Bakers Down Under: 16 - Farewell to Down Under

We said a quick good-bye to Auckland (not too sad to leave the city), and took a shuttle to the airport to begin our journey home, with a layover in Sydney. This is where Air New Zealand decided to rear its ugly head by weighing our carry-on luggage. Kathy's was twice what it was supposed to be, and the funny thing is, all she had to do is take out items until the correct weight was reached and hand carry those items through the checkpoint. Bizarre. Anyway, we then were all weighed individually as were all of our carry-on bags, coats, purses, etc. They let us fly, so I guess that's the important thing. Most of the day was spent jumping through the traveling hoops, the airlines, the airport security, the customs and immigration both for NZ and for Australia.

Once we passed into Sydney we jumped on the train and headed for the Hilton downtown. Wow, was it beautiful. The service wasn't that great, but the location was perfect and the room phenomenal. We were upgraded to a King suite. It was beautiful. For the rest of the day, we enjoyed our fancy digs and ate and drank a plenty in the Executive Lounge. We met some nice rich people and chatted with them for a few hours. A nice travel day, all in all. Oh ya, and we ended the day with a soak in our jetted tub.

The next day, we had some time to kill in Sydney, as we had an evening flight home. We did some shopping in the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) across the street before heading to the airport via train. The QVB shopping area is huge and it's both above and below ground and spread across multiple blocks. The building itself is a work of art, and it was decorated for Christmas. We ate lunch in the Food Court and finally found our way out and back to the hotel. The entire area is a maze and even Kathy, the Navigator, got turned around.

Queen Vic Building, as viewed from our hotel