Category: Trip

Today I left mum and dads and headed down to Sydney. The rains were drying up in Newcastle but the forecast in Sydney remained gloomy.

I headed down to Darling Harbour since I wanted to visit ‘Wildlife: Sydney Zoo’, the new name for what used to be called Australia’s Wildlife World. I’d been here many years ago and wanted to see how it had held up.

That’s a whistling duck, one of the animals on display. The ‘zoo’ is a linear walk through several displays mostly concentrating on the big hitters like koalas and kangaroos.

It took me about 90 minutes to see everything, including the (brief) ‘outback show’ and ‘kangaroo show’, which isn’t much for $40. Also most of the animals enclosures are behind glass, so you don’t feel as close to them as you do in a place like Blackbutt (which is free).

That said, they have some nice reptile, amphibian and insect exhibits. But I think the reduction in size (due to the building of Madame Tussaud’s) had been detrimental to this park, and if you’re interested in seeing Oz animals just take the time and visit Taronga.

That’s a giant octopus attacking a sub berthed at the maritime museum. I was a bit worn out today, but I may visit later this week.

After Wildlife I headed into the CBD for some shopping. At Kinokuniya they have an astonishing display of paper flowers that I hope Bernard got to see before he left.

Yes they’re all made of paper.

The rest of the day was spent with Adam watching TV, laughing and (much later) collaborating on a series of unique postcards…

It seems an evil technömancer took the blog down shortly after my arrival, but my righteous brother managed to get things working only milliseconds after arriving home in the USA.

Since I’ve been tweeting like a madman, I’ll summarize the missed days in a few posts, then continue as usual as I move into the last 4 days of my trip.

So, to continue on where I left off…

That’s a view of Wollongong beach. The city is about 90 minutes south of Sydney, and Adam and I visited for two nights. We were very impressed by what we saw, especially the foreshore and Harbour:

The first day we explored the CBD (including a large mall) and the foreshore area. To my great joy, I found a near-perfect replacement for my still-beloved lost black floppy hat:

We also saw some intriguing graffiti murals:

My hotel room was comfy and gargantuan, and I rested well to prepare for the next day which we packed with activities. First we took a short train ride south to visit the Southern Hemispheres largest Buddhist temple:

It’s a sprawling complex with many buildings and was bigger than any I’d seen in Japan. Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Afterwards we returned to the city, and hopped on a (free) bus which took us – unexpectedly – to the botanical gardens, which were very nice and again, worth visiting.

On our way to Wollongong we didn’t know if there would be any New Years celebrations. As it turns out there was, and around 6pm on the 31st we headed again down to the harbour to partake in the festivities.

As with most everything else we saw in Wollongong we were impressed. There were rides, wonderful food vendors, live music, show bags (!!), many many people and other things to see which all led up to a fantastic fireworks show over the harbour at 9 pm:

I very much enjoyed Wollongong, and am glad we went. If you’re looking for an escape not far from Sydney, I recommend the southern coast!

We got an early start with a stroll around centennial park. The above was a shot of some trash I found on the street. On the way back Adam noticed garbage of a more organic (and sad) kind:

That’s a fruit bat that touched two wires and electrocuted itself…

We spent the bulk of the day (over 9 hours and nearly 40k steps) shopping at the usual haunts. Many cool purchases were made! Sydney was extremely busy, and the crowds were large.

I’ve already apparently forgotten about my ‘don’t eat chocolate’ rule, and have put away (too!) many cherry ripes and curly wurly’s. The food here is too delicious!

I’m so tired right now I just hallucinated that I saw Yossie in Adams living room. I must sleep!

Tomorrow we take a train south…