Departing on Our Cruise

We left our hotel at 1:00 in the afternoon and 10 minutes later our driver dropped us off at the cruise ship terminal at Circular Quay in downtown Sydney. Our ship accommodates 2850 passengers and our concern was that everyone would want to board at the same time. As they say in Aussie "No worries mate!". From the time we exited the car until we were sitting in the Oceanview Café having lunch a total of one hour had elapsed. We had a glitch with our room keys but that was sorted out and now we have a full day at sea.

Ruth Anne looking aft from our balcony at the north end of Harbour Bridge

Last Day in Sydney

Today we used the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus for one more trip around the city. Here are some photo highlights.

St Mary's Cathedral

One Central Park -Vertical apartment towers covered in greenery.  Note the "gardener" at work!

The Royal Botanic Garden - 30 hectares (74 acres) - no charge to visit. 

In the garden, there was a special floral display called "Pollination".

 Then on to the Queen Victoria Building, designed by George McCrae and completed in 1898, replacing the original Sydney markets.  Built as a monument to the monarch, the building housed various tenants over many years and at one point was threatened with demolition.  Rescued by the National Trust, every detail has been painstakingly restored.  Five levels of high end shopping, restaurants and cafes sit beneath the original stained glass windows and dome.  

Winetasting in the Hunter Valley

"Sydneysiders" (residents of Sydney) were treated to another pleasantly cool day, perfect for visiting wine country.  After traveling over the Harbour Bridge and through the suburbs, we proceeded along the Pacific Highway. Within minutes we were seeing what the English settlers saw when they first landed at Sydney Harbour 230 years ago. Even though Australia is the most arid continent on earth, the hillsides appear lush and green.  Therefore, the English thought that they were landing on fertile soil with lots of available water.  They did not understand that the flora and fauna of the country had adapted to the dry conditions over thousands of years.  The sandstone was not fertile and suitable for growing crops. Eventually by moving to the west, up the Parramatta River, they were able to grow their own food to feed the emerging colony.

Meanwhile, to the north, aboriginal people had lived for 65,000 years. We drove through Ku-Ring-Gai-Chase National Park named for the tribe that lived here for 30,000 years.  Aboriginal art on the rocks shows fish, whales, dolphin, kangaroos, weapons, and gods they worshipped in this place.

The English discovered the area when Governor King sent the worst convicts from Sydney north to collect coal, cut timber, and build the Great North Road between 1826 and 1836. Now four to six lane motorway connects Sydney to the Hunter Valley where vines originally imported from Europe in the 1820's flourish.

We visited three "boutique" wineries - defined as those that source their grapes from their own local vineyards, unlike large operations, like Lindemans,  that import fruit to produce large quantities of wine for export.  There are about 150 small boutique wineries on the Hunter Valley.
Many grape varieties are well suited to the climate - shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, verdelho, and semillon.

 Our guide, Jim, was very knowledgeable but, sadly, had to drink tea and coffee all day.  We saw kangaroos in the wild for the first time on our drive.

Our group included couples from Hong Kong, China, Sweden, Hawaii, Washington D.C., and Canada. After three tasting sessions, lunch, a visit to a cheese shop and chocolate shop, we were a quiet sleepy group on the ride home.

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Tour

Today we experienced a change in the weather - down to 20 C (68 F), cloudy with a few showers.  This was a welcome change after 38 C (88 F) in the interior yesterday. In the morning we walked to the harbour and booked our tour of the Sydney Opera House.

When the project was awarded in 1957 by an international jury to Danish architect Jorn Utzon, the prediction was that it would take 4 years and 7 million dollars to complete.  The opera house was opened in 1973 at a cost of over 102 million dollars.  It is comprised of three groups of interlocking shells covered in ceramic tiles which roof two main performance halls for concerts and operas. These shell structures are set upon a vast platform. Beneath the main halls are three smaller theatres.

The tour promises 200 steps and they are not kidding.  Only the most recent renovation of the opera hall provided elevators to assist those unable to climb steps.  

Our next adventure was a harbour cruise with Captain Cook.

Our two hour cruise with Elizabeth at the microphone gave us an appreciation of the history of the harbour from aboriginal times to present day. The harbour's 240 km shoreline is lined with golden beaches, gardens, vibrant neighbourhoods, historic buildings and vast treed areas of national parkland. 

We walked to Darling Harbour for dinner.  An Australian prawn (shrimp) is a meal in itself!

A Day In the Mountains

Millions of years ago seismic activity created a massive sandstone ridge about an hours drive west of

Sydney. Today this area is called the Blue Mountains.
Attempts to cross this ridge by early settlers proved fruitless until a route was found along the top of the ridge. The highway today follows this original trail in some areas to a height of 1000 metres. Deep canyons covered in eucalyptus trees radiate out along each side of the highway.

Our first stop of the morning was the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we saw many of the indigenous Australian animals.

Our morning drive included stops at many scenic lookouts overlooking the Jamison Valley.  At one location Jack and some of the group descended 250 steps to a better, more photogenic, spot. Unfortunately since it had not rained recently, the waterfall was a "water trickle".  

Our final stop was to view the famous "Three Sisters" before lunch at the Hydro Majestic Hotel.

 In olden days, people would come from the city for a week of clean air and hiking in the Blue Mountains.  As methods of travel improved, and day trips were possible, the grand hotels fell into disrepair.  Some are now being refurbished and are quite beautiful.

At Mt. Tomah Botanical Gardens, we saw only a small fraction of plants indigenous to the continent.  More about plants tomorrow after we tour The Botanical Gardens in Sydney.  However, one special treat was seeing the Wollemia Pines.  These were discovered in 1994 in a rainforest gully in Wollemia National Park. These are the only plants of this genus known and date back hundreds of millions of years.  Therefore, they are called "the dinosaur trees".

 Our trip home included a stop at the Olympic Park built for the 2000 Summer Olympics.  Then it was time for dinner at Hart's Pub and home after a long but informative day with Charles from AEA tours.