Beautiful Sydney!

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, January 4, 2010

Our last day and night on the boat had a bitter-sweet feeling.  First of all the sweet--or should I say sweets!  So many desserts and chocolate, it was just sinful!  Here Bracken, John, and George try a few out. 

Then that evening, we had our final evening meal, and that was bitter (or should I say sad?)  First of all, no more fantastic food, but even worse than that, we were losing our most favorite waiter and assistant ever!  Alfi and Elaine--both from Philippines.  They absolutely loved our family and did so much for us.  Also, Juan from Mexico, who was Alison's dietician, was so good.  We couldn't catch him in time to take the picture.  Thanks to these wonderful people who stay on the ship nine months, and then return to their families.  They send all they make back home to support families there.  And they work so hard!  We will miss them!

As we awoke on the final morning of the cruise, we opened our drapes to the most awesome sight--the Sydney Opera House!  I have wanted to see it forever, and there it was right across the harbor from us.  I could hardly wait to actually go there!

We said good-bye to our home for the last 13 days--here I am with Tyson who was our little cabin buddy,

 and then ate our final breakfast on the boat,

While waiting for our time to disembark, George played a few last games of ping pong with the kids,

 and then we started our descent back into the real world.

We got all of our luggage and then wondered how we would ever get to the hotel with all that luggage and all the people.  We would probably fill up three taxis!  But we soon found out, the Marriott Hotel wasn't that far away, so our little caravan made our way there.

After getting settled in our hotel, we went back to the harbor to get some real food--McDonald's!  The kids were so excited!  We sat on benches and watched the birds eat crumbs all around us.  We, also, watched as a young lady tried to wake a homeless guy and tell him his wallet was sticking out of his pocket and someone might take it.  When he didn't awaken, she just put it in her purse and told him she would put a note telling him how to contact her so she could protect it for him!  What a joke!  When we finally figured out her scam, it was too late!  Pretty cold-hearted when someone steals from a homeless person!

The harbor was lively with people everywhere, but the fun thing was the aboriginal music that was being played.  It made it feel like a party!

There's our boat that would be departing later that day to do the same cruise we just did, but in reverse order--from Sydney to Auckland. 

And finally--the Sydney Opera House--one of the most recognized structures in the world!

We took a tour of the inside and out.  It was great with the headphones, because even though we only had about 15 people on the tour, you could hear the tour guide no matter where you stood. 

It is so light and airy inside.  No photographs were allowed in the concert areas, but they let us take pictures of the areas just outside the doors.

Through the large windows, you can look out at Sydney Harbour. 

It is amazing how this building was built.  Jorn Utzon, a Danish architect came up with the design for a competition in 1955, and fortunately for the whole world, his design won, even though no one was quite sure how to build it.  Eventually, it was decided to form sections from a sphere because they would always fit inside of each other, even though there were many different sizes.  So many concrete ribs like the ones above hold up the structure.  It truly is amazing! 

Looking from the walkway at the Opera House across to the city on the opposite side of the river.

Much of Sydney Harbour was made by using prisoners who were housed in the prison at the end of the island where it first juts out.  It has now been restored to a 5-star restaurant!

This is the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  For $229, you can take about a 3 hour walk across the top of the bridge--do you know how high you are?!  It would be an unbelievable sight, but way too high for me--in feet and price! 

Walking through the streets of Sydney, one notcies the unique architecture of so many of the buildings.

These are shops!

Here you can see the old with the new--the building, I mean, not George!!!  Hah!

The next day, January 5th, Alison planned a trip to the Sydney Temple.  John was a great sport and watched the boys because it pretty much took 2/3's of the day to get there (two trains, a little walk, and a taxi), we did one session, and then returned.  It is a small temple with sessions every two hours.  We met some of the sweetest people there and were so glad that we took the time to go there.  Thanks, Alison, for planning this!

When we got back to the hotel, we all got our walking shoes on and walked back over to the harbor to the Royal Botanical Gardens which are right next to it.  What a treat!

This pond was filled with the biggest water lillies I have ever seen.  (I'm not sure that's the exact name, but you know what I mean). 

This was a pond that had eels in it.  George and John actually saw one.  We were told they clean the pond out and remove all the eels, but they just wiggle up from the shore again which is just past the grassy area and go right back in!

George was trying so hard to see another one so I could take a picture of it.

There were a few dead fish which made me a believer there really were eels in here.

These are not seed pods, they are flying fox bats!  There were hundreds of them.  Unlike other types of bats that hide and only come out at night, they are hanging all day long and will flutter their huge wings which are about 3 feet in width.  The bats are about a foot long, gray and black, and mostly eat fruit.  It was fascinating to see them hanging upside down like that.

But unlike Gainesville where they are encouraging bats, the city wants to get rid of most of them because they are causing much damage to the foilage.  So they have been given permission to take drastic measures!  This may be the last time people will see them there.

 

Today, January 6th, we got up early to catch a van which took us to the outskirts of town, to Featherdale Wildlife Park.  We just couldn't get enough of the unique Australian animals!

I had never seen a Black Swan before!  We saw many of them in the wild.

They really do wake up sometimes--but only about 4 hours out of 24 hours every day!

They even had some Little Penguins!

We had to see at least one crocodile in Australia.

Now we were off to the spectacular Blue Mountains which are about 2 1/2 hours outside of Sydney.  It is amazing that a place that looks like the Grand Canyon could be so close to the city.  And the mountains really do look blue!

Besides taking a little nature walk,

We had the fantastic experience of going down into the valley.

We first took a cable car across from one side of the mountains to the other. (Picture 1) Then we got on the smaller cable car to go down into the valley. (Picture 3)  After exploring the lush green valley, we then took the vertical train back to the top. (Picture 2)  It was really a trip--almost straight up!

This is the old way of getting to the top, here is the one we actually rode:

A little safer, I'd say.

There was an old mine in the valley, cut out into the mountain.  This was a monument to the miners' horses.  They kept the horses inside the mines for so long, they actually became blind because it was so dark inside.  So when the horses became old, they had a horse farm where they took care of them until they died because they loved and appreciated those horses so much. 

After we got back to the top, we were walking through the visitors' center where Tyson tried the Aboriginal instrument that we had heard them playing on the dock.  He found it wasn't very easy to play!

We then took a short van ride to the river where we rode the ferry back to Sydney Harbor and our hotel.  We then quickly cleaned up and finished our day by going to a delicious Thai restaurant and then to - - - -

Wicked!!!  We loved it,!  Even though we had seen it before, it seemed even more spectacular!  The Sydney Theater was such a classic theater with such exquisite Victorian decor.  It all was just so special!

Well, that finishes our fantastic adventures to Auckland and Sydney.  The next morning, January 7, George and I climbed aboard the plane for the 20 1/2 hour trip back to Florida--we deducted 3 1/2 hours by leaving from Sydney instead of Auckland.  This was a trip of a lifetime!  We so appreciated John and Alison including us.  Thanks ever so much!