Day 39 - Thursday February 22, 2024, Sydney, Australia

Arrival 8:00 Overnight in Port

Wow what a fabulous sail into Syndey Harbour. I rose early again to see the entrance. Huge granite cliffs can be seen as you begin your entrance into Sydney. Australia was originally founded as a penal colony where convicted felons from England were sent. I cannot imagine what these people thought when sailing into the Harbour.

When the Sydney Harbour Bridge came into view, I quickly ran down to the cabin to wake Janice up.

It was time to unfurl the flag of our final continent (thank you Lesylee for the idea). When I showed it to the new cruise director his comment was, I will take your picture as we get closer to the Sydney Opera House. I can now see Janice running up the stairs so it will be great for both of us to have our picture against the background of the Opera House. The picture was downloaded to the Oceania Facebook page thanks to cruise director Ray however we are not trending yet lol.

The hostess and host Carolyn and Paul also got their picture with the flag as it was their final continent as well. Many people were up early for the entrance to Sydney and why not, it was amazing.

We are now waiting for our deck to be called by Australian Customs and like New Zealand, no food products can be taken off the ship for biosecurity reasons. It is nearly 9:30 before we are called by customs. No problem as we clear customs quickly and we hop on a shuttle for the city. Our shuttle drops us off at King Street Wharf.

We are now in search of the dreaded Hop on Hop Off Bus. The individual at the shuttle stop says its two blocks straight ahead then turn right, no luck. Now it is time to ask a local - she says continue up the street, no luck again. That's two locals who do not know where the hop on Hop Off bus is. It is time to ask a construction worker walking by who says turn around and walk back four blocks. Ok we are now walking back to where we started. Next let's ask people from the fire service and their response is we have seen it but don't know where it is. We are now back to the original starting point and fifty minutes has been wasted.

We are hopeless with directions even with a map but someone in the group yells we have found it only half a block from where the shuttle bus originally dropped us off.

The queue for the bus is long but we make it on however there is no room on the top of the double decker let alone seats on the bottom. Standing up on a hop on hop off bus is no good as you can't connect to the audio. It was not until maybe four stops later that sufficient room was available on top.

The schedule length for the hop on hop off bus is one hour 30 minutes. I assume this can only happen if the bus does not stop for extra passengers and the bus gets every green light. Congestion in the city is horrendous. A metro (subway) began construction in 2010 with the first line operational in May 2019. There is an interesting three-episode video on You Tube discussing the construction of the metro. It is worth a look.

After an hour we need to leave the bus at Circular Quay because we have tickets for a tour of the Opera House at 14:15 and have not had lunch. Many fine eateries can be found here but there is no time for a sit-down meal just some quick comfort food.

We now turn the corner of Sydney Cove and there she is in al her beauty - the Sydney Opera House, what an amazing piece of architecture. The Opera House is located on Bennelong Point between Sydney Point and Farm Cove.

Its picture opt time, the final continent flag is unfurled again with two pictures taken - one with the Harbour Bridge in the background and then the other with the Opera House behind us. Yes, we have become THOSE TOURISTS.

What is surprising is that all the funds to build the Sydney Opera House was provided through the purchase of lottery tickets by the residents of New South Wales. No federal funds were received or needed. I do not think a project of this size could happen in North American without provinces or states receiving funds from the federal government.

Our guide indicated that the Opera House is the number one tourist attraction in Sydney with 11 million visitors each year. She indicated that we could take pictures in all venues unless there are signs indicating that no photography is allowed or if there were people on stage. We were also told to stay with the group as there are lots of places within the opera house where you could easily get yourself lost.

This is a working building so some of the venues may be closed. We were able to see the John Sutherland Theatre with 1,507 seats which is home to the Australian Opera and the Australian Ballet. The Concert Hall with 2,679 seats is home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Sydney The concert hall also contains the largest mechanical organ in the world with over 10,000 pipes. An interesting and surprising fact is that there is no dress code anywhere in the building and it would not be unusual to see surfers leave their surf boards outside and attend a performance in their beach gear.

Another tour was booked for a dinner and harbour cruise on King Street Wharf, so our tour of the opera house needed to be cut short. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, we are not the greatest with directions and by the time we stopped at a hotel we were informed that we were headed in the wrong direction. So, we hopped into a taxi back to King Street Wharf for our dinner harbour cruise with friends Jean and Pete who we met in 2022. New Zealand and Australia have the most expensive taxis in the world and our 1.6 km taxi ride proved it at $28 CDN.

King Street Wharf is a bustle of activity with bars and restaurants.

A first day in Sydney was complete and amazing! Also, a big thank you to Helen for allowing me to use some of her photos.