Britannia still rules the waves

Cunard flagship the Queen Mary 2 is the largest ocean liner on the planet - 345m long x 72m high x 45m wide!

Just think about those figures... The average room's only 2-3m high. The allowable dimensions for a full-size soccer pitch are 90-120m x 45-90m (according to Conn & Hal Iggulden's "The Dangerous Book For Boys").

Today, the QM2 docked in Sydney for the first time and the two rival breakfast TV shows made sure we knew about it.

Keen to stand marvelling in her shadow, I took a packed lunch to work so I could skip my break and get there early.

I trudged across Hyde Park and The Domain (where two ice-cream vans were beset by customers), down behind the Art Gallery Of NSW (a third busy van) and around Woolloomooloo Bay (a fourth) to the Garden Island naval base.

I arrived tiring, perspiring and not the least bit disappointed.

I've been on some big ferries (twice across Bass Strait and once NZ's Cook Strait), but they were like toy sailboats compared to the Queen Mary 2. I reckon 150 people could stand in the windows of her winged bridge - easy.

Like all great feats of engineering, she made me proud to be a member of society and extremely humble as an individual.

I stared at her for I'm not sure how long - several minutes, certainly - until the crowd began expanding rapidly and it was time to go.