Tasmania to Tokyo – Sydney – Day 5 can be found here.
Our final breakfast in Sydney – too soon, I say, far too soon.
We consider and rejected a few different options before we eventually end up at the Belgian Cafe.
They don’t have any exterior shots on their website, so you get a blurry-faced screen grab from Google Maps (Photo Credit: Google Maps)
We had initially dismissed the Belgian Cafe because they have a relatively low rating on Google, but I’m glad we decided to give them a shot.
I have the croque madame:
My wife has avocado toast:
And the kids each have a waffle with ice cream and maple syrup.
This is what we in Canada call “Living the dream.”
One last walk along the waterfront, where we decide to finally give up on waiting for Qantas to potentially agree to our Business Class upgrade bid and elect to cancel our offer. While cancelling, we notice that it says there are not sufficient seats to upgrade – which would have been helpful information earlier this morning. Ah, well – at least
I feel it’s unlikely that anyone from Qantas will ever read this blog, but if they do – might I suggest you have a policy wherein you refund any extra baggage charges for those who get a Business Class upgrade? That way, we won’t have to delay purchasing extra baggage until the last possible moment.
Anyway. My wife spent much of last night subconsciously solving the nightmarish math problem that confronts us this morning. For those of you who did not read it earlier, it goes as follows:
A family has 352 pounds of luggage spread across 5 checked bags, 4 carry-on bags, and 4 personal items. Qantas includes 4 checked bags up to 50.7 pounds each. Carry-on bags and personal items cannot exceed 30.8 pounds combined, with no individual item to exceed 22 pounds. Each extra bag costs AUD$75 each way if booked online at least 3 hours before the flight but AUD$150 if paying at the airport, and an overweight bag costs AUD$60. What is the optimal arrangement of luggage to minimize overage costs?
There was always going to be an added charge for our fifth bag (the duffle), so that charge is unavoidable. Otherwise, we had considered checking two of our heavier carry-on bags which was the easiest way to stay under max carry-on weight if we received the business class upgrade. Instead, we deliberately go overweight for two of our checked bags. This drops the cost from AUD$225 to AUD$195. Not much, but it’s something.
With that decision made, we once more go through the process of redistributing everything to the various bags. Then weigh, redistributing, and so on until the process is complete. It’s not quick, but we are veteran packers at this stage and manage to wrap up well in advance of our 11 am departure.
We run bags downstairs, where we are immediately met by the concierge – who whisks them away so that they can be lodaed on our actually-present airport shuttle. I settle the bill. Only one issue, wherein they charged us for an extra breakfast. No matter, I raise the issue and the charge is removed.
I have never expected perfection in a hotel – people are human, and they are going to make mistakes. But how they react to those mistakes is very telling, and on that score Pier One Sydney Harbour has done an exceptional job. We would definitely stay there again.
Our driver is waiting for us, so we board the older-but-well-tended Mercedes Sprinter and head for the airport. No need to inquire whether he’s aware of the complimentary nature of this voyage – he is already well aware. I tip him well, though – I realize it’s not expected in Australia, but it feels like the right thing to do under the circumstances. Karmic balance, and all that.
Now for the airport itself. We find a kiosk, which quickly spits out our bag tags.
I for one am not a fan of applying my own bag tags. I can never remember how the stickers work, or what parts need to be torn off and slapped on which parts of the bag. Maybe if they gave you adequate instructions, but they never do.
Anyway. We muddle through well enough, and get the bags onto the scanner. Sure enough, two of them are overweight. We rack up our AUD$120 in charges then it’s back to the kiosk to pay that down. Irritating, but manageable. And much faster than being directed to an actual person to process payment a la South Africa Airlink or LATAM.
Then off through security. No line up, and no need to take anything out of the bags. No complaints here. (Though – oddly enough – I still need to take off my Blundstones.)
There is a brief delay as several of our bags need to be manually reviewed, but we’re still done and dusted within five minutes. Works for me.
Off for lunch, which I completely forget to photograph. No great loss there, however – we get a burger from Slim’s Quality Burger, and a pizza from Maggio’s. Both are better than expected. But with that said, I’ve never understood the need to put the word “quality” in a restaurant’s name. It’s a little like putting “Democratic” in the name of your country. Methinks they doth protest too much.
Off to the gate, where we are delighted to find that – much as @MrsWaldo had supposed – there is no scale to weigh our carry-on baggage. Yes, this victory would have been even sweeter had we chanced it on baggage weights, but in reality we’re just glad to not have to shuffle water bottles from one bag to the next, or to put on a third coat so as to shed that last critical half-kilo.
We board on time. The flight attendants are checking zone numbers, and blocking people who try to board too early. We find plenty of overhead baggage space. That’s the pre-flight trifecta, and we’re happy to have it.
But as we boarded, we noticed that there were perhaps eight to twelve seats in business class. No wonder we didn’t end up with an upgrade…
Farewell, Sydney! (Forgive the photo, Qantas’ windows were filthy.)
Qantas economy is fine. Legroom is adequate, and they come by and give you a snack.
Corn chips with guacamole and spicy cheese – very tasty
I read for a bit, I dozed for a bit. Soon it was time to land.
Hello, Tasmania!
We disembarked from both ends of the plane, which would have been a big time saver had a fuel truck not decided to insert itself into a line of passengers. We got there in the end.
Hobart does not have a massive airport. There was quite the crowd of passengers swarming the gates by the time we disembarked. We then walked past the check-in gates on our way to the baggage claim, of which there were only two carousels – one of which was jam packed with angry people who seemed to have just been informed that their baggage was not loaded prior to departure (not Qantas).
But thankfully that wasn’t our aircraft. We soon collected our bags and went off to Budget to collect our car. We’d been cautioned that the car rental office was quite a ways from the terminal, but it was actually close by our standards.
A brief wait while another vehicle was handed off, and then it was my turn. I’d pre-submitted credit cards and licence information, so it was simply a matter of declining the extra insurance – we are covered by our credit cards – and signing off on their damage report.
Our chariot awaits!
Some minor quibbles here. I’m not sure how well the vehicle was cleaned before we arrived – there seemed to be some chip crumbs in the back seat – and there is some significant damage to the windshield. But it holds all of our luggage and they’ll let us drive it from Hobart to Launceston, so we shall not complain. And we took plenty of photos in their lot just in case.
We landed in the middle of Hobart’s very brief rush hour, so we had a full thirty minutes with which to acquaint ourselves with our Kia Carnival. It soon earned the nickname “Stay Puft” because it both looks and drives like a giant marshmallow.
No issues following the Google Maps directions, nor in parking in front of the Tasman. We were all too happy to hand it over to their valet for the modest sum of AUD$45 per day. They offered us a deal on pre-booked breakfast, but at AUD$45 per adult we decided it was easier to fend for ourselves.
Nice rooms – even more stylish than Pier One:
With our bags brought up, we took a walk along the waterfront:
Before eventually settling on the Drunken Admiral for dinner:
Photo Credit: The Drunken Admiral
The interior is somewhat kitchsy with a side order of sensory overload, but it’s also fun – and the food is genuinely good.
Our daughter had a large order of cocktail shrimp:
Our son had chicken fingers:
My wife had the yellow fin on hot rocks:
While I had the barramundi fish special:
All very good – and one of the few places in town that includes fish and non-fish options.
After, I went for a walk around town to pick up a few odds and sundy (cough wine cough):
Hobart is considerably further south than Sydney, so the weather is much cooler – but still a pleasant 17 Celsius (63 Farenheit). We Canadians feel quite at home.
Hard to find oneself so exhausted when all we did was sit most of the day – and yet, here we are!
Time for bed.