Three things to go wrong... 9th November 2014

Well the start of the trip didn't go without its issues!!! 

First, I left my newly replaced Canon 700D camera at home, which I only discovered when we got to Heathrow.  A fast courier service provided by our local taxi company and support from Terry, one of our neighbours, resolved the problem with about 30 minutes to spare! 

(The camera has a chequered history since the last one went swimming off the coast of Lorient, France in October and was only just replaced within days of leaving.)

The second issue arose as we tried to check in our bags. The Singapore Airline website had implied that we had 30kg baggage allowance through to Australia. However, the airline check-in desk indicated that when we booked the tickets, months ago, we were given allowances of only 20kg, nevertheless she let them through. We explored this further at the ticket desk and were advised that this was a hang-over from a previous restriction and not to worry. Needless to say, we may have a similar situation with the domestic flights bought at the same time. 

The third issue was that my brand new ultra-light Samsonsite suitcase arrived in Sydney with only three of its four wheels! An hour of form filling ensued and later a trip down town to a luggage repair centre eventually resulted in an anticipated repair by Friday, ahead of our Sunday departure for Port Douglas

.. through passport control and into Australia

. 

Getting money out of ATMs also didn't go without its problem. Barclays have a partnership with Westpac bank such that no commission is charged on debit withdrawals. It took a while to realise that I should assign the transaction to my "cheque" account rather than the "savings" account but numerous attempts failed even trying smaller and smaller amounts, yet they had no problem to tell me how much was in my account. In the end I elected to use an ANZ ATM and succeeded.  

Our first day in Sydney 11th November 2014

Arriving at 7:35am and after 24 hours of travelling isn't probably the best way to start exploring the city but we did venture out and about in Sydney to get some exercise. The weather was overcast but adequately warm enough between 18-20C for some, other decided hoodies were necessary ..

We got our first glimpse of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

A phone call from Phil (who is in South Korea for the week) on my newly acquired Australian SIM card, confirmed that low temperatures in Australia would not be our problem...