Day 182 (December 21): Suddenly Sydney!
The first time we visited Sydney, it was for one night (and a total of about 12 hours). The third time will be three nights. The second time? You guessed it: two nights.
In terms of play by play, we arrived by plane after a 90 minute flight from Gold Coast airport. The only notable thing about this has to do with time zones. Sydney is in New South Wales and Gold Coast (specifically Coolangatta) is in Queensland, which sits on top of NSW the way Washington sits on top of Oregon. Nevertheless, Queensland has its own time zone, one hour earlier than/behind NSW.
Thus, we left Byron Bay at noon and arrived in Coolangatta an hour later at - drumroll, please - noon. After a bit of lunch by the beach we flew for 1.5 hours and landed 2.5 hours later in Sydney. It's hard to say whether or not we had jet lag but we were definitely confused. (I hadn't realized we jumped a time zone when we drove 2 hours from Brisbane to Byron a few days earlier.)
One airport shuttle and one mediocre airport hotel dinner later the children were nestled all snug in their beds.
We woke to the smell of wildfires and a total inability to see the the previously-evident downtown skyline. The temperatures were headed above 100 degrees fahrenheit and the TV News had a district supervisor saying that their goal was to suffer no casualties as high winds whipped the fires through the region.
We rented a car and drove out to see some family friends in the Sydney suburbs, accidentally crossing the famous Harbor Bridge in the process.
Ernie has been friends with my dad since medical school in Philadelphia, several decades, a century and a millenium ago. We were served a feast; Henry got to play computer games with a buddy; there was a swimming pool (despite the temperature and the smoke); there were family photo albums; there was grown up conversation and relatively little scolding; oh, and there was an enormous mostly-docile malamute named Scout.
At our hosts' advice, we headed over to Balmoral Beach, a close-in beach community where the temperature was at least twenty degrees (F) cooler, the sand was soft, and a sidewalk cafe offered the kind of Greek food that Elise loves: delicious and fast.
All that was left to do was return the rental car, collapse into our hotel room and prepare for a 9:30 departure in the morning.
In terms of play by play, we arrived by plane after a 90 minute flight from Gold Coast airport. The only notable thing about this has to do with time zones. Sydney is in New South Wales and Gold Coast (specifically Coolangatta) is in Queensland, which sits on top of NSW the way Washington sits on top of Oregon. Nevertheless, Queensland has its own time zone, one hour earlier than/behind NSW.
Thus, we left Byron Bay at noon and arrived in Coolangatta an hour later at - drumroll, please - noon. After a bit of lunch by the beach we flew for 1.5 hours and landed 2.5 hours later in Sydney. It's hard to say whether or not we had jet lag but we were definitely confused. (I hadn't realized we jumped a time zone when we drove 2 hours from Brisbane to Byron a few days earlier.)
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| NB: Screen shot taken at 12:44 with an estimated arrival time of 11:49. Note the dotted line marking the timezone through the middle of town. |
One airport shuttle and one mediocre airport hotel dinner later the children were nestled all snug in their beds.
 |
| A good hotel suit has a separate room with two twins, a sofa bed and enough room to cram in a cot. |
We woke to the smell of wildfires and a total inability to see the the previously-evident downtown skyline. The temperatures were headed above 100 degrees fahrenheit and the TV News had a district supervisor saying that their goal was to suffer no casualties as high winds whipped the fires through the region.
We rented a car and drove out to see some family friends in the Sydney suburbs, accidentally crossing the famous Harbor Bridge in the process.
Ernie has been friends with my dad since medical school in Philadelphia, several decades, a century and a millenium ago. We were served a feast; Henry got to play computer games with a buddy; there was a swimming pool (despite the temperature and the smoke); there were family photo albums; there was grown up conversation and relatively little scolding; oh, and there was an enormous mostly-docile malamute named Scout.
At our hosts' advice, we headed over to Balmoral Beach, a close-in beach community where the temperature was at least twenty degrees (F) cooler, the sand was soft, and a sidewalk cafe offered the kind of Greek food that Elise loves: delicious and fast.
All that was left to do was return the rental car, collapse into our hotel room and prepare for a 9:30 departure in the morning.
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