Day 65 - 12/06/22 - Sydney, Australia to Hadspen

 By the time we were awakened by the Australian bio-security announcement at 7am, the Westerdam was docked at Circular Quay.  We had a leisurely breakfast and said our goodbyes to Komang and Eka, our stateroom attendants.  We learned that Eka will be on the Noordam this summer when we are on it in Alaska, so we'll look her up.  Since we had left our luggage in Melbourne with our exchange daughter, we only had backpacks to travel to Tasmania.  

We scanned off of the ship for the last time and as we were walking down the gangway, Angela asked me where my hat was.  I had left it in the stateroom as it's the same color as the walls.   I reported it to the staff and they had me wait on on the gangway while a crew member was sent to retrieve it.  A half an hour passed with no word.  I caught an officer leaving the ship and he radioed the information once again, and I continued to wait.  Another half hour passed and I thought I saw a non-crew member pass by with the hat, but didn't want to confront the person.  After a bit longer the officer returned and I explained that nothing had happened.  He instructed the crew member to escort me up to the security checkpoint at the ship.  There I re-explained my situation and the security guard sent the crew member down to the Front Desk to retrieve the hat.  That lady never returned.  So finally the guard referred me to the nearby head of security and he said that the hat was sent down to the desk in the terminal a long time ago.  I retold him my story that I was instructed to wait on the gangway and was in full view of anyone departing the ship.  I thanked him for following up for me with the first concrete information and left the ship as the last passenger to depart.  That was a first.

At the exit location from the terminal, my hat was there.  We walked to the nearby train station, found the T8 train that runs to the airport.  We boarded the train and 15 minutes later we were at the domestic terminal.  We exited the train and refilled our OPAL cards and departed the train station and entered the airline terminal.  We went through security with no ID check (that was a surprise), walked to our gate 8 in Terminal 3, and waited for our flight.  The airplane was already there and the wait was a couple of hours.  We collected our standby seat tickets just before passenger general boarding occurred.  We boarded the Qantas Boeing 717-200 and departed on time for Launceston.  While there was no WiFi on the plane, they served an excellent chicken sandwich as a snack.  I continued to read my Hamilton biography and and hour and 40 minutes later we landed in Launceston.  Our friends, Lana & Lindsey met us there and we drove back to their home for a quick tea and crackers before heading off to a BBQ at Windemere with Lindsey's choral group.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the BBQ and had many enjoyable conversations and a nice dinner and dessert.  We concluded the evening doing some singing before driving back home tor some chat and a restful sleep.  Our plan is to be here until Saturday and then fly to Melbourne for a further visit there.