Month: December 2019

We landed just after 8 am Sydney time. 89 degrees. Our check in time wasn’t until 3 pm but after some negotiation I was able to get it moved to noon. I had applied for an Australian Visa last month. It is all computerized and it shows up when the customs agent scans your passport. Getting our luggage and getting through customs was a breeze.

We took an Uber to our room. The building has hotel rooms and apartments and we left our luggage behind the front desk and we were able to check out the city. Our goal today was to decide if we would be able to see the fireworks, check in to our room, find a grocery store, laundromat, and gym.

The fireworks were at the harbour area and the best viewing sites were at a premium. I wasn’t sure how we would feel after the long period of travel so nothing was booked in advance. The city was obviously gearing up for loads of people. Many streets were already blocked. It was early but there was little traffic. Obviously, most folks had the day off.

We walked by the Royal Botanic Gardens. Some of the best views of the fireworks happen here. $550 each for the evening. We passed.

The Opera House was the next area for viewing. It was early morning and people were already sitting on the steps for the show.

We knew that this area would be overwhelmed by the time we were ready to watch. The next area was an area called the Rocks and we decided that this would be our best option. It was very close to the bridge and had views of the Opera House.

We headed back toward the Hyde Park Plaza and walked through Hyde Park.

Check in was easy. Keys were left in a mailbox and I was sent the code.

We unpacked, went to an IGA down the street and loaded up on groceries. Terri made dinner and then we went to bed. Enough time remained to get some sleep and see the show.

It was 8:15 pm when we woke up. Time to get going if we wanted to see the “family” fireworks display at 9 pm. We did get to the Rocks in time but the area was jammed with people. We saw a few fireworks overhead but missed most of it. We spent the next hour working our way down to an area under the harbour bridge called Dawes Point.

It was a popular place and had many police controlling the entrance.

After an hour or so wait we were able to get a good spot.

We camped out here for the main midnight show.

New Years Eve in Sydney!

These fireworks are seen by 1 billion people worldwide. It still did not meet the level of the Bastille Day Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower in Paris we saw a few years back. Bastille Day fireworks are definitely a 10. Compared to those, I give these an 8. Spending $6.5 million Australian isn’t enough to match the French!

The walk back to our apartment was interesting as the streets were jammed with people. Not the typical drunk fest I was expecting. Most folks were just happy to be out.

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Courtney came to pick us up at 3 pm at we headed to the airport. Our flight was at 6:15 pm. Detroit to Los Angeles and then Los Angeles to Sydney. We have been dreading the flight all week. After crossing the international dateline and a total of 21 hours or so of flight time, we land at 8 am in Sydney on Tuesday, December 31.

The flights we took were incident free if you ignore the delay in loading the plane for Sydney. 3 times the loading process was interrupted because  passengers were disembarking from a domestic flight at the same gate we were loading from and the FAA does not allow the commingling of domestic and international passengers. There is nothing like government intervention to put a smile on your face. I’m sure Terri would agree after a recent day long trip to the Secretary of  State. Sometimes I think about complaining but then I think of the story Terri had on one of her trips to the VA hospital, another bastion of the success of centralized government institutions. The story doesn’t really matter because they are all so similar. The quote from the government employee I like to remember is: “nousecomplaininbecausethereaintnothinyoucandoaboutit“. (if you read it aloud with a nice southern drawl, it makes it even more memorable) When I remember this, I am able to put my worries away and continue life as a sheep in the government corral.

On the flight, I did lots of reading and watched a few movies. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep as did Terri. 

We put in a lot less planning into this trip than our recent world cruise. Being on land allows you to be a little lazier with planning then if you are on a ship for 4 months.

We are spending 30 days enjoying the summer temperatures and long days. We have many days with fully planned activities and also many days left for spur of the moment kind of fun.

If you decided to join us, great! It’s fun getting comments from back home. Doing a daily blog has really made me realize how much I do forget after a short period of time. I blame it on age but I probably have always been this way. If you would like to comment, realize that your first comment has to be approved before it is published. This cuts the amount of SPAM I receive. Once a comment is approved, future comments need no approval

The next post will continue with our landing in Sydney and our first day in the land down under. 

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We hope you will join us for another travel adventure. This time it’s back to Sydney, Australia. We are spending 30 days at the beginning of the Australian Summer. We have realized that blogging is a great way to remember a trip. We have referred back to our world cruise blog many times to confirm that we were actually in “that” country.

We leave Sunday, December 29, 2019 and arrive on Tuesday, December 31. We will be 16 hrs ahead of Detroit time.

DTW to LAX 6:10 PM to 8:14 PM flight time 5 hrs 4 mins

LAX to SYD 10:15 PM 8:10 AM flight time flight time 15 hrs

Bush fires have been a problem in the past month and we have seen pictures of dense smoke over the Sydney Harbour. Recent pictures suggest the worst is over. The fires are far from Sydney but the winds can push the smoke for many miles.

We are staying close to the CBD (central business district) in a neighborhood called Darlinghurst. The airbnb we booked is right across from Hyde Park. We arrive New Years Eve morning. A huge fireworks display/party is being held at the Harbour Bridge. Not a far walk but maybe we will be able to see from the roof of our building. 20 hours of flight time has a way of sucking the life out of you. We shall see what happens.

We have:

booked a show at the Opera House – Carmen

booked a wine tasting tour in Hunter Valley

made plans to see the Barrenjoey Lighthouse

dinner at Earl’s Juke Joint

a hike in the Blue Mountains

the Spit Bridge to Manly 10k walk

lunch at the Bucket List Bar at Bondi Beach

the Enmore Comedy Club

the Sydney Symphony “under the stars”

all kinds of shopping and sight seeing

many stops at the gym

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