Jan 16, 2013 - Sydney opera house

I did not send a message yesterday because we flew from Cairns to Sydney. It took about three hours. Jet Star was the name of the airlines. If you wanted a beverage or something to eat,everything cost money. Cheap ride. We just got settled and went for a walk. We ate supper at a small pub. It was very good. We had a 5:30 a Wake up call. Off on a city tour for half the day. Very pretty bldgs and beautiful sights. We were able to take nice pictures of the Opera House. After the tour was over we had a great lunch of warm pumpkin soup with a...

Jan 13, 2013 - Birding with Chris - Sydney

Chris was sick with the flu, but he picked us up at 8:30 am. Yes, we know this is late a start. Since we knew we wouldn't be getting in from Darwin, until around midnight the night before, we thought this was as early as we could make it. We were all excited that Chris could get us one more lifer, the Japanese Snipe, which had been hanging around Sydney, for the last few months. Since there hadn't been much rain, the ponds were drying up and the birds might not be around much longer. We wouldn't be, either. So it was perfect timing. We went...

Jan 11, 2013 - Day 01

Day 1 – Embarkation 11th January 2013 We boarded the Diamond Princess at about 3.30pm after going through the usual customs and immigration checks. This didn’t take long at all. The ship is absolutely huge. A comparison of this ship with our previous ship the Sun Princess follows: Ship Length Gross Tons Passengers Balcony rooms Diamond 952 ft 116 000 2 670 740 Sun 857 ft 76 000 1 950 400 The ship sailed at about 8.30pm and we had our little “sail-away” party on deck 15 at the Tradewinds bar with our host Jo. After swinging the bow to port,...

Jan 9, 2013 - Fly To Sydney, Through Christchurch

We took a shuttle to the airport. The driver explained that he had another stop to make on the way to another hotel. When he tells us where, we asked if Steve Howell is his pick-up. He replied, "As a matter of fact, yes." We enjoyed our last hours in New Zealand with Steve. We arrived in Sydney and went through Customs/Immigrations without problems. We stopped at Chris' house and ate dinner with him. Afterwards, we loaded our bags for Darwin and as many bags/boxes/suitcases as we could fit into our car. The Park Hyatt Sydney stored our...

Jan 8, 2013 - Sydney stopover and customs

A little bit of sleep. We landed in Sydney at 7:30 AM Tuesday again on the 8th. After some confusion we found our baggage and the next step was via customs. Noticed the booze bag was leaking. Oh no! Not the booze! It was showing wet within the palstic wrap and a little on the outside. We declared all the items we thought might cause problems in case we be filmed and shamed on a national television show (Border Patrol, Security or something like that). There are literally thousands of people going through customs. There are even express...

Jan 6, 2013 - Sydney Day 6, 7, 8 & 9

6 januari 10:00 aangekomen in Sydney. Als eerste het Sydney Opera House bekeken (het dak is bedekt met 1.056.000 witte tegeltjes, Allemaal geteld!) en de stad door gewandeld. Ik was er bang voor dat de mensen in Australie niet zo veel snack food aten, “gelukkig” zie ik om de 2 meter een Mc, PizzaHut, KFC, PieFace etc. Zonnetje brande iets meer dan gedacht vooral op een van de boten, en een beetje rood aangelopen. 7 januari de Sydney Harbor Brige overgelopen, Lunarpark (soort permanente kermis) bezocht en weer terug, de stad vervolgens...

Jan 5, 2013 - Relaxing Day

Did not do too much today. Went to a couple shops. For dinner ate at a Cantonese Chinese restaurant called Ban Loi in Campsie. Our second visit and it was great. Its a little hole in the wall and the food is excellent. The flavours of the dishes were well balanced and not greasy. The spices were used in modest amounts and that avoided overwhelming the flavours of the primary ingredients. The ingredients were very fresh and high quality.

Jan 4, 2013 - Paddy's Market (Chinatown) & Sydney Harbour

Went to Chinatown today to shop. Spent some time there. Went to the Sydney waterfront than to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. While at the harbour Front we took photos with a Mexican Mariachi Band. Paddy's Markets are located at Haymarket (near Chinatown) and Flemington (near Sydney Olympic Park). The markets cater for both locals and tourists and they claim to have over 1,000 stalls that sell almost everything from fashion and accessories, sporting goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, pets supplies, clothing, electrical...

Jan 3, 2013 - Christmas, meeting kez and NEW YEAR!

happy new year everyone, I had a great time with Uncle John and co over Xmas. Christmas Eve was nice, as all carol and David's kids and grand kids stayed the night. The men of the family headed down the beach later on in the day to do some sea fishing. The rest of us headed down a bit later and I tried my hand at it, I found out I shouldn't give up my day job. In the evening we had a BBQ and finished off with family quiz, I'm glad I was on carol & David's team as I didn't know many answers. We still came last but it was a respectable...

Jan 2, 2013 - Mount Annan Botanic Gardens

We visited the Campbell Town Botanical Gardens. Mount Annan Botanic Garden is a 416 hectare botanical garden in a hilly area of the southwestern Sydney suburb of Mount Annan, between Campbelltown and Camden, New South Wales. The Garden opened to the public in 1988, specializing in native plants, with a collection of over 4000 species. It is the largest botanical garden in Australia. After the discovery, on or about 10 September 1994, the Wollemi Pine was first cultivated there in 1995.[1] Prior to them becoming commercially available the...

Jan 1, 2013 - Warragamba Dam

On New Years Day we went to Warragamba Dam. Warragamba is a town in New South Wales, Australia, in Wollondilly Shire. Located on the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains, Warragamba is one and a half hour's drive west of Sydney. The name Warragamba comes from the aboriginal words Warra and Gamba meaning water running over rocks. At the 2006 census, Warragamba had a population of 1,197. The dam wall comprises 1,612,000 cubic yards (1,232,000 m3) of concrete. It was laid as interlocking blocks roughly 17 metres (56 ft) on a side, which were...

Jan 1, 2013 - New Years Eve In Sydney

New Years Eve had arrived and we were spending it with Alice, Helen, Soheila, Nicola and a few others we had met Ruth and Gill from Ireland and Frieda and Astrid from Sweden! We met at 10am with supplies for a very long day in arm and headed to a park called BirchGrove Park which is one of the very few places in Sydney with an amazing view of the Bridge, is free, no queuing and you can bring your own alcohol! We were there by 11am and only had 13 hours until midnight .. The day was glorious picnicing, eating ice-creams, gossiping, reading...