March 14, 2017

    The ship arrived at the Cruise ship terminal at Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia, about 6 a.m.  Total distance from Perth to Sydney including Wellington and the South Island of New Zealand was 8,940 km.  Combined distance for the two cruises was 18,433 km.

    We had breakfast and had to vacate our stateroom by 8 a.m.  We met Maureen and Bob then left the ship together pulling our own luggage, so we didn’t have to search for it in the warehouse before proceeding to Australian Border Services & Customs then finding a taxi.  We had to go to another line for Department of Agriculture, since we checked off that we had been on a farm.  In fact we were on three different sheep farms in New Zealand. They asked us if the soles of our shoes were clean.  We said “Yes” and we were on our way. Hopefully it will be that easy for Canadian Customs in Vancouver tomorrow. The terminal was well organized.  There were ship’s excursion buses doing sightseeing to different locations and then either to the airport or a city center hotel.  We split the $65 cab fare to our airport hotel just as we did when the four of us took a cab from our first hotel to the White Bay cruise terminal on February 9th.

The taxi ride to the hotel was about 30 minutes, on expressways and tunnels.  We are in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, part of the City of Botany Bay, close to the airports.  Our room is a bit smaller than the stateroom and the bathroom is so small that only the toilet is separate from the shower, which is a bit larger than our ship's shower.  The view from the large window is overlooking Krispy Kreme, McDonalds and KFC. The room’s floor is laminate, the hotel corridors are carpeted. We have better Wi-Fi at the hotel - Ibis budget Sydney Airport - than on the ship. Everything is clean and recently renovated. We had a smooth check-in and both couples had their room cards by 10 a.m.  We dropped off the luggage in the rooms and met Maureen and Bob to walk to the nearby McDonalds for coffee. The McCafe order counter was separated from the McDonalds burger order counter with a separate eating area. The create your our meal there are touch screens like in Canada here too.  After coffee, Larry and I went exploring Mascot.  The town's main street has buildings constructed in the early 1900s. We found a memorial park with some gardens. We walked down to a canal pathway where we started to walk to Botany Bay, but after 20 minutes realized that the clouds looked menacing and turned around.  We managed to walk over 11,000 steps with a little rain starting about 5 minutes from the hotel.  Within 30 minutes of returning to the hotel the rain poured down pattering on our window.

    We met Bob and Maureen for a quick walk to the KFC to see what Krushers were.  It is a thick flavoured soft ice cream and milk mixture, like a McDonalds McFlurry.  The Kj count for the treats was between 1700 and 2100, which helped decide not to sample one.  Back at the hotel we looked up the value in calories. 4.2 calories = 1 Kj, so the concoctions were just 405 to 500 calories.

    After a little research Larry found a Greek restaurant, grk SOUVALKI, within a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Bob and Maureen agreed to the suggestion.  The rain had stopped for the walk. 

grk SOUVALKI had room for about 18 in the restaurant and another 18 or so on the patio.  The windows and doors were open to the street and we all enjoyed chicken souvalki with pita bread, French fries, cucumber in Greek yogurt and tomato slices.  We took a different route back to the hotel that took 20 minutes.  Then we went back to our rooms to repack our luggage to get the weight balanced and call it a night.

Steps  18,796            Flights of stairs  27