Sad to Leave Sydney

 

The beginning set for "Nijinsky", the Australian
Ballet at the Joan Sutherland theater at the 
Sydney Opera House.

An almost full moon over the Opera House 

Our table at Midden for dinner before Nijinsky.,
one of the 3 restaurants on location.

The view from the Opera House to the city

The Opera Bar Cafe along the harbor

We certainly are sad to leave Sydney. What a beautiful exciting city it is and we've packed in a lot of it this week. We've had three special nights on the town (out of the 5 we've had here). We lucked out getting last minute tickets to "Nijinsky" the Austrian Ballet at the Opera House on Tuesday and had a fabulous dinner at Midden over looking the bridge and harbor before hand. And the weather was perfect as you can see from the photos.

We got to enter on the red carpet! Not dressed
for that occasion though - needed warm clothes

The view of the Opera House and bridge

Another photo as the sun went down at the Mrs.
MacQuarie's Point across from the Opera House
It is next to the Botanical Gardens

The first of the two restaurants on site that we
enjoyed 

We had pretty good seats to start, but when the lights went down to begin the show, we followed the people around us moving down the aisle and ended up in great seats! This was taken early in the evening.

The next night we had tickets to "Guys & Dolls" on the esplanade overlooking the Opera House, harbor and city skyline. The production was wonderful and the setting sublime. On advice we came early and enjoyed two of the dining venues with small plates. 

Two photo of Juanita, John and I with their view
of Sydney in the background.

We feel so lucky to have met such lovely people

And then last night our new friends Juanita and John, who we met in Uluru, picked us up and gave us a tour around, followed by appetizers & champagne at their condo with views of the city. Then took us out to dinner at their local - a historic pub that was lively with good food. 

Well it's time to board our cruise ship, so I'm going to get this partial post on Sydney off to you. They'll be another finishing up our visit there when I can get internet again!

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

 

This was taken just before sundown. Our tour was first class with an excellent dinner provided. 

We had cocktails and canapes first and then went to a sit down location for our hamper dinner - a very elegant assortment of meats, cheeses, fruits, bread, salads and desserts - all beautifully packaged in a take home "hamper". We struck up a conversation with the couple that took this photo and they joined us for dinner We exchanged info and we're having dinner with them tonight in Sydney.

We had glorious weather for our 4 nights there - in the 70's during the day and going down into the low 60's at night. Great walking weather and we did a lot of it. First of all our hotel, the Lost Camel, is one of the 5 that make up the Ayers Rock Resort and that's it for lodging in the area (that we could see). Our hotel did not have a restaurant so we pretty much checked out every one of the others and  they were all very good with two stand outs - the Sails in the Desert's Ilkari Buffet and especially the Desert Gardens Hotel's Arnguli Grill.  This latter gave us the best meal and service of the trip so far. But we had breakfast, lunch or dinner at most of the other 8 restaurants (and that's not counting the bars). 

Scott and Juanita. We've become friends with her
and her husband John. 

We were served 4 plates like this each with our
cocktails, 8 different canapes!

Kata Tjuta off in the distance from our Sunset 
Tour location. 

This is the beginning of the light & drone
show but we were not supposed to take photos
after this in respect to the native peoples whose
story the show depicted.

We did two major tours - the Sunset on Uluru with Dinner and Drone Show and the Sunrise on Uluru with a trip to Kata Tjuta (Olga Rocks) and a hike up the Walpa Gorge.  We rather unwisely did these back to back with the sunset tour Thursday night and the Sunrise one(we had to walk to the 5:30 AM pickup at a nearby hotel) on Friday morning.  We were glad to have a relaxing day on Saturday attending several of the free events at the resort.

Sunrise at Uluru

It was cool in the morning until the sun came up

After the sun rose it cast beautiful colors and shadows on Uluru. That's Kata Tjuta in the background.

I was happy to have my warm shirt and jacket on! 

Starting our hike

Occasionally bridges helped us cross wet areas.

Heather enjoys a brief break

Looking back from the end of the hike.

Looking back after our hike. Just before this I saw camels! A group of wild camels and we were all excited but by the time our bus came back for photos, they had moved on. 

You can see from the photos here of our two arranged tours to Uluru that we enjoyed perfect weather. Our tour guides, especially for the half day sunrise and hike one, were excellent. The hike itself was so beautiful that I did much better than expected. It helped that there were a few benches to take a break on the way uphill. It was only 2.6 kilometers but the first half all uphill and the footing rocky and rough at times. Kata Tjuta translates into 32 domes and the hike takes you to a gorge between two of them. This is a sacred place for men of the Anangu people. Uluru has a male and a female sacred side (opposite) and there is a female sacred site as well., which is not in the National Park. 

Our didgeridoo instructor

And our dual speaker on Bush Tales and later
in the auditorium, the Bush Food Experience

One of the beautiful bowls carved by the Anangu
people.

We spent our third full day going to the free events offered by the resort. The first was a Didgeridoo demonstration and it was a lot of fun. The musician had us all trying the breathing and sounds used to play the instrument. We had tapping sticks to keep the rhythm going.  Then we had two movies - Capturing the Cosmos about Australian Whole Sky Telescope Work and An Ancient Story Takes Flight was about the making of the drone and light show we saw which recounts one of the major stories of the Anangu people. We had the same young woman give two talks - Bush Food Experience and Bush Tales.  

The Camel Farm was a museum and a living camel
farm with camel tours - sorry we didn't get to do
this,

The stories of the importation of camels and 
cameleers is fascinating and I highly recommend
reading the Wikipedia article.

Scott and camel

And goats

And one lazy kangaroo!

The last visit was to the Camel Farm and we found this particularly fascinating. The history of the importation of camels and cameliers to Australia from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan is so amazing. There were stories about individuals who contributed so much to the growth of Australia but were never accepted into the society! There are thousands of camels now wild in the country and occasionally have to be "culled". We ate camel in many forms during our stay. 

Each camel at the Farm has his own saddle.

About 16 camels came in after their tour

And watching them dismount was fun!

Our flight to Sidney was very comfortable as it was a half empty plane. And we LOVE Sidney - no surprise, everyone does. More on that in my next post!

A Day in Brisbane

 

The Central Railroad Station originally built in
1899 but has had a lot of renovations, or rather
removals as much of the front entrance has been
removed to widen the street.  

Anzac Square is right in front with the Shrine of
Remembrance. 

We were able to check into our hotel, the Marriot South Bank at Noon after our two hour train trip down from Mooloolaba. That trip ended at the Central Station downtown so we had a chance to see a little of this area on our way over to the other side of the river. But the rest of the day was spent on that very river using the public ferries. The Labor Government bequeathed cheap fares on public transportation - and I mean CHEAP. Our train fare was 50 cents as were all the ferries! 

We loved these birds - the Australian
white ibis. They hung around our cafe
and descended on a table as soon as
it was vacated.

The view of downtown from our cafe on the South Bank

These covered walks in the Gardens were so
lovely. 

Our hotel was only a long steep block from the Maritime Museum ferry landing. But this is a limited location. Most of the ferries are City Cats - plying their routes far up and down the river. But our location was just a cross river ferry, called a City Kitten. Once on the other side, we could catch a Cat! Our first destination was the South Bank stop for a lunch in the Gardens at a cafe. 

Scott at a City Cat ferry landing

Then we jumped on a ferry going down river and stayed on till the end. The river is lined with high rises and wharfs with restaurants and bars in the downtown area but then turns into residences, both individual homes and condos, many with docks after a short time. Two very elaborate pedestrian bridges cross the river in the city and there are a number of parks and walking paths extending for miles. 

The city cats were motor catamarans
with inside and outside sitting.

And we got off and walked along those paths enjoying the views and people watching. The weather as you can see was overcast, but no rain and a pleasant temperature - about 72. So good walking weather. But I was glad to stay in that night at our hotel for dinner! We had an easy morning as our flight to Uluru wasn't until 10:40 AM. So we had a chance to have breakfast at the hotel before catching an Uber.

You can get a good look at one of the two 
shirts we bought for Scott in Fiji - he gets a 
lot of compliments on both of them. 

It was a very nice flight to Uluru with exit row seats. And when we exited the plane it was a brilliant sunny day - nice as it was a fairly long walk to the airport! Haven't done that for awhile. The Ayers Rock Resort is pretty much it here with 5 different hotels gathered together not far from the Rock itself. We chose the Lost Camel. Everyone boarded shuttle buses and we were dropped off at our hotel. But more on our fabulous stay there in my next post!

That is a walk way along the river and it stretches
for miles. 

We did a lot of walking in Brisbane which helped me get ready for the long distances we had in Uluru the following week. 

A Wonderful Visit!

Scott dropped his phone in Queenstown, NZ so
all these photos are from Julie or Peter. Here we
are at Noosa. At the very end of the post you can
see a photo of us back in 2011.

We stopped for a drink at this restaurant 
overlooking the beach on the way to Noosa.

We met Peter and Julie in Marathon, FL in 2011 at a meeting in our Marina on Going to the Bahamas. Most of the attendees had never been, but Scott and I were old hands, having been there three times. We struck up a friendship on the spot with both they and another couple, Marie & Ron on "Molly Bloom". Julie and Peter were on their Manta Ray Catamaran "Anything Goes".  We formed a quick alliance and crossed together to Bimini. Marie & Ron left us in Staniel Cay but Julie & Peter stayed with us until the end of that season in northern Florida. We've been fast friends since then, seeing them every year either on our boat or in Florida or Vermont. This was the first time with got to visit them at home, now in Mooloolaba, Australia. 

Peter took this picture at dawn looking from their balcony over to the river.

This was taken from their golf course and looks over the city of Mooloolaba. The river goes from horizontally at the top from the bay. Their condo is only a block or so from the beach along the river. 

They picked us up at the airport in Brisbane and we spent the nest 8 days with them. It was a lovely time as always although the weather wasn't at it's best. In fact it rained for more than half our week. It didn't dampen our enthusiasm. This is a beautiful part of the world - gorgeous beaches backed by green scenic hills. They drove us around the "Sunshine Coast" as far as Noosa, a charming resort town at the junction of the Noosa River and the Coral Sea. Mooloolaba is also at the junction of a river, the Mooloolaba, and the sea. Their river has a good entrance and is lined with Marinas and boats. Julie & Peter's condo has a large covered balcony with views of the river and down to the sea. It is very spacious with two bedrooms and baths plus an office and lots of windows. Our bedroom had it's own balcony. Scott and I enjoyed the pool on the two bright sunny days!

Miles of walks stretch along the beach. Due to the
heavy winds the waves were really big.

This looks the opposite direction from the shot on
the left.

Walks continue up the river and are lined with Marinas and restaurants.

Julie is a very good cook and had prepared some great meals for us including Kangaroo Curry. We didn't get lucky enough to see one in the wild however. They assure us they are often on the golf course! One night we got together with their old friends Graham and Diane. They joined us in the Bahamas and sailed over to Florida for a really fun week - that was again in 2011. Here's some photos from back then. 

Here back in 2011 in the North Berrys, Bahamas: Scott and I, Marie & Ron, Julie & Peter.

Scott, Peter and Graham in the Abacos in 2011

Julie & Diane also back in 2011.

But all too soon it was time to say good-bye. Happily not for long as we plan to see them later this year back home. They drove us to the train station for a two hour ride into Brisbane. As we had an early flight the next day, we booked a hotel on the South Bank downtown. That way we could explore the city for the remainder of the day. And that will be my next post!

Enjoying a beer along the river boardwalk

Unfortunately the photos were taken with too
much sun. But you can see it's a busy Marina.

Scott and Peter on the Pier