We arrived in Sydney after a fairly bumpy flight from Hong Kong. It wasn't too bad but not as smooth as the ride from Heathrow to Hong Kong. To our relief, our baggage has also made it half way around the world! It was a fairly anxious wait at the baggage claim section because I think ours was one of the last to come out.

The ship is docked right now and it is smack bang in between the opera house and the bridge. From our aft facing cabin we have an awesome view of the harbour bridge. The ship won't fit underneath it and so we are backed up very close. The. Bridge is right by our balcony!

Before boarding, we met a man called Steve from Brighton who also supports Liverpool....very small world! The three of us wandered around the harbour taking in the views. It is great to finally be on board the ship after such an epic journey to get here. Very very tired now...but it is early afternoon so there is No point sleeping if I want to get into synch!

The harbour is so beautiful, we sail out at around six pm Australia time so won't get to see it all lit up today. I expect we will get to see that on our return though.

The funniest thing about being in Australia right now is all the Christmas decorations and Christmas songs playing in stores and on board the ship. It is so hot here but the music systems are blaring out

"oh the weather outside is frightful". And "snow is falling, all around us"

It's surreal. Apparently it is not too hot right now but, after England, its hot enough. I think around 22 degrees and quite humid. It was a bit of a shock getting off of the air craft in hoodies and tracksuit bottoms...."I'm melting I'm melting!"

We are going to chill out now until we set sail. Still waiting for our main luggage to be bought up to the room and then time for the muster drill. It's boring but it has to be done I guess.

Tomorrow is a sea day..... I think two sea days now actually which gives us ample opportunity to recover from the epic journey. Then our first stop is New Caledonia (Mare)
TTFN!