Sydney – Steps to Anywhere – A Travel Journal

Good-bye Australia

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

We spent a very leisurely final full day in Burleigh Heads. After arranging transportation to the Gold Coast airport for Wednesday April 4, we grabbed a bus to Burleigh Waters, a nearby area. We had a quick lunch, picked up something for dinner then returned. My TRANSLink GO card had a balance of $5.23 and the fare was $2.60 each way. The plan was to end up with a 3 cent balance but they fooled me and counted our return trip as a transfer so I end up with a fine balance of $2.63. We spent some of the afternoon walking in the sand as the tide went out. The waves are quite unpredictable. One moment we were walking on wet sand. The next moment the wave can bring the water knee high then try to drag our feet back seaward.

Wednesday morning found us packing the final bits for the flight back to Sydney then collected the remainder of our groceries to leave with our hosts John and Ubon Thomas. By 10:45 all was ready for John to take us to the Gold Coast airport. John very graciously drove us to the airport where checkin at this pleasant little airport was quick and efficient. After a quick hamburger lunch we awaited our airplane.

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We were to board about 12:30 but were delayed until 1:30 PM because one of the cabin crew had become ill and required paramedic services. Of course a replacement had to be found. Our departure was about 2:00 pm and our flight was uneventful and we landed about 3:30.

There were plenty of taxis at Kingsford Smith airport so there was almost no wait. Unfortunately, the delay resulted in the trip being made during the beginning of rush hour traffic thus raising the cost slightly. After checkin at the hotel we ate at the hotel, not our favourite restaurant but the meal was adequate.

We recovered the large suitcase left in storage at the hotel and began repacking for the next leg of the journey. Packing was completed, more or less, on Thursday morning. The large suitcase now weighs half a kilogram less than the 23 kilogram maximum but will not need to be opened until we arrive home. The three smaller bags were packed for expected activities in Honolulu and, fortunately, we are able to check four bags at no cost on our Qantas flight.

We made another stop at a nearby pharmacy to replenish Gail’s diabetic supplies then zipped down to the opera house and found a t-shirt that interested Gail. After lunch at Circular Quay we returned to the hotel for a while then started our last excursion. The plan was to travel once again to Watson Bay by train and bus then walk another part of the cliffs. We expected to take a ferry back to Cockle Bay for dinner but our plans changed when we discovered that the Government Ferries stopped just after 4 pm and we missed it. There is always an alternative so we found a bus that brought us back to our hotel.

After dinner I checked in with Qantas and printed our boarding passes. Earlier we became somewhat confused about our departure time. One document had our departure time at 10 pm while another indicated 7:15. The boarding passes say 7:15 and that’s good enough for us.

Ready to go!!

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Continuing in Sydney

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

We were awake early enough this Wednesday morning to make a couple of telephone calls to yesterday at home. We’ve figured out that breakfast time here is dinner time there. After breakfast we went to Bondi Beach for a look and the surf.

Bondi IMG 1976

The two metre waves looked pretty intense to us but one local chap categorized them as little waves. It turned out that the chap was actually an immigrant from Victoria, BC with family in Guelph Ontario. Once again we learn how small the world can be. It was easy to get to Bondi by train and bus. It was a very warm, humid Wednesday and we continued by bus from Bondi to Watson’s Bay, a community on a peninsula that forms the southern boundary to the entrance to Sydney Harbour. It is about 18 kilometres east of the Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.

The peninsula that is Watson’s Bay has high stone cliffs on the eastern side facing the open ocean and sandy beaches on the western shore less than a kilometre away. Much of the residential community has a magnificent view of the harbour and central Sydney. We walked the cliffs for a while then descended to the ferry port on the west side. It was about a one hour ferry ride back to Circular Quay and a spot for a quick lunch. We have walked so much I think we may be a couple of inches shorter than when we began the trip. Having seen so many on the ships with mobility impairments we are just glad to be able to do what we are doing.

Watsons Bay – Cliffs and Beach

After another day, Thursday, of walking I decided to check the pedometer on my phone. I don’t normally pay it any attention but I do keep it enabled. I found the average for the current week is 12,832 steps per day, average and over 10,000 a day for the current month. When at home, my typical day is between 5,000 & 10,000. Today was warm and humid, our legs said, ENOUGH! That was after we had walked from the hotel to Wooloomooloo and a high rent area known as The Finger Wharf. To the east of the wharf is the Guardian Island Naval Base.

The Finger Wharf

The Finger Wharf IMG 5452

Guardian Island Naval Base

Naval Base IMG 8612

There is also a marine maintenance facility whose dry dock is currently occupied by the P&O Pacific Dawn. After lunch at a small cafe we grabbed a bus to downtown and a ferry to Milsons Point on the north side of the harbour.

From Milsons Point, the Harbour Bridge with the City as a Background

Bridge from Milsons Point IMG 7118

We gradually worked our way back to the hotel to rest the feet that have done so well for several weeks.

Friday, Mar 16, was our last full day in Sydney so we made it less strenuous. We returned to Manly again and visited a couple of the small beaches near the ferry terminal on the west side of the peninsula. The Manly beach famous for its surf is on the eastern side, exposed to the open ocean. There are two ferries servicing Manly. One takes about 30 minutes and costs $7.35 each way, the FastFerry service is quicker but costs $9.00 each way. The less costly service is part of the Sydney Harbour Ferry service so the fare counts toward the $15.50 daily maximum while the fast ferry does not. After lunch at Manly we returned to the hotel to pack for Saturday’s flight to Coolingatta and our accommodation in Burleigh Head.

My writing was just interrupted bu the sound of fireworks. Indeed, from our hotel room window we got a great view of an impressive display somewhere to the north of us and near the harbour, I believe. This was the second time during our stay that we have seen fireworks from the window.

There is a pharmacy nearby our hotel that deserves a real compliment on their service. Gail has been searching, unsuccessfully, for a place to purchase certain diabetic supplies. The other day we visited Blakes Pharmacy and we had success. We had several other items on our list and they had everything. Their prices were fantastic and service even better. Just wanted to say thanks.

Blakes Pharmacy IMG 2891

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A few Days in Sydney

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

Arriving on a weekend certainly makes taxi fares more reasonable than on week days. Our first taxi to the hotel after arriving on the Queen Elizabeth ran the meter up to $30, while this Saturday trip cost only $18. After checking in to the hotel on we did a little grocery shopping for snacks etc. We went back to Circular Quay then into the Central Business District to get a SIM card for one of our cell phones. As it turns out, $40 buys one month of unlimited talk & text almost world wide, with a modest data budget. The store we expected to use was closed on Saturday but we had no difficulty finding one that was open.

With communications in place we found a tourist information centre to plan Sunday’s excursion. It was decided to take the train to Katoomba and have a look at the Blue Mountains. First thing Sunday morning we were on the subway to Sydney’s Central Station where we transferred to an intercity train for a 2 hour ride to Katoomba. Our total Sunday rate fare for the subway and return trip to Katoomba was $2.60.

Having arrived in Katoomba we bought $25 tour tickets for a Hop-On-Off bus service. The bus toured the town, the nearby town of Leura and the rim of the Blue Mountain canyon. We left the bus to walk a portion of the canyon rim then returned to the bus. Looking into the distance across the canyon there is an ever thickening blue haze resulting from the eucalyptus trees. Also interesting is the fact that despite the thousands of acres of eucalyptus trees there are no koalas because they prefer species that are not found in the area.

We are gradually learning that here in Australia some of the best food stops do not have the most appealing premises. We are finding ourselves in pubs that would have panicked the hand sanitizer folks on the cruise ships. Cutlery for the days customers is often stockpiled in table dispensers along with the salt and pepper. Table service is not normal here either. Food and drink is pre-ordered and pre-paid at the bar. You take the drinks to your table and the food is delivered when ready.

Monday Gail needed some retail therapy so we asked for a recommendation to a suburban shopping mall and were directed to Bondi Junction. It was but two subway stops to the east so off we went. There were at least two buildings carrying the name Westfield. We see the same name from our hotel window on the top of the tower in downtown Sydney. We carefully laid a trail of breadcrumbs as we threaded our way through shopping concourse after concourse. I believe there were five or six levels above ground in two, perhaps three buildings interconnected both above and below ground. Sadly, when we attempted to follow the bread crumbs back they had been eaten by birds or swept up by cleaners! Through little but blind luck we landed on the sidewalk within site of the transit terminal and made it back to the hotel.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the Sydney Royal Botanical Garden. Autumn is just about to arrive so the majority of bloom is finished.

The massive trees of many species provided welcome shade as we walked the garden on a gorgeous sunny day. It is a large garden where the western exit leads to a waterfront trail around Mrs Macquarie’s Point. From the western side of the point we could see the Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf with expensive condos housing an occasional celebrity and the Garden Island Naval Base. The hours slipped by and suddenly it was time for dinner at The Fortune of War pub, the oldest in Sydney dating back to 1828.

Dinner Mar 12 IMG 8390

Tuesday Mar 13 was a rather different day. It began the evening before when we suddenly realized that a bag of snacks and miscellaneous groceries was missing from the hotel room. A call to hotel reception started an investigation that ended Tuesday morning when the hotel offered to reimburse the cost of missing items. Having become experts in navigating the Bondi Junction shopping centre, we decided to return there, buy the necessary items and return to the hotel with bill in hand. We managed to find two massive grocery stores and got what we needed at the second. I’m not sure we could have found our way back to the first one anyway. We did find an exit but once on the sidewalk it took a while to find the transit terminal and return to the hotel. The refund was instantaneous along with a complimentary bottle of wine.

This day was rainy and cool. Not a torrential rain and not even continuous but enough that an umbrella was standard equipment. After lunch we set out for downtown Sydney again but having arrived at the subway station we learned of an accident on our line that prevented us from going to our transfer point, Central Station. We took the train as far as we could and left at the Martin Place station. Actually, by the time we got to Martin Place the track had been cleared and we could have continued but we had already decided to accept the challenge. How far could we go from the Martin Place station without going outside into the rain. We negotiated a zig zag path which covered at least 10 city blocks and ended up at Central Station. The trip took about an hour and a half to do what would have been a five minute subway ride but it was an adventure in mole city.

Here’s Something Not Seen Before at Building Entrances

Darling Harbour Panorama

We gradually found our way, by train and ferry, to the Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour where we had dinner, then by ferry and train back to the hotel. We had not been long in the hotel when we received a phone call from a lovely couple, Sarah and Noel whom we had met as dinner companions on the Queen Elizabeth. It was wonderful to hear from them again. Since they live in Queensland there may be a chance to visit with them again once we relocate to the gold coast next week.

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After Tasmania

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

On Tuesday Mar 6 The ship sailed out of Port Arthur at about 6 PM into smooth seas, north, along the east coast of Tasmania. The trip across the Bass Straight was very smooth and we arrived in Melbourne early Thursday morning. Shortly after 7 AM we were joined in port by the Radiance of the Sea, a Royal Caribbean ship of similar size to ours.

After breakfast we went ashore and walked east from Port Melbourne to Port Philip and eastward toward St. Kilda. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day to walk along the beach. We stopped to chat several times, once with a couple from Calgary, passengers from the Radiance. It was interesting to watch workers grooming the beach. There was one machine hockey fans might describe as a Zamboni for sand. It scooped up the surface sand, filtered out anything not sand sized then smoothed it out for another day of use.

Sand Zamboni IMG 2848

There were lots of cars, walkers, joggers and cyclists. Noteworthy is the fact that cycling paths, walking paths and roadways were separate. A fascinating concept more cities could learn about and adopt.

Cars bikes people separate lanes IMG 3462

There were a few sun bathers, and swimmers or perhaps waders, and three guys doing training drills on the beach volley ball courts. After about an hour of wandering we stopped for a coffee, reversed our direction and returned to the ship.

After lunch and some time in the hot tub where we are sitting on our balcony in the warm shade. The ship is positioned so that the sun is more or less overhead such that both side are in shade and not in the 30°C sun. As we walked along the pier this morning there were literally hundreds of pallets of supplies waiting to be loaded onto one or the other of the ships in port. From our balcony we can watch the loading process on the Radiance of the Seas. Although we cannot see it from our balcony, the same thing is happening to the Diamond Princess. I managed to get a few seconds of time-lapse video of the ballet. Certain lift trucks move pallets from their delivery point to the side of the ship. Another selects a pallet and places it in front of the loading hatch. Another, with a longer reach, transfers it from the dock into the ship and backs away. Immediately, another machine moves the pallet from the entry point to elsewhere in the ship where it is stored for use on the next cruise segment. It is just like a form of ballet. I hope this time-lapse video gives you an idea. (if it works)

Cruiseport Ballet.mp4

I am always impressed by the precise movements of these large ships. I watched the Radiance of the Seas dock. She approached the berth backward gradually closing the gap between the ship and the dock. When the ship came to a stop with the shore gangway about 5 metres from desired location on the ship’s rail. The ship began to move again stopping exactly at the correct place. That’s control.

Weather-wise, this is one of the warmest days since leaving Sydney. The temperatures in Tasmania were cooler but we can’t complain. We have so rarely encountered bad weather on our journeys we feel charmed. (Immediately touching wood for continued luck.)

Friday, March 9 was our final day at sea and cruising for this trip. As we sailed along the coast we had an unexpected sighting of another cruise ship, the Golden Princess.

When we disembark Saturday morning we will remain on land with occasional airborne bits until we arrive home. Once on land with reliable, inexpensive internet access I will get some of the photos on line with at least a little organization. By the way, I hope you are clicking on the emails sent to you so you can view the photos posted. There are usually photos in the message that are not automatically downloaded with the text.

Saturday, March 10, we arrived in Sydney again. Disembarkation was quick and painless, no immigration or other border security screening. Luggage picked up and taxi delivered us to our hotel where, once again, a room was ready for early check-in.

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