Aussies and Kiwis

On Monday morning, we checked out of the hotel and took a bus (with the group) to the cruise terminal. We had one last view of the Sydney harbor with the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, etc. from the bus. We had a great time in the beautiful city of Sydney. We were expecting to wait in long lines and pretty much go through a somewhat lengthy process to board the cruise ship. It is a very large ship with thousands of cruisers and so we expected it to take hours for the check in process to board the ship. We were pleasantly surprised that the boarding process was quick and everything went very smoothly. We had to stop at a number of stations - baggage tag, baggage drop, passport check, security, etc. - but each line was very quick and they were very well organized. A great way to start the cruise. Celebrity Edge Since it was around noon when we boarded, we made our way to one of the "embarkation restaurants" and had a nice meal. We walked around the ship and enjoyed seeing some of ...

I mentioned yesterday that Jan. 26 is celebrated every year here as Australia Day. It would be similar to our fourth of July. It is the day celebrated as the founding of Australia. Again as mentioned yesterday, there are some who think it an insult to consider Jan. 26, the day the white settlers arrived from Great Britain, as the founding of Australia since the Aboriginal people were here long before that. On the same day that Aussies celebrate Australia Day, there are some protest parades and they call it Invasion Day. However, in polls that were taken, 87% of Australians were in favor of keeping Australia Day and its celebrations. We started our day with Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. This is the church that Andrew had told us yesterday has the largest organ in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The church was beautiful and the Mass was interesting. Typically in a Catholic Church, today would be celebrated as the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. But here at St. Mary'...

On Saturday, we met up with Ageless Adventures as we had our first activity together as a group. We all boarded a bus for a fun day of touring in and around the Sydney area. Our tour guide for the day was Andrew who is from Moscow, but now lives in Australia. The leaders of the Ageless Adventures group are Jacque and Kent Lederman from Atlanta. There are 34 people in our group. We had an opportunity to meet some of the people in the group at breakfast. Most of the conversations when I encountered someone from the group started with "Are you Richard's sister?" Most of them know my brother as he has traveled with the group before, but we are new to the group and looking forward to the upcoming adventures. When we boarded the bus and took our seats, we were told we had to wear our seat belts on the bus. The police will occasionally stop a bus and check to see if everyone has their seat belts on. Australia was the second country to implement the use of seat belts on buses. Th...