It’s our last full day here in Sydney, and when we woke up it was raining.  Rain here in the fall isn’t like at home – it usually doesn’t last long and it definitely isn’t cold.  As we were up early (getting up by 6 and to bed by 9:30), we decided to do laundry before heading out – partially hoping that the rain would stop.

It worked!  We left the condo about 8:45 to catch the Sydney Explorer Hop On, Hop Off bus tour outside the Australian Museum.  We could have just bought a bus pass but we really like the commentary on tours like this and it was an open top double decker. The ticket included two routes – the one through Sydney and one to Bondi Beach. We started with the Sydney tour and the commentary didn’t disappoint – Aussies call the Vital Statistics office the “Match, Hatch and Dispatch” office *lol* The bus went down some fairly narrow streets with lots of traffic. Lots of interesting buildings (but hard to take photos) and we discovered that the reason there are so many old buildings mixed with new ones is that Sydney has designated a lot of the old buildings to be heritage so they can’t be demolished to make way for high rises. Good on ya, Sydney! They’ve even designated an old Coca-Cola sign as heritage.

The Sydney route was supposed to take 90 minutes but with the traffic,

it was more like 180 minutes. We did meet some people from Calgary who were here to join a cruise back to Vancouver. We arrived back at Central Station, one of the stops where you could change to the Bondi route and didn’t have too long to wait for the bus. We chose to sit in the covered area for a while as the rain had started again and it was just a tad damp. It wasn’t long before it stopped, so we moved back to the top deck where the view is better. Once we got to Bondi, we decided to get off and find some lunch. The brochure recommended Bondi Surf Seafoods so we thought we’d give it a try. The store didn’t look like much but they had batter without eggs and the daily lunch special was 2 fish, 1 chip for $22.50.

Ok, it seemed a little pricey but we were hungry so we ordered. Imagine our surprise when we got that portion each for $22.50 total. This is one portion

Don’t really need dinner now 🙂

We spent about an hour at the beach – it was less windy than the first time we were there and there were people actually in the water.

We finished off the Bondi route and found that one of the stops was in the same place as we had started so we didn’t need to transfer buses again. It was fun to see some of the places that were beyond walking distance.

Tomorrow we will be up early to catch our shuttle to the airport at 6:30. Next stop – Port Douglas, Queensland.

Lots and lots of walking today – we headed out fairly early to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park.  It was lovely in Hyde Park – although we were there to early to visit the Memorial building. No worries – we’ll go on the way back 🙂  We saw lots of commuters using the paths in the park as shortcuts, people walking their dogs, families out for an early outing before it got hot.  And it did get hot today – 29 Celsius with 99% humidity.

We wandered our way down to the Botanical Gardens and saw the statues of Mathew Flinders and his cat at the New South Wales State Library.  I had read a story by an Australian author, Bryce Courtenay, titled Mathew Flinder’s Cat so I was happy to see that the statue really did exist.

Once we got to the Gardens, I looked for my iphone to check some geocaching information only to discover that I had left the phone back at the condo.  Hmmmm – did we really need the phone?  We decided that we did so we headed back to the condo to get it (and for me to put on clothing which was more weather appropriate).

On our way back, the Anzac Memorial was open so we stopped to pay our respects. The museum section was open too and there was a very moving tribute to the soldiers of World War 1.  There was also a new memorial (opened this year) to the Indigenous Soldiers at Hyde Park – the  standing bullets represent the soldiers who came home and the fallen ones are the soldiers who gave their lives.

Because the temperature was heating up, we decided to catch the free CBD shuttle bus that apparently stopped on Elizabeth Street and George Street.  Well, we walked almost all the way back to the Gardens and still hadn’t found the shuttle.  So much for that plan. On our last visit to Sydney, we had visited part of the Gardens so we were interested in visiting other parts today – first stop was Government House – the grounds are open for viewing from 10 to 4. Unfortunately, they didn’t invite us in for tea *s*

After we looked at Government House, we headed for Mrs. MacQuarie’s Chair to complete an earthcache.

While on our way to the chair, we saw the set for the opera Aida. It is an outdoor production in the Botanical Gardens. I have a photo but it insists on being inserted sideways into the blog!

After 5.5 hours of walking, we were getting a little warm and decided to see if we could find the free shuttle bus at the Circular Quay station. This was much easier (although I think we could have walked faster than the bus was driving) and we managed to get off only 2 blocks from the condo.

Tomorrow is our last day in Sydney and I think we have decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour.

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to go on the Captain Cook Hop On, Hop Off tour of the Sydney Harbour.  The ticket was good for 24 hours and as many stops at the locations as you wanted.  We started at Darling Harbour and our first stop was Circular Quay where we looked for a “virtual” geocache involving the Sydney Writers Walk (we had to pick a plaque and take a photo with it to claim the cache find).  After that we jumped back on a different ferry and met a very nice lady from Yorkshire, England who was in Sydney for her grandsons’ swim meet.  She took this photo for us:

There were 9 possible stops, but we didn’t want to go to the Taronga Zoo and a few of the others were not very big and there was quite a wait for the next ferry to arrive there so  we stayed on the ferry and looked at

Fort Denison, the Zoo, and Shark Island but we really wanted to go to Manly so we changed ferries at Circular Quay again and headed off to Manly. Manly Beach was quite busy as was the main walking area in town (The Corso) but it was a nice place to visit.  Somehow, we managed to miss the ferry we were going to return on so we decided to find some lunch – we found a really neat little Mexican restaurant called Guzman Y Gomez and had some freshly made tortilla chips and guacomole – it tasted just like what we got in Mexico 🙂

On the ferry, we were treated to a humourous commentary on the history and quirks of Sydney – our guide Peter was great and had everyone laughing  at his descriptions, especially of the nude beach where he told us to refrain from waving as they may wave back with other body parts.  After a wonderful day on the water (without getting a burn), we left the boat at Darling Harbour and headed back to the condo. On the way back, we came across a small used book store with something different – Blind Dates with a book –

 

And for something kind of crazy – we like to buy Hahn’s Premium Lite beer when we are in Australia. It always amuses us that there are trivia questions under the cap but today’s was the perfect one for Canadians on vacation:

We made it! And Air Canada was great – the food was maybe not so great (although it’s pretty hard for anyone to mess up my special meal of fruit plate).

We caught the 5:45 ferry from Duke Point and then took a taxi to the airport. Check in was smooth – thanks to the travel scale we had bought to check the weight before we got a surprise at the counter! We wandered the terminal for a while as we really didn’t want to sit down before we had too – 15 hours on the flight seemed like enough sitting time. Just before we were to board the plane, the staff announced that they were “light” on passengers and needed to shift some people around to the rear of the plane for take-off or they would not be able to take off – they were asking for 20 people and assured everyone that they would be able to return to their original seats once we were in the air.

It took a bit of time to sort out the temporary seating assignments but we were finally on board – it was definitely worth paying for the extra legroom seats. We probably had a least twice as much legroom as a regular seat so we brought the carryon bag down during the flight and used it as a footstool.

After a meal about an hour into the flight, we dozed for a few hours (the noise cancelling headphones worked well) and then the flight attendants woke us up for a “snack”. Strange! We managed to doze again after that, waking up when we were about 4 hours from Sydney. As I was knitting, one of the flight attendants stopped to ask me about my knitting. We got talking and when she asked where we lived, she mentioned that another one of the flight attendants had just moved to the Duncan area! Shortly after that, the flight attendant from Duncan came and talked to us –she is renting a house in Maple Bay and is loving the difference between living on the island and living in Calgary. Odd to meet someone from home when we are that far away. The flight was delayed by about an hour because of the late departure and wind but clearing customs and quarantine was quick (even though we did mark yes to having food containing grain with us) but a quick search by the canine inspector had us on our way in short order.

We got to the condo about 10:45 a.m., cleaned up and went for a walk to Darling Harbour. Lots of building going on down in the Harbour area but that doesn’t stop people from spending time there – it’s school holidays at the moment and there were lots of childcare groups and families enjoying the sunshine in the park.

There are also lots of displays in honour of Anzac Day (April 25). Poppies are displayed everywhere – we really liked this wall of poppies and so did an Australian White Ibis – who stole one of the flowers from the display (they are artificial flowers) and flew up to his nest where we watched it decide where the flower looked best (and we noticed that he already had a few other poppies in the nest already).

There were 2 young guys who were playing digeridoos and performing tribal dance demonstrations at the Harbour. We stopped to look at the CD’s they were selling and discovered that one of the guys dances in a world-reknown Aboriginal group who come to the Vancouver Folk Festival and also visit Saltspring Island.

We stopped for a light lunch (sharing an order of fish and chips) and a beer (one each – not shared) and then crossed the Pyrmont Bridge to the other side of the harbor and discovered one of Erik’s favourite restaurant chains.

On our way back to the condo, we stopped for some groceries and a bottle of wine and had a nap for 2 hours. Now it’s 9:30 p.m. and it’s starting to feel like bedtime.

Internet is not as expensive as 7 years ago – $5/day here at the resort in Sydney.

We’re thinking of doing a hop on, hop off ferry tomorrow and maybe some geocaching as well.

Temperature today was about 22 C with high cloud.

Day 4 was spent riding on tour buses and really enjoying it (I know it’s a surprise to hear that John enjoyed not being the driver!).

After pouring over the tons of brochures we’d been picking up, we decided to take the Bondi and Sydney Explorer tours. (By the way, Bondi is pronounced Bond-eye – who knew?) We walked down to Hyde Park to catch the tour but somehow missed the bus stop so we kept walking until we found the next stop. The stop was outside some of the law courts – I’d forgot that the lawyers for some (all?) cases still dress like they do in England – it was quite entertaining to see one of the fellows running down the street, gown flapping behind him and holding on to his wig.

The Bondi tour (the first one we took) stops at 19 locations – you could hop on and off at any point, the next bus would be along in 30 minutes. The plan was to walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte (the next stop on the tour) but when we got to Bondi, it was too windy for a pleasant walk. We did get off the bus and walk around

Bondi
and on the beach. It was deserted compared to any pictures we’ve seen of it and there were only a few people who were actually surfing. The sand is really fine – it would be fun to walk barefoot on it. When the next bus came along, we hopped back on and rode the rest of the way back to the main station.

Instead of getting right on the next tourbus, we (well I) decided to go and look for a yarn shop that was in the area. Come on, you’re not surprised about that are you? It appeared to be 2 blocks down from where we were and about 5 blocks up – no big deal… Ha! did I mention that just because the street numbers are in the 40’s on one side of the street, they might be in the 10’s on the other side? Weird! Also, the street we were looking for didn’t really start at the harbour – it started about 4 blocks up after separating from another street. It was pretty muggy out at this time, and we were getting a little warm from climbing the hills but we did see some

interesting bits of The Rocks (one of the districts in Sydney – it was the original site of the convict housing)
while we were locating Tapestry Craft. The

sign
was on the street corner but we couldn’t find the store anywhere so John asked someone and they said it was about 150 metres up the road – that worked out to another block and a half. The knitting department was downstairs and was full of yarn – and they had

Knit Picks needles (that won’t mean much to anyone except Lizz and Angela *s*).
I didn’t buy anything there – but I did see a few Australian-made yarns.

Instead of walking back to Stop 1 of the Sydney Explorer tour, we found the nearest stop and waited there. This tour has 27 stops and runs about every 20 minutes. We didn’t get off anywhere on this tour – just rode around and listened to the tour information. Some of the areas were familiar as we had walked through them several times but we did get to cross the Harbour Bridge and go out to some other areas we hadn’t walked to.

Tomorrow we leave for Lakes Entrance – we have a shuttle booked for 7:45 a.m. to take us to the airport to pick up our rental car. The drive to the condo is about 9.5 hours so we’re going to try to get an early start. Probably won’t be any updates for a day or two.

Temperature: 21 C with heavy rain in the morning and then it was just overcast.

Hmmm, glad I added I think to the end of the last post *s*

Just as soon as we got outside, it started to rain – a little heavier than the past couple of days so we changed our plans. First off was coffee so that I didn’t suffer caffeine withdrawal again!

After that, we headed to the Sydney Aquarium (where we bought a combined ticket with the Sydney Wildlife World and the monorail). What an awesome experience the Aquarium was – the first animal we saw was a

platypus.
It was so cute. Just as cute were the

Little Penguins
– and I could even take a picture of them here, Lizz. After that we went through the other exhibits and were amazed at the different fish. We saw a

salt-water crocodile
that we were sure was a stuffed one until he opened his eye and looked at us. One of the highlights was the

glass tunnel
under the seal and shark exhibits. We were under the shark exhibit when it was feeding time and it was quite the sight to see all the sharks milling around the divers.

When we came out of the Aquarium, it was sunny but it was already after noon so we continued on to the Wildlife World exhibit. That was fantastic too – although if you have a fear of spiders or snakes, maybe you wouldn’t think so. There were

butterflies,

lizards,

birds
and nocturnal animals. Just when you thought you were almost at the end, there was another area to look at. We climbed up to the rooftop and found the

koalas.
Two were wide awake and chewing on leaves, the other two were sleeping. They were so cuddly looking but we didn’t get close enough to touch them.

One level down, were the

wallabies
– you could see them from the rooftop and hear the digeridoo playing. We went back down to the wallaby level and were entertained by their antics. At the end of the wallaby habitat, there was an employee holding a blue-tongue lizard – I tried to get a picture but it wasn’t light enough and there were a lot of children touching it.

Next up were the butterflies – they were everywhere and so pretty. One of them even landed on

John’s shoulder
– proving that they are not only attracted to bright colours.

Once outside again, we encountered more rain so we went to the monorail station and rode around once and then half way around again so that we could pick up a few more groceries.

It didn’t seem like we walked as much as the other days, but we still didn’t get back until 3:30.

Tomorrow – Bondi Beach and the suburbs. (Will try to post but I’m not sure when the internet expires – which reminds me, I should have looked around before purchasing because there are a ton of internet cafes, etc. around this area).

Temperature yesterday: 19 C with rain – heavy at times and very sunny at others.

 

Left the condo at 9:30 a.m. and headed for Hyde Park and the first thing we saw was the Anzac War Memorial which was a very powerful and moving experience.

From there we walked down through the Park to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The lady at the

Wooloomooloo Gate
(a Friends of the Gardens volunteer) was surprised to see anyone on such a cool, wet day but we told her we didn’t find it cold and the rain is just a drizzle, not heavy like on Vancouver Island. What a beautiful place – I’m sure we missed quite a few areas, the trails wander and branch off constantly. We saw a

Kookaburra and a

Golden Orb-weaving spider while we were walking but the most surprising things were these:

Grey-headed Flying Foxes. There were also Sulphur-crested Cockatoos who were hopping on (and biting) an unsuspecting couple who had paused in their midst. We gave them a wide berth *g*

We walked along the seawall to Mrs. Mcquarie’s Chair and got our first sight of the Sydney Opera House.

Opera House
It really is as impressive as it looks in pictures *s*. We walked back through the park and exited beside the Opera House. Wed been walking quite a few hours by then, and the sight of the stairs leading up to the Opera House was intimidating but we made it *g*

 

Wandered back through Darling Harbour again and stopped for a coffee at Starbucks (yes Erik, I know we don’t go to Starbucks but we were having caffeine withdrawal). Just around the corner was the Chinese Gardens. It was raining again, so we decided to visit the gardens (hoping for a little shelter). They were beautiful – very serene in the midst of the city.

Once we finished at the Gardens, we actually looked at our watches and found that it was 3:30 p.m. already – don’t know where the day went. *s* We wandered back to the condo through Chinatown and John found the Minnesota-Colorado game on tv (well, a condensed version of it). At about 9:30 we were falling asleep, so we called it an evening.

Today, off to explore some of the suburbs, I think.

Temperature yesterday: 19 C with rain showers

 

Well, we went out exploring yesterday after posting. We walked down to

Darling Harbour, through

Tumbalong Park and then along the

waterfront – our destination was the Sydney Opera House but we discovered that the walking path was blocked by construction so we backtracked a little and crossed the harbour by way of the

Pyrmont Bridge (a walking and monorail bridge)

Once on the other side of the harbour, the rain started. We took shelter for a while during the worst of the storm and then decided to walk through town. That was interesting – it was lunch time and everyone was rushing (so no photo ops). Add to that umbrellas everywhere and it was a challenge just to manouevre through the crowds. My first impression of people in Sydney – they’re friendly but always in a hurry. After a while, we decided to head to the grocery store which the receptionist had recommended. What she forgot to mention was that it was down an escalator (and the only advertising for it was part way down the escalator). We finally found it after John asked someone in a wine lounge and she sent us in the right direction. Food seems to cost a little more than at home (however, since we were in the middle of the city, that might be the location). We found some fantastic large prawns and salad makings and headed back to the condo, with the thought that we would go out again after eating.

Once we got back, we crashed – I set the alarm clock to wake us up in an hour and a half and then made dinner. As soon as dinner was over, we sat down to find the weather on tv and that was the last we knew until 9:30 p.m. when we woke up again and decided it must be bedtime. To my surprise, I slept through until 6:30 a.m. and am now ready to explore again (and to find real coffee – there’s only instant here at the condo and no coffee maker).

More photos are in the photo category (on the right side bar) under Australia.

Temperature yesterday: 18 C with rain showers