We saw our first hand-sized spider today but I’ll get into that more later.

I almost can’t breathe through my nose now to the point that it’s made me wonder if I’m getting sick. My eyes were itchy all day. My chest hurts. I don’t know if its from the coughing or what. When we were walking around today and Jacob made me laugh, I was wheezing. This is the first day I’ve used the masks we brought and it does seem to help. I think my body is just tired of all this smoky air.

We are leaving Sydney tomorrow and supposed to be heading to Canberra but we have decided to change plans and head straight to Melbourne.

The air quality in Sydney has ranged from 80 to 120 which is moderate to unhealthy for some groups. In Canberra it is currently hazardous and there were news articles saying it was the worst air quality in the world. We considered still going and just doing indoor activities, but Jacob had read that people were having issues even indoors. Because of that and since the visibility will be low, we have decided to skip Canberra.

We will pack up and leave straightaway for Melbourne which is a very long 9 hour drive. We discussed staying another night in Sydney but figured we should get to Melbourne while we still can. There have been intermittent road closures due to the fires. 

Jacob even looked at doing what he called “extreme plan B” and having us fly to Perth for two days. He ruled that out since it would cost over $1,200. So Melbourne it is!

This morning we woke up and headed straight out the door to catch the train. We rented a car and needed to go pick it up at the downtown location. Along the way I wanted to stop at Starbucks and get a coffee. I asked for a drip coffee with half and half. Apparently in Australia they do not do half and half. So much so that the guy I ordered from didn’t know how to mark my cup. I ended up with drip coffee and a splash of whole milk and skim milk. That worked just fine.

From there we found the Hertz office and it was the busiest rental car office we have ever been to. However, we were quickly helped. We received efficient and friendly service and then were directed to the parking garage to get our car. Unfortunately, the elevator was broken and our car was five floors below ground but we made it.

We rented a standard car and were given a Kia Cerato. Jacob got situated and then we headed out the very narrow parking garage. Not only is the wheel on the wrong side and you drive on the wrong side but the blinker and windshield wipers are reversed. So Jacob kept hitting the wipers instead of his turn signal. As we were driving, Jacob was having a hard time figuring out how to judge where he should be in the lane but as we drove along he got a better feel for it. We made it back to the hotel with only one wrong turn.

We took a little rest break and then headed to the mall for some lunch. We picked up a few snacks at the store for breakfast tomorrow and snacks for our long drive.

We returned to our room to drop our food and then headed back out the door to get a few more hours in Sydney. We took the train to the ferry wharf and caught a boat to Cremorne Point. We had nice views of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge along the way.

This was one of the parks we were considering for New Years Eve viewing. We had a nice walk through the park until we came across our first hand-sized spider in a web above us.

After deciding this was not one of the poisonous spiders on my list, we passed below the web and kept going. When we got to the end of the trail we turned around and headed back. As we walked back, a French family was viewing brush turkeys in a tree. When they got close to us, I pointed up to show them the spider and one of the women jumped back and screamed. I figured they would want to know about it and not run into it! Jacob and I kept walking and the older man in the group seemed amused and took a picture of the spider. As we walked away Jacob said I was tormenting the French again. If you don’t know the reference, you can get caught up here.

After that we walked to Kurraba Point which is where we watched the fireworks from. We wanted to see it in the daylight. Its a beautiful little park and we sat on a bench and took in the views for a while. From there we walked back to the dock to catch our ferry back to the train station.

We are back at our room now. We have to check out by 10 a.m. tomorrow. Jacob is trying to figure out if I’m struggling due to smoke or allergies while he watches a cricket match. We may pick up some allergy meds tomorrow and see if that helps. I didn’t even think to pack any.

Either way, we will be on our way to somewhere new!

Until then!