Off to Australia

Our trip to Australia and the South Pacific had been over three years in the planning. We first booked an 18 night cruise from Honolulu to Sydney with stops in Tahiti, Bora Bora and New Zealand on January 3, 2020 with a sail date of September 29, 2021. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, we decided to book the opposite direction trip from Sydney to Hawai'i in May 2020 with a sail date of April 17, 2022. As expected, the first cruise was cancelled and then in July 2021, our 2022 sailing was also cancelled. We moved our cruise out to April 19, 2023 and prayed it would sail. In January 2022, we learned Bora Bora had been removed from the itinerary and replaced with Raietea. We considered cancelling but learned Raietea was a prettier island than Bora Bora, so we kept our reservation despite our disappointment at missing out on seeing Bora Bora.

So finally, on April 12, we took an Uber to Orlando airport and boarded a Delta flight to Los Angeles and then a 14-hour overnight flight to Sydney. We caught our first glimpse of the famous Opera House out the window as we flew over the city on April 14.

Circular Quay

We arrived tired and excited and ordered an Uber that took us to the Rydges Sydney Harbour hotel. We dropped off our bags and used the facilities and then headed to Circular Quay. We had decided on taking the hop-on, hop-off harbour cruise which would take us across the harbor first to Taronga Zoo.

Taronga Zoo

Once at the zoo, we took a bus to the upper entrance and went in search of Australian wildlife. It was a dreary overcast day and even the animals did not want to come out. The koalas were sleeping in the trees as we tried to visit them, but we were able to see lemurs and kangaroos and wombats. The koalas cooperated later in the day, munching on eucalyptus while we admired them. It rained heavily mid-day so we found shelter in a gift shop and donned our jackets until the storm passed.

Harbour Tour

The hop-on, hop-off pass turned out to be a waste of money, but that was not because of the tour company, but because we were too tired to get off at any of the other stops and explore. But we did get a nice harbor tour, although a very rocky one, to Manly Beach.

We returned to Circular Quay where we found a late lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes where a burger and fish and chips took care of our hunger. We claimed our bags from the bellhop and went up the room in the late afternoon to relax and we fell asleep very early.