Day 46 – March 2, 2011 – Thursday, Island

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day but very hot.  Luckily we had the first departure for the tour of Thursday Island and so we left on the tender around 8:45am.  They had two buses, one large and one small and we were assigned to the small bus which was good.  Because the Captain wanted to leave early, they cut the tour from 60 minutes to 45 minutes.  We drove through the small town (think one street two blocks long) to see two of the 13 churches and then up to Green Hill.  There was an old fort built in the late 1800’s when Australia was afraid of the Russian Imperial Navy.  It was a great view on three sides of the island looking over the blue waters and all the islands scattered through the Torres Straights.  After a short visit there, it was back down to town and back to the pier.  Thursday Island has a population of around 3,500 people and it is headquarters for many government agencies since it is only 80 miles from New Guinea.  We saw a couple of large custom boats and there are also border patrol and fishery patrol stationed on the Island.

We did walk back into two and made the short stroll up one side and back down the other.  We found a magnet for Rajib, our butler, who collects them and was not allowed off today and some padded envelopes to send some gifts home so we don’t have to pack them around for the next 3 months!

Lunch on the pool deck as usual and a quiet afternoon finish our day time activities.

Tonight was had dinner in La Veranda with the Gold, Platinum, Titanium Group.  There are 280 members this segment so they are having this special dinner 3 times.  It was hosted by one of the Australia wineries from Barossa Valley, Chateau Tanunda.  We joined Jim and Pepper, who we take bridge lessons with, and Jan’s plays duplicate bridge with for dinner and enjoyed their company very much.  Dinner was a set menu with only the main course to be selected.  Three of us had the veal dish and one had the fish.  The veal was good but the fish was a bit overcooked. 

Fred went to bed and Jan went to see the show, Karen Beckett, a vocalist who had been Australia’s female vocal performer of the year.  Mary was also without husband we sat together and enjoyed the show.