Sydney, Australia

 Day 77 & 78 Sydney, Australia then beyond

It’s the final day of our 77-day cruise, but the adventures of Jen and Jerry will continue for another 3
weeks as they venture on their own, in a nondescript rental car, onto the North and South Islands of
New Zealand. Feel free to keep reading…when they can find enough Wi-fi to communicate.
First, Sydney.

We sailed in to this beautiful port in heavy clouds and intermittent rain. The iconic Opera House is not
diminished by rain. What a lovely addition to an already eye-popping harbor.

Australian maritime laws stipulate that the cruise ship must be fully disembarked by 9:00 am. That’s a
tall order for getting close to 600 people off the ship and funneled to where they go next. You’d be
impressed that this isn’t Oceania’s first rodeo. All checked baggage is to be outside our suite doors the
night before by 10:00 pm; leaving all of us with only our carry-ons in our rooms. Each set of bags is
assigned a number and a color. After a long winter’s nap, breakfast spaces open on the ship at 6:00 am
so that we can all be OUT of our rooms by 8:00 am so that the cleaning crew can totally flip the ship and make it ready for new boarders/guests by about noon. (Usually anyone can board by 11:30 even though rooms may not be available until around 3, but food is always ready…) We all find a chair somewhere on the ship (vacating rooms) and wait to have our color and number called.

Jerry and I are further down the long list because we’re not using any of the extra transportation
furnished by the ship; instead, we’re getting a taxi and traveling on our own. When our number and
color are called by 8:50, we hustle off, find and identify our 4 large bags that are already at the port,
accompany them through customs (we weren’t stopped or searched or anything!!), send those 4 bags to
be delivered to LeClaire before we get home (thank you, neighbors), and get in line for a taxi. This time
the line was efficiently run and we got loaded within less than 10 minutes at this huge port!!!

Where were we heading? Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand (it’s 3 hours away!!) so today we’re free.
Had arranged to meet up with new friends from the ship, Bonnie and Jerry Truelove from North
Carolina. They’d be staying with others from Oceania at the ritzy Intercontinental Hotel, right on
Circular Quay, so we found them there. Fun tidbit: their bus driver (probably 12 from the ship) took
them to the airport rather than the hotel. Oops. Communication breakdown somewhere. But we
found them, wandered and had coffee, then took the ferry across to Doyles, a 134-year-old fish
restaurant that was fun and relaxing. We had left our carry-ons in their hotel room, so went back after
some wandering, said our goodbyes, and got a taxi from their hotel to ours at the airport.

Up in time to catch the arranged shuttle to AirAsia (where’s the counter???) then flew to Aukland in the
North Island with a layover of enough time to wander and find the counter for Air New Zealand for
intercountry transport. A bit delayed, so Margaret and Kevin found us in the Wellington parking lot by
about 9:45. A 45-minute drive to their home, a bit of a look around, then collapsed in our own room
after being in transit or in the air for 13 hours. What generous friends!!!