Dateline January 21, 2015, Sydney — The Adventure Begins at Doyle's
In 2010 we had spent a couple of weeks in Australia, primarily to play the great Sandbelt courses around Melbourne. Toward the end of that trip we drove the Great Ocean Road up to the Barossa Valley and spent a few wonderful days with Jim and Pam Lambert at the Lambert Estate, where they put us to work on the grape harvest and then opened a long string of their wines over dinner. We have been looking for an excuse to return ever since.
This trip is the excuse. We are going to New Zealand and Australia, with our friends Pete and Bunny Warenski, who were with us on the Alaska Walkabout in 2011 and on the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama in 2012. The plan: New Zealand first, then across to Australia, with the Sandbelt and a return to the Lambert Estate at the back end of the trip.
Sydney.
We arrived in Sydney Tuesday morning, January 20, 2015, after twenty-four hours of flight time, landing around 8:30 AM. We made our way to the hotel and met up with Pete and Bunny, who had come in a bit ahead of us. Tuesday we walked around the city and had lunch overlooking part of the harbor. The plan was to stay awake until evening so we would sleep through the night on local time. The plan held until about 3:30 in the afternoon, when we fell soundly asleep and stayed asleep until 3:00 the next morning. We were awake for an hour, then back down until 8:00, when Pete and Bunny knocked on the door. So much for outsmarting jet lag.
It was supposed to rain that day. Instead it turned sunny and beautiful. We walked down to the ferry docks and boarded one of the harbor tour boats. Two icons came into view almost immediately:
The Sydney Opera House.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Out to Doyle's.
We were headed for Doyle's Restaurant in Watson Bay, where we had eaten on our last visit to Sydney back in 2010 and had been looking forward to introducing the Warenskis to. A side note on this. John's nephew Chris Wilson serves on the Coast Guard ice breaker USCGC Polar Star. The Polar Star had been in Sydney over Christmas 2014, on its way south to keep the shipping lanes open in Antarctica. John's brother Will had wanted to send Chris to a great restaurant in Sydney for the holiday and asked us for a recommendation. We suggested Doyle's. Will reached out, and Lisa Doyle set everything up. Chris had a wonderful meal. We were looking forward to meeting Lisa and saying thank you.
We arrived in Watson Bay before noon and walked straight up to Doyle's to put our names in for lunch. With time to fill, we made a tour of the whole facility, including the Beach Club, where David made us some magnificent drinks. As we sat in the Beach Club a small bug landed on our table. Janice exclaimed how beautiful it was and asked the bartender what it was. He laughed and told us they call it a stink bug. Whatever you call it, it was pretty. We are always available to show you the local wildlife.
We were seated at a table just off the beach, and what followed was one of the grandest seafood feasts you can imagine. Our waitress Bruna took great care of us. She and her husband Nelson are from Brazil and both work at Doyle's. They were planning to head home for a big family wedding in two years. After a few of David's cocktails and a couple of glasses of wine, Peter had us all invited to go to Rio for the wedding.
Lisa Doyle was tied up but sent her niece out to greet us. She was very gracious. Lisa had her bring us a few Doyle's wine glasses, which we have used and remembered ever since. If you ever make it to Sydney, take the ferry out to Watson Bay and have a meal at Doyle's. We will be back ourselves at the end of February before we fly home.
The ferry trip back to Sydney was beautiful, with great views in every direction. Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand.
