Australia/New Zealand
I had the great fortune of touring these two countries with Tauck World Discovery Tours. They did an incredible job of making the trip easy, fun and interesting. I felt like a pampered Rock Star just showing up and everything was done for me. All hotels were 5-Star and the food was great. Most of the meals for the 20 days were included in the tour price.
I dreaded the 14.5 hour flight from L.A. to Sydney but Qantas airlines made it very comfortable. The plane left L.A. at 10:30 PM Friday night and we arrived in Sydney at 8:30 AM Sunday morning. Yes, we lost Saturday somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Leaving at night and arriving in the morning really felt like just an overnight sleep on the plane. I have no idea how long I slept but I did watch most of 3 movies during the flight and ate two meals.
Gloria and I met our tour director in Sydney and she turned out to be a real jewel. Marlice Tomkinson, a former investment banker who lived all over the world, had been doing this particular tour for 17 years. She was a wealth of knowledge and very organized. She cheerfully directed the 36 people on our tour with precision and grace and kept us all on time and together. No bags or people were lost in the constant shuffle between hotels, buses and airports. That was no small task because we did 10 flights together after arriving in Australia and prior to flying back to the US.
After arriving in Sydney, we went to the Inter-Continental hotel which is 2 blocks from the Sydney Opera House. We could see the harbor from our room and a part of the Opera House can be seen on the left.
We got unpacked, took showers and met for an early lunch. We then got back on the bus and toured the Sydney area including the mouth of Sydney Harbor and Bondi Beach.
The weather was overcast and kind of cool but we still had a good day. After driving around we went back to the harbor and got on a boat and had our own private cocktail tour of Sydney Harbor. We boarded the boat right next to the Opera House at the Man O War Steps and took an hour spin around the harbor.
Yes, those are people on top of the Harbor Bridge.
They dropped us off at a different dock to have dinner at a dock-side restaurant
and then we walked a few blocks back to the hotel.