Today was another wonderfully sunny day.  After breakfast at the cafe next to the hotel, we walked around Wellington one last time before returning to the hotel to pack.  Shortly after noon, we checked out of our hotel and headed for Wellington airport for our flight to Australia.

Upon arriving at the airport, we settled in at the Air New Zealand lounge for a bite to eat and to catch up on e-mail.  I also uploaded the blog entries for the past couple of days, taking advantage of the free internet access in the lounge.  I wasn’t about to pay the $30/day they wanted at our hotel in Wellington.  For that price, I should get a month of access.

The flight to Sydney was great.  It was only a little over 3 hours, but as with our flight from LAX to Auckland, the international service on Air New Zealand is excellent.  The meal was great and the seats were far more comfortable than the business class seats on Air Canada.

Upon arriving in Sydney, we cleared customs and picked up our baggage.  It was nice that Sydney airport offers an express customs line for first class passengers, allowing us to breeze through the whole process.

Our hotel is great, located in Circular Quay.  It’s actually more my taste than Nadine’s, but that’s only fair since I did all the work planning this trip!  I love the historic charm of this hotel.  Below is a picture of the lobby, and our room is large and decorated in the same historic style.

After getting settled, we went out for an evening walk around downtown Sydney.  Because it was dark, I decided to leave the camera back in the room as my night photos don’t always work out so well, especially without a tripod.  Therefore, I don’t have any more photos to post for today.  After walking around a bit, I was wishing that I did bring the camera with me, but we’ll have a lot more time in this area for photos.

Sydney is a fabulous city, and at night, it really looks great!  We’re looking forward to spending some time here.  Our plan is to spend two nights here before flying up to Hamilton Island for a few days, and we’ll then have two more nights in Sydney after returning from Hamilton Island.