Regular Top Comments readers may know that my partner and I recently went on a vacation trip Down Under, visiting Australia and New Zealand. We’ll get to that momentarily. I would warn you that there are plenty of pictures below the fold, but there’s no longer a fold. And no orange croissants. This is my first Top Comments diary, and my first photo diary, since DK5 was installed. Enjoy this brave new world.
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Tonight’s FEature presentation: the saga begins
The central focus of this vacation was a 12-night cruise from Sydney Australia, to Auckland New Zealand, on board the ship Celebrity Solstice. Our itinerary included two nights in Sydney before the start of the cruise, and four nights in Auckland afterward.
We began the adventure with a short-hop 1.5 hour flight from Calgary to Vancouver, followed by a 14.5 hour flight from Vancouver to Sydney on an Air Canada 777. Accounting for our departure from Vancouver shortly before midnight, the time zones we zipped through, and the International Date Line, this flight landed 2 calendar days after it departed. Wheels up on Wednesday, and touch down on Friday. On the flight, we were served a full dinner at the equivalent of 2AM in our home time zone, before the crew dimmed the lights and put us to bed for several hours. Sleep was, for me, pretty much non-existent.
Australia is very particular about what gets into their country, and they take preventative measures. Upon landing in Sydney, we were all told to remain seated while local Bio Security agents boarded. All of the overhead compartments in the entire airplane were opened, and sprayed with what I think was insecticide. Then we waited several more minutes before being allowed to get up and exit.
The immigration process at the Sydney airport itself was pretty quick. On board, we had all filled out our Australian immigration cards. With those, and our passports in hand, a friendly agent led us through the process of using their self-service kiosks to scan our passports and look into a camera that took our photos on the spot. We could have easily figured out the system, but at 9:30AM that morning in a nearly empty Customs hall, the friendly agent seemed to be looking for something to do.
We arrived at our hotel a full 24 hours after leaving home (including drive time, airport check-in and wait, etc.) Three of Partner’s relatives were joining us on this vacation, but they were arriving on a separate flight, a few hours later. In the meantime, we walked from the hotel to nearby Chinatown, on this lovely springtime day. We stopped for a ramen lunch along the way.
Two bowls of ramen cost us $30 Australian dollars, about $22 U.S. or $29 Canadian. For us, this was expensive and an indication of the cost of eating in Sydney. And, meh, I've had better. Something that bothered me was the faucet visible in the right side of the picture above. It ran water continuously while we were seated at that counter. Nobody used any of that water, or went anywhere near it. Straight down the drain. That ain’t right, no matter what country you're in.
Speaking of water, how about this:
Nine bucks for a bottle of water in the hotel room. Not that we ever do, but we took special care not to open that pricey stuff.
We passed through a convenience store, where I spotted “Golden Gaytime” in a freezer unit. I looked, but didn’t touch.
After a short afternoon nap, and the family arrival, we headed back to Chinatown to have a nosey, as the Aussies might say, and some dinner. Some of you will already know that my partner, and hence his family, is Chinese. We ate at a particular restaurant that had been recommended to Partner’s sister. It turned out to be very expensive, and not very good. Most of the dishes were bland to the point of being tasteless.
We were all in our respective beds very soon after dinner, and after a very long travel session. I slept 9 hours that night, but awoke pretty well adjusted to the new time zone.
The next morning, we had a light breakfast in the hotel’s club lounge. (Partner travels extensively on business and has accumulated lots of airline, hotel, and car “frequent flyer” points that make vacation travel more comfortable.) It was quite good, and the price was right.
Well in advance of the trip, we had arranged a private driver with a mini-bus for the five of us, and several points of interest to which he drove us. The driver picked us up at 9:30AM, and off we went to see the famous Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Pivoting around from approximately the position above to look the other direction, you see a portion of the city’s skyline:
The bridge is just to the right of that ship in the picture. That’s not our ship; two days later, our ship would be docked in the same position. Our Celebrity Solstice, much larger, carries several of that P&O ship as lifeboats. I may be exaggerating only slightly.
Although we didn’t, you could sit and have a drink or a meal right there at the water’s edge, with your ducks in a row.
OK, they aren’t ducks. But they are in a row.
I love grand old trees. This one is at Rose Bay, one of the stops our driver took us to.
From this same park, you can look back at the Opera House and the Bridge together, from a different angle.
Walking around this park, you can come across a number of free-range birds.
Our next stop was the Sydney Fish Market, a busy place to buy fresh fish, or sit down and eat some of the abundant prepared seafoods.
The fresh seafood seems expensive to me, though I’m no expert on seafood.
Our lunch on this day was at Doyle’s on the Beach, part of a small local chain of restaurants. This is my plate of John Dory fish & chips. They charged $44.50 AUD for this. That’s $32 USD or $43 CAD. It was quite good, and a considerable sized portion, but expensive.
Our table was outside under an awning, and came with a spectacular view. The city skyline and the crest of the Harbour Bridge can be seen in the background.
Resuming the drive, we stopped at a beautiful scenic outlook known as The Gap or Gap Bluff.
Then it was on to Bondi Beach. Not Bindi, that’s different.
The last major stop of this day was a touristy area back near the cruise ship dock known as The Rocks. Here’s another fascinating old tree in a passageway in the area.
As an amateur photographer, I am fascinated by textures. In The Rocks, there’s a portion of an old-style roadway with wooden blocks. The wood is cut horizontally, charred, and laid out in grid fashion. I got down low to the ground and played with depth of field to illustrate the wood textures. This is not a black and white shot. It uses the natural lighting and color of the wood blocks.
Boo! This day was October 31. Do the math.
The following day, we headed about an hour north of Sydney, to the Australian Reptile Park. They have American alligators,
and a big crocodile named Elvis,
birds,
more birds,
even more birds,
Lace monitors,
giant tortoises,
koalas,
and even kangaroos
that have free run of the place, and you can hand-feed.
For lunch on this day, we went to Harrigan’s Irish Pub in Hunter Valley. The five of us agreed that this was one of the best meals of the entire trip. I had fish and chips, which was just as good if not better than I had the day before at Doyle's, and significantly less expensive.
Our driver then took us around some of the wineries in Hunter Valley, where we had samples, and also bought some bottles of wine to take with us on the cruise. (Celebrity allows passengers to bring on board 2 bottles of wine per cabin. Partner and I were in one cabin; the other three travelling with us were in another.)
As we drove back to the hotel late in the afternoon, entering the city of Sydney we were bombarded by a freak hail storm.
The next day was a bit on the chilly side, but still sunny and bright. And it’s my birthday. And it’s embarkation day! Finally we are on board the ship, around 11AM for lunch, with a 6:30PM sail-away. The ship is docked in a position with the Opera House on the port side, and the Harbour Bridge to starboad. This view is from Deck 14 at the aft end of the ship.
I got out my long zoom lens for this shot: you can go on a guided climb of the Harbour bridge. Adult prices for that range from $158 (AUD) to more than twice that, depending on day, time of day, and add-ons that you purchase. We didn’t do that. I shot it from the ship.
As the sun went down, the ship backed away from the dock, turned and sailed away (going beside then away from the bridge, not under it) with the sun glistening just above the horizon.
With the warm glow of the Opera House behind us, we said goodbye to Sydney.
Next stop: The off-shore Australian state of Tasmania.
Top Comments for Monday November 23, 2015
From expatjourno:
Jrooth hilariously helps out a chronologically challenged Clinton supporter in “I’ll never be #ReadyforHillary” by BigRedBlackGuy.
Hmmm…
Some of us don’t think there is much chance that an 80 year old nominee — the oldest nominee in 228 years — can win the general election. Sanders will be a few months short of 80 years old by end of his term if elected.
Guess it’s a good thing the election comes before the beginning of his term rather than after the end, right?
From Avilyn:
I'd like to nominate this comment by Jon Sitzman because it is just so touching and true. From Leslie Salzillo's diary "Little boy who gave $20 to vandalized mosque receives a special surprise". Really the whole diary is worth a read, but definitely bring a tissue!
Love doesn’t divide — it multiplies! Beautiful!
From Angela Marx:
This comment by codypup in this story “Ben Carson admits he knows nothing about police brutality; also has no plans to address it” by Vann R Newkirk II
(my fav new FP writer, by the way!)
For producing something just as mangled as the actual words erupting from the piehole in Ben Carson’s face.
It's hilariously fun to read. This is just the LAST sentence:
I could tracheotomy the guy on the dinner table, and brainyize him in minutes. I also sell books. Did I mention that? Healing Hands. Gifted Hands. My left foot. My right testicle. Maybe you are familiar with my work.
Bwahahahaha
From grover:
pat of butter in a sea of grits deftly uses understatement to illustrate Ben Carson's precarious hold on reality in Hunter's Front Page Diary today “Ben Carson says he too saw imaginary footage of New Jersey residents celebrating 9/11”.
Is there anything that never happened that Ben Carson doesn’t believe?
From Tim Eastman: Ken in MN discusses the distribution chain in By One Pissed Off Liberal’s diary “You can’t change a corrupt system by taking its money”.
Ha! Taxing the obscenely wealthy isn’t redistribution...
...it’s re-re-distribution, getting back the 35 years of productivity gains they STOLE from us by rewriting the rules, rigging the game, and buying off the refs! As far as your supposition that government programs consume 90% of their funding in administrative costs, BULLSHIT! Medicare and Social Security have overhead costs of approximately 3%. We had to pass laws just to get health insurance corporations to get their overhead costs down to 20%. EPIC FAIL!
TOP MOJO for Sunday november 22, 2015
TOP Photos for sunday november 22, 2015