#180 Nomad Diary. 30 March - 5 April 2024. Sydney 3 Nights. Begin 26 Night Trans-Pacific Cruise on Grand Princess.

View From Our North Sydney Hotel Room
The Train Stop Second Closest to Our North Sydney Hotel
Tree at Milson Park in North Sydney
View of the Water at Milson Park in North Sydney
Walking to Our Hotel, Just Ahead, in North Sydney

Saturday. 30. Today we woke up early, exercised,fixed and ate breakfast, packed up and checked out of our Cairns airbnb. We turned in our rental car and took the shuttle to the airport. We easily got through security and then on our plane to Sydney. We had a good flight, arriving Sydney in the late afternoon. From the airport we took the train to North Sydney. The train station is very close to the hotel we were staying at called The View. We checked in and got into our room and WOW! We had a view of the Bridge, the river and Sydney just on the other side. The weather was so nice. We walked to a Thai restaurant for dinner. After dinner we walked to a gelato place and had dessert. We walked around the interesting older neighborhood and then back to our hotel. We sat on the patio outside for a while and then went to bed.


Riding the Train in Sydney to Church
Bible Class at Sydney Church
Poli, a New Zealander, Preaching in Sydney Where He Lives Now
View Inside Market City
In North Sydney Near Our Hotel. Train Bridge with Lamps Built in 1930's
Night View of Sydney From Our Hotel Room!

Sunday. 31. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel. We talked to Quinn, our 3 ½ year old grandson, and his parents in Brasil. They’ve just recently moved there with the State Department. We are coordinating a visit to see them in June! It will be our first time to Brasil.  Rode the train about 40 minutes to a neighborhood where we went to church. The people there were amazing to me and very interesting. Jaime and Marina immigrated in 1971 from Santiago, Chile. He’s 75 now. He was personable and talked about the difficulty of the big move to Australia and learning english. There were several other immigrants there of different ages and countries. They are all working and living better lives now that they have come here and gotten through the challenge of learning english. Wow! I am impressed. The Bible lesson was taught by a native Australian and the sermon was from a New Zealander. We enjoyed our time worshiping together with the group. Jaime took us to the train station. We went out for lunch, rested well and enjoyed walking around our neighborhood again. Many things were closed with the holiday weekend. 


Trees in a Park Walking in North Sydney to the Ferry
In North Sydney Walking Downhill to the Ferry. Peek-View of the Opera House.
On the Ferry in Sydney Going to Taronga Zoo
A Cassowary Bird at Taronga Zoo in Sydney
Koala at Taronga Zoo, Sydney
Taronga Zoo, Sydney Giraffe

Monday. 1. We went to the Taronga Zoo today. It was a pleasant ferry ride over. We walked up the hill from the ferry landing to enter the zoo. It’s built with pathways and trees on the side and top of a hill. We enjoyed seeing the animals and especially the Australian animals we have only seen pictures of. The cassowary bird and the Tasmanian devil were there. 


Our Cruise Ship Room. Darrell Moving In.
On the Grand Princess Ship
Sailing Out of Sydney to San Francisco
Smiling With Granddaughter Esther (about 8 months old)
Sunset at Sea. Sydney in the Distant Horizon

Tuesday. 2. Before checking out, we called Owen our 2 ½ year old grandson, his sister Esther (7-8 months old) and their parents! Lol. He is so cute looking for ‘grandpa’ when I’m the only one on the phone screen! Today it was raining lightly on and off. We walked to the ferry. It’s all downhill from the hotel and made it fairly easy to roll our suitcases there. From the ferry drop off to the cruise ship is just another short walk. We went ahead and got into the line to board the ship. It took us about and hour and a half to get onboard. We found our room and had lunch after doing all of our safety briefs and internet connecting. We had dinner in the dining room and went to a comedy magic show after that. 


Sunrise at Sea. Heading for New Zealand.
Up Early on Our Ship. Coffee.
Selfie at Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Sunset and Sail Away From Bay of Islands, NZ
Bay of Islands Hole in the Rock We Saw in Our Sail-Away at Evening

Wednesday. 3. We woke up at 5:30 and decided to get up and dial into our Tunbridge Wells UK Bible study at 6am. We figured that we would nap later. After class we went to breakfast, then on to the ship’s passenger-run Bible class. Darrell got our group of about 15 to begin the reading the book of Mark together. It was a pleasant time together. We got a hot tub soak in before lunch time and a good afternoon rest too. Today is our youngest son, Samuel’s birthday. He’s 31. Darrell enjoyed sending him an IM: “Happy Birthday from the future!” We are way ahead of his Central time zone. He enjoyed the greeting. 


Thursday. 4. A sea day. Enjoyed morning Bible class with about 20 others. We are learning names and bits of stories and where some are from. 


Friday. 5. Our ship arrived to New Zealand, Bay of Islands. We had to anchor away from the port. The ship set up a tender. They use the lifeboats to ferry people to land and back to the ship. They began around 8am and didn’t finish with ferrying everyone who wanted to go until 1pm. It was an ordeal to wait so long for those who really wanted to go ashore. I was mildly disappointed when I decided to give up going ashore. I could have made the 30 minute tender ride, but I didn’t want to stand in line and wait to come back another 30 minutes tender ride to the ship. Darrell and I decided to enjoy the ship with the few people onboard. We went and soaked in a hot tub for an hour or two. We visited others doing the same! Lol. 


Nomad Notes. Not every day or stop is a must-see. We try and succeed at traveling slower as retired nomads. We remind ourselves to practice being content and enjoying our moments. We do enjoy being tourists and knowing what interests each of us. Every day is a gift from God.

































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#231 Nomad Diary. 22-28 March 2025. Darrell's Dad in Rehab. We Are in an Airbnb in Little Elm Until March 31st. Two of Our Favorite Recipes for Now: Black Beans and Oat-Barley Pancakes.

Image
  Beautiful Sunrise Seen From Our Airbnb Patio in Little Elm, Texas Call with Son Eric and Grandkids Owen and Esther. Oh, Those Smiles! Saturday. 22.- Monday. 24. With Darrell’s Dad moved out of the hospital and into a rehab facility, there is a bit of a transition in schedules and focus for him. He is a complicated patient. He’s had 2 strokes, a heart attack and a broken leg. On top of that he has dementia. He’s 91 and he’s sleeping most of the time. It’s hard to tell how much of his sleeping is because of the medications that he is given which are mostly for his pain. When he is awake for short amounts of time, he is at times conversational. Most of the time he is restless and will say he’s in pain or ask for his wife by name. Shirley is attentive to him and calms him with her instructions. She will spend as many hours as she can at his side. She is close to turning 91, but she is fragile in her ways. She cannot walk but a step or two holding onto something. She uses a foldable ...
Read more

#260-261 Nomad Diary. 11-26 October 2025. Two Week Trans-Atlantic Cruise. Emerald Princess Ship. Repositioning Southampton, England to Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Samuel, Our Youngest, Joins Us for His Vacation.

Image
Park in Southampton, England Transatlantic Cruise. Southampton, England to Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Stops in Le Havre, France; Bilbao, Spain; Vigo, Spain; and Madeira, Portugal. Seven Sea Days in a Row. Celebrate our 42nd Wedding Anniversary October 14th. Celebrate my 61st birthday October 22nd. Travel with our youngest son Samuel who is spending his vacation with us!   Inside the Southampton Mall Darrell in O'Malley's on Emerald Princess Ship Nomad Notes: A couple years ago, our youngest son Samuel told us that he would go on a cruise with us sometime. About a year ago, he chose this transatlantic one. Mainly we had discussed doing this one or an Alaskan cruise. He picked this one for two-three main reasons: 1) it’s 2 weeks long with a lot of down time to relax and disconnect from work. 2) this cruise usually is about 50% guest capacity 3) per day price is always less expensive on repositioning cruises. It turned out that the cruise was almost booked to capacity. This would mea...
Read more

#245 Nomad Diary. 28 June-4 July 2025. Cockatiel Birds With Aviary Housesit in Sequim, Washington. Cats Too. Raspberries, Currents, Roses Galore! Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge.

Image
  Loving the Lavender in Sequim, WA Sequim, WA Lavender Sequim, WA Lighthouse Tiny Flowers Sequim, WA Saturday. 28. Getting up at 5:30-6am and taking care of our house sit cockatiels and cats was easier today! Lol. Doing it with two people is a lot easier than trying to do it with one. We got through the animal feedings and had breakfast before 8am today. Around 9am Jeremy and Andrea and Quinn called from Brazil. I always get a big smile with my kids on the phone so I appreciate the attention and time together! Darrell and I had a few animal chores that we attended to. I made two days of fresh food for the birds. Darrell vacuumed the bird areas. We also had to remove the old paper in 4 cages so that it is now fresh for another couple of days. After lunch we went driving around to see some of the local sites. There is a National Wildlife preserve where we took a short walk to a beach view. Then we drove to another short river walk and passed by a lavender farm and stopped to look a...
Read more