Woke up around 6am and we were already "parked" at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
We finished our packing, had some breakfast, then went to wait to be allowed off the ship. We were called about 15 minutes before the planned time, so that's all good.
Picked up our bags, dropped off our arrival cards with Immigration (or Border Control or whatever they're called these days) and strolled up to Circular Quay station. Well, we didn't exactly stroll - at the start it was more like "fighting our way through the crowds". Lots of people were still getting off the ship of course, and a lot of them were waiting in the shade of a tree - reasonable, except that they were almost totally blocking off the only way out. And to add to this, a stack of people who were going to board had already arrived, hours early, and were also creating havoc by being in the way. However, we eventually got onto a train to Central.
And, when we got there, the luggage check-in was available, so we dropped off our bags and walked back to the World Centre for a decent coffee and then up to Westfield so Paul could buy a new case for his Samsung tablet. We decided to get a train back to Central, but just after the station before Central it stopped. The driver eventually told us that we were being delayed by trains ahead of us; we still had more than half an hour before I'd be starting to worry about missing our train, but an unfortunate man in our carriage wasn't so lucky - he missed his train to Nowra and it was 2 hours until the next one....
Anyway, we got onto our train and were horrified to discover that the seats in front were occupied by 2 little children who spent the first 5 minutes jumping up and down on their seats - which of course meant that our tray tables were useless as anything on them would be flung off every time they jumped. Fortunately though, their parents managed to calm them down so the trip wasn't too bad.
Every time we get the train to and from Canberra, by about hour three I'm completely regretting it and swearing that I'll get a plane next time. Then, I remember that the planes are outrageously expensive; that they don't necessarily run when we want them (lots of planes between Sydney and Canberra but most are small with luggage restrictions) and that the trains have far more generous luggage allowances anyway.
We got back to Canberra just as a really nasty storm was about to hit. Fortunately there was a taxi available immediately (almost everyone on the train gets a friend to pick them up!) and we were in the taxi when the storm hit. The wind was strong enough to blow a roadworks sign into the street, and we heard later that trees were blown down. By the time we got home it was only just raining though, so we managed to get inside without getting too wet.
So, now it's all over - 44 days until the next one!
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