Overview Honolulu Auckland Santa Barbara
Our plane to Sydney landed from somewhere about 11:15 and disgorged it's load and then we just waited until boarding time. The flight was pretty full and we had seats three rows from the tail of the airplane. Seats 74 F and G. I remember walking down the aisle and turning around to see the front of the plane. It was not possible to see the front of the plane. The 747 seats 3-4-3 and we had seats assigned in the center right side. I had s moment of slight panic when I thought of spending ten hours of my life sitting in this configuration, but that passed almost as quickly as it started.
The takeoff was normal but as we began our ascent, it became apparent that it was quite turbulent outside. We were getting bumped around pretty badly and there was one instance where we dropped suddenly and a woman in the back of the plane let go with an ear splitting shriek. Pretty unnerving.
The flight to me was pretty much like being in a Disney simulator for the ten hour flight. Not very pleasant. I managed to spend quite a lot of time standing and pacing in the back of the plane by the lavatories.
I had struck up a conversation with a gentleman from Auckland while I was back there and we were having a nice little chat when something hit me in the face. Seems that our voices were carrying and disturbing a man sitting close by. He hit me in the face with his blanket!
This was one of the first flights that I can remember where time did not seem to move. I kept looking at my watch and it always seemed as if we still had three hours to go to Sydney. I think that my biggest problem here was that the flight was 1) so rough and 2) so crowded and 3) totally at night.
We finally arrived about 6:00 Sydney time and not soon enough. We got off of the plane and walked for what seemed like miles to get through customs and immigration. I changed some money and then we headed for the magic board to try and find accommodations for the coming nights. We found a place called Chateau Sydney which was in the area that we were told to avoid - Kings Cross. In talking with the Visitors Aid person that booked the reservations, we bought two Sydney passes which allowed us passage on all of the Sydney busses, harbor cruises and various and sundry other items. That turned out to be a pretty good deal.
We walked out of the terminal to catch the airport bus and ran into a couple from Edmonton that had been on the same Qantas flight as us. We struck up a conversation and they turned out to be very nice people. We chatted with them for a while on the bus and they were due to stay in Australia for 5 weeks. We finally made it to the Chateau and checked into our room. We were up on the fifth floor and we had a spectacular view of the city. We were supposed to spend only one night in the "cityview" room and the balance of the time in the "harborview" side, but the harbor that one usually thinks of (bridge, opera house) would have been completely out of view. We were looking in the opposite direction for that. We would have been looking at a part of the harbor, but the view of the city was much more impressive. We decided to stay where we were.
Chearl wanted to rest for a while so I hoofed it around the neighborhood. I walked up the street through the red light district just to see what I could see. It turned out to be not such a pretty sight. I returned later to pick up Chearl and we went out to lunch. We ate at a little restaurant up the street from us and we both had club sandwiches.
After lunch we used our Sydney Explorer passes to head to George Street to shop around for a while. Went through the old Victoria Building which had plenty of nice shops there. Milled around that area for awhile and then took the same red bus back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Even though the time change from Honolulu was not that great, we were still pretty well jetlagged out.
We had made dinner reservations at a place called XU. The girl at the Visitors Aid had recommended it to us as a nice restaurant so we thought that we'd give it a shot. I had set my watch alarm to get us up and going to dinner, but the alarm did not go off and we slept right through the reservations. I called the restaurant and changed the reservation to Sunday night. They maintained that there was no problem with that.
We simply returned to sleep and did not wake up until the next morning. So much for my birthday dinner.
Awoke once more to a bright sunshiney morning this morning. Chearl called Jo and I called Mom & Dad and then I called the Hopes to see if we could arrange something for dinner. We all agreed to meet here at the Chateau Sydney tomorrow night at about 7.
We ate breakfast here at the hotel again. There were two breakfast buffets. A hot buffet which included cooked meats and a cold buffet which had things like cold cuts, rolls, fruit, etc. I always had the cold buffet. For some reason the cold cuts always tasted good in the morning. The fruit was excellent also.
After breakfast we took off for the red bus stop again and while we waited for the bus, we talked with a couple that had just arrived from Denmark so we chatted with them for a while. We took the bus over to Paddy's market which turned out to be a rather large flea market. We spent an hour or two there and then walked up to Chinatown and over to Darling Harbor which turned out to be quite a nice park.
Sights 
There were orientals practicing Tai-chi or some like meditation in the park as a group.
There is a monorail system in Sydney and it makes several stops along and around Darling Harbor.
We walked around the harbor and then stopped at the Kodak booth by the water and I bought a picture book of Sydney. Not too expensive and it provided a good supplement to the other documentation that we managed to collect while over there.
We then walked back out to catch the red bus and when we got on the bus, there was the couple from Edmonton again. We all took the bus over to "The Rocks" where we chatted with the couple for a while. We then said our good-byes again. They headed for an outdoor crafts show and we headed to the bridge. I climbed up into one of the bridge towers and took a few pictures from the top. I also bought a brochure on the way as to how the bridge was built..
Chearl and I walked halfway across the bridge, took some more pictures and then headed back to The Rocks and had lunch outside of the Australian Hotel. We had some type of pizza there and I had a beer. Yummy lunch.
Then we walked down to the Circular Quay and caught one of the afternoon harbor tours (which was free with our Sydney passes) and spent a couple of hours touring the harbor until about 4 p.m.
We then caught our red bus to the Opera House and got off to check things out. There was a carnival getting started in front of the Opera House so we walked through the vendors stands looking at the wares. We then tried to go inside the Opera House and we were stopped by a little old woman who was exercising "her authority". We chatted with her for a short time and due to the end of a performance there, she would not let us through. We stopped at the gift shop and bought a few items and then back to the hotel to get cleaned up for our dinner at XU.
We walked up the street (through the red light district again) and had a bit of trouble finding the restaurant. Finally had to ask directions and it turned out that the restaurant was right on the corner in front of us. I had steak Diane and Chearl had salad.
We then walked back down the street and turned in about 11.
Did not sleep very well during the night. I woke up several times and spent some time just looking over the city from our balcony. I was not anxious, but I was not tired either. However, this morning I still feel guilty for Chearl spending the nights on the cushions from the couch on the bathroom floor. That is making me crazy!
Down to the restaurant and had the cold buffet again.
We took the red bus cross town and were going to the tower. We
shopped along George St. again and Chearl managed to find her
brooch watch in a little watch store in one of the arcade
entrances.
We spent a little time at the top of the Tower and once more the
morning is clear and crisp. We could see all of the way from the
airport south of the city to well beyond the north shore of the
harbor.
After the Tower, we walked down to the Harbor to the Aquarium..
There was an exhibit showing platypus' which were smaller than what I would have thought. There were several tubes under the water where you could walk and get the impression that you were in the water with the other fish.
After the Aquarium we stopped at a little cafe‚ while we headed back into downtown called the "Diner on Market" and had lunch. Sandwiches and some pre-cooked lunches. Not too bad really.
We walked up to Hyde Park and crossed that to the Hyde Park Barracks which was an original prison camp for convicted felons from Europe. Some of the inside has been left untouched but it gave the viewer some definition of what life as a prisoner would have been like in the late 18th century.
Then we took a city bus down to the Quay to see if we could catch the Parramatter River Catamaran. We missed that by a couple of minutes so we just walked up to "The Rocks" again and walked around the museum and streets for a couple of minutes.
We then boarded the red bus again and got off at Mrs. McQuaries chair on the way back to the hotel. We still had to get ready for the Hope's at 7.
We were waiting in the hotel lobby when they appeared and I recognized him immediately. His hair had turned a bit grayer than what I remembered, but when I looked directly into his face, I could still plainly see the man that I remembered some thirty-odd years ago.
We walked across the street to the Cicada restaurant and had a very nice dinner with stories of the old Tool Steel gang. We spent a couple of hours there (too short) but it was a great time to be half way around the world and see a familiar face.
I awoke at 3:37 in the morning with the thought of the 72 hour deadline for Air New Zealand non-revenue travel. I tried calling but they were closed. I managed to go back to sleep until 6 when we got going and down to breakfast. Cold buffet again. That was really tasty. We went back to the room and I got us listed to Los Angeles from New Zealand.
That done, we went downstairs to wait for our tour bus to the Blue Mountains to pick us up. We were picked up at 7:45 in a Range Rover type vehicle which made me more than a little claustrophobic. I was not sure whether we were going to be in that all day. Luckily, we were only transported to the main stop at "The Rocks" where we transferred to a slightly larger vehicle for our tour.
Our guide du jour was a nice fellow named Rob. We stopped early in the trip at a preserve called Featherdale where we mingled with kangaroos, wallabys, wombats, dingos and every other Australian indigenous wildlife. We got off and on several times up into the mountains and had lunch at a hotel called Mt. Victoria.
After lunch we drove back via The Three Sisters and took the tram ride down the side of the hill. We managed to be sitting in the front seat on the way down and I was hoping to get some interesting videos. However, the button was turned so that the recorder would only record IF your finger was on the switch. Mine wasn't. I thought that it was on, but was not. Bummer!
We returned to our hotel about 7 after a really neat trip and cleaned up a little before setting out for dinner. We ate at McLeahy St. Bistro just up the street. This restaurant was a B.Y.O.B. restaurant so I had to run up the street to get a bottle of wine. When I returned, the waiter took the bottle and served it to us and that was a really great bottle of Australian wine. I had a veal cutlet and Chearl had the spagettini (sp). Returned to hotel, watched a little T.V. and then fell asleep.
Overview Honolulu Auckland Santa Barbara
