LAST night the annual Cruise Down Under conference in Newcastle, NSW was officially opened by local Lord Mayor John Tate. The venue for the welcome cocktail party was the brand new Museum of Newcastle, which was touted as providing a new shore excursion option for cruise ship visitors. Built at a cost of more than $23 million, the facility showcases Newcastle’s industrial history – but there’s a lot more too including a space-age Supernova science display similar to Canberra’s popular Questacon. Tate made his speech in the atrium of the Supernova display, which is dominated by a gigantic scale model of the world suspended high above visitors. As can be seen in the picture below, guests hung back but he beckoned them forward, saying “it won’t fall down. “I know, because it cost $600,000 to make sure it won’t,” he quipped.
A FERRY has run aground in Finland,
because its captain was stuck in the loo.
The island-hopping tourist service
slammed into a rock in Helsinki Harbour,
while the captain yelled to be rescued from
the lavatory because the lock had jammed.
A crew member noticed the ship heading
for the rocks and managed to slow it down,
but it still hit the shore, leading to minor
injuries among the 54 passengers on board.
The local coastguard is investigating the
incident to see if the captain’s actions
amounted to “criminal endangerment”.
An initial probe has come up with the
stunning conclusion that “he was stuck in
the toilet, and as soon as the staff member
got the door open, it was too late”.