Long Days Journey into Night

I must say I had little apprehension last week when leaving the blizzardy conditions of Ottawa behind for the blistering summer heat of Perth. Although the 28 hours spent in the air is always a huge detterant, it was made much more tolerable this time around due to some free business class upgrades Sophie and I got through to Honolulu.

We did the Ottawa --> Toronto --> Vancouver --> Honolulu --> Sydney --> Perth connection again as it was familar to us, but the hassles in dealing with US Customs, and the terrible arrival/departure times in Honolulu are making me reconsider flying back via Hong Kong. The problem is that you arrive in Waikiki at 11pm, and have to check out of the hotel by noon the next day. Given the jet-lag, we wake up at 6am, check out at noon, and have to kill 11 hours on the streets of Waikiki before departing on the midnight flight for Sydney. So if you're an unlucky shlepp like me, and can't sleep on the plane, the +30 hours without sleep is pure torture. I have to keep reminding myself that travel involves two components, the flights which are to be endured, and the destination which is the reward. I guess I just think it absurd that none of the hotels in Waikiki can have flexible enough hours to cater to stopover guests as opposed to tourists.

I found it interesting that when we did this Ottawa-->Honolulu flight the last time, it was on June 21st, the longest day of the year. And as we were flying westerly with the sun, it surely must have been the longest day we will ever experience (30hrs).

It was good to go exploring with Sophie again, and we did this long walk around the base of Diamond Head crater. We eventually stopped at a small out-of-the-way beach, where a little memorial was erected in the trees for a lost surfer. I didn't recognize the name, but there were a scattering of sacrificed surf magazines layed over the grave stone - possibly a legend lost to the sea. On the way back down the hill, we took this funky fish-eye photo in a driveway mirror.

Sydney was phenomenal. The temperature hovered around 30 degrees as we took the bus downtown, and then meandered along the busy streets, relishing in the ability to stretch our legs. We visited the expansive botanical garden to the west of the Opera house, and felt dwarved by the size of the ficus trees. The odd visual display of plants and animals is one those marked events where you realize that "you've arrived". The harbour was packed, with restaurants and cafe's overflowing onto the sidewalks, and street performers every few metres. We checked out a small Italian restaurant in "The Rocks", a market-like neighbourhood filled with cobblestone streets, pubs, and buildings dating back to the original British settlements of the 1780's. After supper, we strolled along the boardwalk and took in the panorama of the huge "coat-hanger" bridge, the skyscrapers to the south, and a magnificent summer lightning show blowing in from the west.