SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA ( PART 2 )

30th Aug - 2nd Sep 2011

SOH and SHB at dusk

Went on a half day tour around the city and down to Bondi Beach. The driver/guide was a very articulate, polite and interesting Kiwi called Clayton. I learnt a lot which you probably know already. To reiterate a few salient points for those who were as ignorant as me; Capt Jimmy Cook claimed the place for Britain, and King George 111, when he discovered Botany Bay in 1770 ( after bumping into New Zealand ). He nearly wrecked his ship, the Endeavour, when he ran onto rocks on the Great barrier Reef and went home. In 1788 a convoy of 11 ships under command of Arthur Phillip with 1500 people on board, of whom over 1200 were convicts being 'transported', landed at Botany Bay. No water there, so they moved on to what is now the Rocks area of Sydney. The convicts were put to work quarrying the local sandstone and building the city. Many more convicts were to follow and continue the good work. The continent was known as New Holland at the time.
It was Captain (RN) Matthew Flinders who named the continent Australia when he arrived and did much exploring and mapping between 1795 and 1803. So there you have the basics.




Capt (RN) Matthew Flinders whose statue ( left ) stands near the City Hospital on Macquarie Street. On the ledge behind him is the 'statuette' of his ship's cat, Trim, from which he was inseparable.
Flinders was responsible for much exploration and charting of Oz. Lots of places are named after him and his friend and co-explorer, a ship's surgeon, called Bass.















Right: This pig stands, or sits, nearby, at the entrance to the hospital. It is considered lucky for those about to enter and endure surgery to rub the pig's nose...and other parts by the look of it... for good luck.








We motored on past the Botanic gardens ( left ).  On the tip of the wooded point in the centre there is a stone 'chair', built to seat Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie so she could look out, wistfully, at the ships entering and leaving the port. She was the wife of the famous, popular and 'progressive' 5th Governor from 1815 to 1825, Lachlan Macquarie.
The little island off the point in the centre of the channel was called Pinchgut Island, and later renamed Fort Denison. It was originally used as a place to hang convicts whose corpses were then left on the end of the rope to rot so as to discourage the rest of the mutinous rabble. This practice upset the local Aborigines and, possibly at the instigation of Governor Macquarie, or maybe his wife, was discontinued.
The place is now an exclusive and expensive venue for weddings. They fire a 1 o'clock gun from here daily, originally so that sailors could set their clocks, as per the 1 o'clock gun on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle. I didn't hear it.


Right: Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Elizabeth Macquarie hated living in Australia. She didn't like the heat and the flies, and possibly the people, and she yearned to be back in England, or maybe Scotland. Her husband, the Governor, built this chair for her; the 'pew with the view', to try to make her a bit happier. She could sit out here and gaze across the harbour at the ships and, maybe, the corpses hanging from the gibbet on Pinchgut Island.
This lady in the pic has, as far as I am aware, nothing to do with Mrs Macquarie. She just happened to be there.
Another famous character around at the time of the Macquaries was Francis Greenway. He was a convict, found guilt of 'forgery' in England and sentenced to transportation for 14 years. He was also a skilled architect. Governor Macquarie employed him to design and construct many of the best and most elaborate sandstone Grand Buildings and churches which still grace the city. It is perhaps an obvious fact that many of the convicts, by force of circumstance, did a lot of good and skilful work to build the city.  People like Greenway were pardoned and became respectable and respected, indeed honoured, Australian citizens.


We drove on down past the naval docks at Woolloomooloo. This pier stuck out into the dock is known as Finger Quay and has many very exclusive and expensive apartments on it. We were told by Clayton that the one on the end, with the sort of garden on the top, is owned by a very famous Aussie 'celeb'. He asked us to guess who. Silence. I then enthusiastically offered "Rolf Harris!". Further embarrassed silence. Nope; it's Russell Crowe. Apparently he's a violent actor.






We drove on down south along the coast road and passed through some very smart residential areas. One of which, Vaucluse, is a rich Jewish area. They inherit. They don't sell.
Right: This is South Head, and less than a mile away is North Head.  This is the narrow entrance to the whole of Port Jackson, or Sydney Harbour...and I still don't know the difference.





Arrival at Bondi Beach ( left ). Being out of season, albeit a lovely warm sunny day, it was a bit quiet. As always with my photos, there were many more people around than appears to be the case here. It seemed a nice enough place to me. We were told it gets a bit 'wild' in the summer. The Aborigine word 'Bondi' means 'waves breaking noisily on the rocks'. I think they make it up as they go along.







Right: There were quite a lot of people doing the surfing thing. They were encouraged to do it between the red and yellow flags where 'lifeguards' could keep an eye on them. The 'lifeguards' I saw seemed to spend their time having their photos taken with admiring floozies.
I watched for a long time but never saw anyone get eaten by a shark.








Left: The Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.  I went in and asked if they were affiliated to the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly. I don't think they quite grasped my point. No worries, mate.








On the way back to the city we were taken through the King's Cross and Oxford Street districts. They were indeed quite 'alternative' looking places. Clayton seemed to be remarkably familiar with many of the clubs and other eccentric establishments we passed.







The next day, on a wander, I visited Hyde Park ( north and south ) which holds the ANZAC War Memorial building and is a pleasant park with such sculptures as this ( right ), the Archibald Fountain.









At the northern end of the park lies the Hyde Park Barracks which at the outset of the colony was a prison for about 600 of the convicts ( which they built themselves ). It was more of an 'accommodation block' really. Most of the convicts lived outside in the city, the buildings of which they were constructing and digging up the limestone to do so.  This is now a museum to tell the story of the convicts from 1788. It is most enlightening.
I have tried to photo some of the descriptive plaques which give some background....I hope you can 'click on' to enlarge and read them.











Although the the sentence of 'transportation', normally for either 7 or 14 years seems a bit tough, it actually gave many of the previously 'hopeless' felons a chance to start a new life and become free citizens in a new country. I suspect most, having endured 7, or 14, years in Oz willingly stayed. I'm not sure. Some just got hanged! Some took up Australian Rules Football.













Left: As described, life in Britain at that time was pretty brutal. Criminals had been 'transported' to the colonies in America in any event ( and many of their descendants have continued in the same unrepentant vein ). When America gained independence a new 'dumping ground' was required and Australia fitted the bill admirably.







Right: It's a pity that there are no more large landmasses available to be filled up likewise. The moon, or Mars, might be the next alternative.












Left: A model of a Treadmill. It was a painful and exhausting punishment, but at least had the virtue of producing a useful product, ground corn in this case, as an end product. The exercise did them good, and they produced their own healthy lunch! I can think of many people who might benefit from this regime ( me included ).








Right: The accommodation was fairly spartan and somewhat 'cosy'. I suppose no worse than being on a sea-going ship in those days. We have gone soft nowadays.











Left: Of course Sydney has to have it's own high tower, the originally named Sydney Tower. I believe they boast that it is 20ft higher that the SkyTower in Auckland. Who's counting! No leaping off the top though. It is owned, or sponsored, by the present wealthiest Australian, the guy, whose name I forget, who owns the Westfield shopping empire.











I went there for lunch. I was expecting it to be astronomically expensive but, in fact, it was not much more so than the eateries at ground level. They had the mandatory revolving restaurant and a fairly substantial 'cocktail' bar ( right ). When I was there, I was about the only diner! I think there was another table in use on the opposite side, but it wasn't exactly crowded. Good views. Good nosh too and excellent service ( well, not surprisingly considering it was only me there ); recommended.








Left: I'm not sure that this would get the go-ahead in UK. I bought it to make my sandwiches. Perfectly ordinary processed cheese.








Another observation: The Aussies are incredibly keen on their TLAs ( Three Letter Abbreviations ). The most common one, also enthusiastically adopted by NZ, is the CBD ( City Business District ) or in normal speak the 'city centre'. I have just eaten in the STR  ( Sydney Tower Restaurant ) and I am unlikely to shop in the QVB ( Queen Victoria Building ) because it's too expensive. They play sport at the SCG ( Sydney Cricket Ground ) and the SFS ( Sydney Football Stadium ) and for a bit of kultcha go to the MCA ( Museum of Contemporary Airt ) or the STC ( Sydney Theatre Company ) which is near the SOH ( Sydney Opera House ) and the SHB ( Sydney Harbour Bridge ) on the way to the OPT ( Overseas Passenger Terminal ) and those are probably only scratching the surface.
I must have missed lots of things to see and do in Sydney, but I really quite enjoyed the place. Still on the lookout for witchery grubs and people wrestling crocs wearing hats with corks attached, but I'm sure they will turn up somewhere or other; like Charlie Drake's ( who remembers him? ) 'My Boomerang Won't Come Back".

Making friends in Sydney.

Onwards, onwards.............

SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA ( PART 1 )

27th - 30th Aug 2011

Customs officials searching for cocaine.

Got into Sydney OK, despite no criminal record. It really is a question they ask on the entry form "do you have a criminal record?". I wasn't sure how to answer because ( as the old joke goes ) I wasn't sure if it was still a requirement.
Myself and the delectable Tiziana got a taxi to the Seaman's Mission. The Bangladeshi taxi driver drove us both mad because we couldn't understand what he was saying and he got lost. He gave us the Sydney A to Z street map to read for him! He managed to take a lot of money from us nevertheless. Tiziana went off to her accomodation in Kings Cross ( a place where, it is rumoured, for a financial consideration, there are many ladies who will become temporarily very friendly. Tiziana was happily unaware of this, I hasten to add ) and I went to mine, the YHA near the central station.



Left: The way in. Port Jackson aka Sydney Harbour, and I'm not sure what the technical difference is. The narrow entrance to the east in the distance leads this way towards the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge ( to the left and out of sight ). Botany Bay where the first ships from England arrived in 1788 is about 10 miles to the south, near the airport.
The docks in the centre form the Naval base at Wooloomooloo. The Aborigine name Wooloomooloo means ' Sheep going to the lavatory makes a noise like a cow going to the lavatory'.






Right: Looking east towards the iconic Sydney Opera House. I expect such stars as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Rolf Harris have performed here.
This controversial building was completed vastly over budget in 1973. It is still subject to large ongoing repair and renovation works.






Left: The Sydney Harbour Bridge, looking west from the Opera House. A local told me that this is the tallest and widest iron bridge in the world. The iron was imported from Middlesborough and completed in 1932. The vast stone built towers at each end were put there just to make the bridge look more 'solid' to appease the concerns of the locals at the time. They are not load bearing.







Right: For $200 you can take a guided walk, strung together, up to the top of one of the arches...they were at it all day, like ants. This is not NZ so there was no bungy jump off the top. Apparently there is a marvellous view from the top but you are not allowed to take cameras with you and are even breathalysed before you set out. Rather defeats the object of the idea if you ask me.







Left:....and for absolutely nothing, no breathalyser, no  effort, to get the same view and take a photo, just take a picture of the advertising poster. Saves a lot of time, effort and money.









Plenty of walking around the harbour and Circular Quay area. Very attractive, with some expensive watering holes. Actually, for Brit tourists, Oz is rather expensive; more so than NZ even! During my tour of Oz I hope to see many native things including; boomerangs, kangaroos, billabongs, wicheti grubs, people wearing bush-hats with corks attached possibly even wrestling crocodiles, dingos, and abos playing didgeridoos. Hit lucky with that on day 1. This didgeridoo artiste on the quayside was playing a selection of three, and they were amplified. By crikey those things, like bagpipes, are serious outdoor weapons. What a racket. Indoors you most certainly didgeridon't.




A trendy area next to Circular Quay is called the Rocks. This is the place where the original inhabitants of Sydney set up house. It provides an international  variety of restaurants. This one ( left ) is the Lowenbrau Keller and had a sehr amusink oompah band mit lederhosen......









.

.....und alpenhorn Musik mit .......














.......viele wunderschon frauleins mit grosse knockeren und Steins des Bier. They are obviously keen for the customers to 'try their pork knuckles'.  Tempting fate there I feel.









On the recommendation of an Austrian friend, Herr Ubersturmbahnfuhrer Christian von S, I visited the Fortune of War Hotel ( George Street/Circular Quay ). They have a 'trad' jazz band that plays on Sunday afternoons called Robber's Dogs ( right ).  They were excellent. Note the 'beer glass holders' on the music stands. Interestingly, their leader, on percussion and washboard, is called Bill and is 80 years old. I'm not sure if he is the oldest, but they were cracking good. There is hope for us all.


For such a large city ( pop 5.2 million including the suburbs ) Sydney is surprisingly walkable. The city centre ( called the CBD...and I'll return to that later ) is compact and contains much of what there is for us tourists to see. It includes the places I have mentioned plus Darling Harbour ( redeveloped for tourists for the city 'bicentennial' in 1988 ), not to be confused with Oxford Street ( where rainbow coloured flags are on display everywhere and one is not out of place 'mincing' about doing tea-pot impressions ), King's Cross ( 'The Cross', with plenty of red light bulbs glowing at night ), Hyde Park ( north and south ), the Botanic Gardens, China Town and lots more. Incidently, I noticed that the Aussies are remarkably obedient to pedestrian traffic lights and stand for ages on the verge of a totally deserted street waiting for the little man to go green before they cross, and look daggers at sensible people like me who just cross when nothing is coming. I thought it was only Germans who did that. They would probably cross if the little man went green and there was an out of control 10 ton truck bearing down on them ( "aaaarrrrgggh....but vee vas in zee right!" would be their last words ). I actually saw that happen in Hannover, a long time ago.
Much of the city is named after influential personalities of it's British colonial start in life, and Victorian successors.







Herself on George Street, the main CBD artery, pointing a stick at someone. I'm not sure what the poster behind is supposed to signify.













Right: Darling Harbour which until 1836 was a thriving port for the export of wool. With the wool came rats, and with the rats came the plague and the place was effectively shut down and became almost derelict. It was renovated in 1988 ( the bicentennial ) and geared to tourist attractions and bars and restaurants. A monorail runs over the Pyrmont bridge with the Maritime Museum on the far side and the Aquarium on the near side... I chose to visit the Aquarium.





Lots of fish and no effing seals. On entry the charming lady at the ticket desk said it would be OK for me to take in my bag and camera. I asked if it would be OK for me to take in my fishing rod. That flummoxed her a bit. She asked "what do you mean?" I said I had a collapsible one in my bag and I knew they had lots of fish in there. She looked at me rather strangely and called her colleague over. I asked  them how many fish were in the aquarium. She said "I don't know, millions probably". I said they wouldn't miss a few then. Luckily they had a good sense of humour. I think I am becoming a bit of a tourist from hell.


The first things I saw swimming around in there were some duck-billed platypuses. Extraordinary creatures! I didn't know that the male platypus had venomous spikes behind his hind webbed feet. I got some pics, but they were poor and the bloody things wouldn't keep still, or hid behind underwater tree roots.




Right: Believe it or not this thing is a fish, about 18 inches long, and it swam quite fast. It is a leafy sea dragon. It takes the art of camouflage to a ridiculous extreme.











Left: Quite a large octopus. We were informed that these creatures are intelligent, so they give them toys to play with. Wasn't it one of these that predicted, with uncanny accuracy, the results of the last football World Cup? Perhaps they will have one on stand-by to do the honours for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.









Dotted around the aquarium were various large models of humans and creatures, like this camel ( right ) made entirely out of lego. This one was about six feet tall. Nothing to do with fish, but quite cleverly made. They had glued the lego bits firmly together, I discovered.






In parts of the aquarium one walked around and under very large fish such as this shark ( a grey reef shark, I think ) with very large teeth. I missed their feeding time. There were enormous rays and other vast underwater creatures all of the type one would not wish to meet face to face in the open sea.
Part of the display was a remarkable reconstruction of  coral on the Great Barrier Reef, including it's toothy denizens which one saw nose to nose ( with six inches of glass in between thankfully ), so that means there is now no point in getting my feet wet to see the lethal creatures in the wild.





Right: This thing is a dugong. About ten feet long, it is, apparently, harmless and in the wild lives on sea grass.  There were divers in the water playing with them. In captivity they feed them exclusively on Cos lettuce. One dugong consumes 50kg of soggy Cos lettuce per day. I asked if they might enjoy a ham sandwich occasionally, but no, they only like lettuce. Not much fun being a dugong.







There were lots of cruise ships of exotic design in Darling Harbour, most doing cruises around the Sydney Harbour area. This one ( left ) was of particularly interesting appearance. I think it was called Starship Enterprise. Several old looking paddle-steamers and other flash looking boats were on parade.










I was staying at the southern end of George Street, near China Town. There is a large Chinese population in Sydney. There is therefore a myriad of excellent ( if rather expensive ) Chinese restaurants. This ( right ) is some sort of 'sacred' Chinese tree, known as the Golden Tree. Nobody seemed to know what it represented. Wealth, maybe.










Left: Lots of useful facilities were on offer ( left ). I didn't try this one.
Other observations included the fact that there are many establishments in Sydney ( and maybe throughout Oz for all I know ) which call themselves 'hotels', but stopped being hotels eons ago. They are now, for the most part, just bars. I don't understand why they keep the 'hotel' designation.
I met the daughter of an old friend of mine in such a joint, the Shakespeare Hotel ( bar ). She has emigrated and seems to enjoy the place. We ( or at least I anyway ) had an amusing evening and we even managed to join up with a chap who had just arrived from Doncaster ( UK ), to take part in the pub quiz. I mean he hadn't come all the way from Doncaster just for the pub quiz…the pub quiz just happened to be taking place, if you get what I mean. We didn't do too badly. We weren't last. I take this opportunity to thank Nessie for buying me most of the beer I drank because I ran out of cash! My shout next time.
Another thing I have noticed about Aussies; they must be the only people in the English speaking world able to make three syllables out of the word "no"! It goes something like "noi-ee-uh". Very endearing.
Still lots to see and do around this town. I haven't yet spied anyone wearing a bush hat with corks hanging from it. Off on a tour tomorrow……..

ACROSS THE TASMAN SEA

23rd - 27th Aug 2011

Same-same but different.

I boarded the good ship Bahia on the afternoon of the 23rd in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour. Trapped on board until sailing time because the port authorities won't let you 'go ashore' again once checked in. I went well supplied with extra rations, just in case. The Bahia was remarkably similar to the others, Tanzania and Cap Cleveland in shape and size. There were two notable differences; it had a lift between decks ( luxury ) and it was carrying a 'stable' of six horses. If they had been on the Cap Cleveland we would probably have eaten them.
The Captain this time was, surprisingly, a Scotsman called Peter Handley. Not many Brits on freighter vessels nowadays, I was told. The remaining officers were predominantly eastern European and the crew, as normal, Philippinos. We set sail at about 2030hrs, or however many 'bells' that is.

Our initial route took us north up the east coast and across the top, passing good old Cape Reinga, of Maori spiritual renown ( bad photo left ). Then directly west across the Tasman Sea to Sydney.

Right: The 'stables'. Three trotting horses, two hacks and a 28 year-old Clydesdale. Their groom was called Carl; an ex-Jockey in NZ. He told us that they can get very seasick. I don't think these did. Just for your info, should you be considering it, it costs $NZ3000 per horse for a passage from NZ to Oz.

Left: Carl, the groom ( right ), trying out the life-boat. As per the other ships we were given good instructions on how to launch and drive the life-boat if, in the entirely unlikely event of the ship sinking and none of the crew were left, we had to do it ourselves. Difficult to imagine this happening somehow. 

The horses would go down with the ship. 

Right: Another pic of a container ship at sea. Different ship, different sea but surprisingly similar scene. The weather was calm most of the way across.

Left: The only other passenger, Tiziana. She had been on board for about 5 weeks since the ship left Savannah, Georgia. A very interesting lady.

Right:  Captain Peter, from Edinburgh.

We arrived in Sydney Harbour at about 2200hrs on the night of the 26th. Not under the Harbour Bridge and in sight of the Opera House,  that's where the posh passenger ships go, but into the boring container port, so no interesting photos of the well known sights.

We disembarked the following morning.

More to follow after a few days in Sydney. I will be on the lookout for boomerangs, billabongs, XXXX, didgeridoos, Sydney Opera House and things with which to tie my kangaroo down, sport.
No worries, mate!