Australia-New Zealand 5,

Oct. 18, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

”What a day for a day dream”

I woke up early, had a light breakfast, closed up the house and figured out how to put the key in the security box all by myself. I spent 1 hour trying to change my method of payment on the Uber app. AI finally gave me a hand. Some of these apps are not made for people with white hair. I called an Uber and the driver arrived in 15 minutes. He refused to take my bicycle and would not drop down the back seats. He wanted to charge me $8.00 as according to him, I was cancelling the ride. I threatened to give him a bad report so he relented and cancelled the ride himself.

My neighbour offered to drive me to the railroad station but by that time I had already summoned up a new Uber. We had a nice conversation and he told me that he had built the semidetached house and sold the other half for $1.9 million. Real estate is very expensive in this area. The Uber arrived and took me to the railroad station. I had 2 bags of luggage, a knapsack with my souvenirs from the triathlon and a bicycle. It was obviously unmanageable. A nice gentleman of similar vintage to me took charge and helped me get my baggage onto the train. They were doing work on the train line so I had to get off the train and take a bus. The gentleman accompanied me for a few blocks to get to the bus station. People are so nice here.

The first bus was too crowded to take me with my bike. The second bus arrived 15 minutes later and gave me the same lame excuse. By that time I had run out of battery. I went into a Dominos Pizza Restaurant and the waiter called an Uber for me. He would not accept any payment! The Uber arrived and refused to take me with a bicycle. He did accept to call a bigger Uber. I arrived at the train station and somehow boarded the train to Sydney. An Uber took me to my Ibis Budget Hotel. I checked into the hotel and decided to bike from the airport to downtown Sydney to drop off the bike. The GPS lady told me it should take about 35 minutes. That might be possible for an Australian but certain not for a senior Canadian. I ran out of battery life 1.5 hours later, so I stopped off at restaurant to charge up my iphone.

I was hungry so I had some sushi. It was the worst sushi that I have ever eaten. By the time my iphone was charged up, I had to purchase more data. That is not easy to do if you have no data left to go online and buy more data. It was a vicious circle. Eventually, I got in touch with the Livelo bike shop to drop off my bike. The shop was closed. The man told me that he was in Wollongong picking up bikes. He gave me the address of his house which was supposedly 2km away. It turned out to be 5k away through a lovely hilly area of town with much parkland. I dropped of the bike and headed off to the train station to go to my Ibis Budget Hotel. The train took me to Central Station but there were no connecting trains to the airport as there was track work being done. They did supply an airport bus several hundred meters away. The bus dropped me off at the Domestic Terminal and I proceeded to my hotel on foot, 15 minutes away.

I am sitting in an airport hotel restaurant, finishing off a nice fish meal and sipping my second pint of Australian beer. I am wondering if I should have a 3rd one.

Tomorrow, I fly to Auckland, New Zealand.

”What a day for a day dream”

Love,

Brian