Sydney.

With little more than four hours sleep, the alarm goes off at 3am and I’m awake and ready to go. Airport check in completed by 5am, then meet up with Mel, Mark and Darryl.  I’m not sure the severity of the early flight has really hit any of us at this point; but just two hours later (following some duty free shopping, quick breakfast and a hike to some random boarding gate), the plane is rolling along the runway and ready for take off.  This is when it suddenly seems to hit us all.

The flight is uneventful and quiet as we all zone out into our little worlds with music, quick naps, reading and aimlessly staring out the window.  Just over 3 hours later we’ve landed in Sydney, and the local time is 1 hour after we took off.  Tired.

A small moment of panic when a 5 minute gap between almost all luggage has been collected, with the exception of mine and two other worried customers, but the bags suddenly appear and we’re off to catch the train.  Sydney has excellent public transport from the airport (even though the train prices seem to go up every single time I visit).  We drop off luggage to the Meriton apartment, but check in isn’t allowed for another 3 hours.  My body/NZ clock says it’s 12.30pm but it’s only 10.30am, so we grab Breakfast number two at QVR by the town hall.  Still tired.

Post-Christmas sales are on, so we take a look through several stores to see what’s around. The Adidas has some interesting shoes this time round (they were all quite plain last visit), including some random hi-tops with 3 tongues. AU$350.  A pair of  shelltoes/superstars catch my eye which I might have to return to collect later.

Successfully killing time through the Apple Store, Red Eye records and a few others, we finally make it to the apartment and check in.  It’s only 2pm but feels much, much later.  A few good nights rest are in order, before the big Summanights event on New Years.  It’s gonna be a long night, but worth the wait to hear Josh Wink play again….