Here’s a single summary post of our 2024 week in Sydney, with links to my individual posts and more gory detail. You can also view it as a Google Doc or as a pdf. I have a separate summary post of our cruise from New Zealand to Australia which preceded this week.
Monday, Feb. 26 – Sydney Arrival
The last full day of our cruise featured sailing into Sydney Harbor in the early morning, catching a three-hour orientation bus tour of Sydney, then some time on my own to orient myself to downtown Sydney and the Opera House. This day is covered in the post linked in the header for this paragraph or the final day of my Cruise Summary.
Tuesday, Feb. 27 – Sydney, Disembark
Today was disembarkation day. We got ourselves out of our room by 8am as directed, bidding farewell to our steward Kemal as we left. He and his colleagues did a great job keeping our cabin clean and tidy. We had a final buffet breakfast, lingering until 9am when we were obliged to be off the ship. The skies were much cloudier and there was even a little rain which was not in the forecast. It was a reminder just how lucky we were for our arrival into Sydney harbor the morning before.
It was easy to find our luggage, pop through customs and get out of the terminal. We had to wait in a taxi queue for about 20 minutes as the taxis slowly dribbled in on this gray day. Evidently the cabbies (and Uber drivers) were not eager to come to this out of the way cruise terminal.
Our driver deposited us at the Sydney Four Seasons just before 10am. We checked in at the Club 32 lounge as I’d been directed and were able to hang out at the lounge until our room was ready, which was less than an hour. The lounge offered a full breakfast buffet each day, plus free drinks and appetizers through the rest of the day. It would be a friendly home away from home for the week.
Our room, 2215, a Full Harbor Club Suite, was easily as spectacular as the website photos, with a picture-perfect view of the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and the ever-present Queen Mary 2. I happily plopped myself in the corner window seat while Barb puttered around unpacking and putting things away.
Soon enough it was close to noon so we went back to the lounge to check out the snacks before heading over to the Opera House for our 1pm tour. We were given headsets by the no-nonsense guide and led on our hour-long tour. The tour was informative and there were some interesting stories about the history of the site on Bennelong Point including our first reference to Bennelong, an indigenous man with a complicated and fascinating history with the settlers from the First Fleet. We also got the complicated and fascinating story of the Opera House’s design and construction including the story of its architect, Jorn Utzon, and the team that finished the project led by Peter Hall.
We got to see one of the black box theaters which was showing a cabaret, Gatsby, but we weren’t allowed to take photos. We also got to see the main concert hall where the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing what we believe was a portion of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony for an upcoming performance. The sound of the hall and symphony was indeed exquisite, but no photos or videos, please. We finished our tour energized and a little overwhelmed.
We headed in the general direction of the Museum of Sydney which was nearby and free. We got to the museum little before 3pm and plunged in. It was a small museum but housed several video areas and it turned out the videos were quite long. We settled into one about the building of the Sydney Opera House which repeated a lot of what we heard on the tour but with lots more details, photos and interviews. There was also a Lego model of the Opera House which seemed to have some symmetry what with Utzon coming from Denmark and all. There were displays about the First Fleet and some of the early settlers, along with another video that went into great detail about the background and arrival of the Fleet, the story of Bennelong, and further stories about the spread of Europeans beyond the Blue Mountains a generation later.
Though not discussed at the museum, I found there were interesting parallels between Bennelong and Squanto in the Massachusetts Bay colony some 170 years earlier. Both were kidnapped by Europeans and spent several years being taught the English language and European customs; both traveled to England to be acculturated and displayed; neither wanted to stay in England and wanted to return home; both learned English well enough to be early translators and important points of contact between their tribes and the Europeans; both became disillusioned by their treatment from the Europeans and chose to re-assimilate with their tribes rather than live “European”; relationships between the European and indigenous tribes deteriorated soon after the death of each.
I found it sad that the English seemed to learn little from their repeated struggles encountering indigenous people in their various territories. It’s the nature of imperial arrogance, I suppose, but I wonder to what extent there were progressive voices in England or other European nations trying to find a better way. I guess I’m wishing for early emergence of a Star Trek “Prime Directive” sentiment (do not interfere with the natural development of alien civilizations) but that was not at all the case…especially not to be expected in a penal colony under military leadership.
We stayed until they booted us out of the museum at 5pm closing time. We came back to the hotel and were delighted to see The Four Seasons gave us a couple of welcome gifts, including a 40th anniversary spread of rose petals on the bed, a nice bottle of champagne, and an Opera House Pavlova. We resisted the temptation to break into them before dinner.
We visited the lounge once more for a drink and some nibbles. The concierge recommended several restaurants in The Rocks for an easy dinner near the hotel that night and made reservations for us at Rockpool and Mr. Wong’s for later in the week. We came back to the room for a while to watch the Queen Mary 2 depart which made for a fine show as the sun set and the city lights came on.
We ended up at The Rocks Cafe for dinner which hit the spot for us. After dinner we walked for just a bit around The Rocks neighborhood before retiring to our room and busting into the champagne and pavlova. We did our best but could not quite finish either. We navigated around the hotel’s set of Australian and international TV stations but had a hard time finding something good to fall asleep to. We ended up more or less staying awake until nearly midnight before nodding off. All in all, a mighty fine day.
Wednesday, Feb. 28 – Sydney, Taronga Zoo
I woke up realizing the previous two days were pretty close to perfect, peak experiences. Sailing into Sydney Harbor under clear skies was spectacular, our initial orientation tour of Sydney was efficiently comprehensive and it was fun for me to wander a bit more around Sydney on my own for a few hours; our final evening on the ship was quiet and low-stress. Getting off the ship, checking into our Four Seasons room with its jaw-dropping view, touring the Sydney Opera House and learning more about the history of the city and the Opera House on a whim at the Museum of Sydney, followed by a simple but tasty meal at The Rocks Cafe made for a great day as well. It would be hard to sustain that level of indulgence and good luck but I was grateful for those two days making the trip worth the expense and trouble.
Once we opened the windows, we saw a big Carnival cruise ship had docked. I wondered if we would see a new ship every day. This ship was the Carnival Splendor, completing a loop from Sydney to Australia (with a day in the Fjordlands National Park, by the way). It would be heading out later in the day for a brief 4-day run to the Great Barrier Reef.
We took our time getting out of bed and to our first buffet breakfast at the Club 32 lounge. We had, between us, pretty much the same indulgent breakfasts that we did on the boat. For me, a cholesterol-busting omelet accompanied by bacon, sausage, and often a plate of cheese, charcuterie, salmon and maybe, just maybe, a bit of fruit. For Barb an even more eclectic mix of bacon, salmon, cheese, mushrooms, a small omelet, pastries, tea, and I’m not sure what else.
We managed to waddle out of the hotel around 10:30am heading for the ferry to Taronga Zoo. We figured it was a good day to see some Antipodean wildlife as the weather was cooperatively mild and partly cloudy. We just missed one ferry but that gave us time to sort out how to buy a zoo ticket online and save a few bucks. We got the next ferry and were treated to some great views as we pulled out of Circular Quay.
The quick ferry ride was followed by a short, crowded bus ride up the hill to the main entrance of the zoo. We elected to focus mostly on Australian animals, skipping most of the non-native lions, tigers and bears, etc. We were quickly rewarded with sightings of a Red Kangaroo, freshly arrived at the zoo, just like us.
We passed some emus then hit the koala area. We took many shots of the sleepy koalas hanging out in the trees, looking somewhat like Manny.
We saw lots of other animals including a pair of hot, sleepy dingoes, a tiny platypus, a pair of spiky echidna, one slumbering wombat, a shy quokka, three seals, several swimming penguins, more kangaroos, an Australian pelican and a pair of Asian elephants eating frozen balls of stuff for an afternoon snack. Here are photos of a few:
The zoo spills down a hillside and occasionally provides wonderful views of Sydney Harbor. From our on the ferry or in the harbor you can hardly tell the zoo is there. It’s pretty remarkable.
The ferry ride home was equally quick. I snapped a few shots of Barb enjoying the ride.
We got back to the room and decompressed for a bit. The Carnival Splendor left around 4pm.
We took it easy until 6pm when the Viking Orion left its dock and came through the harbor, departing on its way to Bali. We texted our shipboard buddy Karen as we wished them a bon voyage up the east coast of Australia and on to Bali.
Finally, it was time for dinner at Rockpool. I had heard great things about this steakhouse (#8 of the world’s top 10 steakhouses), though it turned out not to be the one I’d seen on TV with Basque/Argentinian wood fired grills that raised and lowered for the right heat (I haven’t figured out which one that was…I thought it was near Bondi but I struck out trying to find it). We had an amuse bouche of mini Rueben sandwiches along with bread and an excellent local butter. I had a grilled squid appetizer while Barb tackled a cucumber salad side order that was effectively her entree order as well. We shared a 60-month dry aged ribeye from Tasmania along with some really nice duck fat fried potatoes with garlic and rosemary – super duper Tater Tots. The beef was excellent, very well seasoned and nicely cooked. Between us, we finished every bite. Our waitress, a super-efficient clone of Annie Lennox, may have wished we ordered more but was very good to us. Barb enjoyed wandering around the restaurant and watching the open kitchen at work. It was an entertaining, filling evening. We made it back to the room in one piece, in time for some Midsomer Murders.
Thursday, Feb. 29 – Sydney Bridge
We got ourselves up and moving slightly earlier this morning, waking around 7am and getting out of the room for breakfast around 8am. We enjoyed our buffet breakfasts and prepared for this bright sunny day with temperatures near 100 degrees expected, a one-day heat wave. Barb wanted to tackle the Harbor Bridge in the morning in order to get her steps in. We followed Kristen’s suggestion to go to the Pylon Lookout and Museum. We checked with the concierge and got a recommendation for a cafe on the other side of the bridge.
After a short walk through The Rocks to see the neighborhood in the daytime, we found our way to the elevator up to the bridge walkway. We marched our way to the southeast pylon which houses the museum and viewing platform. The ticket agent was kind enough to only charge me to go to the top while he let Barb visit the museum for free. We huffed and puffed our way up the stairs, Barb to level one and me up several more flights to the top.
The view from the top was good but I was a little afraid of the height and the prospect of fumbling my phone over the side. I didn’t enjoy my time at the top as much as I’d hoped. I was also already hot and sweaty on this increasingly warm day.
We proceeded across the bridge and then walked through the quiet, very pretty streets of Kirribilli to find the Flying Bear Cafe recommended by our concierge. It was a cute little neighborhood cafe with seating by the water of a little cove. We got a couple of drinks and cooled off for a bit.
We figured out that the Kirribilli Ferry Wharf was a short walk away where we could catch a ride back to Circular Quay. I couldn’t resist taking more photos of the Opera House and bridge.
Back at Circular Quay, Barb wanted to head back to the jeweler near the Opera House where we had seen some potential opal rings. Barb found a design that she liked even though the stone was a triplet or not a pure opal gemstone. It was also a lot less expensive than a real gemstone. Even so, Barb was happy with the ring and design so we bought it. That may be all the opal shopping we need to do.
We staggered back to the hotel and cooled off for a bit in the lounge then Barb headed down to the pool for the afternoon. I seriously considered taking a tram to Coogee and attempting the Coogee to Bondi cliffside walk but when push came to shove I opted to stay in our air conditioned room with the million dollar view of the harbor. That gave me some time to type up notes before taking a little rest. It was a vacation, after all.
As I watched the endless and interesting traffic roll by in the harbor, it slowly dawned on me what was missing: there were no big commercial ships — no containers, tankers or freighters that make a port more industrial, polluted and grittier. Similarly, there were none of the unsightly towers or acres and acres of parking lots for containers, vehicles or industrial storage. I learned all that commercial traffic was directed further south to Botany Bay and Port Botany, and evidently has been for more than 40 years. It was a great decision as far as Sydney Harbor is concerned. Aside from cruise ships, the traffic is almost entirely either ferries or pleasure boats, all much more visually appealing and less intrusive. I can only guess what it’s meant for Botany Bay, but the bay has been an victim of disrespect ever since the First Fleet landed, found it immediately inhospitable, and quickly decamped to Sydney Harbor.
We considered having an easy dinner somewhere in The Rocks but we went up to the lounge first. That’s as far as we got. The hors d’oeuvres buffet and free drinks were all that we needed. We noshed away for an hour or so on dumplings, pork belly, cheese, charcuterie, veggies, dips and other goodies until we’d had our fill. The only problem was we were back in the room by 8pm with nothing left to do but watch TV. I found three episodes of Jon Stewart’s return to the Daily Show on YouTube. After that, it was various murder mysteries on TV. We made it to the Australian news at 11 and declared victory.
Friday, Mar. 1 – Sydney, Manly Beach
We got up reasonably early, just after 7am, but it was still 9:30am by the time we got dressed, had our breakfast buffet, then got ready to go out for the day. Our destination this day was Manly Beach. We caught the fast ferry and couldn’t resist a couple more pictures with the Opera House and Bridge.
The route to Manly went through most of Sydney Harbour, retracing the path the Viking Orion took coming into the harbour. We had a view of the harbour mouth from the inside. I was very glad the weather was better on the day we sailed in than it was on this day. It took about 30 minutes to get to Manly but that was long enough for Barb to catch a few zzz’s on the water.
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We were happy to find the Tourist Information station just off the wharf. The nice lady there told us to do just what I had planned we would do: walk down the Corso to the beach, then the short walk to Sandy Beach. The Corso was a pedestrian street a few blocks long lined with touristy shops and restaurants. We stopped at a liquor store still in search of Mark’s Vantage Botanical but still no luck. We had better luck at a chemist shop with another box of eucalyptus Kleenex for Barb. Good thing because now she had my cold from a few days before.
Manly Beach was an impressive strand of sand with a good number of surfers waiting for a decent set of waves that were slow to come. It was a cool, cloudy day with little wind. Not great for the beach or surfing but pretty good for me.
We walked the short seaside path toward Sandy Beach. There was a public seawater swimming pool that looked somewhat enticing, along with a cute iguana (sea dragon?) enjoying the view.
Barb found a likely bench by Sandy Beach while I explored the short walk around the headland. There were a few good views but also more steps and less wind than I hoped for. I came back sweating profusely from my short walk. It was sad.
We sat for a while at Barb’s bench, then ventured along the path back toward Manly Beach. Barb stopped to put her toes in the swimming pool. She deemed the water chilly.
We made it back to the beach and settled on another bench so I could watch the surfers for a while and cool off a little. Since it was already past noon, we decided to search out some fish and chips and decided on the New Brighton Hotel where I could get a beer and we could get a table so as not to be attacked by seagulls. We actually got one of the premium seats on the balcony and shared a pretty decent plate of fish and chips.
We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and went back to the hotel for a bit around 2pm. Barb wasn’t ready to call it a day so we decided to walk to Mrs. Macquaries Chair for a photo op. Barb wanted to sit on the chair. We double checked our route with the concierge, got a minor course correction to avoid several flights of steps and were on our way.
One does not get in Barb’s way when she has a destination in mind so we marched as directly as possible past the Opera House and along the seawall path of the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. We ran into an obstacle when the path was blocked by construction that turned out to be a temporary stage and grandstand for an upcoming open air production of West Side Story.
We had to detour slightly before finding Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, then had to wait a bit for a Chinese tour group to get out of the way. Finally, Barb had her photo op. We had a chance to sit together for a bit between tour groups and proved once again why we don’t take selfies very often.
It was time to head back but I wanted to wander a bit more through the Botanical Gardens. I guided Barb back past the detour and wished her good luck getting back to the hotel. This was potentially the last I saw of her.
I wandered for a while in the garden, admiring the trees and also the wildlife. I enjoyed a leisurely stroll back toward the Opera House. The gardens were quite pleasant and I could have lingered longer but I didn’t want to be too delayed getting back to the hotel.
I couldn’t resist trying to get a few artsy shots of the Opera House. It struck me that this may be the finest example of 20th century architecture. I tried to think of competitors and only came up with the Empire State Building but I think the Opera House wins on aesthetic grounds. It’s a truly cool building. UNESCO seems to agree.
I got back to the hotel room shortly after Barb. I was interested to see a little pirate ship-looking craft sailing near the Opera House. It seemed like there was always something interesting to watch in the harbor.
We rested a bit before getting ready for dinner, our 6pm reservation for Mr. Wong, the top Chinese restaurant in town and one that had been recommended by literally everyone we asked. Before heading to the restaurant, we headed up to the lounge for a drink and to check their offerings. They had fresh oysters, dumplings, wings, pork on a bao bun and other goodies. We really didn’t need to go anywhere else. We sampled a few of the items then headed out to dinner.
Mr. Wong’s is a Sydney institution, tucked into an alley a few blocks from our hotel. We were guided to our table in the noisy restaurant and were seated very close to two tables of four loud Australian couples. I tried to study up on the menu and was worried about what Barb would find to her liking. Sure enough, it was a challenge to settle on a couple of dishes. I knew I wanted to try the Crispy Fried Balmain Bugs, a well-recommended dish of lobster-like meaty creatures. Barb decided on a stir fried duo of rice vermicelli and glass noodles with king crab, bean sprouts and tobiko (flying fish roe). The waiter, who was very hard to hear in the noisy restaurant, really wanted us to order more food but we decided to go with these two dishes to start, and a glass of wine for me.
Barb actually liked the noodle dish, or at least the noodle parts of it. She tried one bite of the fried bugs and left the rest to me. It turned out the one chunk she tried was not well cooked but I didn’t figure that out until all the rest were gone. Oh well. We enjoyed what we had but we didn’t do Mr. Wong justice. The two tables next to us had dish after dish of interesting things but far too much food for the two of us.
We checked out and made it back to the room by 7:30pm. I went up to the lounge for some bourbon while Barb settled in for the evening. We are not ones for the nightlife.
Saturday, Mar. 2 – Sydney, Australian Museum
This was something of an open day for us in Sydney. I had planned to spend time in Darling Harbour, a neighborhood not far from the hotel, but from what I’d seen on the web and from driving through on the Viking bus I was not highly impressed. The weather forecast was not helpful, calling for a chance of drizzly rain or possibly dry, cool winds all day. It was dry when we woke up but soon started spitting a light rain. So, we improvised a bit.
Before leaving the room, we considered our newest ship docked below, the Ovation of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. It featured an observation bubble on an elevating crane that looked unique, at least. After our breakfast we walked through The Rocks Markets, several streets of weekend pop up stalls selling all sorts of artsy knick knacks and some food. It didn’t take us very long to plow through them.
We stopped for a better look at the First Impressions statue we had seen two evenings before when we had dinner at The Rocks Cafe. The statue pays tribute to three groups that founded Sydney: the convicts, the soldiers and the settlers. It’s a good piece of urban art, and included more detail on each group but it was hard to get a photo of the text which blended into the sandstone. The internet to the rescue (after some digging on my part): here is the text for the three groups. The statue’s text was more succinct than The Sydney Museum at linking the founding of Australia in 1788 to the loss of the American colonies in 1783 — the British really needed someplace to send their convicts. It also laid out the growth of immigration over the next decades: convicts far outnumbered free immigrants before 1830 (63,000 to 14,000); from 1830-1850 the numbers began to flip (83,000 convicts and 173,000 free immigrants); the gold rushes of 1851-1860 (right on the heels of the California gold rush) swelled Australia’s population to over one million.
We headed north into town so Barb could see the main downtown shopping district. We poked into the National Opal Collection, a quasi-museum but mainly an opal store. The rest of the shopping district didn’t take long. The busier it got, the faster Barb seemed to go. She wasn’t interested in looking for anything in particular, not even in the busy Queen Victoria Building.
We walked over to Hyde Park, then to the Anzac Memorial. We spent a while in their displays honoring the exploits of the Australian Army, Navy, Air Corps, and support services in missions around the world. Barb spoke with a staffer and learned that Australia interred German citizens during both World War I and World War II, something we hadn’t realized.
We looked for signs of preparations for the Pride Parade which was to start from this corner of Hyde Park a few hours later in the day. There was little to be seen other than a row of food trucks and some fencing.
The weather stayed misty so we ducked into the Australian Museum for a few hours. The museum was very busy with families on a weekend outing. It was also a hodgepodge of natural and human history, with everything from dinosaurs to minerals to stuffed animals of all sorts to collections of aboriginal and Pacific Island artifacts and 100 significant Australians. It wore us out rather quickly. I did learn that kangaroos and wallabies are basically the same species, “the difference is just a matter of size.” I decided I’m more of a wallaby fan. In general, Barb was amazed at the number and variety of stuffed animals in the museum.
By 2:30pm we were pretty much done. We walked back to the shopping district to catch a tram back to Circular Quay. We didn’t properly figure out the tap in, tap out sequence so basically got a free ride for the few stops (don’t tell Sydney). We went to a food court near Circular Quay where I got a lamb gozleme and Barb got some McDonalds fries. Lunch of champions!
We retired to our room for an afternoon rest. The weather did not improve, even as the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas departed around 6pm.
We headed back upstairs to the club for drinks and the appetizer buffet for dinner before settling into our room to watch the Sydney Mardi Gras Pride Parade on TV rather than venturing out in the rain. The parade was a 3 hour procession of nearly 200 community groups/floats and something like 15,000 marchers representing every conceivable variety of the rainbow and allies. It was generally very good-natured but there was the pall of a very recent police killing of two gay men in Sydney. The broadcast flipped back and forth from being irreverent and serious. I watched the whole show while Barb was mostly engrossed in a book. It was something to do and educational about all sorts of subcultures I didn’t know much about (asexuals, furries, bears, Dykes on Bikes and so much more).
Sunday, Mar. 3 – Sydney, Watsons Bay
Our final day in Sydney dawned clear, sunny and not too hot…perfect for visiting Watsons Bay, the last main destination in our plans. We got our breakfast buffet favorites and got onto the ferry shortly after 10am. The harbor traffic, including a 3-masted tall ship just coming under the bridge, was hard to resist.
So was seeing the Cunard Queen Victoria anchored in Taronga Bay near the zoo. Another ship was at the main cruise terminal so the Queen had to wait her turn. Passengers had to tender their way into Sydney which must have been inconvenient.
The ferry made a stop in Rose Bay, a pretty little community where seaplanes took off and landed. They added some drama to the ride.
The view of the harbor from Rose Bay was very pretty, enhanced by some windsurfers. Sydney Harbor is quite an urban playground.
Our strategy in Watson’s Bay was to walk around enough to justify stopping at Doyle’s for fish and chips. We had been told to check out Camp Cove Beach and I wanted to see the oceanside cliffs. We first walked through Robertson Park to The Gap, a lookout point over the Tasman Sea and the Sydney headlands. We enjoyed the views from The Gap.
Barb settled on a bench while I ventured a bit further south along the cliffside walk and discovered I was nearly at the point in Gap Park where our bus stopped on our first day’s tour. I enjoyed the breeze and the view for a few minutes when I was suddenly surrounded by a busfull of Chinese tourists with no sense of personal space. I fled and made my way back to Barb.
Together, we made our way to Camp Cove which turned out to be a popular little beach, full of families and sun bathers. We took a few photos and figured we had just about done enough to justify having lunch, though it was barely 11:30am.
We walked back to Doyle’s, Australia’s oldest continuously running fish and chips shop founded in 1885. There was a formal restaurant, an informal garden, and at least two carry out options for us to choose from. If you guessed that we would do the carry out you would be correct, especially once we saw the standard fish and chips was more than $50 in the restaurant and under $20 at the carry out. We shared a single order of fish and chips and that was plenty. The fish was thin and nothing special, really. The fries were decent but Barb couldn’t get mayonnaise and wouldn’t pay for ketchup. All in all, we decided Doyle’s was overrated but there weren’t any other choices immediately around the wharf. It was a thing to do.
Barb was willing to head back into town on her own via the ferry so she could do a little more shopping. I bid her farewell from the shore. That left me free to explore the coastline a little more. I elected to get a bus to Bondi Beach and do a bit of the cliff walk toward Cogee. I knew I wouldn’t do it all, but the day was lovely and I wanted to do at least a bit of the coastal walk. The bus ride was easy, covering exactly the same route our tour took on the first day. I got off at Bondi and took some time to watch the surfers.
I walked south along the beach boardwalk, snapping photos here and there along the way.
I got to the south end where the Iceberg Pools and Club were located. Allie had suggested I have lunch there but I was not shopping for food at that point. I lingered a while at the overlook taking in the great view. I walked onward on the cliffside walk, taking lots of photos. It was quite beautiful and the weather was great, especially whenever a cooling breeze came off the ocean.
I eventually made it to the Mackenzies Point Lookout, a spot to take more photos.
I went a bit further on the path, far enough to see Tamarama and Bronte beaches. I took more photos and figured that was far enough for me.
I slowly worked my way back toward Bondi. Altogether I walked less than two hours with a lot of sitting and stops along the way. I am no longer a very intrepid hiker and my sore knee made me less so. But I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the cliff walk and I was glad I did it after all.
I made it back to Bondi and found the 333 bus to Circular Quay. The bus started very crowded with sweaty, wet beachgoers but eventually I got a seat. The bus went down most of the route of the previous night’s pride parade. Things were already mostly cleaned up. Kudos to Sydney’s city workers.
Barb had already completed her shopping, successfully procuring more Tim Tams for Allie and another pair of opal earrings for herself. She was at the hotel pool by the time I got back. I showered and prepared to go up to the lounge for a drink. I tried taking a panorama of our hotel room view but it didn’t come out great. I consoled myself with a few shots of the Carnival cruise ship departing, making way for the Queen Victoria which was still cooling her heels anchored near Taronga.
Eventually, Barb joined me and we discussed options for dinner. Barb ended up making do with the spread of sashimi, dumplings and other goodies, including Balmain Bugs. The bugs were supposed to be served with tartar sauce but none was forthcoming, to Barb’s disappointment. I wasn’t much interested in the hors d’oeuvres buffet so we decided to split up. Barb stayed at the pool for a while to dry her hair and wait for our turn down service (which never came). I elected to go down to the harbor to see the sunset and then pick a restaurant for a light dinner. As the sun’s golden hour was just playing off the Opera House roofs, the Queen Victoria docked and blocked some of the show. I watched for a while and realized I ought to get my dinner before 3,000 people descended from the Queen.
I went to the Fortune of War, a pub recommended by the Four Seasons concierge, but there was a boisterous crowd singing along to Sweet Caroline led by a guitar playing entertainer. I spun on my heels and went to The Pony, another spot recommended by the concierge. I had a nice appetizer of grilled octopus and a side of grilled broccolini. That and a beer were all that I needed. I wished I had more of an appetite but after all the eating we had done on the cruise and in Sydney, that was enough. Back in the room, we packed and got ready for our journey home in the morning.
Monday, Mar. 4 – Flight Home
We had our final Four Seasons breakfast buffet then bid farewell to the Club 32 crew. We checked out by 8am with a couple of final photos from our room and caught a taxi to the Sydney airport.
The taxi driver gruffly dropped us off at the wrong end of the terminal so we had to drag our bags quite a way to check in for our United flight but we made it. The Australian equivalent of TSA did a far more thorough search of our carry on bags than we’ve ever had in the USA but we survived that as well.
In the massive duty free area we asked about the Vantage Botanical liquor that our neighbor Mark had requested as recompense for watching Manny and our house while we were gone. The saleslady pointed us toward it and quickly tried to talk us out of it in favor of an Australian vodka she said was far superior. But that’s not what Mark asked for. We got two bottle of Vantage and had them sealed up to carry through U.S. Customs.
We marched a long way to the Air New Zealand lounge that we were entitled to use. By the time we got there we sat for less than 30 minutes before having to march back a long way to our gate (16 minutes by official estimate). The lounge was nice but we didn’t avail ourselves of any of the amenities other than the restrooms. Our gate was actually a bus that transported us to the plane that was parked at a distant spot past the cargo areas. We had to climb the external steps to get on the plane, not what we expected from a major international airport. We’re not sure why United didn’t use a regular jetway gate.
We settled into our Business Class seats aboard the 787. These were more spacious and comfortable than Air New Zealand’s business class, with an ample supply of pillows, blankets and other goodies.
United’s service on the jet was brusquely efficient and the food was adequate – a hunk of overcooked beef for me, fish for Barb. Barb was quite pleased to get ice cream with a chocolate dip. Barb was able to get pajamas and once again got a fair amount of sleep on her lie-flat bunk. I stayed mostly upright and mostly awake for the nearly 14-hour flight. I watched two movies, The Creator and Dream Scenario, as well as several episodes of Abbott Elementary and listened to several podcasts. In all, this United flight was more comfortable and relaxing than the Air New Zealand one, and I could nearly see the value of paying through the nose for business class…certainly for Barb. I still think I would be more economically and adequately served in Economy Plus, in case we ever do a full overnight flight again.
We got to LAX a few minutes early at 5:40am on Monday morning and had to wait at the gate until 6am until Customs and Immigration officially opened at 6am. It seemed unusual to have to wait for immigration to open at this major US gateway but so be it. We got through the process easily (thanks, Global Entry), found our bags and dropped them off at the transfer desk, hoping they would get to Dulles along with us.
We had to walk a long way from Terminal 2 to Terminal 7 for our domestic flight to Dulles. The U.S. TSA agent flagged my duty free liquor, surgically removed it from the sealed bag and “inspected” it by putting the bottles in some machine that magically determined they were acceptable. We thought it would be fun if the machine reported that it was an inferior liquor choice.
We made our way to the Polaris Lounge and set up shop for our nearly 4 hour layover. The lounge was empty when we arrived but got quite busy by 10am. Barb found a quiet room to take a nap. I took the opportunity to catch up on my notes, such as they were. There was a full breakfast buffet from which we had a small sample (bacon!).
We made it to our 11:45am flight to Dulles in plenty of time, settled on board and enjoyed the short (just 5 hours…I never took my shoes off!) flight. The United food and service was again businesslike. We landed on time, found our bags which arrived on an earlier flight, and caught a taxi home from Dulles. Lesson learned: the taxi from Dulles cost around $150 with tip compared to the $220 (with tip) car service from home to Dulles. All in all, not a bad way to go, especially in order to eliminate the need to find our own car in a long-term parking lot, hope it starts, then drive the hour or so home after a long (or very long) flight.
We got home around 9pm to a very squirmy, chatty and relieved Manny. The house was clean with our mail and newspapers stacked tidily thanks to Mr. Mark. We unpacked and got to bed at a fairly reasonable hour (after Manny and I had some blankie time). I thought I did pretty well to wake at 9am the next day to start reading papers and getting back to normal.
Time for some final thoughts on our journey, focused on the time in Australia:
Both Barb and I feel like we did Sydney pretty well, enjoying nearly all of the sights and activities we wanted to hit. The Four Seasons was certainly a very happy home for the week, especially Club 32 and its staff that fed and watered us so well. Our room and the million dollar view were everything I hoped…even if we didn’t quite sync with the housekeeping staff for service some days. We had the best seat in the house. Sydney is a beautiful, well organized city filled with friendly people that didn’t seem to mind the intrusions of a steady stream of tourists. I’m very happy we spent these extra six days to explore and enjoy the city. I want to avoid grand pronouncements about the nature/character of New Zealand vs. Australia; we barely scratched the surface of either. That said…
- Both New Zealand and Australia are vibrant, interesting places to live and visit, very much European/English first world nations.
- They share an isolated, antipodean view of the world – they know they’re a long way from the rest of the world but they take pride in it…and delight when they can beat Europeans or Americans in any game.
- There is a seismic difference between Australia’s aboriginal cultures which had been isolated on the continent for 60,000 years and New Zealand’s Maori cultures which arrived maybe 600 years before the Europeans with a very different, more aggressive Polynesian-based culture.
- I saw very little real assimilation of the native cultures with the dominant Euro/English culture. I was hoping to see more of a sense of carving out a new, more inclusive Pacific identity but I saw little evidence of it.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I know there is a lot more to see of both countries and if they weren’t so damn far away I’d be eager to spend more time exploring. But they are on the other side of the earth making it hard to justify the financial or ecological expense of getting there. I strongly suspect this one short foray into Australia and New Zealand will be all I will do. But there’s always TV and the internet. I’m a fan of both countries and cultures and will continue to be a happy consumer of their output. I’m glad I went; I don’t think I need to go back.
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