Final Reflections on NZ and Oz

Now that we have been back almost two weeks, it is time for some final reflections, like in our other trips that are included in this blog; NYC and the South.

It was interesting that in both the trip through the South and in this one, we had the opportunity to experience first-hand a hurricane (typhoon) but avoided it. Very glad that we are two for two in that category.

The folks in New Zealand and Australia are very friendly and helpful. Although when travelling you seem to see mostly tourists, the locals were great to deal with and I can see why many folks we came in contact with are already talking about their next trip to Australia, mostly. While we loved the area, there are so many other places on our list, that I doubt a return trip will be scheduled for a number of years, if at all.

We bought too much New Zealand and Australian currency from Chase Bank and their exchange rates amount to plain and simple larceny. It is funny that it has taken me so many years to figure this out, but in the future, I will follow advice from my son and get cash once we have landed in a foreign country at an ATM, where the exchange rate is really fair. Not that it cost us that much extra, it is just the principal of it. While mentioning my son, Eric, I will also thank him for the technical advice in the selection of the tablets, as well as their set up and loading of movies. His advice on the purchase of the Mophie as well as the noise canceling head phones was invaluable.

Thanks are also in order to Jim, Vivian and Alysa as well as Mel and Sue for sharing their first hand knowledge of NZ and OZ. We have passed on their information as well as our first hand knowledge to LaVerne and Kim as they make a similar trip very soon. We will see how they see these two beautiful lands.

Seabourn is an excellent cruise line and they did their best to make our cruise memorable. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants an upscale cruise.

The more time spent preparing for a trip and researching places and the people, the better the trip is. We had one and a half months to plan this trip and cruise, versus 10 days for our Baltic Cruise and trip and this one was so much more fun because of it.

Carrying a tablet instead of a laptop is a pleasure.

It must be love if you can spend 30 days in close proximity to someone and not have a major fight. We didn't have a major fight or frankly any fight during our trip.

And lastly, as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home." I agree.

Good Bye to the Land Down Under and Hello to the States

Because we had a late flight home which left Sydney at 9:20 PM, we knew that we were going to have to check out of the hotel and have them hold our luggage during the day while we said our last goodbyes to Sydney. Before we checked out, we found a little cafe for breakfast in The Rocks and had a nice meal. We stopped at a bar that was touted as the one in the Sydney that had ESPN and that I had best chance at 1:00 PM Sunday (Saturday night at 7:00 PM MST) to watch the UofA play the game for all the marbles against the University of Utah Running Utes. A bar employee assured me that she would save me a tv to watch ESPN at the appointed hour. This was the first and only time I would interrupt our trip to try to watch a UofA game. We headed back to the hotel to pack and check our luggage. Then it was to The Rocks as they had a street fair (our third, I think) and it was pretty large and pretty good. Felice had a great time shopping and I was the technical adviser.

 

We purchased a bunch of stuff and then headed back to the candy shop to see some more candy making. Fascinating. Really. As we approached 1:00 PM, Felice encouraged me to head back to the bar to watch my Wildcats. Unfortunately, ESPN in Australia chose to not show the standard US feed, but rather an NBA game that included the Grizzlies. Oh well. So we had a few hours to kill and so we wandered around for awhile and wound up in the Circular Quay area of stores, where we found a place to sit so that we could people watch and have a cold drink. We later made one last visit to the Opera House for the internet and my chance to try to watch the game on ESPN3 on my phone on their WIFI. No luck, but I did follow the game on the internet to conclusion; a good one I must say.

At 3:30 PM, we decided that although it was early and we didn't have to be picked up at the hotel until 5;30 PM for our 9:20 flight, that we would go back to the lobby and hang out, use their internet and then head out, being very relaxed. When we had been back no more than 15 minutes, the skies opened up and it poured for the better part of a half hour. Then it was beautiful for a while, then more rain. We weren't that excited to fly in the rain, but oh well. Finally the appointed time came and we transferred to airport, actually leaving at 5:00 PM to be extra safe. We were glad we did as when we got to Hawaiian Airlines, it was a zoo. They have only one flight to Hawaii from Sydney and only 5 people to check you in. So it was an hour line, but the good news is that the other passengers were friendly and we had a great time sharing vacation and cruise stories. Once through that and through security and immigration, it was on to the gate and a sandwich before boarding. 

The flight to Honolulu was long, 10 hours, but uneventful. The tablets with the movies helped quite a bit. There was no screaming passengers and a lot of them seemed to have some success sleeping. Neither Felice nor I was particularly happy with how much sleep we received, but what can you do? I would guess I napped for about an hour total. We finally arrived at the airport in Hawaii and felt like our 3 hours would be great to get a bite and check in with the kids, maybe even have a Facetime conversation to celebrate Sydney's second birthday with her. We were so wrong about that. First, once we got off the airplane, they had us walk from one end of the airport (think the top of the letter "U") to the middle (the bottom of the  "U") to get our luggage and when we finally got it, go through immigration and customs. Then we had to recheck our bags and go through security. Once finally done, we then got to walk all the way back to where we had come from. Once there, we realized that there was no food so we had to walk about 10 minutes to find some sandwiches and 10 minutes back to then be able to sit and eat them. We barely accomplished this and calling the kids before our flight was called. A lesson is to never short your time between flights, especially international flights. Now we were on the smaller airplane for the shorter (6 hours) flight. After you have been on an airplane for 10 hours, 6 hours seems short. Not really. The flight was fine and on time and Corrine was there to pick us up. Unlike our normal ritual, we did not unpack our bags upon arriving home, but rather just got ready for bed. 

We should have unpacked our bags because even though we had been up since 2:00 PM Saturday afternoon MST and it was now approaching midnight of Sunday (34 hours with little sleep in the form of naps) we could not fall asleep. It was due to something called, Jet-lag. I have come to find that you can expect to take 1 day of recovery for each time zone hour difference. We were 18 hours different from MST while in Sydney due to the International Date Line. So an 18 day recovery period is not something I looked forward to. We finally slept from about 3:00 AM until 8:00 AM. Here is what my friend Wikipedia says about jet-lag:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_lag

It took more than a week for us to get back on our sleeping schedule, but frankly, if that is the only downside to our trip, I will take it. 

Our penultimate (I just love that word) day

Saturday was our chance to do anything we wanted as we had achieved everything on our primary list. We considered the ferry to Manly Island, but decided that sunbathing and the long ferry ride were not at the top of our list. We considered going out to the Blue Mountains, but that seemed like mostly a chance to look at beautiful scenery and we decided to take their word for it. Given Felice's love of street fairs, we chose to go to Paddington Market. So we decided to try our first meal in the hotel. The hostess told us that we could sit and wait about 20 minutes to give our order, but that they were not going to be cooking for at least 20-30 minutes, so breakfast would be elsewhere. Once done with breakfast, we were briefed by the concierge on how to get to the Market. We took the 380 bus and eventually got to the Paddington area of Sydney. Lots of avant garde shops are the hallmark of the area.

We walked for about 30 minutes and found the market which was held in the Paddington School. It was very cool and they had a bunch of booths. We bought a few things there including some food and gifts. In general they had a little art, food, clothing and antiques. After a half hour, we headed down the street to see the rest of the area, before taking our 380 bus back.

We stopped at Hyde Park as the Wine and Food Festival we had scoped out was on-going. There were 70+ wineries represented as well as 25 food outlets.

Of course we ignored the wine, but we did have a bit of an eclectic lunch with ice cream as a chaser. There was lots of music and it really had a nice vibe.

While in Hyde Park, we visited the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial. It was very touching.

During one of our earlier excursions in New Zealand we learned that the New Zealand people have a genuine affection for the US due to US troops coming to their rescue in World War II while their armies were far, far away. Very good to know.

We walked back to the hotel down Elizabeth Street, not even knowing that we walked right past the Cafe that had been the subject of a terrorist hostage event in mid-December 2014.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/20/sydney-siege-timeline-how-a-day-and-night-of-terror-unfolded-at-the-lindt-cafe

Upon reflection, that was very sobering. We stopped at McDonald's for bathroom facilities and internet and then to the Apple Store for internet (faster speed). Back at the hotel, we booked our transfer to the airport and then headed upstairs to relax. We found a one hour documentary on the encroachment of civilization on the koalas and how they are trying to adapt. That was very interesting.

We decided to try the restaurant at the hotel again and this time, they were cooking, although not very quickly. I was surprised to find that for the first time, a retail establishment told me that if I paid for my meal with a credit card, they would assess me a fee, so I showed her and paid cash. The food was fairly good and the scenery was pretty good so it was a pleasant dinner. We didn't particularly like their selection of desserts, so wouldn't you know it, we went to Max Brenner's for dessert and then headed to the hotel to pack.