33°53′23″ S  151°16′31″ E
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

We were up at 5:00 am to see the sun come up and to catch the airport shuttle at 6:00. We had plenty of time to make our flight and had a light breakfast after checking in and going through security.

The Sydney airport is massive and full of luxury shops – Gucci, Rolex, Cartier, Versace – all of our favourite shopping spots (!) but also nice lounge areas with water features. It’s also a “quiet” airport so the only announcements are at the gates. All other public service and flight information is on the monitors so it is much quieter than most other airports we have been in.

It was a pleasant 2 hour flight on Air New Zealand. There is a 2 hour time difference between Australia & New Zealand so we left at 10:00 and got in at 2:00. We even had a tasty hot meal (instead of having to buy a crummy sandwich) and they changed our seats for free. Plus we had one free bag each to check, which arrived when we did! Air Canada, are you paying attention?

Going through New Zealand Customs & Immigration was very easy & efficient – very similar to our experience coming into Australia.

We stayed at a motel close to the airport. Good thing we had booked ahead as U2 was playing a huge concert in Auckland that night and a lot of hotels in the city were sold out. No concert for us, just dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant and bed. A big day tomorrow as we start the next phase of our adventure down under & we pick up the rental car.

Catherine is really looking forward to me driving on the opposite side of the road in a place we’ve never been before!

Hang on!