Sydney, Australia

Sydney is the first port we have visited this trip that we'd been to before. Of course it's such a beautiful city, we weren't disappointed to be there again! We planned out what we would like to see in the 1 1/2 days we would be there and did pretty well in seeing everything.

The ship is berthed right across the quay from the Opera House. I chose to be on the port side of the ship just so we could see it from our verandah. The moonlight picture was taken right from our room. Worth it to be on that side of the ship I think!

 

We got off the ship at about 8:30. An area of Sydney called The Rocks was right outside the passenger terminal. It is an area of buildings from the 1800's, all restored and now housing boutiques and galleries. They have a market on Sat and Sun, so that was our first destination. It was nice to see crafts that people had made, including many of the souvenir items we'd seen in stores. We made a few purchases then returned to the ship to unload...and to change! It was HOT out, so different from the weather we'd just come from in Tasmania. Mel and a friend we were with both changed to lighter weight shirts.

 

Back on the street, we headed up George St, the main street in Sydney. We stopped at a few souvenir shops along the way, looking for a fabric store a lady in the market had told me about. It turned out to be very much like our Joann's, with absolutely nothing Australia themed. Oh well, worth a try. We then headed to the other side of Darling Harbor to the Maritime Museum. It was free! Nice to have some things free like that. It showed a lot of the maritime history of Australia with small replicas of various ships, china and items from old cruise lines and a display on sharks. From there we crossed back to the other side of Darling Harbor to go to the Aquarium. Alongside the aquarium was Wildlife World. We decided to go there instead. The first few displays were bugs! Not what I was expecting. I wanted cute and fuzzy, not BIG and creepy. After the HUGE crocodile, we finally got to the animals. The first was the koalas. We had a coupon for a free picture with them, so went into the enclosure for that. The gal taking the pics let us take as many pics as we wanted, plus we got to pet them. We'd done that many times in 09, but it never gets old. They are just so cute. They had a nocturnal display of their various odd animals, potoroo, quoll, etc. They also had an area where we could walk with the kangaroo. It turned out to be a very nice place. From there we headed back to the ship, shopping along the way.

 

We showered and changed to get ready for the opera. I bought tickets online in December to see Opera Hits in the Afternoon. The concert started at 5. I really don't care for opera so wasn't expecting much. The format was really nice though, with the accompanist making commentary about the songs and opera in general. I only had to plug my ears once when the soprano hit the high note. The Opera House is currently showing Carmen and the lead from that opera did 2 songs for us. She wasn't on the program, which was a nice surprise. It was a nice concert. We headed back to the ship with a few stops along the way. We actually ran into Stein Kruse and his wife. He is the CEO of HAL. They are very nice, approachable people. We knew they would be boarding in Sydney for a few days. Food and service will be just a bit better while he's onboard.

 

We had late dinner in the Lido then worked on pictures and such in our cabin. I spent a lot of time on the veranda admiring the view. How nice to have a full moon over the Opera House! I took about 50 pictures so I'd be sure to have at least one that's perfect.

 

Today we were off the ship by 9, headed to the Taroga Zoo. We had to take a ferry to get there, nice that we are berthed right next to the ferry stations! We were in the zoo by 9:30. I really wanted to see a platypus, so we headed to the Australian animals exhibit first. There was a nice enclosure with a pond, no platypus. Disappointing. We couldn't find the echidna either. Guess everyone was hiding. We went to the nocturnal house, and there in a center aquarium was a platypus swimming around. Guess we were lucky to see her. She's able to get out of the water into a dry enclosure over the aquarium, totally out of view. Made the day successful. We walked around to see the big cats and several other animals, then took their sky ride back down to the ferry and back into the city. Yesterday had been about 90 degrees and humid, today was in the high 60's and partly cloudy. We had some sprinkles, but not enough to really get wet. What a nice change in the weather!

 

Back in Sydney we headed up a different street than yesterday. There were a couple of things I still wanted to pick up. Mel had been looking for a swim cap in every country since Bora Bora with no luck. He was hoping to finally find one here. His head got burnt while snorkeling, it would help protect against that. We headed back down George St to a camera store we'd been to the day before. Then on to a souvenir shop where we asked where the dive store was. Turns out we'd been within 1/2 block from it, but had headed in the wrong direction, toward the ship. We started back to the ship, then Mel decided he really wanted to try to get his swim cap. It was 1:00, we had to be onboard at 1:30. We turned around and headed back up the street. We were walking fast, thru a lot of people on the street. We found the store, bought a cap in about 2 minutes, then headed to the ship. I can walk a mile in 20 minutes fairly easily. We were walking faster than I usually walk and were back at the ship just 2 minutes late. It had to have been more than a mile at the pace we were going. I was pooped! But we made it and Mel now has protection for his head.

 

Sail away from Sydney is a big deal....especially with the CEO onboard. The appetizers they were passing out were much better than usual. Not only was wine and champagne free, but any soda or hard liquor you wanted! One of our table mates was taking advantage of the free whiskey. I was happy with a free tonic water.

 

In 1995 a foundation was created to build an exact replica of a Dutch sailing vessel called the Duyfken. It was the first European ship to discover Australia in 1606. At a cost of $3.7 million and after 3 years, the ship was completed. It was in the Sydney Harbor to escort us out to sea. It looked so small from the 8th deck of our ship. I can't imagine going across any ocean in such a tiny sized ship.

 

Sydney is a beautiful city. I could easily live there. It's very much like San Francisco with the hills and homes all around the bay. No wonder it's the number one visited city in the world.