Schedule

Work has been nothing but giant stressball of late. I need a getaway. The office will be closed for a week so I decided to just explore what budget-friendly options were available for me. Anything to the east coast US was insanely expensive. On a whim I expanded the search to Australia / Asia. As luck would have it Royal Caribbean apparently was trying to clearance rooms on a sailing. Luck would also hold that on the same night there must have been a system mistake in airfare to Sydney. In total this trip would run cheaper than 7 days to Miami.

Being someone who never lets a travel "mistake" go unpurchased, I snapped it up and counted the days until leaving on another great adventure.

Day	Day	Day	Place	Duration
Day A	Fri	Feb 17	San Diego, CA	Fly
Day B	Sat	Feb 18	still flying
Day C	Sun	Feb 19	Sydney/Australia
Day D	Mon	Feb 20	Sydney/Australia
Day 1	Tues	Feb 21	Sydney/Australia	Boarding, depart 6:30 pm
Day 2	Wed	Feb 22	at sea
Day 3	Thurs	Feb 23	at sea
Day 4	Fri	Feb 24	at sea
Day 5	Sat	Feb 25	Lautoka, Fiji	Arrive 12:00 pm     Depart 8:00 pm
Day 6	Sun	Feb 26	Suva, Fiji	Arrive 8:00 am     Depart 5:00 pm
Day 7	Mon	Feb 27	at sea
Day 8	Tues	Feb 28	Mystery Island, Vanuatu	Arrive 8:00 am     Depart 5:00 pm
Day 9	Wed	Mar 1	Isle of Pines, New Caledonia	Arrive 8:00 am     Depart 5:00 pm
Day 10	Thurs	Mar 2	Noumea, New Caledonia	Arrive 8:00 am     Depart 5:00 pm
Day 11	Fri	Mar 3	at sea
Day 12	Sat	Mar 4	at sea
Day 13	Sun	Mar 5	Sydney/Australia	Arrive 6:30 am, fly home
Day 14	Sun	Mar 5	San Diego, CA

Day A - And so it begins

The worst storm (apparently) in recent Southern California history happens to hit tonight RIGHT when I'm scheduled to leave. Let's hope I can actually make my connection. Otherwise, have to try tomorrow as there is only one flight a day to Sydney.

So thankful there was an hour delay overall for flights in LA. My first flight didn't take off until 10, getting into LA at 11. As if that delay wasn't bad enough we couldn't leave LA until 1am due to an American Airlines plane wanting to pull into a gate behind us but there was a shift change and left the plane for 30 minutes. Crazy that'd happen.

	Oh yeah baby	Folks starting to fill into the 777
Downside for having long legs	After a nice 10 hour nap we've got 5 more hours left

Day C - Exploring Sydney

Amazingly challenging trip getting to Sydney but it's all worth it. For a room I wanted to get something close to the opera house and close to the ship. The Rocks is my home base. This area is the original part of Sydney the original white settlers landed in. There is so much character in this area just out the front door.

Weather was perfect today! Low 70s but OMG that sun. Don't mess around if you're coming here, the sun's rays, even on a cool day, will quickly burn you.

Some random street market just outside my hotel	Not a shabby place to sit and have a meal

Night C - Sydney Harbor by nightlight

Sydney by night is stunning. Everyone comes out and gets drinks while enjoying one of the many waterside restaurants.

Day D - More Sydney

To be honest I never thought I'd visit Sydney because of the cost of things here as well as the number of hours it takes to get here (you get spoiled when you can do so many diverse things within a few hour's flight from Southern California).  Being here I'm glad I never ruled out being here. Everything is very walking friendly.



So far every storefront I had walked by was selling ice cream (you have no idea how many ice cream stores are here), a bar, or some other small food establishment. I was really starting to wonder if this town had a grocery store or did everyone just buy pre-made food for every meal. After getting very lost I finally stumbled upon a mini grocery store. Looking at the prices I'm going to be much more appreciative of the cheap, fresh produce we have access to.