Saturday, March 4/Monday, March 6: Toronto to Sydney

YYZ-YVR-SYD - 15,572 km by plane

Off on an epic adventure!! Our flight leaves around 8pm so we get to Pearson airport in plenty of time to have a nice relaxed dinner at Boccone Trattoria (mmm, pizza!!) and say hi to the CIBC penguin.

Mmm, pizza..

Penguins, ready to fly!

On to the plane soon enough - first leg is Toronto to Vancouver. Thanks to a tip from my dear sister we’ve bought these cool devices called Fly LegsUp which are basically a little hammock for your legs that attaches to the tray table in front of you and lets you find lots of different positions to hold your legs during the flight. Even on the Vancouver part of the flight, I’m a fan - I’ll come to enjoy it even more when we head across the Pacific. For kids, the even more amazing side is that you can put an inflatable cushion in it and basically extend the airplane seat into a little bed that stretches all the way to the seat in front. Erik settles in and falls happily asleep. Unfortunately, we need to wake him for the stop in Vancouver, where we have to pack up all our stuff and vacate the aircraft so they can tidy it up for the next (long) leg. We also go through a passport and visa check; thankfully we get to stay at the same gate/lounge and are back on the plane before too much longer.

Staying comfy on the epic flight!

Back on the plane from Vancouver to Sydney, Erik falls asleep again on his little hammock and stays that way most of the way to Australia. This gives me a chance to watch pretty much every superhero and sci-fi/fantasy movie that was released in the past 5 years. And maybe sleep a little, too.

We arrive in Sydney! Dominic and I haven’t slept much (if at all) but it’s now 10am local time and we’ve got the rest of the day to explore, so we power through as best we can. Erik is ready for adventure since he slept most of the way here. We take a cab downtown and check into the ParkRoyal Darling Harbour hotel - right in the middle of everything! Once we’ve dropped our luggage and applied some sunscreen, we’re off for a wander and some adventures. First stop - lunch! From the hotel we walk up through the central business district - it’s lunchtime on a Monday so there are lots of office folk out grabbing a bite to eat. The CBD is full of little cafes and sandwich shops - many of them with lovely open-air patios. We end up at a sandwich shop with a Vietnamese influence - I have a great beef wrap sandwich with sprouts and lots of lemongrass, and Erik is especially fond of his prawn pho.

Lunch on a sunny Sydney patio

Once we’re done with lunch, we keep wandering northward towards the ferry terminal. Dominic and I agree that what we’ve seen of Sydney reminds us a lot of Vancouver, in terms of geography and general vibe (though not so many mountains). We get up to Circular Quay and are looking for our best way to get to the Taronga Zoo. We find a cruise company that offers a combined ticket for the crossing and the zoo - they say a boat is leaving in a couple of minutes so when they sell us tickets we figure that means they’ll tell the boat we’re coming. Unfortunately they don’t, and we run down to the dock just as the boat is leaving. We manage to get a refund - their next boat isn’t for another 90 minutes - and take the public ferry instead. The ride across the harbour is amazing - wonderful views of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and the whole downtown skyline.

Checking out the Harbour Bridge

Chillin' on the ferry

Hey, isn't there a Lego set of that??

Then we’re at the Taronga Zoo! We choose to focus on the Australian animals and others that we can’t easily see at home - lots of wallabies, beautiful birds, and of course the platypus! Erik notes that it’s kind of like the otters he loves at the Toronto Zoo, if those had a beaver tail and a duck beak. Not too far off - we’re lucky that the platypus on display is in a really playful mood and puts on a great show for us.

Taronga Zoo gates

View back over the harbour to the city

Please accept this stone platypus as an apology for not getting any photos of the real one

Park Ranger Erik, on the job!

We’re all dragging a little by the time we’re done at the zoo, but we’re glad we made the trip. We end by taking the gondola that runs over top of the whole zoo back to the ferry terminal, and enjoy the view on the boat ride back into the city.

Taronga zoo gondola

For dinner, we decide to stick close to the hotel since we’re all so short on sleep. Thankfully, our hotel is right on Darling Harbour, which has lots of food and entertainment options. We take a wander around the harbour, and Dominic and I are further reminded of Vancouver, especially the False Creek area. We check out various restaurant menus and decide on the Waterfront Grill because Dominic is intrigued to try their grilled kangaroo (and it turns out to be delicious). Erik is pretty much falling asleep in his dinner but perks up on the way back to the hotel when we find a cool playground. We make it back to the hotel eventually and get some long-awaited sleep.

Spider-dude!