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Monday July 2,2001
G'day mates!
Here we are in beautiful Sydney, Australia! So far, so good! We are currently sitting in a pub doing our travel writing (Carolyn is working on a honeymoon scrapbook) and having a drink before going to the Opera house tonight.
Almost everything has been perfect on the trip so far, with the exception being a horrible cab ride to the airport in NYC. It's a long, long, long flight to Australia, but we were treated well (good food for an airplane) and we seem to have slept at the right time on the plane because we have adjusted to Sydney time fairly easily.
Sydney is a fantastic city. It's the middle of winter and the temperatures have been in the mid-60's. The city is very clean, the people friendly, and the harbor is incredibly beautiful. I don't think we could have picked a better place to start the honeymoon.
Jay
Sydney sights so far:
Bondi Beach. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The water's an amazing clear turquoise. The cliffs surrounding are sculpted limestone and sandstone. We walked for a mile or two along the cliff top out to the cemetery at Waverly. Sun bleached graves overlook the ocean. One tall marker from the 1920's had written on it " Peace eternal Peace." I think they found the right spot.
Sydney Harbor Tour- Sundowner. We found out that the gentle rocking of the sightseeing boat put Jay right to sleep- Its going to be a restful 12 days on the open ocean if this is any kind of precedent. The tour itself was kind of lame. It was more like the sun already down than the "sun downer." Its really hard to make out quality sites like the house where Elton John used to live back when he was married?! When they are cloaked in darkness. The tour guide's description went something like this. "To your right, if it wasn't pitch black you would see a lovely historic house" She didn't even have any cool anecdotes, which are useful on any tour, but truly necessary on a blind cold outing around the waters surrounding Sydney. The views of the bridge and Opera house were stunning. Other than that it was a nice venue for a pre-dinner nap for JJ.
BATS invade Royal Botanical Garden:
Yesterday we took a delightful stroll through the huge Royal Botanical Garden. There were many interesting types of Flora and Fauna, not to mention many new (to us) bird species. We were admiring some strange looking water fowl when Jay looked up and then poked me to follow his gaze. The trees were filled with hundreds of GIGANTIC freaky looking bats. They had little rodent faces and were shrieking their ooky bat shrieks. We had noticed the cacophony of bird noise prior to that moment, but not really put it together with bat sonar. The bats were hanging upside down, as they do, some of them spreading their wings, others simply sleeping. We had to walk through an arch of trees lined with bats. They're actually destroying the trees where they roost, so the park has a system of irritating noise to try and provoke them to leave, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Off to the Opera.
-CK
July 2- We left off on our way to the opera:
The Opera- The Elixir of Love by Donzetti which was set in the Australian Outback,. The design was wonderful. They had these sheep made out of what looked like corrugated tin which had heads that bobbed up and down. I'm usually no fan of the opera, but this had no pretension to it. The only thing that would have made it better was if the smore of the singers could act. The diva looked particularly put-upon when required to move.
July 3- Sydney
We started off the day bright and early at the Sydney Fish market. First we sat in the bidding gallery- with all the restauranteurs and fish store owners buying the day's fresh catches. We followed up with Fish-n-chips for breakfast. You've never tasted anything like fried Barramundi at 8:00AM. 9:00AM found us looking around for a way to kill an hour until the Powerhouse Museum opened. Having already tasted the breakfast of Australian Champs, we did the next best thing and hit the casino. Luck was not a lady that morning, but then again neither were our gambling compatriots. The most memorable fellow gamer was a transvestite, Asian gentleman who seemed like a regular gambler at the old Star City Casino.
Finally 10AM rolled around and we hit the powerhouse museum- which was the science and engineering museum of Australia. It was like they took all the Smithsonian's and shoved them in one building. From what we could gather, Australia was based on beer, steam engines and the movie Moulin Rouge.
We spent the rest of the day wandering the suburb of Paddington and buying Aboriginal Art- before falling into a comatose jet-lag nap brought on by too much of Lord Nelson's pubs fine home brews in the late afternoon. We recovered in time for a farewell dinner to Sydney- I had the tandoori kangaroo special- it was sublime.
July 4 On the Road to Katoomba
We picked up our rental car- a lovely Ford Laser- which we quickly dubbed "Old Uncle Laser ." Driving on the left was no problem for Mister J- except for a pesky turn on the windshield wipers when you mean to hit the turn signal adjustment period.
Only an hour and a half from Sydney we were out in Kangaroo country. We went to a National Park area called Euroka and watched a big group of Kangaroos sleep - it was the time of their midday siesta. This reminded us it was time for us to eat as well and we celebrated Independence day with a proper English meal at the "Elm Tree Tea Room" in Wentworth Falls, NSW. I had a delightful chicken pie followed by apple and black currant crumble and custard. Jay enjoyed a quaintly anemic Lamb sandwich followed by a very rich chocolate desert. Thusly fortified, we continued onward to the falls of the aforementioned Wentworth Falls. We followed up that with a scenic drive along the aptly named Cliff Drive to the "Three Sisters"- named for Aborigine Sisters- Chekhov had nothing to do with it, but in my head I called one Masha anyway. We checked in to the stately old Victorian hotel Carrington ion Katoomba and promptly had some beers- even after the nap disaster of the day before. Jay insisted these weren't "beer" but crisp clean "mountain water" to suit our surroundings. Jay succumbed to their pleasures and indulged in another short nap after which we headed downstairs in our hotel for "Christmas in July dinner." One time a bunch of years ago, a group of homesick Irish tourists suggested to a gullible inn keeper in the region of the blue mountains, that the July weather reminded them of "Yuletide" back home and asked for a proper Christmas dinner to celebrate the feeling. The inn keeper obliged and the rest is history. Now we all have to eat our turkey and yams to the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby and White Christmas in July. Jay seemed almost apoplectic. In addition to the Christmas music, the hotel had quite the Fawlty Towers feeling to it- The same gentleman who checked us in, also was bussing tables at the Yuletide supper. After dinner, I indulged in the in room spa bath- Jay ran it really hot for me. After a 10 minute soak, I was so numb I could barely move. Jay found this very funny.
July 5 Mountain Bikes!
Hey, we were in the mountains, why not? So we rented some bikes and hit the bumpy, bumpy trail out along the edge of the three sisters cliff line. In the morning the Eucalyptus mist filled the entire deep chasm, it was stunning. We biked onwards and upwards to ever more breathtaking views, until our butts were so sore, we could no longer appreciate the scenery and turned back to town- traversing the same gravel and rock roads- all uphill in both directions I might note until we dropped off the bikes in Katoomba and set off for the coast. We picked up some lamb chops at the local butcher and found an ideal spot to barbecue along the way.
At Pierces Pass, it was us and the black and white squawky bird- who really wanted our potato chips and the sound of silence. We hiked a short way to another ridge, but the main enjoyment was the wood smoked local lamb. After lunch we drove on into the darkness- listening to community radio- www.hawkradio.org.au- check it ! In one hour they played Barbara Streisand, Englebert Humperdink, and The Boney M- in addition to giving out useful tips on betting on the greyhounds and football tip contests. We settled in for the evening at the Great Southern Hotel/Motel in Berry, NSW- on the coast between Sydeny and Melbourne . Our room was the Canada room- complete with a full mural of Canada and a maple leaf decor on the bottom half of the room. Without real heat, it was as cold as the Yukon territories in there- I knew there was a reason I brought those long johns. We played a little a pool after dinner at the Great Southern. The table was fine, except that it was missing several balls and had a few extra mismatched ones thrown in to make it interesting. We decided the all yellow ball with no number on it would be JJ's handicap ball. He beat me anyway.
July 6 Berry to Bega on the Princes Highway
By 4 PM in the afternoon we'd gone a total of 35 km. I n that space, we'd seen a local blow hole in Kiama, a patch of subtropical rain forest in Minnemurra and tasted wines at a local vineyard called Coolangata Estates.
At 4:15 we headed over to Pebbly beach- known for its kangaroos- we saw a total of one kangaroo- but enough kangaroo droppings to suggest an army had been there previously. Instead of kangas we did see huge crashing 15 ft. high waves on a glorious deserted beach. We combed for shells and enjoyed the sunset.
It was getting dark by 5:30 and we drove on into what felt like the deep of night until we reached Bega at 8:30ish. There we stopped to stay at a Pub/Hotel and enjoyed their "Chinese/Thai restaurant. We'd noticed Thai restaurants in every single town we'd passed through that afternoon, so it seemed quite fitting to be actually eating at one that night at The Grand Hotel land Asian Pearl Restaurant . The food was remarkably good, and we spotted a real Asian chef. This was the second night of freezing temps spent in a long johns and six blankets, no heat room.
July 7 Bega- to Philip Island
It was rainy and miserable and cold. We made one major stop during the morning- at Eden's killer whale museum. It was a funny little place. The museum which on the top floor is mostly dedicated to the story of "Old Tom" the killer Orca who herded other less fortunate whales into the bay to be killed by local harpoons, degenerates on the bottom floor into a museum of anything noteworthy or otherwise about the town of Eden. My personal favorite was a picture of the 1950's "life saving" crew. The next town down the road happened to be named "Genoa"- also the name of the town in IL where JJ grew up, so we stopped for a quick photo op. We carried on down the road to the Wyanga Park Winery outside of "Lakes Entrance, Victoria." This winery was just idyllic. The had a little cafe which served top class food. Each table was hand painted by the woman of the house and the wines were served by her husband, who had the nose of an alcoholic, but the jovial disposition of a vintner. J was the designated driver, which was a good thing because after sampling 6 varieties of Wyanga- which means "mother" in aborigine tongue and "nice quiet place" in Chinese- or so we were told, I was in no condition to do anything but ask Jay to pull over every 20 minutes and find a ladies room so I could pee.
We drove through the gloom that evening until we reached Philip Island. We stayed The Isle of Wight Hotel/Motel. The pub downstairs was full of local 18 yr. olds on the town. We ate next door at "The Jetty"- it was the most crowded place we saw in all Australia. We tried an unfortunate local Phillip Island wine, but it didn't dash our spirits. We went to the pub next door and watched the locals party until, old married folks that we are, we figured we better retire for the night.
July 8 Phillip Island is known for 3 things:
Penguins, Fur Seals and Koala Bears. We almost saw none of these. We tried really hard, but at 9 AM the various visitor centers were not open. We ended killing time on the awesome and appropriately named, "Shelley Beach." I have never found more beautiful and intact Seashells in my life. The beach was littered with a gorgeous combination of coloured sea weeds, sponges and shells left t in a pattern so perfect it might have been laid out by a scenic designer for a ship wreck movie.
After Shelley Beach, we hit the Koala preserve, where we learned the Koalas don't like to be disturbed, while they nap 20 hours a day. The ranger signs repeatedly encourage us to pick up and sniff some Koala poo- perhaps because they thought this was more interesting than watching Koalas sleep curled up high above us in the trees, nonetheless we resisted and were happy to see at least one half awake marsupial.
We drove into Melbourne that afternoon and after checking in to our hotel- which we were lucky to get- because unbeknownst to us a very important rugby match had occurred the day before- some kind of 10 year grudge thing between Australia and England. Melbourne was over run by Rugby shirted thugs, wandering in packs like lost Freshman. We found lunch at a delightful old style Italian lunch counter. The old man took the orders at Pelligrinis on Bourke St. and the old woman cooked up the pesto tortellini to perfection.
We explored some of Melbourne's famous shopping before checking out the equally famous bar and restaurant scene. First we hit the too cool for school bar "Lounge" where the urban hipsters hang out and eat drink and play pool- and on other nights bands play there as well. Next we enjoyed some classic teppanyaki grill - good jokes all around before collapsing into bed.
July 9 Melbourne
The ZOO. The main thing of the day was the zoo. We were there for over 4 hours. Its a very nice zoo- one of the 3 oldest in the world. There were more children there than possibly could live ion Melbourne. Most of the Australian animals were hiding or asleep, but there were still plenty of things to see. A favorite moment was the butterfly house. They let you into a heated hut full of butterflies which land on you and everyone else and generally hang around looking tropical and exotic.
After the zoo, we spent the rest of the day wandering through Melbourne's "Bohemian" suburb- I don't know- the most bohemian thing I saw was s a couple of people pushing their laundry around on skateboard and some drunks making noise at the tram stops. Otherwise it seemed pretty much like a normal kind of hipster area.
We had our last dinner in Australia at the Fisherman's' Grotto. We finally found a white wine we really dug- Basedow Semillon. The restaurant had kitschy coolness. We were very satisfied.
Our ship has been delayed a few days out of New Zealand. So we leave on the 15th instead of the 13th. This also effects our plans later on, but we're not sure how yet.
We'll probably write again next from Indonesia. Don't worry- with 12 days coming up on the ship- we'll be sure to have chronicled our adventures in NZ as well.
Off to sea, CK and JJ
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