It was blowing an absolute gale.... We were not due to dock in Sydney till 8am and we got extra hours sleep in as we had to put our clock back an hour for the last time... We were up there early as wanted to watch our entrance into the heads....
They had the ropes up stopping us from going up to the front of the ship due to high winds and everyone patiently waited for them to be taken down but as we saw the city getting closer and closer they were no match for the maddening crowd and down they went as everyone charged up there...... Although the sun was out it was no match for the Wind and Cold.... it was a challenge just trying to hold the camera still to take a photo....
We sailed in and Sydney looked as beautiful as ever... and it was not until we were passing the Opera House and the captain blasted the horn that all our emotions of coming home came to the surface..... As the tears were turning into little icicles we passed under the harbour bridge and another round of blasts, just in case you were not emotional enough.......
Garry stayed up front to video the actual docking at wharf 5 but all my frozen extremities had me back around in the protection of the Riviera deck..... ahh and just in time to grab a glass of free Champoo and orange juice.... Now I didn’t mention on our night of lasts we visited our friends Paul and Linda and helped them finish off the last of their champagne and boy was our boat a rockin.... obviously this head wind we were experiencing this morning was with us all night....
We arrived in Sydney 45 min late..... which of course caused a chain reaction.... we were late getting off , and those boarding had to wait till 3pm to board...
This was no normal disembarkation... this was disembarkation after a world cruise and by the looks of the trolleys everyone had a mile of luggage that had to be taken off and scanned....
We knew this was going to be a challenged as we had 14 pieces of baggage ranging from backpacks to large suitcases.... (Now at least 2 pieces belonged to Colin and Judy that got off in Dover ...... a trade off that they come and pick us up)
Immigration was all carried out on board just after Auckland so the only thing left was quarantine... oops make that 15 cause I forgot the shopping bag with all the declarables.... Now we thought that we had left all the rage on the Ship.... but we forgot about Trolley Rage.... Too many passengers, not enough trolleys.... Here I was standing surrounded by all this luggage, it was not humanly possible for us to move anywhere until we had trolley’s ... meanwhile Ros and Arnold were out in the tent catching up with Col and Judy sending us SMS’s wondering if the luggage police had caught us and taken us away.... Meanwhile Garry is still trying to get a couple of trolleys for us.... well... he said when the baggage handlers were bringing the trolleys in from the car park, people were physically fighting to get a hold of one.... Finally and unscathed Garry managed to get hold of 2 and we were on our way....
When we finally made it out into the public area we heard a cry of “Mum, Dad your home, we miss you ” and we looked up to see Ros running from the back of the crowd with open arms to welcome us ... people must of thought we were nuts....
The best surprise for us was Kirsty and our grandsons Riley and Rorey waiting outside.... I knew but Garry didn’t.... he walked out and saw a sign that said “welcome home Grandpa & Jo.... “It didn’t register with him until Kirsty poked her head out over the top of the sign.... it was a great surprise....
The last challenge was getting the luggage in the car.... Luckily we didn’t have to worry about this as by the time we got to the car Colin and Arnold where arranging everything like a jigsaw puzzle making sure everything fit.... What a day.... Great to be home...... but for how long....
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