Downtown Sydney Tour & Royal Botanic Garden

Downtown near Gardens and Parliament

Martin's Place

Friday morning we checked out of our hotel and walked to Martin’s Place – several blocks of shops, memorials and newsstands.  I bought one fig for a dollar and a ‘large’ coffee for almost four dollars.  We briefly walked through the NSW Parliament House, but the best part was having a chat with the security guard outside.  He asked about our Grid Iron Football (no one seems to know where that name comes from, and they think that’s what we call the NFL in the States) and The Aussie’s rugby – a riot on a field.

At New South Wales (State) Parliament House

We browsed the State Library gift shop, but didn’t purchase anything.  The prices were a bit outrageous.  I’d be interested in buying a book called Upside Down World, but it was $45 there, so hopefully we can find it online.  It contains the drawings of some of the first Europeans to visit Australia and their descriptions of the local animals and plants. 

Royal Botanic Garden

Statue in the Garden

Next stop was the Royal Botanic Garden.  From rose bushes to sculptures of mythic creatures, it was unbelievably beautiful.  At parts, we were able to walk along the Sydney Harbour, although we had to keep out of the way of the onslaught of runners.  As we approached the rainforest, the birds were incredibly loud.  Once there, we were able to look into the trees and see that they weren’t birds, but hundreds of grey-headed flying fox bats.  They are the largest bats in the world with a wing-span of up to 4 ½ feet.

We ate lunch in the Garden, walked along the harbour and then back to our hotel to collect our luggage and head over to the train station.  Bye-bye Sydney!  Hope to see you again soon!  Two hours later, and we are in Wollongong again for the last leg of our trip to the Down-Under.

Sydney Harbour

It was still raining Thursday morning, so we were a bit nervous about our day.  But, we were able to borrow a nice umbrella from the hotel and we took off for a walk to Darling Harbour. At first it was fairly quiet and there were very few people walking along the Harbour.  As the day progressed, the area became alive with tourists.  It rained off an on until lunch, then clear skies again.  We walked the entire Harbour and stopped to eat at Kabash for a taste of Arabia.  It was a great experience, and it made we want to visit!  Correy had the special (steak again!) with chips and I had lamb kabobs, on a very authentic-looking spear, with yogurt and chips.  Even the tiny little bathrooms had mosaic sinks and rod-iron mirrors.

From lunch we walked into the mall and I found a $5 sweater to wear on the dinner boat that night.  We walked a handful of blocks through Chinatown to the Event Cinema and watched This Means War for $18.50 a ticket.  After the movie, we walked back to the hotel to freshen up then walked back to Darling Harbour to meet our little boat. 

There was nothing docked at the wharf, and Correy was getting a little nervous until we met a group of four friends (2 were visiting from England) and started chatting.  We seemed to be about 40 years younger than the majority of the other travelers.  Once the Pacific Pearl boat arrived we were shown to our seats and our table-mates were 2 sisters from Brisbane.  We talked the entire trip!  We exchanged email addresses so that we could swap photos and keep in touch.

Sydney Zoo Photos

Check-out our photos at the zoo - Click Here

Sydney Zoo

Wednesday we woke up to clear skies, despite the forecast.  Correy brought me back Starbucks and then we went to McDonald’s – or “Mackers” as the locals call it, for breakfast.  Where else?!?  The egg McMuffins are different (they have avocado as an add-on), and I would have to say much tastier.  Coffee bars are quite popular here, to the point that McCafe is its own separate restaurant. 

Ferry Ride

From breakfast, we made our way back to the Circular Quay to grab the 12 minute ferry to Toronga Zoo.  Although the phone told us it was raining, it certainly wasn’t!  It was a beautiful ride that passed near the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as well as several cliff-side homes.  We met a mother and daughter who had the day together in Sydney – the daughter flew over from New York and the mother from Russia by way of China.  We’d like to be adopted by that family.

Zoo Front

At the zoo harbor, we jumped on a bus up to the zoo itself.  We traveled along the trails to visit all of the exhibits (well, okay, we skipped the birds).  We stopped at the Café Harbourview for lunch.  LUNCH BIRD ATTACK

Some of our favorites were:

-       Alligators – we showed up at the perfect time!  The handlers brought out a bucket of fish and tempted the female and male alligators over for a bite.  They were careful to work on a buddy system to keep an eye on the younger and quicker female at all times.

-       Chimpanzees – but only because one of the baby chimps was carrying around a lifeless bird.  When I pointed it out, Correy said, “Oh, I’m sure it’s just a stuffed animal.”  Um, no; it isn’t.

-       Australian Walkabout  - we were able to walk through an enclosure with wallabies, kangaroos and emus!  They were right there in front of us, with no fences!!

-       Koala Encounter – we paid $20 to have a one-on-one visit with 3 sleeping, baby koalas.  We got a special zoo photo of us with the little ones.  I kept asking if I could touch them.

-       Tasmanian Devils – maybe not our favorite, but I about started crying when they showed the facial tumors the Devils are prone to.  When Simon Baker asked for donations I started reaching into my bag until I saw Correy watching me.

-       Elephants – we missed the keeper talk, but got to watch the adults and little ones eat.  Evidently they really like cardboard.

-       Seal show – in a smaller version of Sea World, we watched 3 different kinds of seals perform.  They were pretty darn awesome!

-       Lions – 2 females and 1 male were directly in front of me.  If it weren’t for the plexi glass I would have jumped in to pet them.  We were practically face-to-face, and the male practically posed for everyone’s cameras.

-       Snow leopards – they were also showing off for the cameras and antsy for their mid-day snack.  Correy got some great pictures.

-       Sky Safari – it wasn’t open when we arrived because of the wind, but by the time we were ready to leave the zoo we were able to ride it right down to the harbor to meet the boat.

During the 15 minute wait for the next ferry, I took a little nature walk in search of a tiny spot of empty, isolated beach.  It was always just around another corner!  Although I jogged most of the way, I didn’t quite make it there before I had to jog back to make the ferry on time.

At Circular Quay we stopped for gelato and listened to a man playing the digerido (sp?).  We grabbed a couple of local bottles of “Calabria” wine on the way back to the hotel.  The rain finally started once we arrived, so we drank some wine in our room and went next door to a little Japanese restaurant called Goshu Ramen Tei.  It was great!  I got beef yakisoba and Correy ordered a mixed bowl of chicken strips, rice and salmon sashimi.

The rain poured overnight – a record 116 cm – and completely drenched the city.  It was beautiful to hear it pounding against the windows.

Trip to Sydney

Tuesday morning we got ready (of course I took too long and we missed the first two trains) and took the train to Sydney.  It took a little over an hour.  We looked out at the coastline from the train and walked out of the subway exchange into a city not unlike Seattle or Portland.  The area of the city is called “the Business District”, and our Travelodge hotel is centrally located in the heart of the city. 

We ate a late lunch at a little restaurant called Opia in the Rocks region.  Great service and tasty food and coffee.  We walked along the shops, boutiques and art galleries for a few hours.  From the street outside of the Circular Quay (pronounced “key”) we could see both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  Docked in the Quay was the Queen Mary 2, which we discovered later, is the largest ship to ever have docked there.  It was longer than the dock and so deep that it was only centimeters from the bottom!  It was only docked for two nights.

We came back to our room to freshen up and change clothes, then went back out to find a place for dinner.  Correy got so hungry that we stopped at a convenience store to buy him some beef jerky to hold him over.  We went to Brooklyn for dinner.  Correy had a $10 steak and I had grilled chicken with spicy chipotle sauce and guacamole.  Delicious!  Then, I poured my glass of wine onto my dress.  Thankfully, the glass wasn’t full, but we left shortly after so we could rinse out my clothes.  Correy fell asleep at about 8:45pm.

Monday in Wollongong

Monday morning Correy played Mancala with Amelia while Liz took Caitlin to school and I got dressed.  We went to the Wollongong Botanic Garden (free admission!) and took lots of pictures with our new daughter, Amelia.  Next we had fish and chips at Lev .  Correy had the barramundi, a freshwater Australian fish.  We both preferred my saltwater fish.  

We then went to Woolworth’s with Liz to buy some groceries and wine.  I purchased some Dulmah tea and my first passion fruit!  Once back at the condo, we quickly changed and Liz dropped us off for an afternoon at the beach.  Even though the sun was behind the clouds the majority of the time, I still waded in the water for a bit.  Correy and I walked along the beach and gathered shells.  We strolled home, cleaned off and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled flank steak and chicken skewers, Greek salad, and a lamentine cake for dessert to celebrate Craig’s birthday.

First Day in Australia / Wollongong

We landed and met an Australian lady at the baggage area.  We saw her later when we couldn’t figure out where we were supposed to meet Craig for pick up.  She offered to call him for us!  She ended up leaving him a message letting him know where we were waiting.

Correy started to get into driver’s side of the car, and enjoyed his first ride on the “wrong side of the road”.  The drive to Wollongong from Sydney took about an hour.  The boys talked the entire way!  We learned that “petrol” is about $6 a gallon and deer were introduced to the continent about 150 years ago.  We arrived in Wollongong in the late morning, and Liz prepared a nice lunch of eggs and ham.

We took a walk in the rain down to the beach and around the shoreline to the lighthouse.  The condo is only about 2 blocks from the beach!  The floors are mostly tiled, except the bedrooms, which are carpeted. They have a wrap-around balcony with doors leading out from each room.  The weather has been mild, and the doors are open all day to let the air blow through the home.  For dinner, Liz made stuffed peppers.  I played about 15 games of Mancala with Caitlin the first night.