The Eagle Has Landed

After years of fantasizing, eight-months of detailed planning, and twenty-eight hours of travel (including a 4 hr layover in Auckland Airport), we arrived at Sydney Airport at 10 AM, Sept 9 (which was 8 PM, Sept 8 in NYC where our body clocks still were functioning.)

Saving up our frequent-flier/credit card miles for years in order to fly Business Class turned out to be well worth it.

• Incredibly comfortable seats that folded out into beds for the 13 hour LA-Auckland segment
• Great food (not just great airplane food)
• Terrific service

From Sept 9, 2008

And access to VIP lounges, which in Auckland enabled us to take delicious showers after our long flight, eat breakfast yet again, and attempt (unsuccessfully, grrrr) to get our phone and computer technology working. for our stay down under.

From Sept 9, 2008

Our arrival in Australia threatened to be nerve-wracking, as Australia is VERY strict about bringing into the country anything that might further destroy native habitats. (They have learned the hard way that non-native plants animals, and parasites thrive in Australia, much to the detriment of their agriculture and native species.) So, not only did we have to trash the food we'd been carrying with us for snacks (silly, of course, since in Business Class, you are constantly fed good food), but we were concerned that they might confiscate many of our irreplaceable chiropractic supplements, as they are made from animal and plant materials. Our concern turned out to be for naught. They were incredibly organized (I mean incredibly!) and we breezed through immigration, luggage retrieval, and customs all in a matter of 10 minutes. (Based on some horrendous recent experiences returning to the U.S., we'd say that our U.S. immigration and customs people could learn a thing or two from the Aussies!!!)

Even though we could have taken a train directly from the airport to Central Station, near our hotel, we decided to pay a few extra bucks and take a taxi since we were carrying 4-months worth of luggage and hiking equipment. (We discovered a couple of days later that that had been a very smart decision, as the walk from the station to our hotel would have been uphill all the way and longer than it looked on the map.

After unpacking at our hotel (our room was ready when we arrived around noon) and miraculously getting all of our phone and computer technology working the way we had imagined it would, we did what we always do to avid jet-lag; we set off for a long walk through the city.

From Sept 9, 2008

After grabbing a bite to eat, we walked down through the center city, noting museums and other places of interest to which we might return another day, and indulging in one of our favorite pastimes: bird watching.

From Sept 9, 2008

An Australian White Ibis taking a walk in a public fountain, much like a seagull might in New York City.

Then it was onto the Circular Quay on the ubiquitous and impressive Sydney Harbor

• From Sept 9, 2008

There, we admired the famous Sydney Opera House that dominates this part of the harbor

From Sept 9, 2008

and scoped out the ferries to see which we might take over the next few days to various outlying parts of Sydney

• From Sept 9, 2008

  We then meandered through the formerly notorious, now highly gentrified "Rocks" area, near the Circular Quay (sorry no pix), finally finding our way to the entry to the pedestrian walkway over the famous Harbor Bridge (feeling a bit like the tourists to NYC who we often encounter walking across the Brooklyn Bridge).

  From Sept 9, 20

As the sun dropped, we realized we weren't dressed warmly enough for late winter here in Sydney, so we headed back to the hotel through one of the main shopping areas.

Therese's friend, Philip Emery, was waiting there to greet us and join us for an early dinner in a Thai Restaurant, which was delicious and much different from the usual NYC Thai restaurants. Philip is a friend Therese met when they attended the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, Ireland back in 1981 and with whom she has had an off and on correspondence since then--- decidedly "on" over the past two years since we decided to visit Australia.

We went to bed very early, soon asleep after trying unsuccessfully to read a bit in our many books about Australia and Sydney, in particular. Stay tuned for our next entry, which includes photos from our day-long hike along the spectacular South East coast of Sydney.