Sydney, Australia

After a day of relaxation in my (so far) favorite city ever, Queenstown, we were off to the airport for our flight to Australia. This trip we will fly on Qantas airlines and it’s about three hours to Sydney. The flight was uneventful, other than our luggage issues. We came on this adventure with two suitcases each weighing about 50 lbs., or 23 kilos. But one way or another, even though our gifts are small, we needed more packing space. So we bought two new suitcases. The price was right and we were convinced one of our original suitcases was broken because the wheels weren’t working smoothly. But when we took all the excess weight out, it worked fine, so we hated to leave it behind. We settled on packing our two best suitcases to the limit of the airline luggage requirements, and bringing two, mostly empty suitcases, for which we had to pay overage fees. So we have four suitcases, two backpacks and my purse. Luckily the driver who took us to the airport brought a van and a luggage carrier so we had plenty of room.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Sydney. What a difference! From a small town in a setting of absolute beauty to a big city, teeming with tall buildings, loads of traffic and people. We’re spending four nights here in the Amora Hotel Jamison, which is right in the heart of the CBD, or Central Business District. We arrived early in the evening, and had eaten on the plane, so we really weren’t hungry, unpacked and went to bed. The Amora is a beautiful hotel, and we had a big suite with a living room, bedroom and bathroom. Our view was of the city and we people-watched for awhile.

Next day, Thursday, we had a full schedule. We headed to the Circular Quay, a busy central area for everyone interested in the Sidney Bridge, Opera House, Trains, Trams, busses, and any boats out into the Bay. There was a big Carnaval Ship that had recently arrived, and people with suitcases headed home to their next adventure crowded the streets. We were looking for the Commodore’s Steps, where our Sensational Morning Tea Cruise would begin. This was billed as a 52 ft. Motor yacht that would take us all over the harbor for the next two hours. The Commodore’s Steps were just that. A set of concrete steps leading into the waters of the harbor. Boats can pull up there for no more than 15 minutes to load and unload. Sure enough, our boat pulled in and we were informed that we were the only two passengers! A private cruise tour of the Sidney Harbor! And it was great. Bob went up into the control room with the skipper and I stayed on the deck with our first mate, tour guide. Our two hosts were hilarious as it was clear they didn’t like each other much and completed for attention. But we got a great tour. My first impression was that Sidney was like New York City, but as we went along it seemed much cooler than NYC. Everyone who is anyone owns million-dollar plus property surrounding the Harbor, and our guides pointed out homes of Elton John, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Rebel Wilson, just to name a few. We got lots of pictures of the Harbor Bridge, with people climbing to the top, and the Sydney Opera House. The weather was sunny and cool. Numerous sailboats were preparing for the Hobart Race, which happens on Boxing Day, December 26th. There were beatiful sailboats, with the tallest masts I’ve ever seen. Our guide pointed out several America’s Cup winners berthed there, and preparing to compete.

Once back on dry land, we spotted an ice cream store and had a bite. Our next adventure was to be a one-hour tour of the Sydney Opera House. There were loads of little shops so we got a few more small souvenirs (after all we have two empty suitcases now) and wandered over to the Opera House. A crew was setting up an outside stage for someone, and while I didn’t catch who, I did see that the Pixies are playing December 5th. When it was time for our tour, we joined the group of about 25 people. The Opera House is amazing. Regarded as one of the most distinctive buildings in the world, it is quite impressive. I thought it was all white, but it is more of a cream color and fashioned of thousands of cream colored precast concrete ‘shells.’ White would have been reflective and potentially dangerous to the many flights nearby. There are numerous stages within the Opera House so that many events can occur at once. They also rent some parts out for weddings and private parties. Numerous notable performances have taken place, including The Carol Burnette Show, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela and even Thin Lizzy. We were taken into the Joan Sutherland Theater, where the final touches were being put on the set for tonight’s opening performance of the Australian Ballet and the Australian Orchestra of Romeo and Juliet. Our guide told us the tickets were sold out, but we went up to the Box Office to check and learned we could get two seats in the 9th row. So we bought them. We were then worried that we didn’t have the right outfits for an opening night ballet, but we were told people in Sydney are pretty informal. That turned out to be incorrect, but they didn’t throw us out and the ballet was beautiful. However, the ballet is a bit different than the Shakespeare version with which I am familiar. So it was a bit confusing from a storyline perspective, but the dancers and the costumes were gorgeous, the music lovely, and we felt very artsy. We had a quick bite in one of the outdoor restaurants prior to the show, and watched something I have never seen before. A man in a police-type outfit led a very excited dog around the outdoor restaurants, whose job was to chase away the seagulls. The seagull patrol! I bet that is the coolest job any dog can get as he ran after and chased them away over and over. They came right back, of course, so it was great fun for the dogs, the seagulls and humans watching.

Next day, we went on a bus tour to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are a National Park in Australia, and we stopped first at Australian Calmsley Hill City Farm, offering up close and personal time with koalas, kangaroos, wombats, and emus. The only animal in a cage-like structure was the wombat. They look like giant fluffy gerbils, dig seriously deep holes, and have a thick, heavy structure over their back. When threatened, they roll into a ball and roll at you with that thick structure, and can knock a grown man off his feet. The claws and teeth do the rest. They also have cube-shaped poop! It is stackable, won’t roll and allows them to secure the opening to their holes. I never considered cube-shaped poop but it seems like a great idea. Clever wombats. The koala was cute, but definitely seemed annoyed by our presence. He suffered people petting him, but looked like he would kill us for a nickel. Koalas sleep most of the day and are considered one of the laziest animals in the animal kingdom. But that really is because of the eucalyptus leaves. Eucalyptus leaves are highly toxic, but it is the only thing these furry little guys eat. The reason they sleep all day is because their bodies are working hard to rid themselves of the poisons. Seems like a cruel jest of the gods to me. The kangaroos were generally busy kangarooing and I was glad because I was afraid Bob would try to box one.

We spent the next several hours driving around in the bus to numerous sites in the Blue Mountains. They are called blue because the eucalyptus trees are legion and the oils from the trees mix with dust and water giving off blue light rays. We saw the Three Sisters, along Mount Solitary, which were formed by land erosion around 200 million years ago. The Aboriginal legend is that three sisters fell in love with warriors from a competing tribe, and marriage was forbidden by tribal law. A battle ensued and the sisters were turned into rocks by an elder of their tribe to protect them from injury. Sadly, that elder was killed and there the sisters have remained to this day. Bummer.

The Blue Mountains were beautiful, but coming from NZ, they were not as impressive for us as they probably should have been. And we are truly over bus rides. We were pretty glad to get back to the hotel. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, split a burger and headed to bed.

Next day, we just wandered around Sydney. We considered taking the hop-on, hop off bus, but given our current bus discontent, thought better of it. We made a reservation for a steakhouse called 6HEAD, which our travel agent highly recommended as ‘really, really good’ steaks. And they really were. Also they served us an incredible seed loaf with a smoked butter that was to die for. Completely stuffed, we headed back to the hotel. We leave Sydney in the morning for Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday’s and a resort called Qualia.