Sydney by Seaplane

December 24^th Christmas eve

The downtown streets of Sydney are packed with Christmas shoppers and partiers. Many are wearing red and white Santa hats along with their shorts and flip flops.

We take a quick taxi out to the seaplane wharf at Rose Harbor. There we board a 1965 Beaver on floats (same type plane Harrison Ford flew in ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’). Our pilot claims to have over 18,000 hours in the Beaver. He lets Mike sit in the right seat and fires up the P&W radial and maneuvers around the yachts tied up on buoys in the harbor.

We make a takeoff run that finally unstuck the floats after what seemed like a mile and roll over on the left wing to fly up the harbor. 

 A short 15 minute flight and we drop down into a narrow fjord and land. The Beaver water taxies up to the restaurant’s dock and we alight at the Cottage Point Inn.

College Point Inn, a small but elegant restaurant with a varied menu and a good wine selection that make the afternoon pass by quickly. Lunch takes three hours, but it is very relaxed.  

We chat with our neighbors and find out that we will be having dinner at the same restaurant in Sydney on Dec 28^th as a couple from Sydney who share our anniversary date. The young couple, who shared the floatplane with us, is also from Sydney and engaged to be married next year.

Soon our airplane drops over the ridge and taxies up to the dock.  We climb aboard and he takes us on an aerial tour of the harbor and downtown Sydney. Then, we drop back into the yacht basin in Rose Harbor and our pilot makes another smooth water landing.

Before returning to the Westin, we walk through China Town and the Hay Market (named because they used to sell hay there in the old days). Both are packed with Christmas shoppers, tourists and Asians buying the produce in the grocery stalls of the market. We walk a few blocks back to the hotel and crash.

No dinner tonight after that lunch. So we read and catch up on our blog posts.

To bed so Santa can come tonight!