Sydney

After our cruise, Liz and I stayed for five days in Sydney.  We arrived early on the Noordam, and had disembarked and reached our hotel (Hyatt Regency at Darling Harbour) by 9:30 a.m.  Our room was not ready, so we checked our luggage, and began to explore the City.

Previously, we had stayed at The Rocks, one bay over from where we were currently.  The transit hub Circular Quay is located at the Rocks, and indeed that is where our Cruise ship docked to let us disembark.  We could have easily hopped a ferry, taken a train, used rail, and even bus from the Rocks, but we did not yet have familiarity with the Darling Harbour area, which has a dreadful elevated highway right through the wharfside area.  However, it also has pedestrian bridges that cross this elevated traffic, ways to walk from our hotel to the wonderful wharf boardwalk without being in traffic, and more.  We used this early time to explore, and also to visit the adjacent Sydney Aquarium.

The aquarium was interesting, and had several good displays, but the Monterey Aquarium is hard to be topped.  The wharfside area, where we lunched, is full of restaurants and shops, leads down to a ferry stop, and is not far from transit into other areas into the city.  We settled into our Hotel late Saturday afternoon, and planned to go to Manley by Ferry the next day.

Reaching Manley would find us walking up a few blocks to the Wynyard transit station hub.  Nancy had given us her Opal Cards, and we added funds to the cards, passed through the turnstiles, and caught a train to Circular Quay in The Rocks.  There, we used our Opal Cards (it was Sunday, and all day would only be $2.79 to ride) to hop the ferry to Manley, and set off.  Although it was early morning, it already was hot, and we were sweating.  I was glad that we would be on the water, and happy to sit in the open bow area where the breeze would hit us. The ferry takes under a half hour, and it is a beautiful passage across the harbours and inlets of the area to arrive at Manley.

Manley is on a peninsula and is a suburb of Sydney, known for its lovely and less crowded beach (in comparison to Bondi, which is long and lovely but very, very crowded).  We had left early because of the heat, and had wanted a breakfast out in a non-tourist area.  We stopped at the Belgrave Cartel, a small hole-in-the-wall that definitely was local.  Liz had a Jaffel and I had a design-your-own, but what came wasn't what I thought I had designed, but it was wonderful, even if it was the first egg dish I had ever to use a knife on to cut through the egg.

We finished breakfast, walked back to the ferry stop as we were on our way to Manley Head, a beautiful park area at the tip of the peninsula, and hopped a bus at this transit area to get there.   Manly Head is a historical area, holding significance to the First People of the area, the Gayamagal people. We explored the trails around the Head, and enjoyed the birds and unusual plants we saw along the way.  We also saw the remnants of military fortifications from World War II as this locale would be a prime place to watch for approaching enemies. It is such a serene place that it is hard to believe we are only across the harbour from Sydney’s central business district (CBD).  We just had time to have a quick milkshake (kind of a milk plus flavoring then whipped) before catching the bus back.

Returning from Manley to Circular Quay, we took a ferry back to Darling Harbour, missing our stop at Bangaloo because we were unsure if it was the best one (it was), and ending up at the Maritime Museum stop.  So that's where we went, and we were both so glad that we did--it is a wonderful museum. It was quite hot by the afternoon, and the coolness of the museum was a nice respite.  The film was about marine dinosaurs, and it was quite well done, plus exhibits on marine icthyosaurs,

plesiosaurs, and mausasaurs were great.  The museum's nautical history was also very enjoyable, and I would highly recommend this as a visitor's stop.  Regretfully, we skipped the outdoor ship explorations only because it was so hot and we felt the ships would be hotter still.  We still had to walk across the harbour pedestrian bridge (in full sunlight) and that was enough for me.  I have been getting 10,000-15,000 steps a day, which is manageable but not so nice in hot weather.

We still were learning to navigate the area, and found ourselves back at street level near the hotel, just passing this lovely sculpture.

On Monday, we wanted to stop at the Sydney Museum, and hopped a ferry to Circular Quay.  Today it was raining, changing the weather pattern, so we first hurried up from Circular Quay to the Custom House to look at the model of the city under glass on the floor.  It was neat to see where we were and what was around us.  From the Custom House, we walked up in the rain to the Museum.

The Sydney Museum had a wonderful film that we caught nearly at the beginning.  It was a long film, but was the first detailed history of the European arrival in Australia that we had seen.  It was a brutal beginning, and the legacy of that beginning survives to this day.  That film caused me to search out more information, and I have found this: https://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/about  I plan to look at this series after I get back.  The museum is full of wonderful exhibits across three floors, and can easily be covered in a few hours.

On Monday afternoon, my friends Frank and Maureen Reichmuth were arriving from the Gold Coast, and we touched bases and met them for dinner, trying the Baia restaurant right on the wharf boardwalk.  It was great to re-connect, and reminisce.  Tomorrow, the four of us plan to use our opal cards and ferry from Bangaloo across to Circular Quay, then ferry to Toranga to the Zoo.

On Tuesday, we set out for Bangaloo along the wharf--Maureen had to find a place to purchase Opal Cards, and the hotel had been less than helpful with giving her the wrong information.  But they got them, and we rendezvoused at the wharf and ferry site.  The ride to Circular Quay is short, and we easily transferred to the Toranga ferry which brought us to the base of the hill, where a bus transferred us up to the top of the hill and the zoo entrance.

This was a great day--not only visiting with Frank and Maureen, but also seeing our first Australian wildlife: kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian Devils, Platypuses, and so much more.  The kangaroos and emus were in an open area where we walked past them without any fences between us.  It was absolutely wonderful.

We left the zoo and traveled back to the CBD again via ferry, and planned dinner at a place where Frank and Maureen had eaten before, the Blue Fish.  It was a good open air place on the wharf, just across the pedestrian bridge then a very short walk up-harbour from the Maritime Museum to the Blue Fish Restaurant--wonderful fresh fish.  After dinner, we decided to meet the next day before Frank & Maureen flew out.  We wanted to go to the historical Queen Victoria Building in the morning as it is now a marketplace and where I might find the Australian opal I was hunting.

It is a fabulous building, completed in 1898 and filling an entire city block.  It has a large central dome, and lovely stained glass plus original 19th century architecture.  It also had Volle, a jewelry shop that featured Australian opals!

We had time for a quick visit to the Chinese Friendship Garden, which was one of my favorite places. Maureen knew it was nearby, but the construction on the wharf for the new "ribbon" building was hiding it, but she persevered, and we found it! I was really happy we did, because it is so tranquil, in the middle of the city, and beautiful.  Lots of Water Dragons, which I grew to love!  I almost touched one as my hand went on a rock as I was stepping down some rough stairs, and I accidentally placed it about six inches from a dragon, which wasn't the least concerned I was there.

We parted from Frank and Maureen back at the wharf, as they needed to head out to get ready for their flight.  It was too short of a visit, but sure good to see them.

We found our way back to the wharf and lunch nearby, then onward to the Wildlife Zoo there, where we had multiple wonderful encounters with native animals including koalas, wallabies, and more.  Finally, we headed back to the hotel for a rest-up before dinner, then tomorrow we would be flying out to return home.

The Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is in the South Pacific Ocean, and is about 1200x1700 miles located between New Zealand and Australia.  We crossed it over two days to the South Island of New Zealand when our cruise first started, and we crossed it again over two days returning to Sydney from the North Island.  It is often referred as the "the ditch" in both Australia and New Zealand, much in the same way that the Atlantic is referred to as the "the Pond."  At this time of year, it is known for great wind activity, and high seas with passengers and crew often seasick.  The cruise just before ours had experienced this, reported our Captain, but luckily for us we only had a brief glimpse of high seas for a few hours on the start of our cruise, and the sea as like a lake on the return voyage.  Lucky us.

The Tasman's sea mid-ocean ridge was formed over 55 million years ago when the supercontinent Gondwana broke up, forming Africa and other large land masses like Australia.  At the time of this breakup, New Zealand was mostly a submerged continent.  The mostly submerged New Zealand continent, Zealandia, still sits over two moving segments -- the Pacific and Australian Plates, which are colliding.  The land surface of present day New Zealand is being uplifted at the same time it is being wrenched apart, forming a complex geology.  The oldest rocks in New Zealand, uplifted from the sea floor, formed about 510 million years ago during the Cambrian period.  The most recent rocks are days old, formed by the active volcanoes in New Zealand that are part of the Pacific's Ring of Fire along with the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest.

The geologic isolation of New Zealand and Australia is what gave rise to their unique flora and fauna.  In New Zealand, no mammals existed prior to the advent of humans only 800 years ago, and the dominant life forms were birds.  In Australia, marsupials and other unusual animal life formed, while humans covered the continent by about 50,000 years ago, and lived throughout the diverse desert, coastal, tropical and mountainous geography and plant and animal life until colonized by European settlers. 

The New Zealand Maori arrived from the east only 800 years ago, it is believed, via South Pacific islands, and had much in common with those forebears.  Even the language has commonalities.  This picture shows the traditional Maori greeting (which Liz and I were lucky enough to participate in at a Maori settlement).

The Australian Aboriginal peoples migrated from the west, it is believed, via routes that have ties with Asia and Africa, but were separated from these forebears by over 50,000 years.  This vast time allowed humans to develop diverse language and cultures across the length and breadth of Australia.  The historical photo at left is of an Aboriginal First People.

These two continents are neighbors across the Tasman Sea but separated by both the distance across the Tasman Sea, as well as complex surrounding past geologic occurrences, and so were colonized very differently by both people, animals, and plants.