Hello from Sydney

It's Saturday afternoon here. We arrived in Sydney yesterday morning at 6 AM; when we woke up, we opened the curtains, stepped out on our balcony, and saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge right there, with the Opera House on the other side of the ship. We spent a few hours getting off the ship and over to our hotel, the Sydney Harbour Marriott.

The Marriott is a lovely hotel which is currently totally packed with people coming off the ship and with the hotel's usual business. Alas, the regular king room they had reserved for us was unavailable, so they were forced to upgrade us to an executive suite, with separate living and bed rooms, and a larger bath with separate shower and tub. That's working for us (hell, we hope we have that same kind of luck during Macworld Expo!).

We ended up with three reservations for four nights, because we booked two at a higher rate through Wotif.com and the last two at an amazingly low rate through Priceline's Name Your Own Price. Kudos for bidding advice from Bidding for Travel.

Yesterday we wandered about a bit and then met John Allsopp of WestCiv, a CSS guru and all-around good guy, for drinks and excellent conversation out at Bondi Beach (beautiful place, by the way). The weather here is gorgeous.

Today's a take-it-easy lazy kinda day, but that's what vacation is about, right? Drinks with other friends and business acquaintances tonight, then tomorrow, a bit of Tourist Madness.

OK, We'll Come Home

We're in Melbourne, it's Wednesday evening (later: wasn't able to post, so now it's Thursday morning), and we're glued to CNN International watching the election returns. As I write this, I'm watching Nancy Pelosi's victory speech. We're awfully happy that the Dems will take the House, and it appears that the Senate is also in our grasp. We've been joking that if things didn't work out, we just might decide to stay Down Under. But now, we'll keep our plane tickets home.

Dori: my simple analysis is that the Reagan Democrats have come home.

Tom: I'm not sure about that; I think that people have simply gotten sick and tired of Republican incompetence. Iraq, Katrina, the budget deficit, rampant GOP corruption and more finally pushed people over the edge, and the Republicans just couldn't counter it by shouting "Terra! Terra!" anymore. That ploy has run its course. People have concluded that one-party rule has driven the country into the ditch, and that the Republicans just can't govern.

Dori: I think we're agreeing — the ongoing Republican incompetence is what's gotten the Reagan Dems to return to their roots. They fell for the past promises, but they've ended up with war, uncontrolled spending, and a country that's looked down on by the rest of the world. Once burned, etc.

Lots of individual races I could talk about, but I'll limit myself to just a few victories that are especially sweet. Nobody will care anymore about the odious ex-Senator Rick Santorum's views on, well, anything. Ken Blackwell and Katherine Harris get their just rewards for helping to steal past elections, losing their bids for Ohio governor and Florida senate, respectively. It looks like parental notification has failed in California, which is good. And to see Tom DeLay's seat go to the Democrat has us doing the Happy Dance.

On the other hand, we're disappointed that the voters of California could be so stupid as to elect Schwarzenegger again. We're sorry that Emperor Palpatine Joe Lieberman won reelection. Today, the struggle continues, but we're very pleased with the election results.

Cruising the Fiords

These write ups have gone a bit out of order, but no matter. Maybe I'll shuffle them into the correct chronological order when we get back to the Land of High Bandwidth. And if any of you are wondering why these posts are from me, rather than Dori, it's because I brought my laptop and she's just using her Blackberry for email. Unsurprisingly, here in the Tasman Sea nearing Australia, there is no cell service. Of course, she's looked over my shoulder at some of the posts, and thrown in her two cents.

On Saturday, November 4, the ship spent the day cruising some of the fiords (that's how they spell it here) on the southwest side of New Zealand's South Island. The weather was against us for part of the day, making the sea too rough to get into our first scheduled stop, but things cleared up a bit later. As a result, we were able to get into Milford Sound, and it was worth the trip. It's absolutely stunning, especially from the sea. Of course, we were on a huge ship, but there are many smaller vessels that are locally available to take you out on the Sound.

Milford Sound is part of Fiordland National Park, which is a land of incredible geological grandeur. The area boasts fiords and crags, waterfalls, U-shaped valleys created by glaciers, hanging valleys, and steep, tall mountains. The Park has been designated a World Heritage Site, and is protected from most development. It looks like some of the places in Alaska we've visited, but on a bigger scale, if you can imagine that.

We really lucked out, because it wasn't raining. Considering that the average annual rainfall is usually around 5,000 inches, we were extraordinarily fortunate. We spoke to other folks that had been there before when it was raining like crazy, and they were over the moon that they could actually see the place this time around. There is so much rain and runoff from the glaciers that the water in the Sound has a layer of fresh water that's a couple of meters thick. This layer floats on top of the heavier salt water. Both freshwater and saltwater species thrive in the Sound, including black corals.

Cruising Milford Sound was a terrific and humbling experience. If you get to New Zealand, it is not to be missed.