Australia Wrap Up

We got up early in the morning to make the drive down from Port Douglas to Cairns and catch our flight back to Sydney. On the way out of the AirBnB, I had to put down the first and only major insurrection of the trip. I did my last sweep through the house, making sure no one had left anything, and came back out to the car to find Emily in my designated seat (as the navigator in Joe’s vehicle). Adam later informed me that she first tried to pull the same stunt in Tanner’s car, taking his seat as well. I asked, “What’s going on here?” Emily just grinned and didn’t budge. I waited for a few more moments and then decided that getting to the airport was more important and jumped in the backseat. When we got to the bottom of the driveway, I said “Okay, Emily. Someone has to get the trash out of the trunk and put it in the trashcan." She hopped out, and I waited until she had the trash in one hand and the lid in the other before jumping out and resuming my rightful position, ignoring the indignant protests. Rebellion defeated.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, though security didn’t like Joe’s iron thighs. He was a little flustered after his pat down and briefly left his bag behind at security. In what was the first and only time we encountered this, Jetstar was actually weighing everyone’s “personal item” at the gate. With some significant amount of rebalancing, we all managed to get our bags cleared, with the exception of Tanner, who had a small run in with Tammy, one of the gate agents. The plan was delayed for more than an hour and fifteen minutes, due to airspace closures and controller shortages. They also had to refile their flight plans, which took forever, but, eventually, we were off.

We arrived back in Sydney, with about half our last full day on the continent remaining. This day ended up being particularly disjointed, as several of the things we had planned to do didn’t pan out. The Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbor was hosting a “Sea Shanty Off” that sounded like a lot of fun, but, unfortunately, when we tried to get tickets, they were all sold out. Our first order of business when we landed was lunch, and we decided to try a local fish and chips shop. However, when we arrived, the shop was closef for an “extended family holiday.” So, we wandered down to the local hotel for lunch and watched the Sydney Rabbits play rugby. Next, we tried to catch a cricket game at Cricket Central in Wilson Park, which, apparently, wasn’t on the day I thought it was.

Changing plans, we decided to visit the Sydney Olympic Park (where the 2000 Summer Games were hosted). There’s a unique feature there called The Brickpit, with an elevated walkway surrounding it in a perfect circle. Justin and Utah decided to race all the way around, in opposite directions. Next, we went down to Darling Harbor and walked through The Rocks over to Circular Quay to catch the Manley Bay Ferry. This afforded us sweeping views of the harbor, the opera house, and the bridge for a relatively reasonable fare. We also got to ride out at sunset, which made for some beautiful scenery.

Once in Manly, we walked up the street to the public square, on the hunt for ice cream. Joe and Justin got distracted by some paragliders on the beach and wandered off to investigate. The rest of us got our ice cream and then started walking back to the ferry. The ride back at night was almost as cool as the ride over, as the opera house, bridge, and city were lit up after dark. This time, however the boat was crowded with a bunch of (very young looking) college students on their way to downtown Sydney to party.

Once we arrived, we made our way back across Observatory Hill to try to catch the fireworks at Darling Harbor. We passed two street performers singing on the way back, with obviously differing amounts of talent (and reverb). After making our way down to the harbor and sitting down to wait, a security guard informed us that the fireworks had already happened.

We then encountered some minor sedition that I wasn’t able to prevent, as Joe and a couple of the others decided they were hungry (at 10:00 PM). So, although my goal was to get us back to the hotel (where there was food, mind you) at a decent hour, so that we could all get a respectable amount of sleep before getting up early the next morning, we had to make sure Joe got his macros.

We arrived at our hotel around 11:00 PM, and were able to park on the street (instead of paying the valet), since we would be gone well before the parking restrictions were in force the next morning. It was the first time I had stayed in one of Marriott's Moxy brand hotels, and the design was pretty cool. Unfortunately, we were only there for a grand total of four hours, before leaving for our next flight.

Gabby affectionally referred to our return trip as “the longest day of your life.” Because of time zones and the international dateline, we took off in Australia, flew for fifteen hours, and landed in Texas at a time earlier in the morning than when we took off on the same day.

First, though, we had a connecting Jetstar flight from Sydney to Brisbane We got to check bags this time, but, of course, this was the flight where they weren’t weighing anything. In Brisbane we picked up our bags and transferred to the international terminal for our flight home. Adam, Lydia, and Utah had a little bit of trouble checking in, but eventually we got it taken care of. We decided that Utah is our new minister of connection. While on the plane, he met and talked with a guy who owns a bunch of property in Sydney who invited him back to stay sometime.

We had one last side adventure on our long layover in Dallas. We met our friend Aaron and his fiancé for tacos at Velvet Taco. This necessitated leaving the airport and taking a train several stops before walking half a mile, which Adam complained he wasn’t informed was involved. Emily said, "The adventure doesn't stop when your back in the States!" We had a nice lunch, and then headed back to the airport for our flight. Utah had a run in with one of the TSA agents regarding his TSA PreCheck, but, other than that, everything went smoothly.

All together, the trip was incredible. I think almost everyone agreed the highlight was our day on the Great Barrier Reef. All except for Emily, who said her swim in the Mossman Gorge topped even the reef. Mine, however, might have just been watching Sam shake his head every time something worked out in our favor, despite the incredible odds against it.