Sailing Australia’s Coast Offers Great Food, Art and Sea Days

Days 66-70, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Wednesday to Sunday, March 11-15, 2026; Townsville, Cairns and Darwin, Australia.

I stood on the sidewalk in Cairns, looking at the empty lot in front of me, then at my smartphone map, then back at the empty lot as if a building might suddenly appear. I was expecting an art supply shop, but saw only an excavator.

“Where is the art supply store?” I asked a barista at the coffee shop next door. He couldn’t remember ever seeing one in the area, but suggested I might try the nearby Kmart or Target. He also said I might find Google Maps more accurate than Apple Maps, at least in Cairns.

It wasn’t an urgent errand – I just wanted some different grey brush pens for my online sketching course. We had no other objective for Thursday, as we both have visited Cairns before. The cruise terminal is right in town, and friendly local volunteers handed out maps with key locations marked: the air-conditioned mall, the bus and train station, museums and the protected swimming lagoon (stingers such as box jellyfish make swimming from the beaches dangerous during the summer here).

We walked along the streets, past some cute boutiques (a colorful linen shirt made it into my shopping bag), cooled off in the mall and headed for the waterfront. I photographed the shaded walkway leading to the marina to sketch and paint later, and by noon we arrived at the Salt House, one of many restaurants and bars along the water.

If we wanted to sit in the open-air dining area where a breeze offered respite from the hot humid air, the hostess said we would have to order more than drinks. Deal! We started with fried calamari, followed by a delicious crispy thin-crust pizza on the recommendation of friends Mary Ann and Bill, who had just arrived. They always know the best locations for pizza.

Back at the ship, some crew members were busy painting the side of the ship. We’re used to seeing continual cleaning and upkeep to maintain the “beautiful, elegant Volendam,” as the captain calls it.

Cairns is always on the itinerary for Holland America cruises that sail the east coast of Australia. On my first visit, I snorkeled on the nearby Great Barrier Reef, and a few years ago visited the rainforest village of Kuranda, reached by a scenic railway and a series of gondola rides. Another time I traveled north to the seaside resort of Port Douglas.

After sailing two days north from Sydney, on Wednesday we had arrived in Townsville, the largest city in the state of Queensland. Last time I was there I wandered through the area where the shuttle dropped us, but this time I decided to limit my visit to a pass through the port terminal, where many local artists and vendors sell locally made clothes, crafts and even gin. Alas, my visit was early in the morning, so I didn’t sample the gin. Instead, I spent most of the day painting by the Lido pool. And obviously not taking any photographs.

After three more sea days sailing over the reef, through the Torres Straits, past the Gulf of Carpentaria and through the Arafura Sea, we arrived in Darwin, our final Australian port.

On previous visits, I enjoyed walking through the central business district on my own. This year, I decided to learn more about this “top-end” city, as it is known.

I joined a foodie tour that my friend Peter Laszcz (fellow blogger at TheInsideCabin.com) organized for six of us. But first, I took an Uber to Jackson Drawing Supplies, recommended by our Aussie watercolor instructor Ann-Maree. This time I found the shop, and a very helpful staff directed me to the things on my list.

Our tour started at Ruby, a Vietnamese restaurant on the familiar pedestrian walkway in the central business district, with a variety of dishes that included La Lot, a grilled beef wrapped in betel leaf. The tour ended with dishes that included fried crocodile at Snapper Rocks, a restaurant in the new waterfront complex near our cruise terminal (which was only under development on my first visit in 2017).

In between, we admired the street art that has taken over most of the building walls in town. It reminds me of my street art tour in my sister’s hometown of Fort Smith, Ark., which I wrote about during the pandemic cruise pause.

We spent the heat of the day in an air-conditioned van touring the city outskirts, military locations and parks, even spying a wallaby in the distance (look in the circle).

Back in the city, we toured the Parliament building. Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory, and a symbolic missile is integrated into the government building corner as a reminder of the World War II attack here.