Sydney, Day 2

We started off our second day in Sydney by visiting the aquarium. In addition to a variety of fish, there were fantastic glass tunnels underneath the water of two large tanks. One held the dugongs, the other had sharks.

Dugongs are very similar to manatees, with one main difference being their tail shapes. Manatees' tails are round and paddle-shaped while dugongs have fluked tails similar to whales.

After the aquarium we walked along the Harbor Bridge for a view of the city. The bridge was first proposed in 1815 by a convict-architect. No action was taken and more people continued to make proposals until the bridge was finally under construction in 1924. The bridge was completed in 1932. During construction, over 100 buildings had been demolished. While this initially seemed unfortunate, the rebuilding of destroyed buildings provided work for many residents in the Depression.

As we made our way to the Royal Botanic Gardens, I stopped to listen to a man playing didgeridoo on the footpath by Circular Quay. He had a techno-esque beat on CD and was playing didgeridoo over it.

We walked into the Royal Botanic Gardens and were both excited to see the sign that read:

Please walk on the grass. We also invite you to smell the roses, hug the trees, talk to the birds, sit on the benches and picnic on the lawns.

My feet were sore so I took full advantage of the cool, plush lawns. It felt like walking on a pillow while icing your feet.

Annoyingly, the pyramid glass house had closed for the evening; though, there was also an entrance fee that I don't think I would have been willing to pay had it been open. There was more than enough to see in the rest of the gardens.

Sydney, Day 1

According to some people, you can't go to Australia without visiting Sydney. This idea had been pounded into Kelly's mind as well as a bit in my own. It's the largest city in the country and home of the picturesque opera house, which, arguably, is Australia's best known landmark.

By the time we were able to make concrete plans about when to take this vacation all the flights had significantly gone up in price. We considered renting a car but everyone who heard this idea said not to drive. Apparently, the scenery is incredibly boring along the Hume highway. Kelly wanted to see it anyway, and with a rideshare I found on Gumtree (a site akin to Craigslist) it was about 1/4 the price of flying, so we drove up north.

Everyone was right about the view. There was a whole lot of nothing. It was beautiful as the sun set on rolling hills... but that was only for a few minutes of the 10-hour drive.

We arrived in Sydney around 5am and slept in the car for a couple hours before heading out. After stopping for coffee and breakfast, we took the scenic route to our hostel to drop off bags. I was incredibly excited to walk through Hyde Park (and the day after the suburb of Haymarket) as a reminder of my Chicago home.


The Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park was gifted to the city with funds bequeathed in J F Archibald's will. The fountain is meant to commemorate the efforts of France and Australia in World War One--a peculiar statement as it was given to Australia by an Australian, not the French. Archibald was enamored with the French and even changed his name from John Feltham to Jules François. He was also co-owner and creator of the misogynistic, racist, anti-clerical Bulletin news magazine. Quite a character behind such a beautiful fountain.

As we walked along small streets to get a feel for the city, one block quickly switched from rows of buildings to a large cliff with apartments on top. No other cliffs were around; it was quite strange.

Beautiful purple Jacaranda trees lined many of the streets; their fallen flowers decorated footpaths like confetti.

It had been a while since I'd traveled with another person and my style of vacationing didn't always mesh well with Kelly's. She's more inclined to browse through various shops; I'm far more interested in stopping read plaques. Over the course of our trip I tried to stop less frequently and decided to photograph the plaques to read later so I wouldn't cramp her style.


The hostel we stayed at had spectacularly painted doors for each of the rooms. Some were superheroes (Wolverine), some were movie characters (Harry Potter, Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's) and others were abstract designs. They also gave each guest a map and book of coupons upon check-in, which we made good use of.


After dropping off our bags, Kelly and I went out to see The Rocks, Sydney's oldest district. England granted land and convict labor to men willing to settle in the new country. In 1788, the first group of men and convicts arrived in Sydney. There wasn't a prison until 1819, when the Hyde Park Barracks were built, and even then it was only some convicts who slept in the prison. Rather, the convicts stayed in cabins they built in a separate area from the settlers.

Governor Macquarie wanted Sydney to become less of a penal colony and transform into a city. The trade and shipping industries aided the town in growth. By 1840 convict transportation to Sydney had ceased and about 35,000 people resided in the city. Sailors became frequent visitors and pubs popped up everywhere, often with a seafaring name. As the population grew, more schools and stores were also built. "Ragged schools" were made for destitute children and named as such to discourage parents who could afford to pay for education.

Now the district is home to a variety of restaurants, small shops, museums and art galleries.

Kelly and I headed off to Featherdale Wildlife Park in one of the western suburbs. Wallabies and kangaroos roamed freely through the park, as did various birds that Kelly was scared of. Actually, she was scared of the marsupials as well. After passing through one of the gates, I was surprised to find my feet were almost touching a kangaroo's nose. It had bent down behind the gate so I didn't see it before almost walking into its face.

There were also fairy penguins, wombats, Tasmanian devils, echidna, koalas, dingoes, emus, quolls, quokkas...



We spent our evening admiring lightning while aboard a ferry going north across the harbor, then continued to gaze upon the sky show from the beach at Manly.

Tiritiri Matangi 9.25.2009

Tiritiri Matangi island was colonized by the English in the early 1800s. The settlers claimed the land from the native Maori tribe because of its ideal location in the Hauraki Gulf for a lighthouse. Later, they used the island for farming.

It became government property and was named an open nature reserve in the 1980s. Since the designation, Tiritiri Matangi has been under a continuous restoration project to repopulate the island with native flora and fauna.

The island has been a success story for several species of birds, including the takahe (pictured right) and spotted kiwi. Though the kiwi is New Zealand's bird of national pride, their numbers are dwindling. The takahe, a relatively large, flightless bird, has an estimated population around 200.

The conservation efforts on Tiritiri have given both species a home with native food sources and free from predators. Several species of birds on the island have grown significantly in numbers and allowed for some of them to be relocated to parkland on the main island.

It was glorious hiking the island. Given it was a weekday and rainy in the morning, there were only a dozen or two other visitors. I ventured off on my own, taking note of the blue penguin nest boxes by the shore, and walked along the beach by the turquoise water. I made it to a boardwalk birdwalk and walked along the path. Every once in a while, there would be a small sitting area to watch the birds from. There were also signs posted with images and names of the various birds, so they were easy to identify.

The rain clouds blew away and made way for a sunny afternoon. As I continued hiking around the perimeter of the island, I came across a group of women who were admiring some of the flowers next to the path. They invited me to join them. Apparently, the five women were all tour guides. With the small group visiting that day, they were left without anything to do and opted to walk around themselves. As we walked along they continued to stop and point out recent acquisitions and changes to the plant life. After a while, I cut ahead of the group and continued on my own.

Rangitoto island & Auckland arts 9.24.2009

In the morning, my cell phone had somehow managed to revert to Melbourne time. I had missed the first boat to Rangitoto. So I ran off to the wharf and found out there was a little more than an hour before the next boat. To kill time, I opted to wander some more and came across an exhibition of design proposals for Queen's Wharf. There was an entire room full of these proposals created by citizens and architects alike. Everyone who visited was encouraged to vote on the designs and write comments to the artists to consider before the next round. It was interesting to see what type of designs people were interested in, and fun to think I may have had a part in the future of Auckland's cityscape.

Rangitoto Island, the newest and largest of the 48 volcanoes in the Auckland area, was once a popular vacation spot. People had baches (short for bachelor's house) and would escape the city life and/or family to go on holiday at their bach. These houses were deemed illegal use of the land when it became a scenic reserve, so now there are only a few, uninhabited ones left standing. There was also a jail on the island for Auckland area inmates. The prisoners did public service by building the restrooms, boardwalks and paths to the summit on the island.

Environmentally, the island had an interesting mix of things to take note of. There are typical volcanic features, such as heaps of aa and lava caves. Then there are gullies (with the rare kidney fern), open fields and forest. There is also an extensive amount of red dirt.

I hiked the path to the summit, though it was foggy and I did not expect to have a good view from the top. My assumption was correct, but the hike was enjoyable and allowed me to see how the different areas produced significantly different types of flora. Along the way I passed through the kidney fern gully, which was gorgeous. The fern is a ground cover, but also grows up tree trunks and covers them in a bright green, bubbly looking coat.

Though I did not have a flashlight, I also took a side trip to the lava caves because, well, I love spelunking. My plan was to just go a slight way inside and come back out, but then I realized I had my keys in my bag--and the keychain light that my father gave me a while back did the job perfectly. If they don't yet advertise "impulsive spelunking" on the package, they should.

Earlier in the day, at the wharf design exhibition, I had picked up an event brochure for Auckland's Heritage Week. So on the boat ride back to the city, I looked it through and found a free event to go to that evening. It was only a few blocks from my hotel, too. The event was highlighting High Street and included a small art exhibition and two folk musicians. I had arrived early, being of the impression that the show would start at the time specified in the little booklet (why wouldn't I assume that?) so I struck up a conversation with a very sweet Kiwi woman. Rather, she struck up a conversation with me and decided we should be friends for the evening. She was quite enamoured with some of my American snippets and told me all about her family's history, as well as some general Auckland history. The musicians were great. There was also free food, cake and wine. New Zealand really does make a good Sauvingon Blanc.

Auckland 9.23.2009

I arrived into Auckland around 6pm after a long day of waiting at the airport before the flight. It took far less time than I had accounted for and had to spend a couple hours wandering around the terminal. Upon arriving in Auckland, it was already dark and raining. I caught the airbus into town, found my hotel and dropped things off.

Now, I had chosen the hotel for its location in the CBD, price, and the fact that it had a kitchen. Eating out every meal for an entire week sounded expensive and not very appealing. The hotel, however, made you rent kitchen equipment. So in my cheap mode of not wanting to bother, I opted to use just the glasses, spoon, tea kettle, microwave and mini fridge that the room was already equipped with. It actually worked out pretty well.

I took a walk around the city to find a grocery store. There were numerous convenience stores, but it took quite a while to find a grocery store--and that grocery store ended up being in the Asian part of town, so I stocked up on produce and was pleased to have such a vast selection of soy milk and fine teas to choose from.

After taking the food back to the hotel and stocking my refrigerator, the rain started to let up. Given the two hour time change, I was far from tired. I decided to walk along the water, by the docks, and see the lights of Devonport across the harbor. My inner 4-year-old found excitement in watching forklifts loading and unloading crates on the dock as I passed. There weren't many people out, and the mixture of quiet, city lights, crashing waves and drizzling rain made the walk very refreshing.