Cruise and Sydney

Liz has already given you an extensive review of the cruise (see 2 previous posts – we’ve been away from the net for a while, posted everything at once!), so I'll just throw in a few extra comments and let it go at that. Living on a cruise ship for a few weeks is like entering the land of the lotus eaters. You drift from one day to the next in luxury, sampling gourmet foods every night, eat yourself sick if that's your thing. The entertainment staff has several things going at once. We had a great lecture series with Milos Radakovich, a naturalist often featured on PBS. Also astronomy lectures and some on Hawaiian history. Of course, you could gamble full time, soak up sun by the ship's pool, take in a movie, make a candlenut lei, or just goof off. At night shows were in the main auditorium or musical performances in half a dozen bars.

Of course, halfway through the cruise we stopped in French Polynesia. Four islands in all: Tahiti, Morea, Raiatea and Bora Bora. Yes, all were absolutely beautiful. I especially enjoyed an afternoon on the beach in Morea marveling over the coral with gorgeous tropical fish nipping at my feet. Not so much the sunburn. However, after a month in Hawaii, briefly seeing French Polynesia was a touch disappointing. A whole island to discover and only half a day to do it in! Like being allowed a single sip at the Guinness brewery. Just pop in, take a sip and go. Frustrating.

A Corona commercial come to life

Eventually we entered Sydney Harbor. Come on, you've seen pictures of this all your life. It really is as beautiful as the photographers tell you, especially just at dawn. Still, I consider it a testimonial to my character that I left the ship under my own power rather than being dragged off kicking and screaming.

Sydney Harbor is huge! At 5 AM there were city lights on either side of the ship and we moved right along and still didn't dock ‘til nearly 6. Right between the opera house and the famous bridge. A lot of harbor is still past the bridge. A map of Sydney shows it's actually built up around a series of little harbors with the main one eventually tapering into a river. Okay, it's actually an estuary.

We got through customs with little fanfare by about 7:30, carrying everything we have - 2 backpacks and 2 smaller bags. Gotta be able to move quickly and easily. Of course, my backpack weighs about 35 lbs. and Liz's 20. Oh, I forgot 10 or so in the travel vest.

On the streets of Sydney, 8 in the morning with only the vaguest idea of where our Affordable Travel Club hosts were to be found. Once again, Liz is a master (mistress?) planner and manages to conjure up contacts all over the world with just an internet connection and (I suspect) a wiggle of her bewitched nose. Ray and Wendy Volpatti live in Five Docks, a convenient and therefore expensive suburb of Sydney with (of course) a cute little harbor nearby. The friendly man in the bus ticket information booth was incredibly helpful. 10 minutes and 80 bucks later we had full directions, a handful of bus maps and two tickets capable of whisking us anywhere we wanted to go in the Sydney area by bus, train or ferry for a full week. We only needed three days, but the system isn't all that flexible, that was still the cheapest way to go. By 9 or so we were there and had our room and the spare key. By 10:30 we were back in downtown Sydney on a quest for a 3G connection for an elderly I-phone. Personally, I believed this to be a wild goose chase. I was wrong. The month's connection cost 30 bucks. The fun part was getting the phone unlocked. I'm still a little unclear on what that means except that it involved going to a little shop on a side street and handing over 50 dollars cash and a warning not to try to update the operating system and not mention his name to Apple. Hey, we at least have a net connection (abysmally slow, tiny phone screen and that miserable virtual keyboard) and a phone. Even a couple of adaptors to plug our American prongs into Australian sockets.

Ray advised a free walking tour of Sydney, meeting between St. Andrews Church and the Queen Victoria Building. Matthew, in his bright green shirt, led us on a 3 hour tour(!) of the general area, walking our legs off. He kept up a running commentary, very informative, full of information and so rapid fire, I have no true recollection of just where we were geographically and a spotty memory of what we saw. Pictures were snapped on the run. On the other hand, we could never have seen so much so quickly. I was particularly impressed by Hyde Park (why, yes, I do think there's another one somewhere.) and the Rocks, the old part of town. Lots of horrific stories of that time and area. Not that I remember any specific one. At the end, we gave Matthew a nice tip and got back on the bus to Five Docks. Dinner out and fall into bed exhausted. 

Next day, breakfast with Ray and Wendy (we like Wheat Bix cereal), some good conversation and tips on what to see on our whirlwind tour. Bus to ferry to Manly Bay. Really cool place. Riviera, Key West, Lahaina, the Lido, international like that. Brick paving, well worn, very fancy shops on the promenade, a gorgeous beach, unfortunately unseasonably cool, didn't bother with swimming. Sort of randomly got on a bus we understood was going to North Point and ended up instead at the Quarantine Station. Big History! Shiploads of people were quarantined if there was a hint of trouble, mid-late 1800s to mid-1900s. According to your shipboard accommodations it could be anything from a nice vacation to hell on earth. It's now a pricey retreat. Damn nice view too. Spotty bus service meant a long walk back to civilization. We spent the rest of the day riding the ferries, seeing the Maritime Museum (from outside, damn thing's expensive and it was getting late) and enjoying the view from the ferries.

Mike with Ray and Wendy, our hosts on this leg of our trip.

Okay, time to say goodbye to Ray and Wendy (Very nice, interesting folks, wish we'd made more time to talk with them.) and go rent a car. A little Hyundai. Thankfully an automatic, not the stick originally contracted for. Did you know they drive on the other side of the road over here? And put the steering wheel way over on the other side? That some of the controls are reversed and others are not? The idea of driving here was ........ Interesting? ............... Daunting? ...........Frightening?  So was the actuality. Luckily, there was a clear route out of town and then a lot of straight road to get me accustomed to it. Ray had drawn up a list of things to see between Sydney and Woolongong (I LOVE Australian place and animal names!). We managed to see them all, albeit at a breakneck pace: Royal National Park (World's second oldest national park, just behind Yellowstone), hang gliding cliffs, Buddhist temple, lighthouse and blowhole, etc. All in all a very ........interesting 300 kilometers to our week's timeshare near Bateman's Bay. By the end I was ready to curl up and suck my thumb. They tell me I'll get used to passing cars on the wrong side. I wonder if I'll get used to seeing all those middle fingers. Halfway to our timeshare, I needed gas. Stopped at a station but had some trouble with the pump. No place for my credit card. Went inside and asked how one went about getting petrol (oxygen is a gas). "Why, you pump the petrol and then pay me. You're an American, aren't you?" I admit my jaw dropped. When you go to Australia, set your watch back 30 years.