Aussie Week Adventure: Free Choice Activities

Tourism New South Wales provided us with the See Sydney and Beyond Smartvisit Card, which gave us admission into a variety of places as well as discounts on shopping and food (which we didn't use). If you visit Sydney, we recommend getting this card. If we had had more time to plan out our free time, we could have utilized it more effectively and seen a few more sites.

Sydney Tower

After our long flight we attempted a short nap then decided to stroll through town and visit the Sydney Tower. Since we read it was the highest structure in Sydney we initially thought we could just look up and easily navigate to it. Instead, we were swallowed up by all the tall skyscrapers and found ourselves having to look at a map (but everything is clearly marked and it is easy to find your way around). Although most of the buildings were new, it was fun to see many historical buildings with elaborately-carved sandstone motifs holding their own against their towering neighbors. It seemed that most of the Sydney attractions were quite close to each other--the tower was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and is about as far away as we ever walked. For those who care about such things, there are extensive pedestrian malls and exclusive shopping areas.

Here is a look at the tower from the ground, and a view of the harbour from 820 feet.

Here is a sampling of other interesting sites we encountered on our walk through the city: an intricate carving of the lion and the unicorn in a sandstone building (these were frequently represented), the Il Porcellino statue by the Sydney Hospital (it was good luck to rub the boar's nose), and a smart car.

St. Mary's Cathedral

We also stopped for a visit at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was April's first "real" cathedral and rivaled some of the French cathedrals (according to Kevin). When we first walked in the organ was playing, and the acoustics were just amazing! The architecture, the carvings, and the elaborate stained glass windows were all very beautiful. This is the largest church in Australia and although it looks like something out of the Renaissance it was only completed in 1928 (and, unlike cathedrals of earlier times this one took "only" 60 years to build). Perhaps we should say it was mostly completed in 1928, as the spires were not added until 1998-2000. There was a large electronic marquee outside of it, counting down the days until the 23rd World Youth Day 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic youth from all over the world will come to Sydney.

Sydney Aquarium

Our photographs of the Sydney Aquarium didn't turn out well because it was too dark inside. Instead you will have to wait for the upcoming video which we keep promising to edit and post one of these days.

The Royal Botanical Gardens

The gardens turned out to be our favorite place over the next few days. We were appreciating some of the giant fig and pine trees when April looked down and noticed a large number of owl pellets lying all over the ground. Being biologists, we both got very excited with finding animal sign so quickly in such a large city (and to our delight, other tourists had left the owl pellets alone so we could dissect as many was we wanted to). We excitedly pulled apart several pellets, trying to figure out what animal the bones came from. We are used to finding mouse and vole bones, but here we found large claws, long ulnas, and short femurs...hmm...due to jet lag and lack of sleep, we were unable to figure out the mystery prey animal and decided we would ponder the question again the next day. It was an odd sensation going from picking through owl pellets one moment to walking into our five-star hotel the next.

The following morning (thanks to jet lag), April was wide awake at 5:00 am and went out on the balcony to see Sydney awakening. She was thrilled to see dozens of fruit bats flying south over the hotel! There was the answer to the mystery bones. She woke Kevin up and insisted we go looking for a roost in the gardens as soon as possible. The irony is that we spent time carefully looking into the tops of every tree hoping to see a fruit bat or two, but when we finally reached the middle of the gardens the trees were absolutely covered in fruit bats!

We returned several times to the royal gardens, both to photograph bats and to enjoy the plants and landscapes. There is a lovely herb garden, which we were enjoying until the sprinkling of rain turned into a torrential downpour. We again had an odd sensation as we walked, sopping wet, into the lobby of our 5-star hotel.

Hike in Blue Mountains/Scenic World

It was cloudy and rainy the entire time we were in the Blue Mountains, but we didn't let that stop us from hiking down the Giant Stairway (that's its real name), more than 800 steps, to the canyon bottom. The rain apparently stopped others from doing the same, as we saw very few tourists. When we first received our itinerary (the day before we left), we were excited at the wildlife prospects of the Blue Mountains, but our five-hour walk in the rain only yielded distant cockatoos and one kookaburra. If you have the chance to visit this area yourself, be sure to listen for a lyre bird foraging in the leafs or singing to his mate--this bird is perhaps the world's best mimic, as demonstrated in this David Attenborough clip.

We hiked to Katoomba Falls, which were flowing at their utmost thanks to all the rain. Then we entered Scenic World and walked part of the boardwalk. We were really impressed with the information signs about the plants, animals, and mining activities of the area. We rode the Scenic Railway back up which is the steepest passenger train in the world (52° incline for 450 m), caught the Blue Explorer Bus and rode around Katoomba and Leura before returning to our hotel.

Observatory Hill

Our final day in Sydney was bright, sunny, and warm--warm enough for the skinks to come out! April caught this one while walking up Observatory Hill to visit the Sydney Observatory.

The Observatory had several interesting telescopes and other equipment. We did not coordinate our visit with one of the planetarium shows, unfortunately, so we mainly looked through the museum and then got to watch the exciting yellow ball descend, marking the 1:00 p.m. time (again, see future video post).

Grocery Shopping at Coles

We bought some fruit, golden syrup (for making Anzac biscuits), and too many goodies for the children. We should have gotten 3 more Tim Tam packages--they are too delicious! Why can't Americans make decent chocolate??? For anyone interested in traveling to Sydney, we recommend shopping here rather than at the little convenience stores surrounding the hotel areas. The prices are much more affordable (don't ask us about our $12.00 sunscreen...).

Libraries

Missing our weekly trip to the Logan Library, we instead found two libraries, one in downtown Sydney and one in Katoomba. We read up on some of the native wildlife. The libraries offered free internet access so we were able to email the children. One day we were even able to "chat" with Megan and Ian over the internet, which was very exciting! (Remember, this was the first time April had been away from the children for an extended time.) Kevin eventually had to drag April away from the computer to do more sightseeing.