Date First Posted: March 28, 2007
Log Entry Start Date - February 6, 2007
Log Entry End Date - March 16, 2007
Present Location: Cammeray Marina, Middle Harbour (Sydney, Australia)
Latitude: 33 Deg 49.0 S Longitude: 151 Deg 13.4 E
Weather: Low 70's, partly cloudy
Distance covered since last entry: 0 nautical miles
Total distance traveled since departure from Antigua: 10,705 nautical miles
Commentary:
Sydney Part 1
We’re still in Sydney and doing more sightseeing. Spending two months here, we’ve split our log entry into two parts to make it easier to upload and for visitors to our website to download. We've also taken hundreds of pictures, way too many for our log entry. Click on the underlined text to see additional pictures.
We first met Angela Hayashi in Niue, cruising aboard s/v Holokai. Angela
lives in Sydney, yet finds the opportunity to cruise on various boats
throughout the Pacific from time to time. She spent several days with us as
we first arrived in Sydney.
Sydney Fish Market
We took Angela up on her offer to show us around Sydney once we arrived, and spent a day with her visiting possible future anchorages and marinas as well as the Sydney Fish Market.
The
Fish Market is fascinating. This is supposed to be the second largest
auction in the Pacific after Japan, where wholesalers and restaurants go
through a Dutch auction to procure their supplies. We were amazed to watch
a group of Japanese men checking out a huge crab for sale. At about $90
Australian per kilo, this one crab would have sold for almost $500.
Australian Birds
We
are on a mooring next to a heavily wooded park that at night is filled with
the sounds of hundreds of birds. We finally figured out that the loudest
birds, sounding almost like monkeys, are the big, white sulfur crested
cockatoos.
These
birds would command hundreds of dollars each in pet stores in the USA, and
simply
swarm in flocks every evening around the harbor and the woods. They
even
sit on our rigging and the rigging of other boats.
Australia
should be called the land of the birds. The cockatoos are just one of
dozens of species of large, frequently colorful birds that abound. In
addition to the ibis, pelicans, seagulls, swans and ducks we’ve seen around
the water, there are beautiful crested doves, large black and white
magpies, and many varieties of
lorikeets. Lorikeets are a type of parrot, and the rainbow lorikeet is
very colorful in greens, blues, reds and yellows. We’ve seen them on bushes
only a few feet away as we’ve walked to town and on the golf course.
The
major mitchell is a cockatoo with a red head. In the harbor there
are wild and tame ducks and every day they visit the boats looking for
handouts. The big white tame ducks knock on your hull demanding to be
fed, while the wild ducks will feed right out your hand.
Scots Church
Getting
into our exploring mood on our first Sunday in Sydney, we walked up the 109
steps on the steep hill behind the marina and in towards the main street of
Cammeray to find the bus into the city. We got off in the city square and
only 100 yards from our first destination, the historic Scots Church. This
church was the first Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) Church in Australia, dating
back to the early 1800’s. Their building was taken down in the 1930’s order
to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and in its place they built their
“Assembly Building.” This building fell into disrepair and had been vacant
for many years until being refurbished and reopened less than a year ago. It
is interesting in that they've built an apartment/office building directly
on top of the church building.
We
were obvious visitors among only a dozen or so in the congregation, many of
whom were quite elderly. Apparently while the building was closed, most of
the congregation moved to other churches and have never returned. Just the
same, this church is the “home” of the Presbytery for the entire Sydney
area. We had a tour of the building by the pastor’s wife and we talked for
quite a while with the pastor learning about the history of the church. This
has now become "our home church” on Sundays.
Chinatown
Because of rain, we missed the parade that same Sunday celebrating the Chinese New Year (year of the Pig). We did see many people in colorful costumes, and the Chinatown area was packed with people. Sydney has a very large Chinese population dating back to the gold rush years in the 1800’s. These immigrants were responsible for a lot of the development of Sydney and Australia and a large Chinatown exists.
We
toured Sydney's walled Chinese Garden and it was amazing. It is the largest
Chinese garden outside of China. It was created as a gift of friendship
between the two countries. As you walk down various pathways, you encounter
carefully choreographed “regions” and
“views”. From the
large central pond to
waterfalls, we went to an “alpine” region as well as a secluded bamboo
forest. The contrast was clear between the serene garden with a
small pagoda and the modern high rise buildings behind. At the end of
the path there is a tea room for refreshments. Just inside the entrance was
wedding carriage made out of
jade with models wearing bridal clothes. We learned a lot just strolling
and reading the explanations along the way.
Hanging
from a tree was a huge spider, one of many we've seen around our marina and
along the sidewalks going into town. They are 3 and 4 inches in size
and spin webs that are several feet in diameter. We've been told that
these are not the poisonous ones, but we give them a wide berth anyways.
Australia seems to have more than its fair share of dangerous animals, including snakes, jellyfish, and spiders, not to mention the sharks. Maybe these animals balance out the cute koala bears, wombats, and kangaroos.
Angela
as well as other friends all told us about their favorite “Yum Cha”
restaurants in Chinatown. We didn’t have any idea what to expect, but since
we were there (and hungry) we sought them out. We’re still trying to figure
it out, but it seems that “yum cha” refers to dining where carts of food are
pushed through the aisles (just like airline service carts) between the
tables and you simply point to what you would like. They serve you and mark
down what you took on a tally sheet left on your table.
The majority of diners were Chinese and most of the servers spoke little if any English. We ended up with a plate of green beans (they were tasty with garlic and spices), some calamari, and then a sesame seed coated grey tubular thing that had been lightly grilled. We never figured out what this was, but think it may have been a form of octopus.
Hunter Valley
Our next trip was an overnight inland tour of the Hunter Valley, one of Australia’s premier wine making regions. First, our friends Eleanor and Michael Marsh drove us up the coast to the port of Newcastle. Passing along beaches and coastal bays, we had a nice tour as the soggy weather and clouds began to dissipate. Newcastle is one of the major industrial ports for Australia, where historically a lot of coal that was mined in the nearby mountains would be shipped around the world. We counted over 30 freighters anchored offshore waiting to be loaded.
The
Hunter Valley region has a history of winemaking going back more than one
hundred years, but most of the vineyards were developed more recently. We
stayed at a golf resort called Cypress Lakes which covered hundreds of
acres, with beautiful views of the nearby mountains, vineyards, and their
championship golf course.
The
next day, after some vineyard visits, we stopped at a lovely, small
restaurant for lunch. This property featured classic old buildings with
verandas and vine covered walls. We all tried their “trio” lunch, which
was our choice of three different small plates (barramundi grilled fish,
smoked quail, lamb, beef filet, gazpacho, …) each paired with special
tasting of Hunter Valley wines.
Michael
and Eleanor last visited the Hunter Valley over 40 years ago, and our route
traveling back roads brought back many memories. We took a road
pointing us to a ferry crossing, which turned into a serendipitous mistake.
It took us through nearly 40 miles of backcountry, dirt and gravel roads
“through” a national park instead of around the park. The scenery was
great, going through rocky gorges and occasional broad pastures; we kept our
eyes out for the animals the yellow caution signs warned us to be aware of.
We never saw the koalas and wombats, but did see enough kangaroos just yards
away from our car that we enjoyed taking the wrong road. Part of the route
we took was along the historic "Convict Trail", a road built by the early
convicts shipped to Australia, providing the only land connection between
Sydney and northern settlements.
Luckily,
the roads were passable, and when we finally reached the ferry crossing, we
still had plenty of gas. The view overlooking the Hawkesbury River and the
ferry crossing, back towards the park, shows the densely wooded hills we
drove through.
Sydney Beaches
The
Sydney area boasts many great beaches and the most famous of all is Bondi.
Our friend Angela took us there on a hot Sunday afternoon and the beach was
filled with sunbathers, swimmers and surfers. This beach is a favorite of
young people and is surrounded by inexpensive restaurants and places to
stay. At each end of the beach there are semi-natural salt water pools
formed in the rocks that some people swim in. They are shallower and free
from sharks. The Bondi lifeguards in their red and yellow caps mark the
beach areas with riptides and keep the swimmers and surfers apart. A little
further down the coast is
Bronte beach, mostly families having picnics. Perhaps more picturesque
than Bondi, it has steep cliffs at each end.
Arrival of the Queens (Cruise Ships)
It
seemed that all of Sydney had been waiting for the arrivals of two of the
most famous cruise liners in the world, the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen
Elizabeth 2, scheduled to be in the harbor together for the first time
ever. The Queen Mary 2 is on its maiden Around the World voyage, and it
passed between the “heads” of Sydney Harbour just before dawn. Eleanor and
Michael picked us up at 5 AM so we could drive up to the North Head National
Park and watch. Right on schedule, the QM2 passed by, all lit up in the
pre-dawn darkness.
The
QM2 is one of the largest cruise ships of all time, over a thousand feet
long and carrying over 6000 passengers. It was shown on television just
barely passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco a few weeks
ago, and is too large to fit under the Sydney Bridge. In fact it is too
large for the cruise ship terminals in Sydney and had to berth in the naval
pier area sometimes used for aircraft carriers.
That same evening, we took a ferry boat into town. We planned to enjoy a picnic dinner at the Botanical Gardens and watch the fireworks over the harbor, scheduled to complete the celebration of the arrival of the two “Queens”.
The city was unprepared for all of the crowds, both with boats clogging the harbor and thousands of people watching the fireworks. We saw the fireworks (they were great) from an area just above the Opera House but later couldn't get on a ferry, there weren't any buses, and had a very difficult time trying to even find a taxi. Thousands of people were stuck in the city and some people, including elderly folks, were locked in the Botanical Gardens by mistake.
The next morning the TV news and newspapers were filled with the stories of the crowds being stranded in the city. The state premier and his transport minister were soundly criticized for not being prepared.
Downtown Apartments in Historic Buildings
While
we were in Tonga visiting an eco resort on Mounu Island (whale watching), we
met Anne and Ian Ahern. Although Ian is from New Zealand, they have lived
in Sydney for several years and currently are in a new complex built
“inside” the shell of a two hundred year old building on the harbor that had
been used for wool shipping. The outside walls on one side are the original
brick and beams, while the other side has ultramodern glass and steel
construction. The docks provide a scenic backdrop which is used almost
constantly for
wedding photos.
The
picture of us on the dock next to Anne and Ian's apartment shows a power
boat belonging to Nicole Kidman who has a unit in one of the buildings. The
view of the bridge and the harbor traffic make this prime real estate.
Our visit to Sydney continues with our next Log Entry here.
Go to Log 2007 Index
This site was last updated 03/29/07