 

In the evening we sat out on the deck taking in the night air when the Captain walked by.  We had a nice conversation with him and we took the opportunity to compliment Cunard on how they handled this whole coronavirus situation.  He told us that a lot went into the decisions made and things were changing hour by hour during the whole process.  This is the first time we’ve sailed with Captain Hashmi and we like him a lot.

While taking a turn on the deck I got a picture of the azipod (propeller) blades bolted to the bow of the ship.  The QM2, unlike most cruise ships was built to last 45 years as such they couldn’t count on the shipyard still being in business if they should ever need new blades, so they had these extras made and put on the ship where they double as art.  The picture with Fred in it is to give you some prospective.

Note to Chris and John:  if you’re reading this, I want you to know that I put your email addresses in a very safe place…so safe I can’t find them now!  When you can send us an email so we know you got home safe and sound!