Sydney

Saturday December 16 Day 23

Sydney arrives in Sydney.! We landed in Sydney around noon to beautiful 30 degree weather. We headed to the hotel for a preplanned relaxation day. We decided to take it easy and gather our strength for the next day (shopping day). Lisa and Sydney hung around the hotel and the pool while Lance explored the city and some familiar neighbourhoods. Lance and Lisa ended up going for dinner in Chinatown (which is right at the doorstep of our hotel) then over to Darling Harbour to check out the Saturday night festivities. At Darling Harbour, every Friday and Saturday night they have family movies in the park (Fred Clause was playing when we walked through) and the entire area is abuzz with family activity and tons of bars and restaurants. We picked up a gluten free pizza and delivered it to Sydneyin bed, then played some cards before turning in for the night. It was nice to relax a bit after a travel day.

Sunday December 17 Day 23

Shopping Day! This is the day Sydney had been waiting for. We got a good breakfast into us and then hit the streets around 11 a.m. From our hotel we walked up George St.to the shopping district. There were more stores and malls then any of us have ever seen in one place. Throughout the city there seems to be an UGG store on every corner. Sydney had success in finding the things she wanted and we had a good time ducking in and out of the stores. While Lisa and Sydney shopped, Lance hung outside the stores and took in the street buskers. With Christmas only a week away the stores and streets were very busy. Along the way we stopped in for tea, coffee and sandwiches at Dymocks book store cafe on George St. This is the cafe where Lance and Lisa worked 25 years ago (middle photo belo) . Lisa was the waitress and Lance was the dishwasher. It brought back lots of memories and was very nostalgic. They have incredible tea and coffee, much better than we remember. We walked all the way up to the Rocks (which is a neighbourhood at the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) where we explored a street market they have on Saturdays and Sundays. We then headed over to theBarangaroo Reserve which is a beautiful park with a beautiful pathway along the water. That lead us down to Darling Harbour where we went for dinner. We ended up back at the hotel around 8:30 pm (9 and a half hours of shopping) and watched Home Alone before hitting the sack. Very busy and fun day.

Monday December 18 Day 24

Today was Sydney Harbour Bridge climb! Lance and Sydney braved the 3 hour climb on the largest steel arch bridge in the world. The view from the top provides a 360 degree view of Sydney harbour and surrounding area. Along the climb The guide provided some vey interesting information about the bridge. The bridge was a depression era project and is largely credited with helping to pull Australia out of the depression. The bridge was built between 1923 and 1932 at a total cost of about 4 million GBP. Before the bridge was completed, residents living across the harbour spent (on average) 2/3 of their daily salary on ferry tolls. Once the bridge was opened, residents could then cross the harbour for free providing families with much more disposable income which was put back into the economy. The iconic stone towers that are seen at each end of the bridge are made of 635,000 cubic feet of granite and provide absolutely no structural support to the bridge. They were added to the bridge for their aesthetic value but the primary reason the towers were added was to provide work to nearly 250 unemployed stonemasons. The construction of the towers made up half of the cost of the bridge. Close to the end of the climb a lightning storm was visible in the distance so the descent was fairly quick – no one wanted to be at the very top of the tallest metal structure around when lightning was visible!

Following a nice dinner in the Rocks (such a cool historical area) we met at the Cadmans cottage (Syd is standing in front of it below). It is the oldest house in Sydney. Here we began the Rocks Ghost Tours Walk. It is described as “macabre tales of murder, suicide, hangings and hauntings”! We walked the Rocks for two hours stopping at and touring old homes and hearing all of the stories. Our guide was really good and she got Lance involved in one story involving a murderous captain of a ship (although he looks like the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island in the photo!). We met people from all over the world on our little tour and had a lot of fun!

Tuesday December 19 Day 25

Beach day! We returned to the scene of the crime, our old stomping ground of Bondi Beach. A lot has changed since we lived there 25 years ago but then again, a lot is still the same. It is definitely more busy now then it was when we were living there in 1992, and a number of high priced condos and hotels have been built. However, we were able to find our old residence which is still standing. The beach was beautiful today, the temperature reached close to 40 degrees Celsius. After laying around on the beach for a couple of hours, we had a nice lunch right on the beach at the Bondi pavilion then did some shopping along the water front. After shopping we did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach. The costal walk is a 6 km path along the ocean coast that passes through Bronte Beach, Tamarama Beach and provides some spectacular scenery. By the end of the walk we were all a bit tired and hungry. So on our way home we got a bite to eat in Bondi Junction(did a little more shopping in Bondi Junction), then headed back to the hotel. Another great day in Sydney.

Wednesday December 20 Day 26

Is it really December 20th? It’s hard to believe it here in Sydney where we are in the middle of a heat wave. The temperature hit mid 40’s today – a record high. We didn’t let the heat deter us though (because we know full well that in 2 weeks time we will be missing it!) so we ventured out to the Taronga Zoo. Taronga is run by a not for profit organization that supports education, environmental sustainability, habitat preservation and wildlife conservation. The animals are well cared for in spacious environments in an effort to learn how to best protect endangered species. The zoo is accessible by ferry crossing and then a gondola. Sydney’s favourite was the giraffes, Lance liked the gorillas and Lisa liked the Meercats (because they have great posture!).

After a full day at the Zoo we enjoyed a great Malaysian dinner at Mamak. We don’t normally take photos of all our meals but since we have friends who read this blog who are “foodies” we’ll post for them! We started with Roti (first photo) with 2 curry dips and a spicy samba sauce. Next we enjoyed Maggi goreng (second photo) and some chicken Satay with spicy peanut sauce. Excellent way to end the day!

Thursday December 21, Day 27

A rainstorm came through and cooled things down a bit today. We decided to do an indoor activity. We saw the movie Wonder. Beautiful book and movie was nicely done. For the 3 of us to see the movie with 3 small drinks and popcorn was a surprising $100…. Steep!  Best quote from the book/movie “when given the choice between being right and being kind, chose kind. Didn’t take any photos today except this one…getting into the Christmas spirit!

Friday December 22, Day 28

Our last Day in Sydney was spent walking through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. We wanted to do a lot of walking today so that we would be tired out for our 10 hour flight to Hawaii due to depart at 9 p.m.. We actually enjoyed the gardens quite a bit. They have thousands of roses and pathways with well kept beds of beautiful flowers. In fact there are over a million specimens of flowers in over 30 hectares of gardens. Some of them were first planted by the newly arrived European colonists over 200 years ago. We were thinking that your mom would love these gardens Sophie (and Heather we also thought of Ian and Jessie). Lisa also said it reminded her of her grandpa who was always so proud of his rose bushes. The gardens seem to be a big tourist attraction as there were a lot of visitors and they had signs posted in all languages (including amusing signs posted in the bathroom that gave us a bit of a laugh).

The gardens also boast some of the best views of Sydney Harbour if you follow the path along the water to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair (also known as Lady Macquarie’s Chair). This historic Chair was ordered to be carved out of a rock ledge by prisoners for the wife of one of the first governors as she enjoyed sitting in the area and taking in the view. We looked out at Fort Denison (or Pinchgut island as it was also known). It is a former prison and later a fortress sitting in the middle of the harbour. All in all a beautiful last day in Australia. Off to the airport to start the next leg of our journey and to meet up with Zack!