MART 2012 - Australia & New Zealand: Day 20: Sydney

Saturday, Feb 25th

It will be hard to top last night's opera performance but here we go.

Two major events were planned for the day; first we traveled around Sydney and the “burbs” by van for a general tour and then we followed-up with a waterside tour of the harbor by boat. This turned out to be a great combination made even better by near perfect Sydney weather.

Lindsay, our tour driver for the morning, picked us up around 8:30 AM for the landside tour. The itinerary included:

The Rocks
The Sydney Harbor Bridge
Manley Beach
Bondi Beach
Rushcutter’s Bay
The Gap
Double Bay
Rose Bay
Mrs. MacQuaries Chair
A variety of significant Sydney buildings and establishments.

Lindsay even offered shopping tips to those so interested.

A little after noon, we arrived at the wharf area of the Rocks and boarded a 50+ foot power boat for our cruise. Captain Tom and his mate Scotty welcomed us aboard. We travelled throughout the harbor heading west toward the Gap, the point where ocean going ships arrive and depart Sydney Harbor. We passed the Opera House, the Australian Naval Station where Jack waxed poetically as we passed by two Australian Navy FFG ships of the Perry Class. Continuing on we found a leeside anchorage for a pleasant lunch of prawns, steak, salmon, salads and anything and everything one could want to drink. When the subject of Vegemite arose, the skipper went to the galley and returned with lightly toasted bread with butter upon which he had applied a light coat of Vegemite. We tried the Vegemite; I'll leave it to the individuals to discuss their personal opinions of the Australian delicacy. We passed beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the ANZAC aka Madonna’s Bra Bridge and ultimately returned to the wharf around 5 PM.

The tours complimented each other very well; the guide and boat crew provided excellent commentary and information on the city. There are too many details to put down on paper so we’ll let some of the pictures tell the story.

As for the balance of Saturday, for dinner, we were unable to get seats at The Quay so we opted for the “best pizza place” in Sydney, The Australian Hotel. The pizza was great though no one ordered either the “roo” or “croc” pizzas. The food was great, the drinks were good and the general atmosphere was enjoyable following a day on tour and on the water. Oh, did I mention that at The Australian Hotel, the sights were also entertaining; kids a third of our age dressed in duds that probably cost more individually than the total of what our group of eight was wearing.

We followed dinner with a short walk to the city quay and found a place to have dessert. Several of us had dessert but none topped Denny’s extremely high lemon meringue pie.