Sydney - civilised city

We left Queenstown with Qantas on ‘The Tasman’. A very civilised short flight but with full lunch and champagne so we didn’t need to eat again when we arrived. The formalities of entry didn’t take very long at all and our e-visas seemed to have got into the system without any difficulty. I was blown away by the view from our room on the 16th Floor of the Shangri La hotel. A sweeping vista of the harbour and the bridge and I can enjoy the different light playing on the roof of the Opera House whilst sitting on the bed. Watching the changing light and all the boats coming and going is delightful and the room itself feels particularly opulent, especially after so much camping. I used to love the Shangri La in Abu Dhabi and the Sydney version certainly lives up to expectations.
Despite having lived here for three years in the 80’s and visiting many times since, John didn’t seem to mind playing the tourist and showing me all the important sights. On Sunday morning we took the Sydney harbour coffee cruise which is definitely the best way to see this amazing, water bound city. It was a beautiful morning and the harbour was full of boats and we cruised round, having the various bays and sights pointed out for us by a very enthusiastic guide. She delighted in letting us know how many millions of dollars some of the many attractive, water front properties had sold for recently and pointing out the shark netting which made the bay beaches into pleasant swimming spots. I didn’t see any sharks though!
We arrived back at Circular Quay and took a walk around the Opera House and the Rocks area which was crowded with Sunday afternoon visitors and had a refreshing beer (obligatory activity in Sydney so John says!) We enjoyed a lavish seafood platter for supper, overlooking the Opera House and I had a ‘Balmain Bug’ for the first time – very like a huge lobster tail and very tasty. I had visions of a huge insect but it was comfortingly sea food like.
Monday morning saw us ‘going walkabout’ in central Sydney, admiring the historic buildings and shopping arcades, not to mention a group of women in their undies who were appearing in a TV feature on why women’s bodies should no longer be compared to fruit. We watched the feature later on the news but didn’t see ourselves on camera. We went up the sky tower to see a bird’s eye view of the city but didn’t go outside for the ‘sky walk’ even though they do rope you on. It was a great view of the whole area, the bay and Botany Bay though I liked being able to look down on the buildings and see which ones had swimming pools and secret gardens on the roof. We walked around Darling Harbour, a shopping and eating area which hadn’t been created when J lived here and then had a 15 dollar lunch in China Town. Then we went to the pictures to see ‘Black Swan’ since we’ve been missing our fix of English language films. A weird film but the ballet was done brilliantly as they cleverly switched a real dancer with Natalie Portman for the close ups.
On Tuesday we went out to Bondi Beach – well you have to really though J says we’ll see beaches he prefers later on. It was a glorious day and it looked absolutely fantastic as we strolled along watching the surfers. We took a walk along the coastal path around the headlands for a better view. As we were on the bus I didn’t fancy getting wet and thought I’d save swimming for another time. We had dinner on the 36th Floor of the Shangri La which has the most incredible view of Sydney after dark and a very fine chef as well.
Wednesday we headed to the zoo. I don’t much care for zoos and captive animals but I was really keen to see some native Australian species and it was a lovely trip including a boat across the harbour and a cable car to the top of the hill. The zoo was brilliantly done with about half of it given over to native Australian animals in their natural habitats, all very sensitive with lots of information about conservation and protection. Several of the enclosures allowed you to walk through and it was just wonderful to turn round and see a wallaby suddenly standing on a rock right beside you. The kangeroos hopped across the path as you walked round and the koalas just hung about in the trees chewing Eucalyptus and there were endless beautiful birds including a Cookaburra which suddenly appeared right beside me. We did watch the elephant show as we were assured that these were rescue elephants who enjoyed performing and were happier in Sydney than begging in the streets of Bangkok. So happy that 3 of them had babies, born in Australia. It was a lovely zoo and I’d rather see the snakes safely behind a glass case. There were some pretty fearsome spiders but they did not seem to be exhibits which was slightly worrying, hope I don’t meet too many of those over the next few weeks!