March 28: OMG, We've Lost a Day!!

randolf50
Mar 28, 2023
2 min read

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, after we passed Hawaii, we lost a day. Crossing the International Date line, we went from March 26 to March 28. I guess that's what adding 15 hours to the clock will do to you. This is a picture from our plane's in flight tracker, as we "near" Sydney -- about 1900 miles near.

Each of us went in and out of sleep: Patrise was more in and I was more out. Continued talking and getting acquainted with our seat mate,Doug Ward. He gave us a lot of tips about things to see and places to go in Sydney.

We landed over an hour later than scheduled, 8:45am rather than 7:35am. When I stepped off the plane onto land, I had arrived at my SEVENTH CONTINENT!!! God graced me to make it to Antarctica in December 2021. And now I've been blessed once again with traveling mercies to make it to Australia, the seventh continent I have travelled to in my life.

We cleared customs rather efficiently, then headed to our hotel. We planned to stay at a hotel near the airport, since we have to get up early the next day and head back to the airport to fly to New Zealand. Little did we realize that the Rydges Hotel was literally across the road from the airport. So we pushed our luggage cart over there, checked in at the desk, but had to wait an hour, before we could get into a room. Once checked in, Patrise went to sleep immediately. Doug took a shower first, then went to bed. Here are a few views of the hotel: its proximity to the airport, its atrium and a view of the airport and downtown Sydney from our window.

Based on earlier agreement, we were to meet Doug Ward for dinner at a waterfront restaurant named 6Head. (We learned later that the name was derived from Australian history. A picture taken from one of the restaurant's windows explains that history.

We left the hotel at 4;15 in a taxi for the restaurant. Along the way, I took a number of pictures of views of Sydney. After a great dinner, Doug gave us a bit of a guided tour of the Sydney Harbor, as we walked back to his hotel, the Marriott. From there, Patrise and I took a taxi back to the Rydges and settled in for the evening. We have to get up at 6:00am, in order to clear security for travel to New Zealand.

Here are some of the many pictures of Sydney before dinner, dinner with Doug, and the after dinner stroll.