It’s tradition now to head away for birthday celebrations. Melbourne always used to be the favourite but Sydney and it’s surrounds is fast overtaking. I don’t usually blog a long weekend but this one was special so it has to have a place in my travel archives.
I had always wanted to go to Vivid and it finished on the Saturday night so time was of the essence. We left on the Friday morning with the intent of being in Sydney by lunchtime however fog in Auckland put paid to that. I am not going to write about the delays and disruptions as you all get that delays and disruptions are annoying. I do however now have some handy travel tips for disruptions, so check it out at the end.
By the time we get to our hotel it’s 7pm Aussie time but body clock 9pm and we are tired. We check in to the Sofitel Darling Harbour, my favourite hotel and it never disappoints. We have a great corner view room overlooking Darling Harbour and after watching the fireworks and a beer and a wine we head off to check out VIVID.
We wander the boardwalks and then with tired feet and tired minds we decide to take the ferry round to circular quay. We are first on the ferry and it fills up fast, in fact it is packed within minutes and we are grateful for our seats. My next mission is to learn to use my camera at night.
The lights are amazing and as testament above my night photography is not, especially not as we are moving. I adjust the lens, rest it on the rail, use WH’s arm as a tripod, adjust again and then decide to forget about looking through the lens and enjoy the moments.
You get the picture. The moments are great, and the harbour fills with light and action in every direction, our seats on the ferry are priceless. Once we arrived at the Quay we decided to brave the crowds tomorrow and simply got off the ferry to get back on again and headed back to our hotel.
The next day we wander through the waterfront and into town and enjoy the vibe of being somewhere else. We get ready to once again get the ferry to the Quay and this time explore the Rocks and the botanical gardens and everything that sparkled out to us the night before, but the weather looks ominous. I love the picture below taken from the Sofitel lounge on my iPad before we leave. A shades of grey, colour photo, it’s my best shot of Sydney.
We leave the comfort and views of the lounge and head out to catch the ferry and the rain falls, and falls, before even making it to the ferry we are wet and we simply turn around with the glass half full attitude of having at least seen the harbour lights the night before and the promise to go again next year.
The next morning we head off to the Bowen Mountain where WH has excelled himself after a 12 year hiatus of booking accommodation (most of you will recall the Copenhagen, snow, railway station, red light district, basement room story). I am writing this in hindsight without the benefit of the anticipation and excitement but needless to say Spicers Sangoma Retreat is amazing. There is nothing to do but look out to the bush, the fire roaring and Eagles on vinyl playing on the turntable.
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The morning is skittish and after breakfast we are going to drive to the Blue Mountains. The wonderful staff pack us a picnic to take along for the ride. It’s my birthday and I am 55, I am indeed a lucky girl.
I have to write that the last time I was in the Blue Mountains was with my beautiful cousin, Leanne. The precious memory tiptoes through my mind as we wind our way through the mountain. We went there to toast a brave new future and leave our “sad sorry asses” behind, it was about looking forward and moving on. It’s always been a great memory but it feels even more special now. We climbed up and sat upon a rocky outcrop, watched the sunset over the amazing valley, laughed and cried and toasted to a life full of love. I am pleased she found that love in her way too short life and once again thank the universe for the love and life I have in mine.
The rain comes and goes but the journey is good. We walk, we talk, we drive and we enjoy the scenery. It’s a beautiful birthday and WH has set a benchmark that will not wait another 12 years.
There is actually more to tell of food and wine and music but it is in that “you had to be their” category as I can’t remember the names of the eats and drinks etc but I just know that they were yummy and the long, long weekend surpassed itself and can now be printed in the journal of 2019 travel archives that sit upon the coffee table.
Anecdotes:
Disrupt travel tip for Air New Zealand
This is written in “shortsentence” to save energy. So you are getting ready to head to the airport and you get the dreaded text saying your flight is cancelled. It tells you that if no-one has contacted you in 15 mins then please call. Twenty minutes later you call 0800 and of course are met with the expected long delays on the phone – “caller demand is higher than usual” – which you can understand as the fog has disrupted the inbound Auckland flights – “we recognise that you are an important customer” excellent I would hate to be a not important one as the wait is long. After an age on hold you get through and there is really no palatable solution on offer. If we leave right now and drive to the Auckland then we might make it? Nope – Maybe move to the 4.15pm flight to Sydney at least we are there by nightfall and can still go to VIVID, maybe. Nope – no seats only premium economy which they can sell to us for $1600. Only option fly to Sydney tonight and get there to late for VIVID. I then went on line to look at the departures ex Tauranga to Auckland and whola there was a flight going to Auckland, it was the one before ours but delayed not cancelled. Rang back – wait – wait -nope they can’t see it on their screen. Jump in car – zip to airport and yes whola booked on it and can keep original flight to Sydney. Yippee. Not quite as flight did not leave as scheduled and was further delayed but yippee they could put us on the 4.15pm to Sydney not later one. Excellent result (not as good as the original option but glass half full and all that).
Handy tip – go to Airport if you really need to get there as there are much better options for sorting it out.
For those of you who are over 50 you may be able to relate to the random thoughts below (if you are not then just sign off now)
It’s sort of weird on your 55th birthday, because you are not that old really, in the scheme of things, so I repeat it’s sort of weird – when you go to an amazing retreat and it feels like you are the oldest ones there. What do they do I wonder to indulge in this “indulgence”? I look for tell tale shiny new rings on fingers, or maybe anniversaries of significance, but my age is definitely felt by the fact that everyone else is so young. Maybe 31sts are a new thing and I missed it. Maybe having only now become DINKY’s ourselves, this is what we missed out on by having babies when there was still an “een” in our age. I wonder what they look forward to when they are 55? I even at one stage wonder why they came at all when they spend all breakfast playing on their phones? I wonder – albeit fleetingly, as a matter of curiosity, because my awe at being here is palpable and I hope they feel as lucky as I do.