Well, from a rather chilly last evening, with Auckland at about 9 degrees centigrade, Sydney was at 16 and our first stop, Brisbane, was showing 19. We piled into bed at the unearthly early hour (for us) of 10:30pm, dreaming of warmth and hoping for a decent night’s sleep, but knowing full well that with a 4:45am alarm, that was highly unlikely, even with a new travel alarm - with a loud beeper. That was so necessary for me, as my hearing has deteriorated to the extent that the wristwatch alarm is no longer effective – or maybe I am more relaxed these days, not having to get up at 6am daily, to go to work?
Up 4:45am and the shuttle bus was spot on time at 5:45am, by which time, we’d secured the luggage, turned off the power and the water and filled our lungs with the clean cool morning air, before heading for an air-conditioned environment.
At Auckland airport, electronic self check-in, was easy enough, printing out our own boarding passes and luggage tags. Wheeling our cases (total of just two!) to the conveyor, they weighed them OK but I had a big fail when they weighed my carry-on bag. It was about 12kg against an airline limit of 7kg. However, as luck would have it, I had my empty knapsack in it, so by transferring the SLR camera and long lens plus the laptop into it plus pocketing the compact camera, all was OK – just! (You are allowed 1 piece of cabin luggage plus a computer or camera bag, but this has been abused over the years with many passengers exceeding the limits by a substantial margin, so the authorities have cracked down.)
After sharing a Macca’s we went through only to have the carry-on bags weighed again, before we passed through immigration! Just checking…
Whether it was because of the start of school holidays, the pressure on airlines to cram as many in as possible or normal policy I don’t know, but there was significantly less legroom than on the internal flight to Wellington last month and if the rather well built guy in front had put his seat back just one notch, he would have crushed my kneecaps.
Other than that, watching the 2 and a half hour long James Bond movie Skyfall, meant a decent flight to sunny Sydney and a pleasant taxi ride to the Ibis Hotel at Murray St (Darling Harbour). That was a round $50 with tip with a very nice Malaysian taxi driver.
Hotel check in was very quick and pleasant and our tenth floor room had a nice outlook over the harbour.
A stroll through Harbourside for an excellent slice of pizza, then Greek yoghurt with mango. I found a preferred method of transport, but we had to walk through to Paddy’s Market and back, picking up a bottle of port (for Paula!) and two bottles of ginger beer (for me!) on the way. There were thousands of people around enjoying the area, the various water features and fountains. A great part of Sydney and extremely well done.
A one minute amble then to the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel at 4:30 to meet the other Dawn Nomads for a pleasant pre-cruise evening. The red Thai curry at $14 was excellent as was the tap cider ($4 during happy hour) and needless to say, Ros and Joanne – mainly Joanne, had a presentation or two…
For Ros, a hat, megaphone and a whistle as our team leader; for Norm, well known for sitting out on deck 7, clocking the walkers, a click counter and for our own ace videographer, a bright yellow polo short, with CAMBOY in ironed on letters, so that we don’t lose him at sailaway.
As expected, I didn’t get away scot free, but I’ll leave it until another day (for political reasons) to post my major award but will admit to receiving a set of earplugs to block out invasive tour guides…
It was great to catch up with old friends and also meet new people through the “Cruise Critic” website and we left early enough for everyone to get home and finish packing, or in our case, catch up on the sleep, as Sydney is two hours behind Auckland.
Last sleep before hitting the Dawn Princess yet again. Can’t wait!
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