Day 57: Sydney, Australia

Saturday, 4 March 2017
At Sea — Tasman Sea

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:30p (AEDT) … UTC 10:30a (4 March)
Temp: 72.3F (22.4C)
Position: 33.43.07S / 151.28.32E

Don’t worry about the world ending today,
it’s already tomorrow in Australia.
~ Charles Schulz ~

Gaining an hour overnight.  I hate to say it, but could that be just about all that was good about our visit to Sydney?  That, and the sail in this morning, and the sail out tonight.  Oh wait, lunch at the fish market was good, too.  And the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge were darned nice, too.  So maybe there was more that I enjoyed than I thought I did.  Now that the backache that hounded me all day is no longer making me cringe, I am looking back on the day through different glasses.

I’ve been racking my brain to find the right word to describe our day in Sydney.  The best I can come up with is that it was filled with fits and starts.  First, we were going to tour the city with a schoolmate of Mui’s; a family illness called her away to Turkey; we rejiggered our plans for self-guided sightseeing.  Then we arrived in Sydney and so did the rain that followed us from Eden.  It rained; it stopped … and then the liquid sunshine repeated the cycle — sometimes light; often in torrents … when we were out walking of course.   We decided to check out an indoor attraction; the sun came out; we changed our minds and stayed outdoors … only to have it rain again.  We went for a walk; the rain started; we put on our ponchos and continued walking … then the rain stopped; we took off our ponchos.  We headed over to the iconic Sydney Opera House for a tour; the lines were long; we decided to skip it in lieu of a stroll in the Royal Botanic Gardens when the sun peeked out; we started to walk; the rain started … again.  And so it went.

Yup, fits and starts is the best way to describe our day in Sydney … a city that is said to be a microcosm of all of Australia.

But let me start from the beginning of our day … which started with rain.  We sighed and went to have breakfast at the Terrace Café while Captain Luca slowed down to pick up the pilot.  As Insignia made its way towards Sydney Harbour, we waited to see if the weather was going to cooperate for the sail in — which we were told was one of the “world’s great maritime moments.”

Sure enough … the weather gods took pity on us, and as the coastal sandstone cliffs opened up to reveal the pearl inside — Sydney — the sun came out for a while.  Mui went up to deck 11 forward to do a time lapse video of the sail in.  I checked out decks 10 and 11, but they were crowded with passengers awaiting the grand entrance into the city.  So, I headed down to deck 5.  Surprise — there were just one or two people there.  Nice!  Positioned on the port side of the ship, I was in the right place for my first glimpse of the iconic and UNESCO-World-Heritage-Site-listed Sydney Opera House … with its distinctive roofline resembling a series of shells.  Beautiful indeed.  And docked across from it was the only ship sharing the port with us — a too-big-to-go-under the Sydney Harbour Bridge Royal Caribbean ship that relegated us to the more distant White Bay Cruise Terminal.

After Insignia passed under the Harbour Bridge, I moved to the veranda for the rest of the sail in.  Good timing … I now had a full view of the bridge and the dark clouds that hid the sun from view.  Suddenly the heavens opened up in a deluge.  And the beautiful cityscape became veiled by a thick curtain of rain.  Alrighty.  Time to get ready to disembark.

Before leaving New Zealand waters, Australian Border Force representatives had joined the ship for the Tasman Sea crossing and we had done a face-to-face meeting with them already.  As well, the ship had gone through additional formalities on arriving in Eden, our first port of call in Australia.  Nonetheless, it took about 30 minutes before we were given the all clear to disembark the ship around 9:30a.  By this time, the line to get off was long, but somehow we managed to catch the first O-operated free shuttle bus to King’s Wharf at Darling Harbour.

It was still drizzling when we got off the bus and joined forces with Sonia and Boris, who, like us, had decided against taking the ferry from White Bay to Barangaroo.  Debating what to do, we figured that visiting the aquarium would be a good indoors activity on a rainy morning.  But just then the sun came out, so we changed our plans.  The shuttle bus driver had discouraged us from walking to the Opera House, saying it was too far.  In hindsight, we could have done the walk.  Oh well.  Instead, we hopped on the ferry to Circular Quay — AUD $6.90/person (~ USD $5.25) for a single use ticket.

The ride to Circular Quay retraced part of our sail in route.  It wasn’t raining at that point, so we stayed out on the forward deck to enjoy the scenery, and take advantage of the photo op at the Opera House when the captain stopped there for a few minutes before continuing to the ferry berth.  From there it was a short walk around the harbor to the immense plaza in front of the Opera House — a perfect spot for photo ops that include the Harbour Bridge as well.

We were taking advantage of said photo ops when it started to rain.  On went the ponchos and we decided to head over to the Opera House even though we had been told that it was closed for tours due to restoration work in progress.  Well, there were tours, but the line to get tickets was long and we didn’t have the patience to wait … especially since the sun was out again.

Instead, we strolled through the Queen Elizabeth II Gate to take in the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Our plan was to follow the flat paved path along Farm Cove to get to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair … exposed sandstone cut in the shape of a bench … with a vantage point over the city that affords beautiful views.  We didn’t get far before it started raining — in torrents at times.  Rain on, rain off … we persisted in our walk, seeking shelter under the trees, taking photos of the birds and the flowers when the wet stuff allowed.  But the on again, off again rain started wearing on all of us.  So, we decided to take a break and get some lunch.

Cockatoos	Masked Lapwing

A bustling area filled with shops selling fresh catch from surrounding waters greeted us when our cab dropped us off at the Sydney Fish Market … and it started to rain again.  Sigh.  Quick … le’s get out of the rain and find a restaurant serving some of that catch.  A local I had chatted with online had suggested Doyle’s as a good place to eat.  Purely by luck, it was the first place we came to when we entered the big arcade that was lined with shops and restaurants.  The place was hopping, but we managed to snag a table.

No question about what we were going to eat — fish & chips.  But in hindsight, we could have ordered a mixed seafood platter to share amongst the four of us.  We were all licking our chops, more than satisfied with our meal, when we closed the lids of the take-out style boxes in which our food had been served.  A few minutes to brave the crowds in the main hallway to check out the fresh seafood vendors and their colorful display cases, and we were ready to move on to the next part of our day.

Picking up the handset of a nearby phone that carried the sign, “Call us and we’ll send a cab,” we ordered our transportation back to Darling Harbour.  Of course, it started to rain again.  Time for an indoor attraction.  And since we were already there, we decided the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium would be it.  The line to buy tickets was long … very long.  So, we put Sonia to work with her T-mobile phone.  She got on the website and purchased the tickets online.  Thus we skipped the line and went right in.  And found ourselves in the midst of horrendous crowds.  Oh my goodness.

The visit to the aquarium turned out to be a big mistake.  Hoards crowded the exhibits and it was impossible to see what was in most of the small tanks without what seemed like interminable waits.  Kids were running all over the place and those that weren’t were being held up to the display tanks where they were smearing the glass.  Selfies galore at every turn.  Walking through the glass tunnels under the tanks was a challenge of navigating through the crowds.  Eventually, we gave up and walked through the place at a good clip, stopping only to check out some of the more unique creatures in the tanks.

Crown of Thorn … a coral-eating star.

Although we all felt worn out, we didn’t want to leave without at least a stroll around Darling Harbour, so we set out to do that.  Any other time, Mui and I might have stayed behind when Sonia and Boris called it a day — especially since the sun was finally out again — but my back was killing me, so we followed suit and headed to the shuttle bus stop with them.

We were back on the ship shortly after 5:00p.  I was just getting ready to sit on the veranda to relax when the heavens opened up again.  Sigh!  But at least this time we didn’t get wet.  And the really good news — the wet stuff was over by the time Insignia departed the White Bay Cruise Terminal at 8:00p.  Mui set up his GoPro — this time on the veranda — to do a time lapse of our night-time sail out.

With the rain holding off and the twinkling lights of the city set against the inky backdrop of the sky, there is only one word that describes what we saw — magical.  The city may have given us a soggy welcome today, but it bookended that experience with a spectacular sail in and sail out.

Tonight we gain another hour.  I thought it odd since the time zone map showed the entire coast in the same time zone, but apparently Brisbane does not observe DST.  The extra hour of rest — and a day at sea — will be much appreciated by my back.  And maybe it will give the wet stuff forecasted for our next port of call a chance to move out.

© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.