Super Sydney

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From Honolulu to Sydney, across the date line so we ‘lose’ a day and cross the equator about ten minutes later! For us it is the first time in the Southern Hemisphere so we really are in new territory! The crew have provided everyone with a certificate, the flight deck have signed all 250 copies!
We arrive early with the help of a favourable jet stream and pass over Sydney Harbour, which really does look special from up here. We have changed time zones from 10 hours behind to 10 hours in front, so little change to our bodyclocks! We are expecting to meet up with some ex-neighbours who have retired to Queensland and who are to join us for a few days. Also to collect some documents for a project so we look for messages and make calls but nothing yet. The hotel wi-fi does work and not too expensive for a couple of hours so we upload all photos so far, freeing up the camera memory cards. The ‘nuts and raisins’ look inviting and are disappearing fast before we realise they are not complementary but are from the mini-bar, at a price!
It is now raining and late evening so we explore the immediate locale for food and settle for an ‘oz style’ Burger. We could be in any city anywhere!
Next morning our friends call and we meet in the lobby. It is five years since we last met so a bit of catching up and some photo swaps. They have spent some fifteen years in Australia but have not really explored Sydney, so we are all tourists for a few days.
The obvious starting point, Circular Quays for the Bridge and Opera House, cameras rolling. Then to the Rocks and onto the Bridge. We can see those doing the climb over the top, if only we had more time!
We have an evening dinner cruise scheduled and are able to add our two friends to the guest list. Our reps are truly most helpful. The evening is a great success and we retire having planned the next day’s itinerary.
A first for this tour, a lie-in! Breakfast at 9am in the lobby with our friends then to Bondi beach, a must see? We go by subway to Bondi Junction then by bus to the beach. From Sydney centre about a half hour. A good day for the ‘seaside’ but Bondi is almost empty, only a couple of native surfers and some young mums with toddlers. This could be Newquay UK, not the exotic location expected. Nevertheless the food is good, the weather between warm and hot and this is the first day we are not running to a timetable, we have time to spare.
Returning to the harbour we take the ferry to Manly, a popular beach area nearer the open sea, only 20 minutes or 10 by the fast catamaran, which we take on our return. At this time we are fortunate to catch a heavy squall over the Heads with a massive Cumulus-Nimbus thundercloud together with the usual storm fireworks. Try but fail to capture a strike on camera but the lighting is spectacular and shots of the Opera House, front lit with bright sun but heavy cloud behind are about the best so far! Good job we are not using film and have a few gigabytes of camera memory instead!
Time to shop for souvenirs including real Aboriginal artefacts together with a book describing the many variations of the ‘boomerang’, customised by the different tribes and used for many different purposes, only one of which includes the ‘return to thrower’ we associate with these items. We are learning something every day!
Tea at the hotel, take our leave of our Australian (nearly) guides and prepare to pack for the next stage. Fortunately the project CD-Rom we are expecting arrives and we phone our contact to confirm receipt and say thanks. Bag pull is scheduled for 7am and the coach is timed for 8am. Next stop, deepest tropical rain forest, Sabah, Borneo (Malaysia). Goodbye super Sydney, we hope to return and spend longer with you!

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Photos

Stage Lighting?
Heavy Storm over the Opera House

friends reunited
we meet up with D and P

a masterpiece
the opera house close up

some sail!
one of the 'sails' of the opera house

raising a storm
a heavy squall off the Heads

on the Bridge
a must see, the bridge

Bondi Beach
a quiet day by the sea