Finally. Bright sunshine and a warm breeze greeted us as we checked out of the Parramatta Courtyard and headed for our breakfast rendezvous with Andrew and the gang. Today was our first experience with Aussie Football Rules and game like none other. No helmets, No pads and resembling a playground keep away game at first, the game started to grow on me.
The Sydney Swans were playing the Port Adelaide Power in the third match of the year between the teams. The Power were the odds on favorite, but the Swans had beaten the Power in the last matchup. The announced attendance was 22,239 fans, mostly dressed in the Swan Red colors.
The field is shaped like a very fat football with goals on each end. Kicking the ball through the inner most posts scored 6 points and between the center goals and the outer goals 1 point per score. You do not run the ball across the line. It must be kicked. The Swans entered the stadium to the sounds of the Notre Dame theme song, but the words appeared to be more Swannie.
Each quarter lasts 30 minutes of non stop play and the breaks between quarters are short as was the halftime. No halftime show. No cheerleaders to be seen anywhere.
Each team advances the ball towards the goal by either kicking the ball, running or passing after hitting the ball like a volleyball serve. If you kick the ball 15 meters or more and it is caught by any player they then have a free kick or can run or pass the ball to a teammate as described above. If the ball is moved along the ground or is dropped it is a free for all with tackling the ball carrier as the primary goal it seems.
We had what I thought were great seats 6 rows from the field. But higher up and towards the center would have been preferable as the field is so large that action at the far end is too far away to observe except on the video screen. The game was dominated by the Swans so our up close action was in the second and final quarters. We left with ten minutes to go and the score at that time was Swans 104 and the Power 65. We felt comfortable that the outcome was already set in stone. Our tickets cost $24 AU each. The top notch ticket was $79 AU. We never saw a scalper and there was about a 75% crowd to stadium capacity. The crowd, the load at times, was very well behaved and actually picked up their trash as they left their seats.
And of course, members of the Cricket Club had the best seats and appeared to be dressed as well as those that showed up in their finest for yesterday's horse racing event, on the far side of town.
After taking the shuttle back to the Kings Cross area and a quick dinner, we got dropped off at the Sheraton on the Park, according to Andy, one of the top ten hotels in Australia. It was nice, well located but with a 5 AM wakeup call, the surroundings were not that important to me.
Sydney to Narita to Honolulu on Japan Airlines
Our departure time was scheduled for 8:30 AM and a 9 hour and 50 minute flight to Japan followed by a 3 1/2 hour layover then another 9 hours to Honolulu. It is obviously not the most direct routing but all that was available for free at the time of booking. It was all business class so we really didn't care. Sleep would come easy after 4 packed days in Sydney.
The Qantas Business Lounge offered a nice breakfast of crumpets and cereals with juice and coffee. We are seated in 3 H and K to Narita and 9 H and K to Honolulu. I'll try to report to Seat Guru as the aircraft are new and they ahve very few reports on this extended range 777 of Japan Airlines.
As we left Sydney at 8:30 AM on May 25th it was Sunday evening the 24th at 6:30 PM in New York City. We arrive in Honolulu on the 25th of May at 9 AM, a grand total of 30 minutes after we left Sydney.
I have a feeling, it will be the longest 30 minutes of my life.
