July 15, 2010 – Victoria, Canada
In the beauty of a cyber world and something to do with time-space continuity…we’re actually home in Canada as you read this. Twelve months since we moved out of our house and 11 months on the road…reality now nipping at our heels. We attempted to make this shorter than New Zealand, and we have included not only Sydney, but Fiji and Hawaii, too. More bang for your interwebs dollar!
Loved, loved, loved the beautiful city of Sydney. Our initial impression may have been enhanced by our very posh Emirates flight from Auckland. Up to this point, flying luxury for us was when the plane landed in one piece. So what a bonus to find Air Emirates part of our RTW ticket package! And, oh, my…. what a package! The double-decker A380 is the world’s biggest passenger aircraft with 489 seats, 14 suites, lie-flat seats and for $10,000 you can go first class and indulge oneself with a lounge and two shower spas. We sat in legroom heaven, front row exit seats. During the take off and landing our Malaysian flight attendant, Alicia, excitedly told us all about the plane, including some famous people (John Travolta??) who have been aboard. The cabin crew of 24 were extremely friendly as they served up gourmet chef-prepared meals, accompanied with what looked like your grandmothers cutlery, complimentary wine…. and with such a personal touch, you swear you have settled into the wrong side of the first class curtain.
Once in Sydney, we booked into the new YHA Hostel in the historic Rocks District and what a fantastic location. We referred to it as the “Hilton Hostel”…the well-appointed kitchen, the view of the Opera House, along with the magnificent harbour made the “strip your own bed before checkout” rule passably charming. The YHA is raised off the ground, sitting on pillars and there’s an on-site archaeology education centre over the exposed structural remains dating from 1795. TheBig Dig is the largest archaeological urban development ever completed in Australia. I bet Ann’s neighbour, the famous palaeontologist Dr. “Gigi” Edgecombe, has been there. Apparently, next to Ann, he’s the second smartest resident to come out of Albert County.
Sydney has a laid back “hustle” feel to it, heaps of street performers, open-air markets, outstanding shopping, and much to our delight, but our liver’s mortification…. oodles of pubs dripping in character and SpecTAPular microbeers from which to choose! We enjoyed a night of Mahler at the Opera House, walked across Harbour Bridge and strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens & Hyde Park. We spent an afternoon sailing and brunching on the Southern Swan, an 1850’s style tall ship, in the Sydney Harbour. And, just to keep up appearances, we threw in a hair trim and colour for $300!!!! Oh dear God! What is it with woman’s hair stylists and prices way beyond reasonable sense? Shouldn’t there by some sort of consumer investigation to look into these price fixing/scalp-gouging cartels?? A guy can walk down town, waltzing Matilda into any barbershop, read the latest girly magazine and get a decent haircut for two bob and a quid, including tip. Strike me bloody handsome!
The Blue Mountain District is a World Heritage site and one of the main destinations for Sydneysiders looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Two hours west of the city is the small town of Katoomba where we arrived by train in the early afternoon. After the half-mile trek to the hostel, we took advantage of the great weather and trekked another 2 miles to view the Three Sisters. These sandstone rock formations are one of the best-known attractions in Australia. Verdant green bushland, as far as the eye can see, stretched out from the cliff-top lookout. Britain’s Parliament believed that this “insurmountable” barrier would deter convicts from trying to escape. Some of the early settlers (aka convicts) initially figured there was great farmland beyond the mountains. As it turned out there was, but not due to any great insight on their part…they believed China was just on the other side, as well??
There’s a great story about George Caley who set off to find a route to the other side, back in 1804. Caley and his men got hopelessly lost in the maze of forest and eventually lost their horses when they neglected to tie them up…oops. And, on the same expedition, while Caley climbed a ridge to get his bearings, his men stayed put and learned a sobering lesson as they watched their campfire turn into a roaring bushfire. So old George missed out on the honour of being the first to cross the “impenetrable” Blue Mountains. It would take another 9 years before the first Europeans succeeded in crossing the Blue Mountains. While all this was going on, some escaped cattle had found their way to Burragorang, on the other side, simply by following the natural stock routes through the region. Follow the cow paddy road, Dorothy.
The Three Sisters made for a striking image in the setting sun. As we hiked towards them, we overheard a little 5 year old girl walking hand in hand with her mom remark in the cutest British accent, that they “were not really sisters, they were just good friends!”
Digs for the night was in the historic YHA Hostel. Beautifully restored, with stained glass windows, large reading room, fireplaces, pool tables and a huge stage area and dance floor from its days as a busy boarding house for the local miners. The next day we woke to thick fog blanketing the entire valley floor. Weather is everything; suddenly our breath taking view was replaced by pea soup. But, that too was a truly amazing site. A quick gondola trip took us across the canyon to the Giant Stairway bushwalk leading us down into the Jamison Valley…1000ft down and some 800 dodgy steps below. And the birds, glorious and you have to love the names – laughing kookaburras, gang gangs, crimson rosellas, grey and pied currawongs. “Currawong” sounds like something one would utter after ordering curry at a Chinese restaurant! After a good walk-about, we rode the retrofitted, former coal train back up 5 hours later, elated by the sites, but nursing sore muscles!
We caught the next train out of Dodge, well Katoomba, to Port Stephens passing through towns with bizarre names; ZigZag, Woy Woy, Bullaburra and even a Toronto…and funny…they don’t have a hockey team either! It rained buckets as our bus let us off at the Samurai Beach hostel, right in the middle of…well appropriately enough, a rain forest. Koalas and other undetermined nocturnal creatures roamed in and around our thatched roof bungalow. Only stayed long enough to enjoy a night of listening to the rain pelt down upon the roof while curiously cocking our heads like dogs at the strange wildlife sounds emanating from outside.
Back in Sydney we continued our crazy 50-something bar crawling, lasting way into the wee hours, which for us is 3 pubs, and than crawling into bed by 10:17. But, we needed our beauty sleep for the next day when we sailed the be-Jesus out of Spirit ’92, Australia’s America Cup yacht!! For 4 hours, 12 of us crewed, took turns at the helm and manned the grinders (wenches) with winds up to 20 and 25 knots!! Ken and Ron…this boat had the #5 Genoa up and we were going 13 knots…the 60 footer taps out at 17 knots! The keel weighed 19 tons, but of course, they had to back it off a bit before losing $100,000+ mast. Wow…we sure got our money’s worth ($90) and wind worth that day!! And not without some usual comedic relief…there was one odd looking bloke we swore was Kramer from Seinfeld. His face was plastered white with sunscreen giving him a sickly pall tone not unlike the Seinfeld- Kramer after he smoked his brains out on Cuban cigars. No sign of Jackie Chiles, his intrepid attorney, however!!
Our other nautical experience involved taking the ferry to Manly. The seas were rough that day my friends. It was actually quite frightening as this “Tommy the Tug Boat” looking vessel heaved and rolled in 4m swells and 2m chops. The cross over was pretty wild but we were just naïve enough to figure it was normal. However, on the sail back we grabbed great seats up front in the fresh sea air (again, a newbie mistake), set off and we were immediately smothered by this rogue wave, completely soaking us, the camera, and everyone around us. We bounced to and fro for a good 15 minutes until we reached the calm of Circular Quay.
It was time to bid the beautiful “Harbour City” a fond goodbye or as an Aussie would say,” make like a guillotine and head off”. Home was becoming an ever-closer reality for us so to calm ourselves we stopped off in glorious Fiji on our way. We knew the warm Polynesian climate would warm up our bones after the cruel and harsh Australian winter. Okay, it wasn’t that bad. But, Sydney does have a Winter Festival where you can go ice skating along side Australia’s most famous stretch of sand at Bondi Beach.
Arriving after 7:00 in the evening, we had arranged for a water taxi to take us to Mana Island. Now a boat trip across the glistening blue Pacific sounds quite exhilarating but try doing it in total darkness! No sign of lights on shore, crashing through waves, searching for obscure channel markers and watching schools of fish leaping out of the water along side us…it was harrowing! And then, like refugees, we rolled up our pant legs and walked to shore with our packs over our heads. But, what can you say about a place with warm breezes, azure seas, a virtually private white-sand beach, a gin bottle close to our hearts and snorkelling that blew your fins off!! Well, there is one thing you can say…”Don’t eat the dinner special on the last night!” Ann came down with severe food poisoning. The sweats, delirium and severe stomach cramps all made for a gruelling night of pain. The next day we had to board the ferry to catch a flight to Honolulu. The resort staff offered lots of help and sympathy to get off the island …the lawsuit radar going off, perhaps?? Once back on the mainland we headed to a clinic where Ann ended up on an IV and doctor’s orders not to fly. But we had a plane to catch, it would cost us huge to change our plans, what to do, what to do?? I tried to convince Ann to walk it off but after the third time picking her up off the floor and wiping the drool from her mouth, I relented and cancelled the flight.
5 days later we finally arrived in Honolulu, the good old USA…now this is the real “we have it all” western world! Keeping strictly to a Jimmie Buffett theme we hung out in Waikiki and frequented Cheese Burger in Paradise and Margaritaville! We found service staff extraordinary here. And, there was no better example of this than our faux pas getting to the airport our last night. Now, we have been pretty good our whole year at remembering everything as we left one place or another. Sure, there was a camera here, a plane cushion there and our sanity often left everywhere, but a 6 ft long musical instrument? Our airport shuttle arrived right on time; we threw our packs on to the bus and settled in for the ride. But, you know that nagging “did we leave the oven on” kind of feeling?? Halfway there, Ann suddenly asks if we had the didgeridoo we had been carting with us since Australia. Panic ensued when we realized it was still standing in a corner back at our hotel. But, God love the drivers and staff of the Honolulu Airport Shuttle. They calmly got on the radios and phones and delivered the didgeridoo to us just before the gates closed.
WestJet got us into Vancouver safe and sound, but charged us extra if we breathed too heavy. Air Emirates they weren’t! We caught the Greyhound bus to the ferry. Actually, it took two buses and a dash of disorder but, hey, they’ve had their issues. Good friends and faithful supporters Don and Bonnie picked us up at the other end of a very picturesque ferry ride.
Liberally adopting the belief that “the liver is evil, it must be punished” we sampled copious amounts of Don’s personally brewed beer (best brew master in the world!), and talked about our travels and compared stories from their round the world trip in ’86. Two fun filled and eventful weeks flew by too fast, but reality was biting us in the butt, especially when they handed us a bill for the beer we drank!! We flew to Kelowna, lamenting once again about arriving at another airport with no one to greet us, but Mike, always full of wonderful surprises, was standing in Arrivals holding a sign reading “Flip Gunderson”. An inside joke but a good one! Thank you, Mike and Sierra for a lovely 4 days of hiking, golf, biking, 3-D movies and playing with little Loki.
So, it’s off to Phase II of our excellent adventure. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs like, “Hey, We’re Living in the Car!” and “Job Search This!”
Comments
Doug Simpson: Sounds like a great trip ,I got to go to Arthur Last week sort of the same. Need a job come to Ontario and pick sweet corn.
Aunt Joan: Hi Tim and Ann
We heard you are back in Canada. We hope you are well. Where will you be living?
I have been looking at some of your pictures and videos. Wonderful trip.
Love Keith and Joan
Rick Olsson: Ahem….you have a relative on Vancouver Island ya know! Don’t blame you for staying with the people who have a brewery tho…lol
Barb McAlpine: Sorry we missed seeing you when you were in Fergus. Jean was certain you would come back to see her…!!!! Spoke to the Wests and hear congratulations are in order on your recent marriage. All the best for a continued happy future together.