On To Auckland

On Wednesday we took a ferry ride to Manly Beach on the northern part of Sydney Harbor. It is an old beach town that remnds me of Santa Cruz in Ca or the old Atlantic Beach. We got off of the ferry and walked about 10 minutes to the main thoroughfare that is a large shopping and restaurant area before you get to the beach. There would have been surfers there, but the surf was almost non-existant that day. It is a great place for families to be at the beach on a hot day ( or on holiday).

Coming back to Syndey Harbor we took in THE Opera House. It is a marvel of architecture and artistry. Here is where all things cultural meet. They have operas, but they also have childrens plays, dramas, comedies, ballet, musicals, new-age performances, anything that has to do with the arts are held there. The one thing I really loved (and I wish all attractions had these) everyone, had individual headsets! That way nobody was left out because they couldn’t hear the tour guide. When you first look at the sturcture at a distance you think that the roof is just plain concrete. But as you get closer you notice that the roof is covered in individual tiles that are cream and tan colored. The concert halls are pre-built and placed inside the “shells”. They are made of wood and the acoutisc are awesome. But there is about two stories worth of space between the top of the halls and the “shell” walls. Think about when was the last time you were in anyplace as large as a concert hall made of wood? Even the seats were wood! They were designed by a micro-surgeon and they are the most comfortable seats I have even sat in. The construction itself was unbelievable. The “shells” were constructed as individual concrete ribs and were put together on-site.

On Thursday we took in a lot of things around the city of Sydney itself. We started off going to the Justice and Police Museum (of course). They had a special exhibit about the corruption that made up Sydney during the 40’s until the 90’s. And we though Chicago was bad in the 30’s!. They had criminals, politicians, juddges and police all involved. Talk about massive abuse of power! We then walked to an area called The Rocks. This is a great place to get around the locals. There are small shops, great little resttaurants and lots of people. We had lunch at a small outdoor restaurant and just sat and watched. Our last stop was on another ferry (surprise!) that took us up the Parramatta River. It was an express, but it still took over an hour. The scenery was wonderful and, as our hosts said, a lot of real estate up on that river. Meaning expensive placces – and there was! That night we had a great dinner with some Aussie Blue Knights. We had a wonderful dinner and the conversations (sometimes a little hard to understand) was fun and full of laughs, both on our part and theirs.

On Friday we took off for a long train ride just to experience the railway away from the city. We first stopped in a small town called Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River. Since this weekend is Easter weekend and they have attached Anzac Day (which is like our Veterans Day) on the end they locals have a 5 day holiday and it seemed like about half of them were in Brooklyn. It is a small riverfront village that everyone goes to for boating, fishing, picnicing, sunbathing, etc. After we walked around the village we boarded the train and rode for about another hour to the south of the city and saw the changing of the houses which went from condos to houses.

Today we are sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Auckland, New Zealand. We will be there for a week. Now the fun (?) begins. We are renting a car and Karl is driving!!!!!!! Remember they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Oh, boy!