In a modern, window-filled home in a leafy green neighbourhood we found the rest of Deans' family, Ginny, Emilia and Flynn. Ginny’s recently broken her tibia quite badly and for this reason we are staying in a separate nearby apartment. She’s coping amazingly well though and had prepared a lovely colourful feast of veggies and homemade pizzas topped with a heart-shaped cake. We sipped wine out on the 2nd floor balcony, chatting and listening to nearby cockatoos. It’s easy to see how their family has fallen for the charms of the area, outdoorsy and cosmopolitan at the same time.
While the younger boys jumped quickly into the wii games on the wide screen tv, Andy became reacquainted with his old friend Emilia. Ginny and I met when in the same pregnancy group, preparing to give birth and we were in the hospital at the same time when the event finally occurred. So Andy and Emilia go way back but they of course don’t remember all that! It was lovely to see them getting on well if shyly and playing monopoly together.
Our apartment provided a great base from which to explore Sydney. Situated on the edge of a harbour inlet, we would come home tired each day to see a natural show put on by huge white cockatoos every evening. They hang out in the trees at Riverview apartments and begin a synchronised social aerobics show, flying out of trees, aiming low towards the ground and swooping up rapidly as they approached it. Some of the cockatoos hang upside down from branches – we worried for them, believing them to be stuck, when they would all of a sudden free themselves to join their mates in the air. Some land on balconies and we saw people stepping outside their doors to feed the birds who would gather 3, 4 or 5 on a porch railing. So beautiful, I don’t think I could ever tire of seeing this.
During the days, we hopped on to the nearby water taxi that stops regularly through the day to pick up passengers and ferry them along the waterways to the Darling Harbour and the Circular Quays all along the numerous waterways. Many people commute to work on the water taxi and I couldn’t help but feel jealous of them.
The public transportation system in Sydney is top notch. When not taking ferries, we jumped on the fast, efficient trains that covered the land areas for quite a distance. Once we took a bus as well, but mainly we stuck to trains and ferries. The central areas surrounding the Opera House, Sydney Harbour bridge and Darling Harbour are easily manageable on foot – even with children, and even if with whiny children (or so we found ;-).
We bought a proffered triple site ticket to the Sydney Aquarium, Wildlife Park and the Sydney Tower. The aquarium and wildlife park are both conveniently located on Darling Harbour. We visited the aquarium first. I have to admit that it is difficult to shock and amaze our group in an aquarium as we have now been to quite a few on our travels along with snorkelling and diving in Mexico, on the Belize Barrier Reef and in the Galapagos islands. But we found the shark tank to be sufficiently filled with frightening and thrilling creatures. And though we have been through several glass tunnels in aquariums, this was the first with a glass floor where we could see sharks resting under our feet. It was well laid out and packed in quite a lot for the size of the building.
We visited the wildlife park on a second day. I was admittedly sceptical of the wildlife park given the location and size of the building – I can’t think of another occasion on which I’ve seen a zoo entirely enclosed inside a building. But, like the aquarium, it was well designed and contained a good assortment of animals from koalas and kangaroos to a massive crocodile and a huge Moa bird with an impressive beak. Andy said later that this was one of his favourite ‘zoo’ experiences ever because it was small enough and contained that we allowed the children to move about on their own, examining the areas that appealed to them at their leisure and joining us here and there. He spent a great deal of time talking with the zoo keepers and discussing the educational and experience path required to become a zoo keeper. It was a tranquil and serene setting with not too many tourists inside – in part due to the fact that most kids were in school still!!
Outside the wildlife park there is a café and bar lined walkway that includes what is touted as ‘the biggest IMAX cinema in the world’. Of course, we had to try out this cinema and we saw John Carter in 3D. A very Disney film which made full use of the 3D effects in an cross-planetary story. Walking outside the cinema, there is no shortage of venues for dinner and we found the area buaaing with nightlife. Looking across the harbour at night is like seeing a treasure chest of twinkling jewels on black velvet, sigh.
To frighten the daylights out of the boys, we took them for their first proper haircut in several months. I was starting to forget what their little faces looked like under all that hair and it just seemed time. So we asked for a trim, not too short please. But the hairdressers were zealous and the boys were sheared to an inch of their scalp - they came out looking uncomfortable like newly shorn sheep released back to the pasture.
We made it to the Botanical Gardens just as the children had had enough of walking and we were overtaken with chanting of ‘I’mmm tiiiiired! Can you caaaarrrry meee? How. Much. Further???’
The gardens lawns are filled with hopping black-beaked white cranes, interspersed with large old trees housing flying foxes (large fruit bats) and others with flocks of rainbow lorakeets squeaking and sqwaking away. The children immediately did what they do best and broke out into sword fights, using fallen branches as weapons. Ahhh, to have a girl in the group, I wonder, would that change the experience entirely?
As we ate a bite of lunch in the park café, cranes were nearing in and stealing food off plates. One cheeky crane daringly grabbed a whole chicken breast off a lady’s plate as soon as she left to visit the toilet. They remind me of the annoying seagulls that do the same back home in Brighton beach… although, more beautiful and exotic perhaps, at least to us.
The chair, with its interesting inscription and solid rock design is a must-see part of a trip to this area. We took our turns like all the other tourists to sit in the chair and snap photos. Then we resumed our earlier play and walked along the grass and onto the rocks in the water. We found many locals and tourists both sitting about having picnics and lying about on blanket in the sunshine here. We joined in the relaxed atmosphere. Surprisingly, we ran into a girl from our hostel back in Buenos Aires San Telmo and were each as shocked as the other, what a small world! The gardens alone are a huge place where you could lose each other, let alone the city and then the country…
Of course, we had to walk up the steps of the Opera House. The children were getting a little tired and did not find it as grand or interesting as we did at this point. But it has to be done. I would have loved to have done a tour inside, but it was a bit late and the only people inside were those in a private function. The design is beautiful and one of a kind, but I think the view from a distance is best.
On the walk through the park, we stopped to watch the flying foxes hanging upside down and chattering loudly to one another, flying from tree to tree. There were hundreds. I don’t believe I’ve ever in my life seen this number of bats, not in any wildlife centre or in nature, and certainly not this size. The children were captivated, well, who wouldn’t be?
On the Saturday, Ben woke up saying ‘It’s Harry Potter today!!’, smiling like a Cheshire cat. He’d been waiting all week for our promised visit to the Powerhouse Museum to see the Harr Potter exhibit that has been there for a few weeks. We made our way into the centre of town again and joined up with Emilia, Flynn and Dean for the experience. The tickets were sold in half hourly intervals and we had purchased 5:30 n Saturday .. one of the last showings available.
The museum was secretive about the exhibit, housed behind double sets of closed doors and no photos allowed. Very cloak and dagger. Andy and I had twitchy fingers wanting to break the no cameras rules, but we behaved. Inside the exhibit we found set after set of clothing, accessories and furniture used in the making of the movies. Having seen all of the movies, numerous times each, I was as fascinated as the children to see all of these artefacts laid out inches away from us, easily touchable. The dresses from the big ball in Goblet of Fire and the sweets from Fred and George’s sweet shop and the wands of each cast member. Moving digital artwork interspersed with framed yellow newspaper articles lined the walls. Flynn, Ben and Sam played a game of quiddich over and over with the kind-of-heavy basketball sized balls and metal hoops. Andy was reading all the details on each exhibit, excitedly telling me that the actors ‘DNA is all over all these things, just near us, can you believe it?!’
At the end, we steered the kids away from the ridiculously overpriced yet obligatory-visit souvenir shop. Ooooh, if only I could meet one of the people responsible for placing one of these kiddie-tempations at the end of each tourist site!!! Dean was very kind and bought Harry Potter jelly bean packs for each of the kids. They had a great time figuring out which jellybean was supposed to taste like vomit or boogers versus grass or spiced meat.
We all ventured on out to Darling Harbour waterfront and had a Thai meal at the edge of the colourful water fountains and childrens play area. It felt great to be with old friends again. We often forget how much we miss being with friends while we’re away on this big adventure. We let the children play on the 5-kid-wide slide and star-shaped climbing nets afterwards. We separated with good-byes, because we were shortly leaving for New Zealand, returning to Sydney in 10 days.
As we walked back along the Harbour, fireworks broke out over the water. A magnificent display, possibly for Saint Patricks Day, but we weren’t sure. Andy took a 4 minute video of the fireworks. It was one of those wonderful , completely spontaneous moments that just happen when we're lucky. What a great end to our main stay in Australia.
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