Aussie Land 2020 Chapter 2

February 3 Bad Moon Rising

The stress of last night was still present today. We had breakfast at Starbucks across the street. It was a dark, very wet morning. After breakfast R spent a very long time on the phone with Royal Caribbean. They confirmed that we would not be allowed on the cruise because we had been in Hong Kong, even if it was only four hours. There was a lot of  “discussion” around whether we would be fully refunded our cruise, prepaid gratuities as well as extra costs we incurred or would incur because of their cancelling or cruise a few days beforehand. At long last they agreed that perhaps we might get refunded the cruise cost, but they could not commit on any other costs. S was very stressed by all this and wanted to get home as soon as possible. The rest of the morning was spent debating what to do, making phone calls to determine whether Cathay Pacific would allow us to reschedule or flight home without rebooking fees, and seeing what we needed to change or cancel. Over the course of the day we decided to extend our stay in Sydney by one day, and then plan to visit Jo’s niece for perhaps four days if that was OK. After that we were uncertain. We decided we would still like to carry out our plan to go to Cairns and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, which would mean rescheduling three flights and two hotel bookings to an earlier time. By evening R had found a eight day cruise to three South Pacific islands leaving Sydney on February 10, and we considered whether to do this and still salvage some cruise time. I sent out a request to our travel agent to look into this.

By lunchtime skies opened up to sunny weather and we decided to make the most of things, despite all the hassles and disappointments. We headed down to the waterfront and had lunch. Then we took the ferry to Manly Beach. We spent and nice afternoon there walking along the beautiful beach and doing some shopping. I even found the extremely colourful parrot I had hoped to see. He was very elusive and I gave up on him until he came and sat in a tree right near us when we were in a pub having a drink. Sometimes you just have to let the wildlife come to you. We returned to our hotel and went for a very late dinner in the hotel. The food was great. Then all but S went for a walk and walked most of the way across the Sydney Bridge in the dark, getting some nice shots of downtown and the opera house. We finished with a nightcap. Tomorrow morning promised to be more anxiety sorting out new travel plans.

February 4 A walk in the Park, and Beach

After breakfast at McDonalds, we took the train and bus to Bondi Beach. The weather was sunny but it was windy off and on at Bondi, requiring frequent coat on, coat off manoeuvres. We walked the length of the beach, which was very nice, watched a few surfers, and did some shopping before going for lunch across from the beach at a sidewalk terrace. We then headed back and walked around the opera house and in the botanical gardens next door. I was excited to finally see some more parrots, the very colourful rainbow lorikeets. We returned to our hotel for some quiet time. (News today was that our cruise was definitely off and Royal Caribbean was refunding all our costs. We decided perhaps we could do another cruise starting beyond the 15 day period after we left Hong Kong. I put in a request for cruises out of Sydney and Brisbane for February 2020, and one came up. We decided to go to the travel agency in the morning and see if we could book this.)

For dinner there was a suggestion for going to the Chinese or Ramon restaurant next to the hotel. I of course do not like either one, particularly since I feel restricted to what I could order, and my stomach never feels great afterwards. I finally agreed to go with the crowd but others started backing off. I don’t know if they didn’t want to force me or preferred the hotel restaurant we enjoyed the night before. We finally decided on going back to the hotel restaurant and did enjoy a good meal. Unlike other nights, we ended up getting together for nightcaps. Oh, wait, that was exactly like other nights.

February 5 I give Up!

Right after breakfast Jo, W and I went to Flightcenter to see about booking a cruise on February 15, well past the critical 15 days since leaving Hong Kong. We found that the website I had checked actually was giving me cruises for February 2021. There were no cruises available for this month. We felt totally defeated. It seemed the last three days were filled with hope and disappointment. There was very little energy left for exploring other possibilities that may not work or would just feel like compromises for the sake of extending our trip. I spent the next 3 hours on one phone call, to Expedia, trying to change all of our bookings. Expedia insisted they could not do anything about our return flight home on Feb. 28 because we had already completed part of the trip, and therefore Cathay Pacific took over control of this itinerary. The flights from Newcastle to Cairns, and return to Brisbane, and our hotel stays in Cairns and Brisbane they could change. However, there were booking fees because none of the flights came from or went through China or Hong Kong. The phone call was excruciating.  Each flight and hotel booking took forever. First getting the new dates right. Then put on hold, then details of the additional costs to us, then put on hold, then put on hold while the fellow called the hotel or airline, then put on hold again, then informed that he needed to send an email to the hotel, put on hold, then 10 minutes later he informed me he was sending the email, then put on hold, then told he needed to talk to his help desk, on hold again, etc. It was all I could do not to get nasty. Ok, maybe I failed once and he told me he had to go through their procedures. After this I called Cathay Pacific. They told me I should go through my booking agent, Expedia, to deal with the flight change. I just about lost it. He said he could do it but we would pay a $60 US fee, despite the fact that the airline had issued a statement saying that they would waive booking fees for passengers needing to rebook due to the Coronavirus. I let him know I would be pursuing this further but for now I just wanted to get it changed. This also took another 45 minutes. The whole morning was gone.   By now it was feeling too late to join R & C who went to Manly Beach. S had decided to stay behind to pack for her trip home the next day. Jo, W and I went for lunch instead at the pier and then walked past the opera house and through the botanical garden area we missed yesterday. It was a very nice afternoon nevertheless and I did see a few new birds. For dinner we were met by a couple who had done a staff exchange with my niece last year and who we met at a Grey Cup party. They also knew R & C and their kids. We went to a pub and had a wonderful time. Despite all the aggravation we still enjoyed the day. We discovered on our walk back to the hotel that we were only a few blocks from an inner harbour promenade with nice terraced restaurants and bars.Walking back to the hotel we did see lots of big bats flying everywhere. They were fruit bats which roost in the botanical gardens and come out at night to eat in the trees around the city. Very difficult to photograph but I did manage a few decent pictures.

February 6 Adios Sydney

S left for the airport at around 7AM for her flight home at noon. The five of us went to the promenade we discovered last night and had breakfast. Then we parted ways with R & C who were staying on until Saturday, while. The three of us headed to our niece’s house in Cave’s Beach. We took the train to Central Station, a short 5 minute ride, and then to the intercity train, which was going to Newcastle. Everything went smoothly and the two hour train ride cost less than $4 each. Soon it began to rain. For the rest of the day we went from periods of cloudy but dry to torrential downpours. Most areas had not seen substantial rain for many months and the weatherman kept referring to the glorious rain. Given the drought conditions, it was hard for us to complain. We met Jo’s niece at the Wyee train station and did get in a walk to the beach which was a few minutes from their house, ducking into the caves a few times when the downpours happened. Later we did a very short drive to see the other side of town where the ocean entered a canal and into a tidal salt water lake which extended for 20 km in ether direction. As soon as we got home it poured so hard that rivers ran down the street. Perfect timing. However, the forecast called for heavy rain the rest of the week. Plans were made for outings the rest of our stay but weather could put a damper on most of these.

We had a very nice dinner and visit with the family here, and retired to bed at the unheard of hour of 10PM. Still time for blogging though. Reports of the escalating measures to battle the Coronavirus, including the quarantined guests on a cruise ship near Japan did not give us much peace, since we were still flying through Hong Kong on the way home February 15. Other than cruise ships, others did not include Hong Kong in their no go zone. Would that still be the case in 10 days?

February 7 Rain Day

We woke up to heavy rain. Since there was no dryer here, and the weather was not conducive to drying clothes, we washed a load of dirty clothes and brought them away to be dried. We also went to   Black Butt, an animal sanctuary on the way to Newcastle. We had to see koalas, even if not in the wild. Despite the rain, we had a nice time seeing some of the local animals and birds. We came home by noon as cousin E had to go to work. Our plan was to perhaps stroll to a store some 500 metres from here, but the only break in the weather came while we ate lunch. The rest of the time it came down in buckets, often sideways due to high winds. Some areas got 200 mm of rain. We stayed in and found the books we stowed away which had not been opened until now. In the evening we made our own pizzas, which included pouring egg over the topping, and then watched an Australian movie, Red Dog. We also spent a lot of time checking forecasts to see if our planned walk tomorrow had any chance of happening. News showed that the massive rainfall along the eastern coast was having a positive effect on the fire situation, with the number of wildfires down very substantially and all shown as under control. While our vacation time may not be so good right now, it was also good to see the positive effect here, except the new threats of flooding.

February 8 Just Desserts

It was another rainy, dull day. All fire warning signs showed fire danger at low. I did enjoy seeing an array of birds in the back yard, including a large flock of crowned cockatoos, gayahs (beautiful parrots with rosy chests and a white crown, but apparently reputed to be very dumb) and several other. Despite the weather we decided to carry on with our plans and see what happens. We drove to a town north of Sydney where we were to catch a ferry to Palm Beach.  There we were to walk up a hill to a lighthouse and nice view. There was a restaurant niece E wanted us to go for lunch. Our one hour drive included intermittent downpours followed by pockets of dry. When we got to the town it was raining a little. We discovered that the ferry was not running from here this weekend due to the weather but was docking at a town 12 km. Away. After some exciting (yawn) time shopping in the hippie clothing stores in town, we drove to the other town. There was talk of winds picking up in the afternoon which could jeopardize the ferry’s ability to return once we got to Palm Beach, so we decided to scrap that plan. The restaurant E wanted to go to was also in this town, so we went there for lunch. The food was delicious but massive. I had a hamburger which was so tall, I could barely eat it. When the waiter came around to clean up the table Jo was telling us the desserts looked good but she doubted she could eat another bite. Not long after, the waiter came over with three complimentary desserts and told she could eat more. We shared the desserts, a lemon pie tart, a brownie and a chocolate cake. None of us could ever remember getting one let alone three free desserts for no reason. I was a little suspicious. There were three women and one man at the table and he brought three desserts.  I am not  sure I counted.

After lunch we drove through several more torrential downpours on our way to Norah Head Lighthouse. When we got there it was dry and the sun even tried to get through the clouds. We had a great time enjoying the view and walking down to the beach to watch the surf breaking on the flat rocks. Despite the weather we were all very happy we decided to go out anyway.

We took the K clan out for dinner at night. I ordered a shnitsy, what the locals call schnitzels. Who knew that schnitzels and parmies  (chicken parmigiana) were Australian? I was still so full from my burger at lunch that I actually only ate half my dinner. This had never happened before. My mother would not be pleased that I did not empty my plate.

What looked like a dismal day turned out pretty good. It is now 10:40PM and I will wrap things up and go to bed. No friend or family member of mine has ever heard me say this before midnight, but this is what Aussie Land had done to me. I will wake at 6AM, even though church tomorrow isn’t until 9.

February 9 Sunday

Most of us had trouble sleeping through the night due to the typhoon like conditions outside. Because the windows here were single pane and houses here were not well insulated, windows and blinds rattled with the wind. I woke up and was extremely dizzy. I also thought I might throw up. I wasn’t sure if this was the effects of that huge hamburger yesterday or dehydration. With the cooler, wet weather, I found myself not inclined to drink much water. I felt lousy all morning and we had fears that if it was a flu, our trip would be complete. We would not be able to fly tomorrow. I lied down for a while and drank at least seven large glasses of water during the day, and by afternoon I felt better. A bit of a scare. Rivers were flowing down the road, the church lost its power, there were widespread reports of flooding, and J was informed that his school would be closed Monday due to weather and flooding. We spent the day inside and watched an old movie, The Man from Snowy River, a western from Australia starring Kirk Douglas. The rains subsided a little and Jo, W and one of E’s kids decided to walk down to the beach. There were waterfalls that had not been there the day before. They came back drenched to the bone and Jo had a purple toe from kicking a rock under water, a practice not recommended. In the evening we went to a church service. There were few people there, mostly young, and it was very informal. The youth pastor who led was in shorts and bare feet. Part way through we stopped for snacks. The songs were familiar, mostly coming from Hillsong.

Tomorrow the last chapter of our trip began as we head to Cairns where hopefully the weather is a little more sunny.