Circling Australia in 2012

Prequel

After my father died in October 1973, my mother had a chance to go to Australia in October 1974 with the American Iris Society - October is the spring in Australia. She said she would go if I let D (my oldest daughter) go with her. And so it happened that she took each of my children in turn on a trip. Daughter B went to Europe, daughter E went to China and the Orient and Rob went to Kenya. They were all between 11 and 13 at the time.

After my mom died I decided to carry on the tradition.

• I took C - Rob's son - on a Bus trip to Ireland in 2007. He was 13 almost 14. (I have not finished writing up this trip yet because the photos got all mixed up on my computer).
• The second grandson - B's son - D - did a Mediterranean Cruise in 2008. He was 13 almost 14. That blog is mostly finished.
• The third trip was with B - the first one with a granddaughter (Rob's daughter and the sister of the grandson who went with me to Ireland). We went on a Baltic Cruise in 2009. She was 12 almost 13. Also mostly finished.
• The fourth trip was with my grandson J - E's oldest child. He was 12 - the youngest of my grandsons. We went to Yellowstone and Hawaii
• This will be the fifth trip - B's daughter M (she is the sister of D and she is 12). I decided to recreate some of my mother's first trip and take her to Australia. I wanted to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. Our thought was that since B is a pilot she would be able to quickly and cheaply come and rescue her daughter if something happened to me on this trip.

End Prequel

This was my next trip after Back to Back on the Carnival Pride in the fall of 2011

Since I had rented a scooter from Special Needs at Sea for the trip to Alaska from Seattle, I tried to rent one from them for the Australian cruise. But the cruise left from Perth and SNAS didn't have an office in Perth, nor would they let me rent a scooter in Sydney and fly with it to Perth. So I rented a scooter in the US (paying for it by the day) and flew with it to Sydney and then Perth and then back to the US. It was very much more expensive than it would have been if SNAS hadn't been so unhelpful.

I had my bag packed a couple days in advance and it weighed 48 lbs and didn't have everything in it so I took out some things and put in some things and it still weighs 48 lbs.

The scooter that I rented didn't come Friday so I called and they said it was somewhere en-route and that if it didn't come Monday I was to call. So I called and they said that it probably wouldn't be delivered until Tuesday in the afternoon after we would be have left for the airport. It was a Travel Scoot - a lightweight scooter that had no back up - you pushed with your feet to go backwards.

Since it wasn't expected to get there, the scooter guy said he would order a new Luggie to be delivered to my son-in-law's office on Tuesday. When I called him to tell him that the Travel Scoot had arrived after all, he was flummoxed. Bob took the scooter out and set it up and it looked complicated and it was way heavier and bigger a box than the scooter guy had said. So I told Don (the scooter guy) that I would take the Travel Scoot to Miami with me as arranged and I would leave whichever scooter I decided not to take in to the office for pickup on Thursday. He seemed to be OK with that.

July 3, 2012

Bob took me to the airport and I had no trouble checking the scooter or my bag, and I got a wheelchair to the gate. The wheelchair guy was very helpful and nice and I tipped him $5.00 - did all the bag checking in for me as there were no sky caps. I did find that when I looked, I had the shoes on the wrong feet after I did security.

Taking off from BWI

I had a nice uneventful flight down talking to a lady with her arm in a splint - she said she broke the bones in her forearm.

There was no food, and I was hungry because I only had a banana and some ice cream for lunch, so I bought some cheese and crackers and a cookie on the plane.

cookie and snack pack

They did still give me a free beverage

bathroom on the plane

landing - Miami

My daughter met me at the airport and by the time I got a wheelchair down to get the luggage, she already had it. So we walked across the street to the garage and she took us home. Jim (my son-in-law) had already unpacked the scooter and ridden it around and put it to charge.

Luggie scooter charging beside suitcase

He fed me some pulled pork. I was sleeping in my grandson's room (he was at college) and it is like an icebox in there. When I get back, I'm going to wear all my clothes to bed.

My granddaughter was already asleep when we got there. I printed out my boarding passes for the MIA to LAX flight and also the Qantas e-ticket. I'm sure I did that once before but I don't know where it is. I couldn't print out the Qantas boarding pass because it was too early.

We went to bed. The clock said 5:45 when it was really 11:45 but I could read the time really well (better than my watch).

We got on the plane early and had a relatively smooth flight from Miami to LA

waypoint on the TV screen in the airplane

My granddaughter watched movies and TV shows - she has noise canceling headphones

Granddaughter and noise canceling headphones

I had not been to Los Angeles since 1965. And this visit I didn't even get out of the airport. My granddaughter and I went to the LAX Admiral's club, thanks to my daughter's friend who gave us passes.

Airport from the Captain's Club

There is free wi-fi so I can compute while waiting for our Qantas flight out tonight. For some reason my phone keeps getting discharged, but I have it charged up again, and have figured out how to put it on airplane mode. There is supposed to be someone from Qantas here about 5:00 PDT who can issue our boarding cards. My back hurt so I lay down on the floor. Later, I lay down on one of the couches in the Admiral's Lounge and had a nap.

Admiral's club pizza

I got a pizza from the grill also. It was really hot and I burnt the roof of my mouth.

Because of crossing the international date line each way, my return tickets were for the next day after we returned, so I tried to change the return tickets to Miami to the 27th but the agent said that there was no value left in the tickets so I would have to buy a one-way ticket. So I made a reservation at the Westin LAX for the night of the 27th. They charge for internet, but they have a free shuttle to the airport. We get in to LAX at 9:45 on the 27th and leave just after midnight on the 28th. I did not realize (because they did not tell me) that the good rate was only good for 24 hours. I would have done MUCH better to wait until I got back and then found a place.

My granddaughter finished her book and did some drawing. She looked on the computers

at the Trip Advisor for Sydney but when they asked her if it was the one in New South Wales, she didn't know that was the name of the Australian state that Sydney is in (she just picked up on the Wales part), so she thought that wasn't it.

The Qantas person did come in and issue us boarding passes and figured that if we left the Admiral's Club about 9:30 we could get on the 10:00 shuttle to the Bradley building. My granddaughter fell into a deep sleep about 8:45 so I had to wake her up at 9:30, which I hated to do. But she awakened and we did get the 10:00 shuttle. On the way we went and changed some money.

Everyone waiting for the flight was weighing their carryon as there apparently is a weight limit for them on Qantas. People were disassembling their carryons all over the floor of the lounge.

Repacking carry - ons in the LAX airport

The desk person came over and asked me about the scooter. They seemed very upset that they didn't have the scooter. Finally, after two or three times around, I said that it looked like a regular suitcase. After that was straightened out she assured me that the scooter was on the plane - so I started to worry about it, which I hadn't really done before.

The wheelchair lady took me to the door of the plane and we were the first ones on. We didn't take off right at the scheduled time but I don't remember why. We were in 48 C and D and I thought I had picked a window seat (and I had - 72 A and B). But the airline people decided that I needed a seat nearer the front and the seat they gave me was TERRIBLE.

I was on the aisle but the lady in front of me who had a LOT of leg room as she was in back of the bathrooms, was reading (and had the light on all night) and reclined her seat so I could hardly move. I would have been MUCH better off if they had left us in the seats I had booked instead of thinking they knew better than I did what would be good.

The plane was not full and my granddaughter had the seat next to her and in front of her vacant. She fell asleep right away and in spite of the instructions we should eat dinner even if we were tired, I let her sleep through and I think she slept for 5 or 6 hours. I had chicken (the option was salmon). I didn't care much for most of it and I was particularly annoyed that when I asked for lemonade, I got a carbonated thing.

Schweppes 'lemonade'

I slept some too.

My granddaughter woke up and watched some movies - she used the Qantas headphones as hers didn't work on their system. I used the eye mask.

At breakfast, she got the Continental and I got the scrambled eggs.

scrambled eggs on a muffin, a sausage, spinach and mushrooms with a cherry tomato

my cooked breakfast - I also had the melon slices and one grape and I got tea

I got to talking to the lady across the aisle and she suggested that we go up in the tower for dinner, so we may do that. She also said had been much colder and wetter this winter than usual in Sydney.

Trying to take a photo from the middle seats as we land

When we disembarked, one of the flight attendants was wheeling my 'wheelchair' which looked like a scooter without a steering column. And I must say she had a terrible time with going around corners. She also had to have help going up the jetway. She handed me over to another lady who was dressed just the same.

inside the terminal

Sydney Airport

picture from where we waited for a taxi

I changed some more money and we went through customs and immigration. the wheelchair lady went in the express line each time. Getting our luggage the Luggie came out first and the lady started piling things on a cart. None of the rest of the luggage came for a long time, but eventually we got it all and it was all put into the taxi. The driver was Lebanese, and had lived in NC in the Greensboro area.

Sydney skyline

Fare card in the taxi

Passenger's taxi rights

The fare to the hotel was $54+ and included several tunnel and freeway tolls. I paid him in some of my newly acquired cash. I asked and apparently one does not tip except 10% in restaurants and there was no extra charge for the luggage.

Neither my granddaughter's phone nor my phone work. I asked my phone company how to activate my phone in Australia and I followed their directions, but it did not work.

Taxi at the hotel

The bellman took the luggage and took it to our room and we checked in. Our room was ready

View from the window of our hotel room

View from the window looking sideways

We are on the 23rd floor and we have to use our room key to get the elevator to stop at our floor. We have an automatic window closing button by the bed. I got my granddaughter's plug to plug in and she recharged her electronic items. There was also a converter plug in the minibar.The internet is $50 for three days, and is a LAN cable instead of wireless but works fine. My granddaughter put the scooter together like a champ, and we organized ourselves and went down to the Concierge desk. He recommended the Manley ferry and said that the round trip was $14 each. When we went out the entrance that they told us to go to, it turned out that there was a small step. When we lifted the scooter over it, the light started to blink, but we solved that by turning it off and turning it on again. We scootered down to the docks

Ferry Terminal

and one of the people there directed us to the ticket office (we were at the ticket machines)

tickets and ferries

and the ticket lady asked if I didn't have some kind of disability card or senior card. I said 'no I had only gotten here this morning'. She laughed and asked how old my granddaughter was and when told she was 12 said that she was a child and could ride for less.

ferry coming in to dock

Then we got ourselves into the right area to get on the ferry. The sun was shining but there was some wind and also rain sprinkles. The ferry proved to be easy to board but I couldn't get anywhere to see anything on it because except for the first deck there were stairs. We were hungry

Sandwiches and meat pies

so my granddaughter got a sandwich and I got a donut from the concession stand and he said I could leave the scooter there. Then we went up forward. It was windy and rather chilly and I was sorry I had taken the lining out of my coat.

My granddaughters photo of me on the ferry

We saw the Opera House

First view from the Manley ferry

and the bridge,

Bridge from the ferry

and I took a lot of photos of lighthouses and

Aid to navigation (ATON) in the harbour

Lighthouses

Lighthouses

Another ferry

Manly Wharf from the ferry

seagull on the ferry railing

Manly Beach - deserted in the winter

Sign says Manly Sealife Sanctuary

Buildings on the shore

Manly seagull

Ferry

As we went across where the harbor entrance was,

Harbor entrance

Surf at the harbor entrance

the ferry ran into some rollers which bounced us around a little. I took a photo of my granddaughter from the ferry with the opera house.

On the way back to the hotel we saw

Barry Humphries metal plaques

Diggery doo

Fire juggling man getting ready to mount his unicycle

I decided to go in the car entrance of the hotel as I can't do a step each time.

Taxi and car entrance

We came back and plugged in the Luggie and then I found that the LAN cord wouldn't reach me on the bed. Eventually we rolled the bed nearest the door over to the other wall so the computer cords would reach and that meant that my granddaughter has the bed near the window and TV which works out better for her. (I'm not that interested in seeing TV shows).

TV

The room has a closet with an iron and my granddaughter has hung her suit bag in the closet. There is a long window seat bench, and there are two shades that can be pulled down. I haven't tested the inside one to see what it does yet. I could not figure out how to flush the toilet - my granddaughter had to show me. It is a silver thing sticking out of the wall and I wasn't pushing it hard enough - you really have to put some muscle in it.

bathroom - toilet, scale and phone

She came back and said the scale was way off as she weighed much more than it said, and we figured out that it was in kilos and not pounds, so not really off at all.

Minibar area and window to the bathroom

There is a tub and shower of course, and a window from the bathroom to the bedroom, plus a drawer, which I have put my pill box into. There are

bathrobes in the closet

a safe and a hairdryer

and a big minibar. There are two double beds, a big TV and a long desk. There are so many light switches that it is hard to figure them out - some of them are for the plugs to be turned off. It was cold - the thermostat was set at 20 deg C, so my granddaughter turned it up to 23 deg.

After we got back from the ferry ride, my granddaughter and I played a game on the TV, and then she fell asleep while I wrote my email. I went back in my emails and I was supposed to dial a number before I left the US and it wasn't the number that the Verizon rep gave me when I talked to them on Friday before I left.

I asked the desk to give me a 1800 wake up call so we could get something to eat, and they did. My granddaughter was hard to wake up. I think we will have to discuss how she wants me to do that. But we did get up and go down and went to the bar to get a snack.

My granddaughter had chicken quesadillas and boardwalk fries and three glasses of water.

chicken quesadillas and boardwalk fries

I had

Cranberry juice and a club sandwich

Then we talked to the concierge and got pamphlets for tours and discussed the phone situation. He said Verizon says they have such great coverage in Australia, but they really don't, so maybe that's not what it is after all.

He said he didn't know that much about AT&T. He gave me the locations where I could buy a local phone or a phone card. But I think I have gotten along without a cell phone for most of my life and I can do it again. I think though I will get something for my granddaughter because she's used to having a cell. We came back up and my granddaughter went back to bed which is where she still is. (Just so you know - it was 3:16 in the morning when I wrote that.)

July 7, 2012

Night view from our room

Looking down at the street before sunrise

Later, I woke up and took some photos out the window of Sydney at night. I realized that I had turned off all the outlets where things were charging, so I went around in the dark and turned them all on, wrote some emails and then went back to sleep. I let my granddaughter sleep until she woke up. We both got showers and I called housekeeping to get my bed made up with the head at the foot so I could do the computer in bed with my feet up. My ankles have swelled from the plane trip, but not as much as they have done before and are getting better. I also ordered breakfast from room service but there is a $6 fee for that. We saved the toast and croissants and some of the fruit and the granola bars from the breakfast.

Since I had decided that I would just buy my granddaughter a phone, we got directions from the concierge and took the scooter out to go to the phone store. We went about 5 blocks to the phone store. Two steps up to that.

me reflected in the phone store door

They said that both our phones were locked and suggested we go to the phone person a couple of blocks over to get them unlocked. So we scootered over there

Hungry Jack

and he didn't open until 11:00 on Saturday. What to do? In the end, we rambled around the area and took photos until 11:00.

Look Right

Royal Australian Regiment Memorial

Queen Victoria

Granddaughter standing at the top of the fountain

Reflections

Architecture

At 11:00 we went back to the phone guy but he said he could not unlock my phone that it was the wrong frequency. He could unlock my granddaughter's but it would wipe everything including her photos off it, and she didn't want that. So we went back to the store and got a pre-paid phone with $30 worth of minutes on it. Then my granddaughter called her mom - her parents were taking a motorcycle trip from Florida and were with my husband Bob in Leonardtown and it was evening there. Going back to the hotel, the scooter had a hard time on the hills but we made it back and put the scooter on to charge. Then we ate the toast and croissants, and started out without the scooter to walk to the HOHO (hop on hop off bus) stop. We stayed on the bottom because I wanted to switch to the Bondi tour bus in just 4 stops. We switched and went up top - it was pretty cold up there.

My granddaughter downstairs

The back of the HOHO bus

bus going under an overpass

Me on the upper deck

Bondi

World Heritage Site

Coca Cola sign

Paddington Fair

After about an hour up there we got back to the transfer point, and went back downstairs. We got off at the Australian Museum stop about 3:30.

Australian Museum

stuffed koala at the entrance

We went into the museum - I had a coupon for 20% off out of a book I got at the airport. We got a wheelchair and my granddaughter pushed. We saw the native birds and some minerals and the Aboriginal art.

Aboriginal Masks

2nd floor - birds

more masks

display of minerals

After we shopped in the bookstore there (my granddaughter had a long list of people she was buying presents for

Butterflies, Mugs and souvenirs

Jewelry at the museum

key rings

we turned in the wheelchair and got back on the Sydney bus.

Here I made a BIG mistake. I got on the bus at the wrong stop. Instead of getting on at stop 5 which would have taken us around to the hotel at 11, we got on at 14 and had to go all the way around to stop 1 and then go to 11.

Oops.

It gets dark here about 5 and it was too dark to take many photos from the bus.

I got the driver to let us off opposite stop 11 so the only place we haven't been is stop 10 which of course is the Opera House. I was really tired and I think my granddaughter was too. We turned in the umbrella that the concierge lent us, and hobbled up to the restaurant. I was too tired to eat anything much so I had a little steak.

my steak

My granddaughter had the buffet. For a child's buffet it was $45.00/

Cafe Opera buffet

Cafe Opera - InterContinental Hotel

We were both in bed by 8:30. I got up about 4 am to go to the bathroom and didn't push the silver thing in the wall hard enough. I picked up a glass to get a drink and realized that the toilet was stuck running and went to fix it and the glass slipped from my hand and hit the tile floor and shattered into multiple small shards. I was barefoot so I went carefully back to bed and called the Instant help and they sent someone up to clean it up.

July 8, 2012

We got up and decided not to have breakfast -my granddaughter ate some Pringles, and we both had some dark chocolate.

Chocolate in the minibar

We got organized and went down to the concierge desk

and made a reservation for lunch at the Sydney Tower for 11:30, and also bought the cheaper on-line advance tickets for the Aquarium. We got into a cab to do a couple of last minute drive-by's. Went out to the Opera House

Bridge from the Opera House

which we missed yesterday and drove across the Sydney Bridge.

Towers of the bridge

Driving over the bridge

When we got to the other side, I could see the lighthouse and the lightship that I had missed because they have been moved to the Maritime Museum.

water level view of Cape Bowling Green lighthouse

The cab driver took photos of us with each of our cameras.

Proves I was there

When I asked the cab driver about a dog statue he said, he never noticed it before.

Dog statue

We got to the Sydney Tower about 11:10. My granddaughter is getting good about getting the scooter put up and taken down. We scootered into the tower and up to the fourth floor where the restaurant desk was. Unlike in Seattle and Toronto and Dallas, this tower does not allow you to the observation deck from the restaurant - you have to pay that separate. We were too early, so we walked/scootered around and looked at the shops.

Georg Jensen and handbag shop

Calvin Klein

One of the shop windows

Karen Millen

We saw all kinds of miniskirts which my granddaughter and I agreed her mother/my daughter would never wear. Then we went up to the restaurant and ate. It took 90 minutes for us to do a complete circuit. The weather was gorgeous and clear and sunny.

Lunch Above Sydney

Lunch Above Sydney

Lunch Above Sydney

Buffet dessert items in Sydney Tower restaurant - Australia

Ferry and sailboats from Sydney Tower

Between buildings from the Sydney Tower

bridge from the AMP tower

Skyscrapers and cranes

Gardens

Fort Denison

Darling Harbour from AMP tower

We saw the lightship and lighthouse from there too.

Lightship and HMB Endeavour replica Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse from the AMP tower

Lightship CLS-4 Carpentaria

Then we were to scooter to the aquarium. We went straight down Market Street to the harbor, but it was not clear how we could get down to the aquarium which was on another level altogether and it seemed nothing but freeways. I asked a group of guys and they were puzzled too and suggested that maybe the hotel there would have a lift down to that level. So we went to the hotel and asked. They said that we should go up on the bridge and then take a lift down. Two of them walked us all the way to the first lift. They went up with us and then walked us part way across the bridge and pointed to where the lift down was (lift = elevator)

Aquarium and Mme Tussauds

The concierge said we should not get into the ticket line to buy tickets but that there would be a shorter line for those who had tickets already. The aquarium was a frenetic - multiple children and strollers and families.

Entrance lobby with gift and snack shop signs

But we had a good time and my granddaughter was glad she didn't have to push the wheelchair.

Aquarium

fish in the aquarium

whale made of legos at the aquarium

They gave her a scavenger hunt to do but she didn't find everything and at one point she stopped for something, and I didn't and she didn't know I had gone on. A good lesson for me. We ended up at the gift shop

clothing displayed at the aquarium gift shop

books

Umbrellas

racks of souvenir items

and they gave her the chocolate prize anyway even though she hadn't found the scroll.

sculpture outside aquarium

Maritime Museum from the other side of the harbour

Little train in Darling Harbor

My back was hurting me even sitting down and I was thinking we would get a cab back to the hotel.. But how? So we did the lifts in reverse and ended up on a one way street with fast traffic. We figured out that if the cab had the light on, it was free. We went up a block to a stoplight, and there was a cab in the middle of traffic stopped at a red light. My granddaughter refused to go out there, so I got off the scooter and walked out into the street and knocked on his window, and he maneuvered over to the curb. She had the scooter collapsed by then so we got in and went back to the hotel. and went up to our room. I was not really hungry, but my granddaughter wanted to eat so I ordered a hamburger for her and a sandwich for me and a banana and croissants for the morning. We also figured out how to make tea.

I went to sleep and woke up about midnight

and went down and paid the rest of the bill (just the food things and the internet) in US dollars. The exchange rate right now is $100 US to $121 Australian.

My granddaughter was up when I got back - she said I was loud. But I asked her to turn off the TV and she didn't hear that, so I don't think I was that loud. After I got back from checking out, we packed. I put the half a sandwich that I had not eaten into a baggie for later. I ate one of the bananas and a croissant. My granddaughter ate the others. She couldn't find one of her socks and I told her to pull the covers off the bed because she had been sleeping with them on. She didn't want to. She said it would make a mess. So I did it, and of course when I pulled the covers vigorously, there was her sock. She insisted that it was insufficient looking rather than not pulling the covers off the bed.

You talkin to me?

We put the bed back on the right side of the room so that the luggage and scooter could get out.

We then took naps until it was time to leave. We got into a taxi a little before 8 and were at the airport in about 15 minutes.

The traffic coming the other way into Sydney was bumper to bumper. When we got to the airport the taxi driver unloaded the bags, and I went looking for my wheelchair. I had to walk across the airport to get to the wheelchair place and then someone had to bring all the bags to the oversized luggage which was where the wheelchairs were. They tried to get luggage tags but their computer was frozen and just would not do it.

So the man there wheeled me in the wheelchair with the luggage except for the scooter bag, and checked the bags in and got us boarding passes there. Then we went back to put the tag on the scooter bag. Then he said that if my granddaughter would push, we could go to the gate and wait. So we went thru security and then had to go through an extensive maze of duty-free shops.

Apparently I had packed the computer too tightly to get it out of the bag, but we didn't have to take our coats off or our shoes off and we could take liquids through with no problem. When we opened up the computer bag to put it back in, I found the sandwich, so after she pushed me to the gate (gate 10) and left to go buy a donut, I ate the sandwich. She came back with a frosty for her and a donut for each of us.

We boarded the plane and we were in the same seats as before. The flight was 5 hours and we left at 10:15 and got there at 12:45 because Perth is in a different time zone

The flight was 5 hours and we left at 10:15 and got there at 12:45 (we got lunch)

Lunch - pumpkin lasagna

because Perth is in a different time zone. I had thought that we wouldn't be there until 2 and since we were there earlier than I expected, I thought maybe my VT friend Leslie (the Wandering Camel)might be late. But she was right there at the gate - I had given her the flight number and she looked it up. Just before we got off, they announced that no fruit or nuts could be imported into Western Australia. I still had a banana in my bag, so I ate it.

Leslie had some problems getting the luggage trolley free of the place they were held. It took her money (wouldn't take mine) but wouldn't give her a trolley. While this was going on, the fruit and nut dog alerted on my bag where I had had the banana. I offered to open it but they said not to bother. It did smell of banana inside, but if they had opened it they would have noticed that I also had some of the granola bars inside which I had forgotten about

Loading area

After a bit, we got a cart and loaded the Luggie bag and the hanging bag and a couple of other things onto it. Then Leslie pushed me and the wheelchair out to the loading dock and went back to get my granddaughter and the rest of the luggage. She got her car and with the help of some muscular guys, got all of it in her station wagon.

Then she gave me a tour of Perth

[

Perth Park

and took us to the hotel in Freemantle (which is the port for Perth)

Driving along the coast