Day 2 in Sydney. We are really enjoying the city.
There are attractive old shopping arcades.
We have seen our first kookaburra.
This is the Calyx in the Botanical gardens.
Mrs Macquarie’s chair.
And a waterside walk along at Barangaroo.
We have seen our first kookaburra.
This is the Calyx in the Botanical gardens.
Mrs Macquarie’s chair.
And a waterside walk along at Barangaroo.
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This is a channel billed cuckoo, absolutely massive, 2 ft long, making loads of noise, being fed by 2 australasian magpies that it dwarfed
Sulphur crested cockatoo
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Loving this thread also!! The Taronga zoo is fantastic - i remember walking among wallabys and a kookaburra that joined me for part of my lunch at an outdoor table. The zoo sounds right up your.alley!
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We went back out on the ferries today, across to Watson’s Bay.
From there you can walk across to the Pacific outside the harbour area.
We did a long, not overly exciting walk, but got down to Bondi.
And it’s beach.
Then had a refreshing swim in the Bondi Icebergs saltwater pool.
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Looking around a Sydney bottle shop at a plethora of young shiraz I asked if they had anything with some bottle age.
They pointed me to this, made by Thompson Wines of Coonawara in 2012. A lovely medium bodied Cabernet, with light tannins and a good degree of elegance. Some dark fruit and eucalyptus notes. It could age further, but right now is in a very good place. ***1/2 and it could hold its own against most other wines at Aus $30, or £15.
Update, after 4 hours or so, and warming up, a slightly raisened note emerged, so whilst good today, i would drink up.
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So, we left hot and sunny Sydney and came to Melbourne. Here the temperature had dropped from 37°c to 17°c on the day we arrived. What kind of mistake have we made?
Anyway today it is a bit warmer and sunnier. We walked to the seaside.
Far too rough to consider swimming.
But the Yarra River area is lovely.
We watched a match at the Australian Open.
And we had a Parmo for dinner.
All these are on the Must do list.
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How hard was it to get tickets for the Australian open.
All depends on timing, if you take pot luck as we did you can pay AUS$19, about £10 for a post 5pm ticket. Wander in and see which matches are going on. We watched an entire men’s doubles match on court 7.
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The food culture in Melbourne is very interesting. As well as the Parmo we had an excellent Indonesian meal with deeply flavoured beef rendang. A shop here claims to sell the world’s best croissants.
We just went to Bakemono however.
Their almond and uzu croissant was amongst the finest I have ever eaten.
Beats most French ones by a mile.
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Last full day in Melbourne today, photos of Victoria State Library
The city from the Yarra River
The ANZAC memorial/Shrine of Remembrance
Both Oz and NZ seem deeply affected by losses in the 2 world wars.
These are floating plants in the botanic gardens, used to take nutrients from water.
And distant views of the city. We have had a great time, but probably prefer Sydney slightly.
From Melbourne we have rented a car and are heading down the Great Coast Road for two days.
Bell’s Beach is a famous surfing location.
This sign confirms we are going the right way.
The scenery is good, but doesn’t top the Kiakoura area of NZ.
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We have gone about as far as we can go.
For those who watched Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in the 1970s I apologise.
We hit the Margaret River in a couple of days, so I am getting some practice in.
Rather warm and peppery, a decent shiraz, but nothing wonderful. ***.
Beautiful drive! I did it a decade ago. Almost took the helicopter ride that goes out and circles whatever the famous cliffs are at the south end. But it was blowing like 30mph, so I decided against lol.
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Completed the Great Ocean Road today. Starting at Cape Ottaway.
Extensive natural forests in that area.
We saw wallabies.
Koalas.
Superb Fairywren.
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Then moved on to the cliffs Alan mentioned.
The 12 apostles, they can’t count.
London Bridge
Warning of snakes
But we only saw lizards.
And Singing Honeyeater
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