Last day in Sydney

Tuesday started out with our last big breakfast buffet at the top room of this hotel. We are going home tomorrow! I am looking forward to it but also sad that our trip is ending. Feeling ambivalent. 

Today, I went out to Bondi beach again. I was interested in seeing Sculptures By The Sea, an outdoor exhibit that is displayed along a coastal walking path. In addition, it was a nice sunny day and I was up for a long walk. I checked out Bondi, Tamarama, and Bronte beaches which are all popular with surfers.  Bronte beach was especially favored by families with babies. At Bronte, wading pools were created in the rocks. A great walking path connected the beaches. The first part of the walk was packed with visitors and school kids on field trips viewing the sculptures. I walked and hung out in the area for several hours and even ran into some of the other "companions" of the conference attendees. Needless to say, I took lots of pictures.

On a side note, Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat is staying at this hotel. Mark took a picture of him with a friend.

 




Exploring Sydney

Monday I toured Sydney in my favorite way......... by foot. I passed on the companion tour because the thought of sitting on a bus again was not very appealing to me at the time. I started walking around The Rocks where our hotel is located and then over to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

A friend had suggested that I check out the Westfield Tower for a fantastic view, so that was my next stop. The tower is the equivalent of about 100 stories. I reminded me of the John Hancock Tower in Chicago. Before you go up, they show you a 4D movie of Australia. I guess it's 4D because the floor vibrates and they splash you with water. It felt like a Disneyland ride.

I continued walking around through Darling Harbour, Harbourside, and the central business district before I decided to hop on the monorail. I needed an air conditioned break by then and it was fun to view the activity in the city from above. The monorail takes you around the city center and a few other landmarks. I love the next picture: a cathedral bell tree with cathedral bell towers in the background.

My last excursion before dinner was a walk over part of the Harbour Bridge with a climb to the top of the first tower. For $200 you can do a bridge walk across the top but for $11 you can climb the tower and be almost as high. One of the locals we met shared that secret with us.

Our group dinner was on the deck of the Sydney Opera House. My last picture is one Joe will appreciate as it is my untouched twice-baked goat cheese & beet salad.

Blue Mountains

It's Monday here and I just came back to the hotel room to cool off and rest a bit before continuing my exploration of busy and beautiful Sydney. Mark has his all day meetings today and tomorrow and then we fly home on Wednesday. So, I thought I would write about our day yesterday. It already seems so long ago!

Yesterday, we got up early AGAIN to have a quick bite (a BIG one at that) in the Altitude room which is at the top of the hotel we are staying at. The conference attendees are provided a wonderful buffet breakfast there every morning and we have the place to ourselves. The view is spectacular.

Our bus headed to the Blue Mountains at 8am and our guide Ian provided a nice tour commentary as we drove there. It probably took about two hours to get there and Mark was doing the "bob" as usual. I am envious and wish I could fall asleep as easily as he can. We did make a midway pit stop for tea and scones (yum) at a lovely spot.


The next stop was Echo Point where you can get the best view of the Three Sisters (named Maureen, Annie, and Judy....can you imagine?). Ryan had told us about a sky tram there that takes you down into the valley but we didn't have the time to do it. The oil in all of the eucalyptus trees apparently creates the blue haze in the air above the valley and that's why they are called the Blue Mountains. Two weeks ago, a couple of hooligans caused a fire that damaged a significant amount of the eucalyptus trees in the area and we saw the aftermath.

In the parking lot at Echo Point we found this guy, an aboriginal man playing a didgeridoo.

After another lookout point, we stopped for lunch at a lodge. The group decided that we wanted to stop at a wildlife park instead of the waterfalls so there would be just one more.........or so we thought........scenic viewing stop before we headed to see some animals. We ended up having to take a detour due to a snake bite! A guy in our group went to relieve himself in the bushes and he got bit by a snake that then slithered through his legs. Australia has 8 of the 10 most deadliest snakes. Our guide kept going on about how even the anti-venom can kill you and gave us all the gory details of what happens when you get a snake bite here. Needless to say, off to the emergency room we went to drop off both the victim and our guide.

After several hours at the hospital the snake bite victim was discharged because it was a dry bite...........apparently the old snake no longer had any venom.

On to the wildlife park we went where we got to experience pandas, kangaroos, and Tasmanian devils to name a few.

The very long bus ride wiped us out. We got back late but just in time to get ready and attend the group dinner that was held in the ballroom of our hotel. It was an early night for us. These gatherings just aren't what they used to be................or should I say we aren't what we used to be!

A Day On The Harbour

Yesterday, we got up early and met Jim and got a quick bite for breakfast near the Circular Quay, which is the main wharf area for Sydney Harbour. Since we had such a nice day with sunshine and low winds, we decided to get an all day ferry ticket and ride the various ferry lines to different points to the sprawling Sydney Harbour area. The first trip we took was a nice little ride to Mosman Bay and back. The round trip took a little over 45 minutes and, when we got back, we met up with another mutual friend of ours from Memphis, David Palmer.

The four of us caught the ferry to Manly and we spent some time checking out the beach there. The ferry was jam packed with locals & visitors heading out to visit this bustling beach area. It has a huge public beach that has a lot of various activities happening there. There were guys building elaborate sand castles, tons of surfers, people walking, skating, & biking down the beach promenade, and lots of sunbathers.

By the time we started back to Sydney Harbour, it was 11:40 already. On the way back, we were amazed at how many boaters were on the water. There were boats of every kind all over the place, but sailboats were the predominate boat on the water. It made for quite a sight.

We all had a nice lunch at a wharfside restaurant at Circular Quay and then Judy & I headed out for another ferry ride......this time to Watson's Bay. The nice weather never let up and seeing various areas of the city via the sea was a great way to see quite a lot in a short period of time. If we had more time, we would've taken some more rides, but we had to get back for our first big group dinner. Interestingly enough, this one was going to be a dinner cruise on the Harbour in a 2 level glass walled boat. It was like a floating ballroom more than a boat and, with the weather cooperating, made for a great party venue.

It was a great day at sea capped off by a visit to the Russell Wine Bar to try some Australian Shiraz that was also quite nice. Tomorrow, we are heading to the Blue Mountains for an all day tour followed by a group dinner at the hotel, so it will be another early morning & late night.

Arrival in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney last night and one of the things that struck us immediately form flying over it was that this is a much bigger city than we imagined. We had a pretty smooth ride to our hotel, but noticed that there must be 1 cab for every 5 people in this city (or so it seemed). We are staying at the Shangri-La Hotel in The Rocks area of town, as this is the place where my business conference is being held. We got up to our room and pulled the curtains and below is the view from our room.

We were both tired from the trip here, so we went out for a quick bite for dinner and then hit the sack for some shuteye. Unfortunately for Judy, it was not uninterrupted sleep as someone called her at 4:00am from the rental company for the Tahoe house not realizing what time it was for us. I got back to sleep just fine, but Judy did not have the same result.

We got moving a little slowly in the morning, but we rolled out to get some coffee and get on the hop-on hop-off bus for a look at the city. As we were just boarding the bus, we ran into one of my business partners, Jim Kraft, who had just gotten into town from SF about 20 minutes earlier. We all rode the entire circuit, which took a little over 90 minutes, and saw some of the major sights of he city.  We got off at where we started and parted from Jim, as he was going to get some lunch and some shuteye. Judy & I went to the City Tattersall Club, a downtown club which has reciprocity rights with the Olympic Club in SF. We had a nice lunch there which also was relatively cheap compared to other places we've eaten in Australia.

In the afternoon, we got back on the bus to head out to the Bondi Beach area. Bondi Beach was pretty spectacular and we have seen some other pretty nice beaches on this trip. Surfers were all over the place on this beach along with many sunbathers. On the far right hand side of the beach, there was a large swimming pool that the waves would crash into the wall just below it and dump water into the pool. I only have to assume that this must have been a salt water swimming pool (ya think?). There were a lot of shops & restaurants across the street from the beach, which made this a real busy area with all of the beach traffic also.

One issue that we had to deal with today was the traffic in Sydney. We were waiting for the bus to come and could see it a couple of blocks away, but the gridlocked traffic was preventing him from progressing very far. At one point, we walked back a little over a block & a half to the bus, got the driver to let us board, and convinced him to take the right lane and pass the line of cars waiting to turn left. He hesitated at first, but then took my advice, much to the delight of the large group of people that had been waiting at the bus stop. On the way back, the traffic was just as snarled in the downtown area. I just don't know how they deal with this traffic on a day-to-day basis here. It would drive me nuts if I had to deal with traffic like that every day. Anyway, we got off the bus and decided to walk back to the hotel and it turned out to be a lot faster to do so.

We went to a quick & early dinner near the hotel as Judy was getting a little tired with her lack of sleep. We are planning to get on the public ferries tomorrow to explore around Sydney and the surrounding area some more.

Navini Island

When we first arrived in Fiji, we already knew that this was going to be a good change. As soon as we stepped off the plane, we were hit with a blast of warm almost humid air and our reaction was that this was more like it. As we came down the disembarking ramp, we were met with a band of local musicians playing some Fijian songs. That was a really nice touch.

After we got our bags and were met by our driver, we took off to meet the boat that was going to take us out to Navini Island. Once we left the airport proper, the roads were just a little different than we are normally used to. We traveled through a lot of surrounding cane fields and, at one point, got stuck behind a truck transporting some recently harvested cane. After driving on this road for about 40 minutes, we arrived at the dock for our boat transport to Navini Island.

Navini Island is a very small island that houses a single resort run by an Australian couple, Arthur & Helen Reed. The island takes about 10 minutes to completely walk around the perimeter and has 10 bures to house guests. They can accommodate somewhere between 20 – 30 people at a time. The staff is completely Fijian and they try to retain as many of the Fijian customs as possible. 

Needless to say, everyone’s unit is beachside and has their own hammock by the unit and beach lounge chairs under a thatched umbrella. They provide 3 meals a day at 8:00am, 1:00pm and 7:00pm that are announced by the sound of a Fijian drum. They also provide all of the things that one would need to enjoy the water there, such as masks & snorkels, kayaks, sea cycles, maricats, etc.

Each morning at 9:30, there is some type of outing on the boat to another area in the Fiji islands. On the first day, we went on a snorkeling trip to Sand Cay, which was this small sand bar in the middle of the ocean about a 40 minute boat ride away. On the way there, the staff trolled a line and caught 3 decent sized fish, a queenfish, a trevalley, and a barracuda. The guys let me reel in the barracuda, which was kind of cool, but he didn’t put up much of a fight. The snorkeling there was amazing as there were just so many different varieties of fish to see feeding off the coral reef. Even Judy went snorkeling out there, even though she is not completely comfortable about being in the open ocean. She did give it a try though.



The morning boat outings usually get back about 30 minutes before lunch (can’t miss a meal, you know). After the first day’s outing and the lunch, we got our books and retreated to our beach chairs for some serious relaxation. It was so nice to kick back and not to have to do anything. I progressed from the beach lounge chair to the hammock and finally to the bed. It was Nirvana. I did manage to read almost an entire book that day, mixed in between some snoozing. For the crowning touch at about 4:00pm that day, we took our places on our bure’s veranda and had a cocktail with some booze we purchased at the airport.

After dinner, the staff engages the guests to participate in a game called vidi-vidi. It is a game where you try to knock in your disks into the 4 holes on the board by flicking the big disk with your finger and hitting your smaller disk. I sucked at this game, but Judy did pretty good at it, as she hit the winning shot for her team. While this is going on, some of the staff are singing Fijian songs and passing out kava, which is some type of root based moonshine. Neither of us were brave enough to try it after seeing the locals make some faces after drinking it.

The second day’s boat outing took us to Plantation Island & Musket Cove. It was a much bigger resort island & development. I have to say that it looked very commercialized and made us appreciate the place we were staying at even more. I think they took us there on purpose so that we would make that very comparison. The ride was very nice and we saw some more of the neighboring islands. We also stopped at a reef in the middle of the ocean for a brief swim and then headed back.

We got back to Navini and, even though it was breezy, the water looked so inviting that we both went for a swim. Yes……..Judy too. We even have photographic evidence of her actually in the water. After lunch, we partook in the normal afternoon activity…..rest & relaxation.

On the 3^rd morning, we woke up to absolute pristine conditions……the breeze was very slight and the water was really calm.  The outing today was going to be a fishing trip and a short snorkeling stop. We passed on that trip and stayed at our beach to get some serious snorkeling in with the water conditions being they way they were. We saw lots of different types of tropical fish and coral reef denizens.

Later that evening, the staff put in a special dinner for all of the guests. The guests were all required to wear sulus, which are sarong-type wraps that Fijians wear. The food was cooked in a traditional lovo pit and after the buffet meal, we were all treated to a kava ceremony. Kava is a root that they break down into a powder and mix with water to create a drink which has some opiate style properties. After the ceremony, they regaled us with traditional Fijian songs and also got us all to participate in a Fijian folk dance.

Judy woke up early on the last morning we were going to be leaving and captured the sun rising. We had to depart at around 12:30 to get to the airport for our flight to Sydney. We had our breakfast and immediately went back to the beach to snorkel up to the point that we had to leave. We really wished that we had at least one more day to spend here, as we were just getting into the swing of getting our meals cooked for us, enjoying the great weather and beach area, and taking lots of snoozes in the beach lounge chairs & hammock. We are quite sad to be leaving, but we hope that some day we can make it back here.