Saturday - March 01, 2008

Sydney, Australia 

Our 3-day Explorer Pass in Sydney was a bit expensive, but a good investment. We toured the major sights in the city center and then spent a day on the Bondi Explorer bus that took us through a number of residential areas and along the coast to a number of the best beaches, including the famous Bondi Beach. 

But I'll start at the beginning of our stay in Sydney, which began with a day aboard ship in Woolloomooloo harbor. Coincidentally, this is the area we had in 16 years ago on our first trip to Australia with our friends, Gavin and Barbara. We couldn't believe how much the area had changed. It was nice then, but now much of the area has been gentrified, to the point where Russell Crowe has a penthouse apartment in the dock area that overlooked our ship. The area is now filled with apartments, restaurants, and shops. 

I got off the ship first so that I could get a photo of Mike standing on our balcony. If you look closely between the first and second life boats to the right, you will see Mike standing there waving at me. The photo gives you an idea of how high up we were on the ship.

We spent our first day on the Red Explorer bus that took around the city, allowing us to get off and on at will. Our first stop was the area of Darling Harbor, another area that has been redeveloped. It has a number of nice hotels, many restaurants on the the water, a casino, and a number of museums, including the Maritime museum and the Aquarium. We had a great pizza and beer with a nice view of the harbor, but paid dearly for it. We soon discovered that Sydney is a very expensive city and that any meal we had would cost far more than it had a right to! 

There is a very nice bridge that connects one side of the harbor with the other, and as we were crossing it, Mike noticed that it was a swing bridge with one section opening to allow large boats through. I stopped to take a picture, and when I turned around Mike had disappeared. After much searching, I looked up into the control booth on the bridge to see him up there chatting with the bridge operators inside. The next thing I know there is an announcement from the booth warning walkers to get behind the barriers, and then the bridge starts to swing open with Mike happily looking out the booth window, watching to see how it all works. Typical! So I did what I typically do, and took pictures of the whole thing. 

We then caught a ferry from Darling Harbor over to the Circular Quay, which meant traveling underneath the fantastic Harbor Bridge, fondly known as the Coathanger Bridge, that is an icon of Sydney Harbor. This ferry ride gives a terrific view of the Opera House as the boat pulls into the Quay and also of the Queen Victoria which was docked there for the day. Apparently she is a beautiful ship inside, but I didn't find her so beautiful from the outside because all the balconies make her look like a huge box. I much prefer the sleeker lines of the QE2, but nowadays most people understandably want a balcony and the cruise companies want to put as many cabins on a ship as they can. 

We mixed with the crowds waiting to see the Victoria sail out of the Quay and us move in, which was scheduled to happen in a few hours. We played with the idea of watching it all from shore, but decided it would be more fun to be on the ship than fighting for space with the crowds. So we hurried back to the QE2 to shower and get the party going. We had invited Marty and Lynne and Jim and Audrey, the couple from northern England. Our new friends across the hall, Terry and Diane from England, had invited another couple Alan and Diane from Melbourne to join them. So we combined parties, and shared wines, snacks, and balconies as we watched the spectacle unfold. 

After we docked in Circular Quay, we went to the Queens Grille for "the last supper". We decided to go out with a bang and ordered Duck a L'orange, which Andrew flamed at the table and was just terrific. It was rather sad to have to say goodbye to all the nice people we had met and whose company we had greatly enjoyed - Jan and Hildegarde, Sarah and David, Terry and Diane, Alan and Diane, Joy and Skip, Audrey and Jim to name a few - and to say goodbye to the staff who had taken such good care of us. But it was also exciting to start the second stage of our trip as well. And it was easier to leave knowing that we will be back on board the QE2 in late October to do a cruise of the Mediterranean and then the final voyage to Dubai.

The next morning, we disembarked the ship to check into our hotel by the Quay. The next two days were spent exploring more of the center of the city and then we spent a beautiful day riding through the suburbs of the city and along the coast on the Bondi Explorer coaches. Sydney has some beautiful sections of the city with houses that not only look lovely, but have the most incredible views over to the Opera house and the city skyline. At one point, just beyond Watson's Bay, we got off the coach we were on and walked the pathway back along the coast to the Bay stop and then reboarded another coach. The walk was just lovely because we could see out to the Pacific Ocean in one direction and back to the city in the other. The coastline was all rocky, with huge turquoise waves crashing in. We saw some very interesting shrubs, called Banksia, that have flowers that look like corncobs. We also saw some beautiful birds, highly colored a bright blue and some lovely butterflies with purple wings. 

Once we got back on the coach, we carried on to Bondi Beach. What a gorgeous beach! We rounded the head up above the beach and had the most wonderful view over the area. The sand is a lovely white color, and being the beginning of the week, it was relatively uncrowded. The waves were really coming in strongly, so the less than professional surfers were out trying to catch a wave. Mike noticed that some of the women had no tops on (binoculars are a wonderful thing) and suggested that we go down on the beach. Hmmm. I was quite happy to take my sandals off, roll up my capri pants, and let the waves roll over my feet as I shot photos. What a nice way to spend an hour or so. 

Then it was back on the coach to see a couple of other beaches and to wend our way back into the center of the city. Mike went down to the Quay to see the QE2 off on her way to Tasmania, but I decided that I didn't want to say goodbye in person. I was sitting at my computer working on my blog when I heard the first of the three whistles announcing her leaving. I flung open the balcony door and couldn't see her, but I could sure hear that whistle. I felt a longing to be back on board, and wondered who was sleeping in my bed and sitting at my table in the dining room. 

But now we are in New Zealand, just outside Christchuch in a little town called Rangiora at my sister's house. We have a month ahead of us, which seems like a long time, but I suspect the time is going to go just as quickly on land as it did on the water. Stay tuned if you want to hear about our further adventures Down Under.