Day Six - Sydney

Well it’s a sad goodbye to Cairns. Mom got a call early this morning at 3 am and I had been just laying in bed sucking on my medicated lozenge (Sambucol, you are the love of my life) so we ended up getting up pretty early and going ahead and getting ready. Our flight departure time got slightly delayed (6:40 to 6:55) so we had even more of a buffer for our 5:20 taxi pickup to the airport.

We got ready and packed at a leisurely pace and headed down to check out at 5 am. Our uber arrived at 5:15 and we got to the airport less than ten minutes later (zero traffic at 5 am, oddly enough?). We checked in our bags and breezed through security (why is the United States the only place where security makes you feel like cattle?). We looked through a few of the cute shops and picked up a few things, then we had a little time to find some breakfast.

Mom and I split a slice of quiche Lorraine and a chocolate croissant for breakfast and then it was time to board! Perfect timing. The flight was packed but we were sitting together this time around. We took off a few minutes later than originally planned, but the pilot said he planned to make up time. A little while into the flight it sounded like everyone around us was coughing so I pulled out masks for me and mom. I have a sore throat and I don’t want anything else, k thanks.

We landed earlier than our originally planned time and were able to get out of the plane and grab our bags from the baggage claim and get to the taxi meet up point where several taxis were waiting. We were on our way in no time! We got to the Rendezvous Hotel in The Rocks in about 20 minutes, but our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we dropped our bags off with the desk and headed to the Sydney Opera House for lunch and our tour.

Sydney Harbor bridge and the Opera House. And a perfectly blue sky…

It was a very pretty walk through The Rocks neighborhood into Circular Quay and on to the Opera house, just a bit bummed there’s a giant cruise ship in the harbor being an eyesore… We got lunch at the Opera Bar under the opera house, which was lovely. We got to look at the Sydney Harbor Bridge, enjoy a nice breeze, and watch the dog patrol chase off seagulls…which is hilarious.

The goodest boy just doing his job.

We both had a great lunch and split a chocolate-strawberry-banana dessert pizza to finish things off. We had to get half to go because it was so big!

We got in with our group at 1:15 pm and got a guided tour inside a couple of the theaters while we learned more about the construction of the building. I did not know the sails were solid concrete and covered in ceramic tiles. That was wild to see.

Modern geometric magic.

After the tour we walked through the Sydney Botanical Gardens, which are massive and I tried and failed several times to locate the oriental garden section, before we finally decided to head back to our hotel since it would hopefully be done by then.

We stopped by several shops on the way back to find some souvenirs and to get some snacks for our time in Sydney. We got back to the hotel and got to our room. I will freely admit that I was underwhelmed. It’s an amazing location and there is a kitchen and a sitting room, but it’s very dated and I didn’t think it was consistent with what was described online. For one thing I had specifically arranged for a harbor view room, because mom SO wanted to see the opera house. And there was a massive cruise ship blocking the entire thing (which I know they can’t control, but I was sad). But Mom was happy with how big it was and how close it is to all the shops and restaurants. It was getting a bit later so we called a taxi and headed to Bondi for our afternoon excursion (and hopefully find my better mood).

It takes about 20 minutes to drive to Bondi Beach and we asked our uber driver to let us off right at the ramps, so I can live out my Bondi Rescue dreams. If you don’t know (and haven’t been subjected to watching it with me), there is an Australian reality show that has been on the air for over a decade, and it follows the lifeguards on Bondi beach in Sydney. Over the pandemic I became obsessed. It’s just these feel good stories of these folks going out and helping people and saving people’s lives and it’s just so wholesome. So I made mom come all the way to Bondi to see the rescue tower and walk along the beach. We stuck our toes in the water (cold!) and sat and watched the water for a little while.

Found first ramp!

I convinced mom to walk the coastal trail to Tamarama Beach because I knew it was a beautiful path from all the times they had shown people doing dumb things on it in the show. There were many stairs, lots of wind, and amazing views of the beaches, rocks, and ocean. We walked all the way from Bondi to Tamarama and I bored mom to tears recalling all these things that had happened on the show as if I was there or something. Everyone has to fangirl over something really stupid, right?

The sun was starting to go down so I called an uber and we went back to the Rocks. We got back to our room and I went to look and see if the stupid cruise ship had left.

And it had.

Y’all. I ain’t even mad about the room anymore. We have a balcony patio with the most insane view. It might be a bit old but it’s huge and has a great view. We were getting a bit hungry so we found a little restaurant just down the block and had a great dinner of penne and salmon and planned to come back to a little Belgian spot we saw for breakfast the next day.

When we got back, the sun was setting and we got some unbelievable shots of the opera house

Golden hour, sunset, and the nighttime poppies projection for Remembrance Day.

We watched a bit of TV and then headed to bed.