"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu
Our journey wasn't exactly the most direct, but where's the adventure in that? Having booked our flights about a year before leaving, our round about trip took us over 41,200km and touched on 4 countries excluding home. We took 8 flights in total and crossed not only the international date line and equator but also experienced 5 different time zones. Enough to make anyone wonder what the heck day it is. But aside from our unique route, we got to experience 24 hours in Beijing and the most amazing 2 weeks in Australian. If I could find a reason to move Australia, I would...the weather, the beaches, the scenic coastline, capped with some unique nature are all reasons enough for me. Sydney reminded me of home, minus the mountains....it is a clean city (at least in the areas we visited), with great public transit options to get you from A to B. The only draw back is the cost of living, but then I understand wages are also higher there.
Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef is definitely in my top 5 things I've experienced in my lifetime so far....the crystal clear water provided the best visibility to the natural aquarium below. Hanging at the beaches was another favourite activity on this trip....the feel of the soft, white, fine sand on my feet brought me to my happy place each time. The beaches are perfect conditions for some beach volleyball which if I had a volleyball with me I would have played.
Getting to see animals unique to Australia at the habitat and also in the wild was a pretty cool experience. I loved watching a pod of dolphins playing around in the surf in Noosa; they looked so free. Australia is certainly an outdoor adventurist's playground.
Being able to experience this with my love and partner Z made this trip that much more special. This is the furthest south in the world I've travelled and it was well worth the long journey. To do it all over again would be a dream come true....so much left unseen.
"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain all while you give, to roam the roads of lands remote, to travel is to live." - Hans Christian Anderson
My sentiment exactly...to travel is to live! To experience different parts of the world and different cultures is what this is all about for me. So until next time when these globetrotters jet off....life is good!
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
Sydney Opera House
You can't come to Sydney without seeing the iconic Sydney Opera House. Situated right on the harbour, the opera house is a multi-venue performing arts centre. Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, construction of the opera house started in 1958 but was not completed until 1973 and apparently some 15 times over original budget. In 1965 a change in government caused some tensions with Utzon because construction was taking much longer and way over budget. Story has it that the government refused to pay Utzon 100 grand in fees and he ended up leaving the project and never returned to Sydney to see the completed structure. He wasn't invited to the opening ceremony either. In an effort to speed up completion and to save some costs, the new project manager used inferior products to complete the interior of the theatres to the detriment the acoustics and it is estimated that to fix this now would cost $1 billion. What a shame, the opera house is magnificent. Besides the theatres, there are cafes, restaurants, bars and a gift shop. All are relatively pricey, but you are also paying for the experience and the views of the harbour.
You can take a guided tour through the opera house, or you can do what we did and purchase tickets to a performance. We thought it would be neat to see a performance there, but thought about it a little late in the game. Shortly before we left on our trip we looked up what might be available and found that The Nutcracker was being performed by the Australian Ballet. The only tickets available were standing room, not the most ideal, but we really wanted to do this. So we bought tickets for $59 each for the opening night of the performance. The performance was in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, which is the eastern side of the opera house.
The performance was incredible. From the sets to the costumes, the orchestra and dancers, it was all just very spectacular. Despite saying earlier that the acoustics are not what they should be, I'll be honest and say that the orchestra sounded pretty darn good, so to the average ear one cannot tell. This is the first time I've ever seen a ballet and such a wonderful venue to experience this in. The performance was split into 2 45 minute acts. During the first act we stood at our standing room spot and it wasn't bad at all. We had a great vantage point, but during the intermission the usher mentioned that there were some empty seats. He couldn't technically take us to them, but did say he wasn't required to look for us if we weren't in our spots. So just as the 2nd act was starting we moved to some empty seats in the 2nd row of the upper balcony. These seats would have cost about $200...what an absolute treat! You're not supposed to take pictures instead the theatres, but I did anyway....the usher told that I wasn't allowed to, so I said sorry and went on my way with my illegal photo! :)
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| Inside Joan Sutherland theatre |
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| At The Nutcracker |
More of Sydney
We've been very fortunate with the weather.....it's been sunny everyday except for 1 in Sydney when it was overcast and occasionally spit a few rain drops throughout the day. The following day it was back to sunny skies and warm temperatures.
Just a short walk from the hotel is the Royal Botanic Gardens. Founded in 1816 by Governor Macquarie (he's responsible for building a lot of landmark sites in Sydney) the gardens are situated just east of the Opera House and sit on about 30 hectares. The Sydney Harbour borders the gardens on the north and provides for the gardens to be that much more scenic as a result. We read that visiting the gardens first thing in the morning is best because that's when you can get the best glimpse of the wildlife. This is true. We went after breakfast and were treated to seeing a wide variety of birds. Especially abundant was the Lorikeet who were feeding off the nectar of flowers. The gardens are full of hundreds of different flora species and thankfully they labelled most of them. This fig tree was planted in 1845 and is absolutely massive.
You can access the boardwalk leading back to the Opera House and Circular Quay from the gardens. One morning we decided it a good idea to run the boardwalk past the Opera House, along the garden's edge and over to Woolloomooloo Bay - roughly a 5km return run. I'm really liking these away from home runs mostly because we've been fortunate to find some really scenic routes but also because it helps me to stay on my running. We saw a lot of Sydneysiders out running as well and it would seem that most of the locals we encountered are fit and enjoy an active lifestyle. How can you not with such a great waterfront boardwalk?
We took a 10 minute ferry ride over to Watsons Bay which is about 11km north-east of Circular Quay. After getting off the ferry, we walked up Military Road to the highest point in the area where in one direction you have views of the Sydney Harbour bridge in the distance and the other direction provides views of the Pacific Ocean and the rock cliffs upon which this point is located on. There is a gap between two rock cliffs conveniently known as The Gap. It's quite a sight to see the ocean pounding at the rock cliffs and I wonder how many more years it will take to erode the cliffs to a point of instability.
The Rocks, one of Sydney's oldest established neighbourhoods, is adjacent to Circular Quay. We took another I'm Free walking tour through this area and learned there is a great rich history for the area. The area was established shortly after colonization in 1788 and had a reputation of being a rough part of town. It's much safer nowadays and it's a pretty cool area to walk through as the streets are all pretty inter-twinded and still have the original stones from which they were built. Story has it that the stones in the streets are actually the stones used to stabilize the ships that came over during the colonization. Whether true or not, still makes for a great story. We enjoyed a great dinner at one of the restaurants here called The Vintage Cafe after the tour and also got to listen to a guitarist play. This area is starting to experience some gentrification with the government starting to sell the rental flats in the buildings they own. The buildings are old and in need of a good renovation and the government figures why not make some money instead of spending money to fix them. The amount the flats have sold for is astounding, north of $1.5M for a 4-bedroom flat. Might sound reasonable given the number of bedrooms and given the location, but if you took a look at the building and knowing that the interior needs to be gutted and redone, seems a little high. Interestingly the buildings have been given heritage status so cannot be torn down. Needless to say the residents in the area are not happy with this most particularly because they are being forced to move. Our guide on this tour reminded both of us of a surfer-dude, fitting I guess seeing as we are in Australia.
As in most major cities, the "American" fast food chains have made their way to Sydney. We saw locations for McDonald's, Subway, Starbucks, KFC and 7-11. There is a fast food chain called Hungry Jacks which has a logo and food menu eerily identical to Burger King. Their whopper tastes about the same as BK. Speaking of food and how adventurous I am....not....I did try a kangaroo kebob, which I actually found to be quite tasty. The meat was flavourful and quite tender. I had read that kangaroo could taste quite gamey but I didn't find this the case; might have been the way this kebob was prepared. We caught the tail end of The Rocks Village Bazar and found a vendor who had discounted his skewers to $10 for 1 kangaroo and 1 prawn. Also tried vegemite...one word to sum that up: disgusting!!! I really don't know how people can eat that. I only tried a tiny bit but man did that taste last for some time....yuk! It contains wheat and barley and it sure tastes awfully like that.
A very beautiful beach about a 30 minute ferry ride north from Sydney CBD is Manly beach. Situated on the Pacific Ocean, this beach is probably one of the nicest beaches in Sydney. It's a short walk from the ferry dock along a side pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants. The surf here was great for surfers and there was no shortage of them catching waves. The water felt a little cooler than in Port Douglas or Noose but was refreshing nonetheless.
Our last beach day was at Coogee beach. Now everyone always thinks that Bondi beach is the place to go, but all the locals we talked to said skip Bondi and head to Coogee. So we did. We took a bus from our hotel and arrived about 30 minutes later. Coogee is situated in the suburb of Randwick, about 8 km south-east of Sydney. This beach is popular with the locals. The waves here were a little more rough for my liking so I didn't really spend much
time in the water. Z enjoyed it immensely though. We started to notice blue box jellies wash ashore so once we noticed them we pretty much stayed out of the water not wanting to get stung on our last day. It's also at Coogee where we met up with a former co-worker of Z's and his family. We had a great visit with them and learned a little more about their time living in Sydney. It was a fantastic way to end our last day in Sydney.
Just a short walk from the hotel is the Royal Botanic Gardens. Founded in 1816 by Governor Macquarie (he's responsible for building a lot of landmark sites in Sydney) the gardens are situated just east of the Opera House and sit on about 30 hectares. The Sydney Harbour borders the gardens on the north and provides for the gardens to be that much more scenic as a result. We read that visiting the gardens first thing in the morning is best because that's when you can get the best glimpse of the wildlife. This is true. We went after breakfast and were treated to seeing a wide variety of birds. Especially abundant was the Lorikeet who were feeding off the nectar of flowers. The gardens are full of hundreds of different flora species and thankfully they labelled most of them. This fig tree was planted in 1845 and is absolutely massive.
You can access the boardwalk leading back to the Opera House and Circular Quay from the gardens. One morning we decided it a good idea to run the boardwalk past the Opera House, along the garden's edge and over to Woolloomooloo Bay - roughly a 5km return run. I'm really liking these away from home runs mostly because we've been fortunate to find some really scenic routes but also because it helps me to stay on my running. We saw a lot of Sydneysiders out running as well and it would seem that most of the locals we encountered are fit and enjoy an active lifestyle. How can you not with such a great waterfront boardwalk?
We took a 10 minute ferry ride over to Watsons Bay which is about 11km north-east of Circular Quay. After getting off the ferry, we walked up Military Road to the highest point in the area where in one direction you have views of the Sydney Harbour bridge in the distance and the other direction provides views of the Pacific Ocean and the rock cliffs upon which this point is located on. There is a gap between two rock cliffs conveniently known as The Gap. It's quite a sight to see the ocean pounding at the rock cliffs and I wonder how many more years it will take to erode the cliffs to a point of instability.
The Rocks, one of Sydney's oldest established neighbourhoods, is adjacent to Circular Quay. We took another I'm Free walking tour through this area and learned there is a great rich history for the area. The area was established shortly after colonization in 1788 and had a reputation of being a rough part of town. It's much safer nowadays and it's a pretty cool area to walk through as the streets are all pretty inter-twinded and still have the original stones from which they were built. Story has it that the stones in the streets are actually the stones used to stabilize the ships that came over during the colonization. Whether true or not, still makes for a great story. We enjoyed a great dinner at one of the restaurants here called The Vintage Cafe after the tour and also got to listen to a guitarist play. This area is starting to experience some gentrification with the government starting to sell the rental flats in the buildings they own. The buildings are old and in need of a good renovation and the government figures why not make some money instead of spending money to fix them. The amount the flats have sold for is astounding, north of $1.5M for a 4-bedroom flat. Might sound reasonable given the number of bedrooms and given the location, but if you took a look at the building and knowing that the interior needs to be gutted and redone, seems a little high. Interestingly the buildings have been given heritage status so cannot be torn down. Needless to say the residents in the area are not happy with this most particularly because they are being forced to move. Our guide on this tour reminded both of us of a surfer-dude, fitting I guess seeing as we are in Australia.
A very beautiful beach about a 30 minute ferry ride north from Sydney CBD is Manly beach. Situated on the Pacific Ocean, this beach is probably one of the nicest beaches in Sydney. It's a short walk from the ferry dock along a side pedestrian street lined with shops and restaurants. The surf here was great for surfers and there was no shortage of them catching waves. The water felt a little cooler than in Port Douglas or Noose but was refreshing nonetheless.
Our last beach day was at Coogee beach. Now everyone always thinks that Bondi beach is the place to go, but all the locals we talked to said skip Bondi and head to Coogee. So we did. We took a bus from our hotel and arrived about 30 minutes later. Coogee is situated in the suburb of Randwick, about 8 km south-east of Sydney. This beach is popular with the locals. The waves here were a little more rough for my liking so I didn't really spend much
Collection of photos
Outside Tiananmen Square
Mutianyu Great Wall 
Z snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef
Surface view of Great Barrier Reef
Wavelength - our boat for the day
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| Z driving in Australia |
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| Z playing with a snake |
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| Sulpher-crested cockatoo |
AuZ so Far by Z
Our Aussie trip is coming to end and it has been an amazing past 2 weeks! I am so glad we decided to venture out to East Coast Australia in late November 2014. We took several flights to travel here and in a somewhat roundabout way but all flights were super comfortable and only one was delayed (so far, we still have to make it home J). This also allowed us to make a pitstop and see the Great Wall of China on our way to Auz which was worth it for sure. While Australia had some wicked weather in Brisbane (super storm) and Sydney (heatwave) and several areas we travelled to had major events going on like APEC and the G20 Summit, we managed to just miss all the hecticness! The weather we did get was perfect. In Port Douglas, it was hot and sunny with 30 degree ocean temperatures at the shore and warm waters when we explored the Great Barrier Reef. In Noosa, it was also sunny each day, a little cooler than Port Douglas (28 degree water!) and we were situated next to the National Park which we hiked in several times.
In Sydney, it cooled off just enough to allow us to explore the city in comfort. Our accommodation everywhere has been just right. Apartments with everything we needed in Port Douglas and Noosa and great hotels in Beijing and Sydney located centrally so that we could walk or take transit anywhere we fancied. Many things are definitely more expensive in Australia than back home (restaurants, groceries, drinks) but good deals can still be found especially along the harbour where I enjoyed a delicious Northern Australia fish called Barramundi (a very flavourful Seabass like fish that is more meaty than sweet) several times for lunch or dinner! I swam in 4 Mile Beach in Port Douglas (had to use the stinger net because of jelly fish season), Main Beach in Noosa (a perfect white sand beach with no stingers!), Alexandria Bay in Noosa National Park (accessible only by foot), Manly Beach in Sydney (cooler at 22 degrees but still enjoyable especially with the surf) and on our last day in Sydney I hope to swim in either Coogee or Bondi beach.
After discovering a tasty Shiraz called Tscharke from the Barossa valley, I found myself trying more Shiraz’s at any opportunity I had and they were equally tasty. Lory discovered a white wine she really enjoyed as well made from Semilon grapes and the 2013 De Bortoli Willowglen Semilon Chardonnay also ended up in several of her glasses during the Sydney portion of our trip. Another amazing Aussie experience was all the wildlife we encountered on this trip in mostly natural settings. We saw koalas, kangaroos, possums, monitor lizards, dolphins, sea turtles, many MANY fish and coral in the reef and so many beautiful birds everywhere. I enjoyed Auz immensely and especially enjoyed seeing and experiencing everything for the first time on this continent with my wonderful travel partner and life partner! J
In Sydney, it cooled off just enough to allow us to explore the city in comfort. Our accommodation everywhere has been just right. Apartments with everything we needed in Port Douglas and Noosa and great hotels in Beijing and Sydney located centrally so that we could walk or take transit anywhere we fancied. Many things are definitely more expensive in Australia than back home (restaurants, groceries, drinks) but good deals can still be found especially along the harbour where I enjoyed a delicious Northern Australia fish called Barramundi (a very flavourful Seabass like fish that is more meaty than sweet) several times for lunch or dinner! I swam in 4 Mile Beach in Port Douglas (had to use the stinger net because of jelly fish season), Main Beach in Noosa (a perfect white sand beach with no stingers!), Alexandria Bay in Noosa National Park (accessible only by foot), Manly Beach in Sydney (cooler at 22 degrees but still enjoyable especially with the surf) and on our last day in Sydney I hope to swim in either Coogee or Bondi beach.
After discovering a tasty Shiraz called Tscharke from the Barossa valley, I found myself trying more Shiraz’s at any opportunity I had and they were equally tasty. Lory discovered a white wine she really enjoyed as well made from Semilon grapes and the 2013 De Bortoli Willowglen Semilon Chardonnay also ended up in several of her glasses during the Sydney portion of our trip. Another amazing Aussie experience was all the wildlife we encountered on this trip in mostly natural settings. We saw koalas, kangaroos, possums, monitor lizards, dolphins, sea turtles, many MANY fish and coral in the reef and so many beautiful birds everywhere. I enjoyed Auz immensely and especially enjoyed seeing and experiencing everything for the first time on this continent with my wonderful travel partner and life partner! J
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