Sydney Harbor
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
7
Trip End
Ongoing
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Friday, October 9, 2009
We arrived in Sydney fairly late in the evening October 8th so after a whirlwind cab ride through the huge city, Alasia and I checked in to our place and went looking for food. The Crenmorne District of Sydney is a little farther out from the Central Business District (CBD), which includes the waterfront's Central Quay, Opera House and major transit connections to the rest of the city. Crenmorne is on the north side of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, it lacks the skyscrapers and shiny new feel of those areas right across the harbor. Wandering around at 10:00 pm looking for a good place to eat we were reminded of Seattle's University District or Capitol Hill, funky and affordable. Although one Thai restaurant right around the corner did sport some pretty hefty prices for a plate of noodles. It smelled great but we opted for the late night pizza joint staffed by the sunburnt surfers.
After a good nights sleep, we started to look at of things to see in Sydney, beaches, museums, zoos, aquariums, the Opera House, the harbor and bridge, the 2000 Olympic site, the many National forests surrounding the city, etc
Opera House
. The cabbie exclaimed more than a few times the night before "A week isn't enough!" Of course we knew this, but now that we were here we really felt it. Where to start, first things first, transportation. As there are many options we opted for the "Green City Pass." We cannot say enough about Sydney's public transport. For $46 AUD we got limitless rides on all of the ferries, trains and busses for a week. This was a great way to see the city from a more local point of view, and beat the prices of Harbor Cruises and car rentals. During the week we:
*hopped on and off ferries to see the harbor from all possible angles, this included viewing all angles of the bridge, the opera house and the city itself.
*visited the iconic Opera House in all types of weather except snow and photographed it from all possible angles.
*walked through the Botanic Gardens, hugging trees (the signs said to), listening to the screeches of Flying Foxes, Sulfur Crested Cockatoo's and various other birds, sat in the huge throne carved in stone in the side of one of the many sandstone cliffs through out the park and of course took many pictures. This was a sunny Saturday and the park was full of weddings, "Love was in the air for sure!"
*shuffled our toes through the fine sands at Manly and Bondi Beach, dreamed of being one of the many surfers we were watching in the waves, relaxed with delicious baked goods and coffee, enjoyed the wave-carved cliffs of the North and South Heads of the Sydney Harbor as well as ancient Aboriginal carvings.
*encountered many strange and unusual Australian creatures at the Taronga Zoo
Opera House Tiles
. Alasia finally got to see the Koala, and take about a hundred photos of them sleeping, eating, climbing and jumping from tree to tree to get the best leaves. *Strolled through the CBD, Central Quay, The Rocks, Darling Harbor, Crenmorne, Manly, Watson's Bay and Paramatta districts and did some window shopping. Bobby's absolute favorite! All in all enjoyed the vibe of this beautiful and unique city.
All of the things that we saw in the city were spectacular and we could write much more, but we were most impressed by the Blue Mountains and wished for more time to explore. A 2 1/2 hour ferry + train ride and we left the hustle and bustle of the city behind for what is known as the "Grand Canyon" of Australia, the Blue Mountains National Park. The canyon is older than the Grand Canyon and is brimming with a temperate rain forest so thick that at the bottom of the canyon you barely glimpse the cliff walls towering above you. The park and canyon is so vast that there are still many unexplored areas and places with microclimates containing species otherwise extinct from the rest of the world. The most famous example is the Wollemi Pine, which lived during the Jurassic Period. In 1994 David Noble made a discovery of about 40 mature trees living in a remote section of the park. The exact location is still a closely guarded secret while botanist work of ensure the survival of the tree. It was a great surprise for us to find living specimens at the Toranga Zoo. Needless to say our few hours spent walking down into and climbing back out of a small piece of the Canyon inspired us to return some day and explore more. Neither Bobby nor I will think of Australia as only a dry, hot desert, 4 of our 7 days were rainy. As we boarded the plane for NZ we hoped to bring some sunny weather back with us.
On to the South Island for more NZ adventures...
Love Alasia and Bobby
