Sydney

I left my house just after 1pm on December 31 to go to the Portland airport, meet Jana and Clark (see obligatory carpet picture), fly to San Francisco then fly to Sydney. Long story short, arrived at the lodging in Sydney about 10am on January 2. No, not 45 hours later, only 26 hours. Some longer than others. Given that it’s only a 5 hour time difference (technically 19 hours) it’s not so much “jet lag” as it is recovering from the all-nighter on the plane with limited sleep. 

When we were at the gate in San Francisco, they announced they’d give $2,000 to 17 people who would be willing to give up their seat to take the next flight in a few hours. Sounded reasonable, so Jana and I went to investigate and agreed to do it (while Clark stayed with our bags), and we became volunteers 13, 14 and 15. We were told not to board the flight, so we watched the waiting area clear as we awaited our new seat assignments. Eventually we were told to board, as they decided only 12 people needed to switch flights. Oh well, easy come, easy go. 

The flight was fine. After we landed in Sydney and people were about to deplane, they announced that none of the checked luggage was on board. Grumble. We cleared customs fairly efficiently, then waited over an hour (with everyone else on the flight who checked bags) to report our bags did not arrive and provide the address. Fortunately, our driver from the airport to the hotel waited patiently for us. 

Got to the hotel, dropped carry on bags and went exploring. No particular plan, but consensus that we needed to say awake until (at least) 8pm. Walked to the Opera House (there’s a better picture from today), but this is a nice one of the Harbour Bridge. 

After lunch, June (my roommate this cruise) joined us and we meandered through the Botanical Gardens spotting lots of birds — the first of which was an ibis (seen en route to the opera house) and my favorite being the rainbow lorikeet pair we saw —  beautiful flowers, and a statue of a flyFound two caches, walked nearly 13K steps. 

Ate dinner at the hotel, joined by Don and Vickie and greeted by other friends. Kept checking the AirTag on my bag to see if it left San Francisco (couldn’t tell, and the expected flight was over 4 hours delayed). Went to sleep after 8:30 so mission accomplished. 

Today was fantastic! After breakfast, I met with Matt who is one of Australia’s geocaching reviewers (yes, he’s in the book) who was kind enough to drive 2 hours from his home to take me around Sydney for the day. We met in 2016 in San Diego and visited in 2022 in Seattle, not sure if there are any other times we’ve been in the same place before today. He planned what had looked incredibly ambitious but turned out to be the perfect mix of driving and caching in the suburbs, and a wonderful mix of walking and caching in the tourist area of Sydney. 

This morning we found a few old caches, including Australia’s oldest, a few caches Matt hadn’t yet found, and had a lovely conversation that meandered across many topics. At the first cache we walked through old military bunkers (fortunately there were walls but no ceiling since the bunkers were designed for shorter people). At another cache we walked up a fairly steep hill covered with (slippery) dried (beautifully scented) eucalyptus leaves — it took longer than it should have to find the cache, but I prudently kept one of the sticks we’d used to try to find it which was quite useful while descending the hill. On the way to and from said hill were lots of ferns. And yes, we visited a huge cemetery where we eventually found what we were looking for. Let the record show that as we returned to the car after finding a cache, most of the time I successfully remembered to go to the left front seat of the car, the one without the steering wheel. 

After a tasty Thai lunch in a Sydney suburb we found some “old” remains of earlier construction. Old of course is a relative term — in Europe something from 1700 is not old, but since the European explorers hadn’t “discovered” Australia until 1788, anything here from the 1800s is “old”. 

We drove back to the area near the hotel and took a long walk which, surprise(!), led us past more caches. There was one near the birdcage art installation  — I’ve seen lots of these with umbrellas, this was my first with bird caches. There was also a cache near the (artificial) Christmas tree, and one inside the “QVB” (Queen Victoria Building) that was about the clocks. 

Here’s my view of the opera house, just before finding some delicious sorbet at the quay that definitely hit the spot on a warm, sunny day! 

I really wanted the chocolate sorbet but the lemon called to me so I treated myself to two scoops, both of which were delicious. Without a doubt the best southern hemisphere sorbet I’ve ever had (that’s not damning it with faint praise as it will be hard to beat but I will do my best this trip to compare other offerings). 

A memorable day shared with a “cousin” — what could be better? I’m so fortunate to be part of the reviewer family, and it’s always a delight to get to spend time with other members of the family!  

Then a nice Japanese dinner with the 5 Portlanders on the cruise plus June, a nightcap with Jana, Clark and June, cache logging, blogging, and now about to call it a night. 

Yes, the luggage is in Australia. No, it’s not with me yet. We will know more tomorrow. 

Happy to have explored Sydney a bit, looking forward to the adventures the cruise has to offer. 

Update January 4 7am: Good news is that my bag has arrived. Also good news, Clark’s bag has arrived. Unfortunately, the bad news is that Jana’s bag has not arrived. 

Update January 4 about 8pm: Jana and her bag are now in the same place, though not without headaches and advocacy from Jana, our travel agent, the hotel, the ship and perhaps others.