Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter

Have you seen our Geeks on Tour newsletter? I haven't missed even one month Since 2007. And, all of them are listed and available to read on our website at https://geeksontour.com/recent-newsletters/. 

Part travel journal and part tech tips, it's a fair amount of work to put these newsletters together, but I love that it gives me a motivation - a deadline - to get some writing done. 

For the last few years, I've been starting with a photo, something that represents our life in the past month. It's usually travel related. I keep the images in a Google Photos album, so I can look at an overview - like a Year in review. For example, here is 2025:

I always feel stressed when I realize it's time to get the newsletter done, and I always feel accomplished when it's been sent out to our subscribers. During the time I need to get it done, I tend to be a recluse on board the ship. I say 'no' to a lot of invitations to participate in events. For example, there's almost always a theatrical production going on. I'm sure I would enjoy taking on a part in a play, but I just don't want to commit. 

Sometimes I think it may be time to shut it down, be completely retired. But then I get a comment that makes me feel so good ...

Thank you for your email. I found your Show 319, about Google Drive, particularly interesting.

Thanks for all the interesting stuff you share.

Keep up the good work.

Mike S

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Western Australia, Sailing races, Quokkas, and beer

Our last port in Australia was Fremantle. It is the port city just outside of Perth. We arrived mid afternoon on Saturday and had that afternoon and all day Sunday to explore, and it was beautiful weather. 

After 6 days at sea, we were ready! I worked hard to finish our monthly newsletter for geeks on tour and got it published before we docked. So I was ready for a celebratory beer as soon as we got off, but first we needed to visit the local office supply to pick up a USB hub that Jim needed. Success! 

Click here to read our April Newsletter

Heading into the city center, it was clear that we weren't the only ones celebrating, lots of people, music, and other acts were out and about and streets were block off for pedestrians only. It was delightful. And look! There's a 'BeerPourium" - doesn't that sound good. It was on the 3d floor and had balcony seating that gave us a great view of the festivities below.

Jim noticed a restaurant called Aussie Ribs. We enjoyed a delicious meat eaters meal.

On Sunday we played tourist, maritime museum, brewery, ferry to Rottnest Island to see the scenery and the Quokkas. Back home well after dark. Fantastic day. There were moments I thought I would just burst from happiness and gratitude for the life I get to lead.

Jim's Dad was captain on a charter boat taking tourists to watch the sailboats in the America's Cup race in Newport Road Island. This newpaper is from the day when Australia won it in 1983.

Rottnest Island - Party Island is more like it! What a beautiful, fun place.

This is a Quokka - a mini-me kangaroo. They're protected, and they're everywhere.

Marsupials

We visited 2 wildlife sanctuaries, one in Tasmania and one in Melbourne. We learned a lot about marsupials. Those are mammals who raise their young in a pouch on the outside of their bodies. I always thought that meant after the babies were born they suckled and kept comfy in this pouch, but no, they come out of the birth canal as a fertilized egg no bigger than a grain of rice, or maybe a kidney bean. The pouch is basically an external womb where they develop into a kangaroo or koala or wombat or echidna. The babies of all of these marsupials are called Joey's. 

A kangaroo with a Joey in its pouch. It never showed its head, but I did see it wiggle.

All of these animals we saw in these sanctuaries. The one in Tasmania was called Bonorong and a fellow Odyssey resident arranged for a group of us (nearly 100) to get a special after-hours tour. That meant we had the place to ourselves after it closed to the public. First stop was visiting their "mob" of kangaroos. We were each given a bag of kangaroo food and told to go interact with them. They like to be scratched under the chin, but don't touch them anywhere else. What a great experience! 

One of my favorite memories of our visit to Australia in 2017 was visiting a similar place in Brisbane and getting to pet kangaroos. I was so glad that Jo was able to have that experience while she was visiting us. 

After the kangaroos, we split up into smaller groups and a guide introduced us to other animals around the grounds. 

Tasmanian devil

Echidna

Emu

The wombat was shy and would not come out of it's burrow, but we did get to see it's poop in the shape of a cube😱 All of these animals are Marsupials.

There are no koalas in Tasmania so we had to go to another preserve when we got mainland Australia in Melbourne. It was much further than we thought from the ship and our schedule was a little tight. But we had a delightful driver, Karla, who is a good friend of Fran. Fran is another odysseans who is from Melbourne. We got to enjoy Karlas company for the 1.5 hour drive each way to Healsville sanctuary. It was another beautiful location with lots going on but we had no guide to show us around, so I'm sure we missed a lot. We did find the Koalas though!

And there were more kangaroos, but you couldn't get close to them here. We did see one with a Joey in it's pouch though. Her belly was quite distended, and at one point I saw it wiggle.

New Zealand, abbreviated

We were supposed to have 6 Ports in new Zealand, plus cruising the fjords in the South but as it turned out we only made it to 4 ports and skipped the fjords.

At least, we had a couple of memorable excursions. In our first stop of Tauranga, we did the railcarts. 

Golf carts adapted to run on an abandoned railroad make for a fun excursion. Here, we stop to feed the ducks and geese.

Never seen geese like this! They have curly feathers and can't fly - Sebastopol geese.

Then we got the news about the ships bottom needing extra cleaning before we would be allowed in any more ports. Even after 3 days of divers scraping our hull, it still wasn't good enough. Although we were allowed in ports, we could only stay for 24 hours and we weren't allowed in the fjords at all. 

Friends and Family

Villa Vie has a great program for those of us who own our cabins on board. It's called 'friends and family' where we can invite someone to join us for up to 2 weeks in board at very little cost. We were scheduled to pick up our first visitor in Wellington. Luckily we were able to collect her even with our port troubles and her missed flights. And we even had a few hours to spare where we got to see a little of the renowned museum Te Papa.

 

An impressive exhibit about the battle at Gallipoli during WW1

We did get Jo on board, but her luggage didn't make it. Somehow it ended up in Christchurch. That was the ships next stop, so Jim and Jo took a bus from the port to the airport to get it and that pretty much consumed that port since we only had 24 hours. 

During the sea days, we had a wedding on board - the second one since we've been on the ship. This time it was Ric and Ellie who - just like the first wedding - met each other on board. So sweet!

Dunedin Train Ride

Next stop, Dunedin where we had previously booked a train ride. A lot of people had booked this same trying ride, so the ship kicked a few things to make sure that our 24 hours accommodate us. It was a great ride. 

The Dunedin Train Station is one of the most photographed buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, so we had to do our part to keep that up!

A really cool part is that they had us get off the train and walk across a bridge. Then we could look back and photograph the train coming across the same bridge.

After Dunedin, we were off for 5 sea days back to Australia. People who really wanted to see new Zealand got off the ship and rented cars, then flew to Melbourne to meet back up with us.

Hang on, rough seas

Wow. This is an experience. Not necessarily a good one😜. We just spent an extra 3 days at sea off the coast of Tauranga in order to get our hull scraped. New Zealand has very strict biosecurity laws. Even though the odyssey had its hull cleaned in the Philippines, that wasn't good enough for them. I get it. As an island where any infestation could be catastrophic, they need to be extremely careful. 

What a process. The ship has to go out beyond the 12 mile limit and a boat with divers followed us. They worked all the first day, then got delayed on the second day due to bumpy seas. They were able to work a third day and get it done. The ship then went back to dock around midnight where there were residents waiting to be picked up. Then we got underway to Wellington, skipping the Napier stop. We were supposed to be in Wellington Mar 2,3,4. Now we're scheduled to get there on the 4th. 

The problem now is really rough seas. To give you an idea of the intensity, the local ferries between the North and South Islands have been canceled for several days. The roughest seas before this were when we came in to San Francisco. This is rougher. And longer. In San Francisco rough waters were over as soon as we turned in to the bay, just a few hours of a bumpy ride. Here it started yesterday afternoon, went all night and is only worse now. Forecasts don't have it lightening up until we reach Wellington tomorrow.  

The boats stabilizers do a good job of keeping it level side to side but we are sure going up and down front to back and the boom when the ship crashes into the sea is deafening. We're sure getting bounced around. I joked to Jim that it's a good thing we just got a mattress topper or we may have gotten bruised during the night. 

Our TV turned to the Bridge Camera channel

I asked Gemini if this happens often and it said the Cook Straits is known worldwide as a very treacherous waterway. 

I might need a sleeping pill by tonight.