Crystal Horizons: Brisbane to Bali

Board Crystal Serenity at Brisbane, departing at 7:00 PM.

Relax onboard.

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays.

An extended stay allows extra time to explore Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

The second day turns inland. The Kuranda Scenic Railway climbs through the Barron Gorge on track that workers cut largely by hand in the 1880s. Daintree Rainforest, about two hours north, is the traditional home of the Kuku Yalanji people, and scientists estimate it at 180 million years old.

The ship crosses the Coral Sea toward Papua New Guinea. In May 1942 Japanese and Allied carrier forces fought here in the first naval battle where the opposing ships never sighted one another, and it stopped a seaborne invasion of Port Moresby.

Alotau sits at the head of Milne Bay, where Australian troops with RAAF air support beat back a Japanese landing in September 1942. The province is also home to the Massim peoples, who carve decorated canoe prows and still run the kula exchange, trading shell necklaces and armbands between islands.

Time ashore in Port Moresby.

The ship leaves the Gulf of Papua and passes through Torres Strait, the shallow channel between New Guinea and Cape York. In 1992 the High Court recognised native title in a case brought by Eddie Mabo of Mer Island, which overturned the doctrine of terra nullius.

Another sea day crosses the Arafura Sea toward the Top End. Makassan trepangers from Sulawesi sailed these waters for centuries before European settlement and traded sea cucumber with Yolngu communities in Arnhem Land.

Darwin took the first foreign attack on Australian soil when Japanese aircraft bombed the city on 19 February 1942, and Cyclone Tracy flattened it on Christmas Eve 1974. The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory covers both stories, and the Darwin Military Museum sits at East Point. March falls in the wet season, so afternoon storms are common.

The ship crosses the Timor Sea toward Indonesia. The islands ahead belong to the Lesser Sundas, a chain of volcanoes strung out east of Java.

UNESCO listed Komodo National Park in 1991 to protect the Komodo dragon, a lizard that grows up to three metres long. Rangers lead walks across dry savannah and monsoon forest, and Pink Beach gets its blush from fragments of red coral.

An overnight stay in Bali before disembarkation.

Guests leave Crystal Serenity, and a private transfer runs from the port to a 5-star hotel. The rest of the day is free to settle in and try a first Balinese meal.

A free day for independent exploring. Tirta Empul, a spring temple founded in 962 near Tampaksiring, draws Balinese Hindus for ritual purification, and the art villages around Ubud hold painters’ studios and woodcarvers’ workshops.

Uluwatu Temple perches on a limestone cliff about 70 metres above the Indian Ocean. The kecak dance staged there at sunset retells the Ramayana with a chorus of chanting men in place of an orchestra.

A private transfer runs from the hotel to Ngurah Rai International Airport, and the package concludes today.