Sunday, July 31
Happy Birthday Mom!
We miss you lots!
This morning we woke up early and were headed out of our
hotel by 8am. The Goldridge “Resort” was
not our favorite hotel along the trip.
The room was fine, it just didn’t feel as clean or comfy as I would have
liked. I was also a little annoyed that
there were plenty of open rooms that faced the beautiful sound, yet we were in
the very back of the property facing trash and tennis courts, behind some rooms
that were being remodeled.
Anyways, we weren’t sure how long check-in would take at the
Queenstown Airport, but apparently not much.
We were there by 8:20am, parked the car and were in line to
check-in. Mason went to check in our
rental car, which we were concerned would take a long time since we’d had our
small accident in it, but no one was at the desk. He was able to call someone who said they’d
be over in 15 minutes. When we got to
the front of the check-in line we were told that we were too early and our
flight hadn’t opened up yet, so we had to wait until 9:00am to check in. At this point Mason went back to check on the
car and someone eventually showed up. We
expect a few months of trying to straighten this all out between insurance
companies, etc…
We were finally able to check in a little after 9:00am, but
then when we walked back to where security and our gate area was, the gate was
closed and so we waited in a general waiting area. This worked out okay since it was near some
food and bathrooms, and fortunately wasn’t crowded when we arrived so we were
able to find seats. We all took time to
walk around, and we used our last few New Zealand dollars to buy a delicious
chocolate shake to split 4 ways. Around
10:45am we were able to go through security.
I got called out for the peanut butter in my bag…apparently it’s
considered a gel…and then we were able to board pretty soon after going through
security.
The boys liked watching the plane unload passengers and
prepare for our flight. They had luggage
carts, fuel trucks, and the deicer out working on the plane. We also had to walk out to the plane, and we
got to load through the back door which Theo thought was pretty fun. Overall, our JetStar flight was pretty
straight forward, and was just over 3 hours from Queenstown to Sydney (although
no snacks or entertainment). Theo ended
up falling asleep for the first hour, while Woodrow polished off almost all of
the remaining snacks that we were carrying with us. Have I commented on how he’s like the little
puppy from 101 Dalmatians who’s always saying, “I’m hungry mama, I’m
hungry.”
Check-in to the Sydney Airport was pretty smooth, although
Mason had to wait awhile again to pick up our rental car since their computer
system was down. Since it was 3pm New
Zealand time (1pm Australia) we grabbed McDonalds in the airport before
venturing outwards into the city. I’m pretty sure we are not going to be eating
McDonalds, Subway, or French Fries for the next few weeks! By this time I was pretty exhausted. Some days, I feel like I could sleep forever,
and it’s hard to explain that to someone who isn’t pregnant and wants to
explore the world.
We decided to go straight from the airport to The Sydney
Harbour area. We found some parking
right along the Harbour, but it was already 3:30pm at this point and the
parking would increase at 5pm, so we got a little stuck paying lots for
parking, but in the end I was secretly happy we didn’t park miles away, since
we ended up doing quite a bit of walking.
First we got a few pictures of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour
Bridge and then walked through the large park that was there and went along the
water. We sat for a bit under the large
trees and watched some native birds, and silly boys play among the roots. Mason wanted to walk around the waterway to
another point, so he and Theo led the way and eventually Woodrow and I dropped
behind and found an area to sit in. We
were both pretty tired, Woodrow had a dirty diaper at this point, and he was
happy to play in the grass with his stick gun while I sat on the bench. Mason and Theo got some upclose views of some
Australian military ships as well as taking in some other harbour sites, which
Woodrow and I could also see from our location.
Luckily Mason and Theo headed back when they did because the park guars
were starting to drive through reminding everyone that the gates would be
closing to the park at 5pm. We were both
surprised that they really cleared out and gated the entire area we had been
in, but apparently they do. We got back
to the gate just before 5pm and superhero Dad took Woodrow back to the car
while Theo played on some statues and I sat.
It was a restful 20 minutes, but again, I was sooo tired.
Mason had some information about tall ships being in the
harbour, so we walked around the wharfs, but they weren’t at their docks. We did see all the Ferry stations and boy
were there people. Oh yeah, and EVERYONE
in this area and in the park was playing that Pokemon Go game. It was ridiculous and we got bumped into
several times by people staring at their phones. It was rather comical, especially to see all
these adults playing, but also kids our age with phones catching their
Pokemon. We made it to “The Rocks” area
and some large festival or something was being taken down for the night. Maybe
it was just street vendors that were there every Sunday. After lots of walking around we finally found
a restaurant to eat at. Seriously,
acquiring food should not have been the chore and time waster it felt
like...when we get back in Guam, I think I’ll be happy to cook dinner, that and
we’ll be having lots of pasta!
The food was very tasty.
We split a thin crust cheese pizza, lasagna, and pesto. Woodrow was totally into the pesto and was
gobbling it up. And I could have had a
meal just from the water pitcher, and if you know me, and I’m asking for water,
then I’m pretty dehydrated. After we
filled our bellies, had some water, and emptied our bladders, the walk back
along the Harbour towards the car was very pleasant. I’m amazed by how evident it’s been on this
trip that nourishment to the body really does fuel our systems. It was the
perfect temperature outside and we were finding it amusing that to the locals
they really do treat 60s like winter.
They were all bundled up in their winter coats and scarves…while we’re
prancing around loving it!
We made it back to our hotel, The Holiday Inn-Sydney
Airport, with few complications and quickly went through the bedtime routine
and plopped into bed for the night. 
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