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D had a Significant Birthday this year, and with some money from her inheritance chose to take us both Sydney for a long weekend, and to cram as much into the few days as possible.
This was my first time out of the country, which meant that I had to bite the proverbial bullet and get a passport. This was a bit of an exercise in itself as the photo we paid for from the chemist wasn't adequate and we ended up just having E take photos of me against the kitchen wall with my phone and using the online tool at passports.govt.nz until we got one that was good enough (the main issue was shadows around the eyes).
We flew Emirates in one of their big planes, although only economy class, and both flights were very nice including the gluten-free meal options.
Flight out was Friday evening (also my first time in the Christchurch Airport International Terminal, which is sadly not as well supplied with power points and charge points as I expected so I didn't end up passing time on my laptop) and we spent most of the trip watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare on the entertainment system.
Our arrival in Australia got off to a stormy start, as a flash thunderstorm at the airport initially prevented the airbridges from being connected and then delayed the unloading of luggage. Fortunately as D is an assisted traveler (requiring a wheelchair for/after long stints) we had a local guide to keep us company, whisk us past the queues and through customs, and point us in the direction of the airport train station. Here we picked up Opal cards (prepay cards for all Sydney's public transport networks) and found our way onto the train for Circular Quay.
Aside - I quite liked what I saw of Sydney's public transport network; combining rail, light rail, busses and ferries; and we should absolutely have something like it in our cities/regions. Word of advice though, the airport train stations (possibly just the international one?) are privately owned and you cop an extra $20 charge to travel to/from them, meaning the minimum purchase / top up to an Opal card at that station is $35 - per card.
On the subject of paying for things, NZ Bank Visa Debit cards work just fine for contactless payments, although you will incur an extra charge per transaction. Also make sure to notify your bank that you are going to be in Australia, or they might just slap a hold on your card for use in an unexpected location. (This didn't happen to us.) (Additional tip from D's trip to Houston though, also let your bank know if you are going to be at an event with international vendors who might charge you in some other currency...)
We were within D-walking distance of our hotel, after getting assistance with directions from a friendly local. Two things struck me from the walk, one was the homeless people sleeping around the transit station, which I had half-expected, and two was the smell of cigarette smoke in the street as we passed by various pubs and other nighttime entertainment venues, which I had not. These things are probably a feature of NZ cities as well, I'm just not usually passing through entertainment districts and that time on a Friday night.
We were staying at the Sydney Harbour Hotel in "The Rocks" area. After the impressive atrium the room was actually a little disappointing, but it sufficed. There's a limited amount you can do with an historic building. We did have a nice view of the harbour bridge from our (8th-and-top-floor) room, and of the surrounding area from the roof, right over to the Sydney Opera House (when there wasn't one of a series of big-ass cruise ships in the way).
We didn't actually get to appreciate the views until the next day, as by this stage it was late-night by Sydney time let alone for us still on NZ time and we did a little unpacking then fell into bed.
This became a pattern: wake up/get up on our usual body-clock NZ time (about 7:30am Sydney time) and fall into bed towards midnight Sydney time. It did enable us to make the most of the daylight hours, but yes we were shattered when we got home.
~~~
Next morning we were awake/up as just mentioned and went in search of the hotel breakfast restaurant (buffet). It turned out that breakfasts /hadn't/ come with our booking, but we were able to get a guest discount rate after a trip down to the main desk. The buffet was excellent, although there wasn't anything explicitly gluten free there was plenty of fresh fruit and hot steamed/fried options. We tucked in and got our monies worth most days.
We followed breakfast with a trip up to the roof to check out the pool, which we never actually found the time to use, and the scenery.
Full gallery: Hotel and Surrounds
What immediately struck me from here was seeing the Aboriginal Flag flying pretty much everywhere I saw the colonial flag. This persisted everywhere we went. Why can't we have something as persistent as that in NZ?
(Actually I just did a search on that. The reason is that the Māori tribes aren't in agreement on a united flag. So we get "The Māori flag" flown on e.g. Waitangi day but not at other times." Ref)
Add on to this the acknowlegements on most of the websites I visited (check the market link below), and announced at the beginning of both Hamilton and the Seals for the wild show and although I know that the First Peoples still suffer major prejudice and deprivation, I feel in some ways they have made bigger strides in being acknowledged in a western sense than Māori have. There are the sorts of things that a generation or two of whites internalising as they grow up leads to better outcomes in the future.
Anyway I haven't done a dive into what it took for the First Peoples to get to this point, but given the notorious racism attributed to white Australians I'm certain it has been an epic.
Cutting back to our arrival, in the baggage collection area the flight was actually listed as having come from "Christchurch [newline] Ōtautahi", which I was chuffed to see but caused other some confusion as they tried to figure out where other than NZ the flight had visited. Quote, "Oh! It's the indigenous name!".
Moving on.
Another prominent nearby building was the Sirius Building. I'm pretty sure all the other building around had their own significant histories as well, but this the one I thought to look up as it was neither old or super-modern, and it blocked the view of the sunset which I was trying to catch Monday evening.
We could see The Rocks Street Market setting up below us, so we took a walk through there. We were a bit early this time, but made another trip later in the morning. D encountered a quilter selling appliqued tote bags and also bought some bling from jewelry and crystal stalls.
Between visits to the market and investigating the little shops in neighboring streets we ducked into a little mall across an alley from the hotel which contained one of the must-visits - E had been promised that we would bring home hard candies from Sticky, a hand-made-candy maker.
~~~
Full gallery: Around the Harbour (also contains some photos from Monday)
The actual plan for Saturday was for D's friend and sometime formal quilting mentor L to pick us up and take us for a bit of a scenic tour around the harbour. This was also the first time they had managed to meet in person. Due to roadworks and the market L was unable to actually get parking close to the hotel, so we ended up hiking a bit to get to her car. On that note I found travelling around Sydney to be much like Wellington - /not flat/. Hills and streets at odd angles and sets of stairs everywhere.
Another feature which stood out for me was the way architecture from every period since settlement is mixed and matched everywhere, with for (possibly an extreme) example, relatively stubby old sandstone buildings closely flanked by mid-20th C high-rises on one side and modern skyscrapers on the other. (Much of the old architecture, beautiful though it is, did nevertheless make #EQNZ me a little twitchy.)
During the afternoon we managed to cross not only The bridge but also two other major bridges across the harbour - the ANZAC bridge and I'm not sure which was the other.
The first exciting stop was The Sewing Basket which takes donated fabrics (and sewing machines) and sells them on to support the disabled. As a disabled artist herself D was very enthusiastic about this, and also the prices on their silks. Sadly we had to remember that we had baggage limits and she was ultimately quite selective.
Sadly the sun was in completely the wrong place and reflection meant I was unable to get a good photo of their full-window display of vintage sewing machines....
Second stop was at a harbour-side park where we could look back across to the bridge, and where I took many photos of Australian native flora for D's future quilting reference. My personal favourite also includes some local wildlife. It took several tries to get this shot …
From there to an Australian suburban mall - no idea which one but apparently importantly not run by Westfields, much like our own but with slightly different names on some of the shops. We had lunch at a very nice sushi train just down the street the returned to do some grocery shopping as it had an Aldi - which I was interested in because it is one of the names sometimes floated to invite into NZ to challenge our cosy duopoly, although L noted that having alternatives in Australia hasn't actually had much affect on the same cosy duopoly operating over there - and an Australian Woolworths, where D bought ~half a suitcase full of brands of gluten-free lunch bars which we just don't get in NZ for E to try / snack on for as long as they last. (I've claimed one bar of each type to try myself, and they are all quite acceptable although I found the Rocky Road one a bit too sweet.)
There had been plans to visit a local gallery as well, but we had run out of afternoon so instead L took us to her favourite chocolate and marshmallows place to finish up.
By the time we got back to the hotel D was ready to collapse, so she took a nap while I trawled the internet for somewhere convenient - and affordable - to eat. This was hampered by a) my laptop having issues connecting to the hotel wireless, and b) the enshittification of the internet meaning that most search results turned up only "best of" articles with lists of posh and expensive (and not particularly close) places. I eventually settled on - and snagged a temporally close booking for - Pony Dining, a steak restaurant about a block away. (As far as I could tell no actual equines on the menu.) The meal and service was good, the seating arrangements - some tables inside but most customers seated at the same two long tables outside - were also interesting.
~~~
Full gallery: Sunday
Sunday morning we had planned to do more exploring, but after breakfast D was stricken with a digestive upset :( Fortunately it passed by the time we were due to leave for our first fixture of the day - the afternoon performance of Hamilton the Musical at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. D. is a big musical fan and Hamilton was on repeat in our house for a while, with songs still on at least one frequent playlist, so the opportunity to see it performed live on stage was really the motivating reason for the trip.
I've of course seen the filmed version, but there are a lot of subtleties which really show up in the live show and many of the numbers made a bit more sense. It was a really powerful performance and very real tears were shed by both of us at several points.
After the show it was a not-quite-mad-dash back to the hotel to get changed into our Sunday best and then to Infinity Restaurant in the Sydney Tower. This is a revolving restaurant like Orbit 360 at the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland, although slightly higher class again. This is also the first time I have had to go through a metal detector to get into a restaurant...
Looking inland from the tower towards what must have been mountains in the distance gave a real feeling of the immensity of the landmass which I think would be impossible to get in NZ, even if there was a tower in Ōtautahi looking over the plains. /Not/ that that would be a good idea. (#EQNZ me twitches again.)
We obviously spent much of the evening staring out the window at the view, but of I also had this vision sitting across from me. [ahem]
I am not a foodie or aficionado of fine dining so I am afraid much of the experience was lost on me, but then it wasn't for me :) The food and service were excellent and D found everything met her expectations.
(Sadly the Infinity Restaurant does not have any guaranteed gluten-free options, partly due to the small size of their kitchen.)
~~~
We may have dragged ourselves out of bed a little later on Monday morning, but not too much later because it was Zoo Day! After the previous mornings incident, even though we weren't sure it had been the breakfast D ate cautiously, and then we walked down to Circular Quay to catch the ferry across to Taronga Zoo. We got our closest look at the Opera House on the way past, and also saw quite a lot of Australian Naval ships. I'm not certain if this was normal for Sydney Harbour or whether it was because a certain pair of VIPs had happened to be visiting the city that same weekend (we'd also been aware of a substantial police presence over the weekend, some of which was parked up not far down the road from the hotel, and we also saw a flyover of a couple of fighter jets later in the day.)
From the ferry terminal we caught a bus up to the top entrance to the zoo. Taronga Zoo Sydney is a bit like if you rolled Orana Park and Willowbank together and upscaled. We spent most of 6 hours there, prioritising things we wouldn't see at home (so skipping e.g. African Savannah and Backyard to Bush) and still didn't get to everything we wanted to see. D was feeling up to walking to start with so we didn't grab one of the (limited) complimentary wheelchairs on the way in, and when she started to feel that it would be a good idea later on no more were available. So we took it gently and with her cane she did amazingly well. (I'm grateful we didn't end up with a wheelchair, the entire zoo is sloped and I would have been absolutely, and possibly literally shattered had I been pushing her around for the day).
We did end up with ~10 plushies in various sizes from the gift store to bring home. /Some/ of these will be Xmas presents for the kids … fortunately plushies squish into luggage. Some of the smaller ones travelled inside my dress shoes...
There is a food court roughly central and we were able to get lunch there. Gluten free options were available. I really recommend downloading the app, if only for the map so you can figure out where the water bottle refill stations are.
Absolutely attend the Seals for the Wild event if you get the chance. Here is an official version from three years ago on the Taronga Zoo Youtube channel and there are other versions about uploaded by the public. The show we watched was longer - 20-30 minutes?
Below are a handful of my favourite photos from the day and here is my full Taronga Zoo Sydney gallery.
We had more or less intended to make our way out via the bottom entrance to the zoo, but ended up back at the top just about closing time and after a short wait again caught the bus back down to the ferry terminal.
We had no thoughts on dinner, except really being too bushed after the day walking to go out, but luckily there was a Subway located just after we got off the ferry so that was taken care of. The rest of the evening was spent trying to make everything fit into two suitcases and two carry-ons without breaking any weight limits. There was a luggage scale in the hotel foyer and I made several trips down to it and back again.
~~~
I managed to get a few hours sleep. D unfortunately woke at 2am and did not manage to get back to sleep before our 4am start; catching a taxi to Central Station and then a train to the airport for early check-in. We'd arranged packed breakfasts, but unfortunately whomever made them missed the note about one being gluten free, so the staff quickly put together a box of fresh fruit instead.
Getting to our gate and waiting the ~3 hours until our flight didn't go 100% smoothly. There were issues getting a wheelchair (which after the previous day was essential) and some very loud passengers who turned up partway through kicked off D's autistic sensory issues, meaning we had to relocate farther away from the gate. We did purchase a few things at duty free while we waited, by way of a thank you present for my Mum who had spent the weekend teen-sitting E, and "cooking ingredients".
The flight back was a smooth as the flight over, and the food, breakfast Australian time but brunch NZ time, as good. D managed to snatch a little sleep but much of my trip was spent just keeping her functional :( Strangely although I'd been barely managing to keep my eyes open in the terminal as soon as we got up and boarded the plane I was well awake for the rest of the journey.
The Southern Alps did put on a marvelous show for us though, snowcapped peaks at first nearly indistinguishably from the cotton-wool clouds nestled in the valleys between, until there were gaps large enough to see the brown of a slope below the snowline and down into the river valleys. Sadly I did not get any photos of this, and eventually the clouds closed up completely over the peaks.
The benefits of travelling with an assisted traveler were again present upon landing, although there was a short wait for a wheelchair to arrive after that we were whisked past the queues to customs. We did have a lot to declare in the way of food and silk, but everything was processed and it didn't reach the threshold for GST so that was OK.
The rest of the trip home - shuttle park and ride, and then me being awake enough to drive - went smoothly. D did nap in the car, and we would have poured her straight into bed when we got home mid-afternoon but E was having a teenage crisis and needed her Mum :/
I had to be back at work the next day, and somehow managed to be functional for it.
~~~
Overall despite some hiccups it was a very enjoyable and interesting, if full on with little-to-no time to relax, trip with lots of new experiences and many good memories made.
This was my first time out of the country, which meant that I had to bite the proverbial bullet and get a passport. This was a bit of an exercise in itself as the photo we paid for from the chemist wasn't adequate and we ended up just having E take photos of me against the kitchen wall with my phone and using the online tool at passports.govt.nz until we got one that was good enough (the main issue was shadows around the eyes).
We flew Emirates in one of their big planes, although only economy class, and both flights were very nice including the gluten-free meal options.
Flight out was Friday evening (also my first time in the Christchurch Airport International Terminal, which is sadly not as well supplied with power points and charge points as I expected so I didn't end up passing time on my laptop) and we spent most of the trip watching The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare on the entertainment system.
Our arrival in Australia got off to a stormy start, as a flash thunderstorm at the airport initially prevented the airbridges from being connected and then delayed the unloading of luggage. Fortunately as D is an assisted traveler (requiring a wheelchair for/after long stints) we had a local guide to keep us company, whisk us past the queues and through customs, and point us in the direction of the airport train station. Here we picked up Opal cards (prepay cards for all Sydney's public transport networks) and found our way onto the train for Circular Quay.
Aside - I quite liked what I saw of Sydney's public transport network; combining rail, light rail, busses and ferries; and we should absolutely have something like it in our cities/regions. Word of advice though, the airport train stations (possibly just the international one?) are privately owned and you cop an extra $20 charge to travel to/from them, meaning the minimum purchase / top up to an Opal card at that station is $35 - per card.
On the subject of paying for things, NZ Bank Visa Debit cards work just fine for contactless payments, although you will incur an extra charge per transaction. Also make sure to notify your bank that you are going to be in Australia, or they might just slap a hold on your card for use in an unexpected location. (This didn't happen to us.) (Additional tip from D's trip to Houston though, also let your bank know if you are going to be at an event with international vendors who might charge you in some other currency...)
We were within D-walking distance of our hotel, after getting assistance with directions from a friendly local. Two things struck me from the walk, one was the homeless people sleeping around the transit station, which I had half-expected, and two was the smell of cigarette smoke in the street as we passed by various pubs and other nighttime entertainment venues, which I had not. These things are probably a feature of NZ cities as well, I'm just not usually passing through entertainment districts and that time on a Friday night.
We were staying at the Sydney Harbour Hotel in "The Rocks" area. After the impressive atrium the room was actually a little disappointing, but it sufficed. There's a limited amount you can do with an historic building. We did have a nice view of the harbour bridge from our (8th-and-top-floor) room, and of the surrounding area from the roof, right over to the Sydney Opera House (when there wasn't one of a series of big-ass cruise ships in the way).
We didn't actually get to appreciate the views until the next day, as by this stage it was late-night by Sydney time let alone for us still on NZ time and we did a little unpacking then fell into bed.
This became a pattern: wake up/get up on our usual body-clock NZ time (about 7:30am Sydney time) and fall into bed towards midnight Sydney time. It did enable us to make the most of the daylight hours, but yes we were shattered when we got home.
~~~
Next morning we were awake/up as just mentioned and went in search of the hotel breakfast restaurant (buffet). It turned out that breakfasts /hadn't/ come with our booking, but we were able to get a guest discount rate after a trip down to the main desk. The buffet was excellent, although there wasn't anything explicitly gluten free there was plenty of fresh fruit and hot steamed/fried options. We tucked in and got our monies worth most days.
We followed breakfast with a trip up to the roof to check out the pool, which we never actually found the time to use, and the scenery.
Full gallery: Hotel and Surrounds
What immediately struck me from here was seeing the Aboriginal Flag flying pretty much everywhere I saw the colonial flag. This persisted everywhere we went. Why can't we have something as persistent as that in NZ?
(Actually I just did a search on that. The reason is that the Māori tribes aren't in agreement on a united flag. So we get "The Māori flag" flown on e.g. Waitangi day but not at other times." Ref)
Add on to this the acknowlegements on most of the websites I visited (check the market link below), and announced at the beginning of both Hamilton and the Seals for the wild show and although I know that the First Peoples still suffer major prejudice and deprivation, I feel in some ways they have made bigger strides in being acknowledged in a western sense than Māori have. There are the sorts of things that a generation or two of whites internalising as they grow up leads to better outcomes in the future.
Anyway I haven't done a dive into what it took for the First Peoples to get to this point, but given the notorious racism attributed to white Australians I'm certain it has been an epic.
Cutting back to our arrival, in the baggage collection area the flight was actually listed as having come from "Christchurch [newline] Ōtautahi", which I was chuffed to see but caused other some confusion as they tried to figure out where other than NZ the flight had visited. Quote, "Oh! It's the indigenous name!".
Moving on.
Another prominent nearby building was the Sirius Building. I'm pretty sure all the other building around had their own significant histories as well, but this the one I thought to look up as it was neither old or super-modern, and it blocked the view of the sunset which I was trying to catch Monday evening.
We could see The Rocks Street Market setting up below us, so we took a walk through there. We were a bit early this time, but made another trip later in the morning. D encountered a quilter selling appliqued tote bags and also bought some bling from jewelry and crystal stalls.
Between visits to the market and investigating the little shops in neighboring streets we ducked into a little mall across an alley from the hotel which contained one of the must-visits - E had been promised that we would bring home hard candies from Sticky, a hand-made-candy maker.
~~~
Full gallery: Around the Harbour (also contains some photos from Monday)
The actual plan for Saturday was for D's friend and sometime formal quilting mentor L to pick us up and take us for a bit of a scenic tour around the harbour. This was also the first time they had managed to meet in person. Due to roadworks and the market L was unable to actually get parking close to the hotel, so we ended up hiking a bit to get to her car. On that note I found travelling around Sydney to be much like Wellington - /not flat/. Hills and streets at odd angles and sets of stairs everywhere.
Another feature which stood out for me was the way architecture from every period since settlement is mixed and matched everywhere, with for (possibly an extreme) example, relatively stubby old sandstone buildings closely flanked by mid-20th C high-rises on one side and modern skyscrapers on the other. (Much of the old architecture, beautiful though it is, did nevertheless make #EQNZ me a little twitchy.)
During the afternoon we managed to cross not only The bridge but also two other major bridges across the harbour - the ANZAC bridge and I'm not sure which was the other.
The first exciting stop was The Sewing Basket which takes donated fabrics (and sewing machines) and sells them on to support the disabled. As a disabled artist herself D was very enthusiastic about this, and also the prices on their silks. Sadly we had to remember that we had baggage limits and she was ultimately quite selective.
Sadly the sun was in completely the wrong place and reflection meant I was unable to get a good photo of their full-window display of vintage sewing machines....
Second stop was at a harbour-side park where we could look back across to the bridge, and where I took many photos of Australian native flora for D's future quilting reference. My personal favourite also includes some local wildlife. It took several tries to get this shot …
From there to an Australian suburban mall - no idea which one but apparently importantly not run by Westfields, much like our own but with slightly different names on some of the shops. We had lunch at a very nice sushi train just down the street the returned to do some grocery shopping as it had an Aldi - which I was interested in because it is one of the names sometimes floated to invite into NZ to challenge our cosy duopoly, although L noted that having alternatives in Australia hasn't actually had much affect on the same cosy duopoly operating over there - and an Australian Woolworths, where D bought ~half a suitcase full of brands of gluten-free lunch bars which we just don't get in NZ for E to try / snack on for as long as they last. (I've claimed one bar of each type to try myself, and they are all quite acceptable although I found the Rocky Road one a bit too sweet.)
There had been plans to visit a local gallery as well, but we had run out of afternoon so instead L took us to her favourite chocolate and marshmallows place to finish up.
By the time we got back to the hotel D was ready to collapse, so she took a nap while I trawled the internet for somewhere convenient - and affordable - to eat. This was hampered by a) my laptop having issues connecting to the hotel wireless, and b) the enshittification of the internet meaning that most search results turned up only "best of" articles with lists of posh and expensive (and not particularly close) places. I eventually settled on - and snagged a temporally close booking for - Pony Dining, a steak restaurant about a block away. (As far as I could tell no actual equines on the menu.) The meal and service was good, the seating arrangements - some tables inside but most customers seated at the same two long tables outside - were also interesting.
~~~
Full gallery: Sunday
Sunday morning we had planned to do more exploring, but after breakfast D was stricken with a digestive upset :( Fortunately it passed by the time we were due to leave for our first fixture of the day - the afternoon performance of Hamilton the Musical at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. D. is a big musical fan and Hamilton was on repeat in our house for a while, with songs still on at least one frequent playlist, so the opportunity to see it performed live on stage was really the motivating reason for the trip.
I've of course seen the filmed version, but there are a lot of subtleties which really show up in the live show and many of the numbers made a bit more sense. It was a really powerful performance and very real tears were shed by both of us at several points.
After the show it was a not-quite-mad-dash back to the hotel to get changed into our Sunday best and then to Infinity Restaurant in the Sydney Tower. This is a revolving restaurant like Orbit 360 at the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland, although slightly higher class again. This is also the first time I have had to go through a metal detector to get into a restaurant...
Looking inland from the tower towards what must have been mountains in the distance gave a real feeling of the immensity of the landmass which I think would be impossible to get in NZ, even if there was a tower in Ōtautahi looking over the plains. /Not/ that that would be a good idea. (#EQNZ me twitches again.)
We obviously spent much of the evening staring out the window at the view, but of I also had this vision sitting across from me. [ahem]
I am not a foodie or aficionado of fine dining so I am afraid much of the experience was lost on me, but then it wasn't for me :) The food and service were excellent and D found everything met her expectations.
(Sadly the Infinity Restaurant does not have any guaranteed gluten-free options, partly due to the small size of their kitchen.)
~~~
We may have dragged ourselves out of bed a little later on Monday morning, but not too much later because it was Zoo Day! After the previous mornings incident, even though we weren't sure it had been the breakfast D ate cautiously, and then we walked down to Circular Quay to catch the ferry across to Taronga Zoo. We got our closest look at the Opera House on the way past, and also saw quite a lot of Australian Naval ships. I'm not certain if this was normal for Sydney Harbour or whether it was because a certain pair of VIPs had happened to be visiting the city that same weekend (we'd also been aware of a substantial police presence over the weekend, some of which was parked up not far down the road from the hotel, and we also saw a flyover of a couple of fighter jets later in the day.)
From the ferry terminal we caught a bus up to the top entrance to the zoo. Taronga Zoo Sydney is a bit like if you rolled Orana Park and Willowbank together and upscaled. We spent most of 6 hours there, prioritising things we wouldn't see at home (so skipping e.g. African Savannah and Backyard to Bush) and still didn't get to everything we wanted to see. D was feeling up to walking to start with so we didn't grab one of the (limited) complimentary wheelchairs on the way in, and when she started to feel that it would be a good idea later on no more were available. So we took it gently and with her cane she did amazingly well. (I'm grateful we didn't end up with a wheelchair, the entire zoo is sloped and I would have been absolutely, and possibly literally shattered had I been pushing her around for the day).
We did end up with ~10 plushies in various sizes from the gift store to bring home. /Some/ of these will be Xmas presents for the kids … fortunately plushies squish into luggage. Some of the smaller ones travelled inside my dress shoes...
There is a food court roughly central and we were able to get lunch there. Gluten free options were available. I really recommend downloading the app, if only for the map so you can figure out where the water bottle refill stations are.
Absolutely attend the Seals for the Wild event if you get the chance. Here is an official version from three years ago on the Taronga Zoo Youtube channel and there are other versions about uploaded by the public. The show we watched was longer - 20-30 minutes?
Below are a handful of my favourite photos from the day and here is my full Taronga Zoo Sydney gallery.
We had more or less intended to make our way out via the bottom entrance to the zoo, but ended up back at the top just about closing time and after a short wait again caught the bus back down to the ferry terminal.
We had no thoughts on dinner, except really being too bushed after the day walking to go out, but luckily there was a Subway located just after we got off the ferry so that was taken care of. The rest of the evening was spent trying to make everything fit into two suitcases and two carry-ons without breaking any weight limits. There was a luggage scale in the hotel foyer and I made several trips down to it and back again.
~~~
I managed to get a few hours sleep. D unfortunately woke at 2am and did not manage to get back to sleep before our 4am start; catching a taxi to Central Station and then a train to the airport for early check-in. We'd arranged packed breakfasts, but unfortunately whomever made them missed the note about one being gluten free, so the staff quickly put together a box of fresh fruit instead.
Getting to our gate and waiting the ~3 hours until our flight didn't go 100% smoothly. There were issues getting a wheelchair (which after the previous day was essential) and some very loud passengers who turned up partway through kicked off D's autistic sensory issues, meaning we had to relocate farther away from the gate. We did purchase a few things at duty free while we waited, by way of a thank you present for my Mum who had spent the weekend teen-sitting E, and "cooking ingredients".
The flight back was a smooth as the flight over, and the food, breakfast Australian time but brunch NZ time, as good. D managed to snatch a little sleep but much of my trip was spent just keeping her functional :( Strangely although I'd been barely managing to keep my eyes open in the terminal as soon as we got up and boarded the plane I was well awake for the rest of the journey.
The Southern Alps did put on a marvelous show for us though, snowcapped peaks at first nearly indistinguishably from the cotton-wool clouds nestled in the valleys between, until there were gaps large enough to see the brown of a slope below the snowline and down into the river valleys. Sadly I did not get any photos of this, and eventually the clouds closed up completely over the peaks.
The benefits of travelling with an assisted traveler were again present upon landing, although there was a short wait for a wheelchair to arrive after that we were whisked past the queues to customs. We did have a lot to declare in the way of food and silk, but everything was processed and it didn't reach the threshold for GST so that was OK.
The rest of the trip home - shuttle park and ride, and then me being awake enough to drive - went smoothly. D did nap in the car, and we would have poured her straight into bed when we got home mid-afternoon but E was having a teenage crisis and needed her Mum :/
I had to be back at work the next day, and somehow managed to be functional for it.
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Overall despite some hiccups it was a very enjoyable and interesting, if full on with little-to-no time to relax, trip with lots of new experiences and many good memories made.
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