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For this blog:

This blog is about our visit to Eastern Australia - Sydney, Brisbane and the coast north, Lord Howe Island, The Great Barrier Reef, and Fraser Island. 

Please do read through this blog for our narrative and the related photos. 

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Abstracts
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Coastlines
Gardens 
National Parks
Snorkeling
Wildlife and Birds

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2020-02-17 – Sydney

We drove to the Melbourne airport and were even able to find a gas station to fill up before returning the car.  No hassles with checking in or security and we were on the flight by mid-morning.  

We had a transfer into the city and were in our hotel by mid-day.  We have a very nice room at a Sofitel, well located in downtown Sydney near the harbor.  We even have a view from our window of the Harbor Bridge (sort of).

This evening we wandered down to the waterfront for dinner and a bit of photography.  Sydney has a beautiful waterfront at Circular Quay.

and skyline…

and of course, there is the opera house

and the Harbor Bridge.

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Video of Sydney Harbor
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2020-02-18 – Walking Around Sydney and seeing our first opera, Carmen

We have been in Sydney a couple of times before but there is always more to see.  The hotel concierge suggested we stop in at the nearby State Library and we are glad we did.  

Part of the building is from the 1800's and has architecture to match.

On the floor of the old building's entrance is a stone inlaid copy of an old map in the library collection.

We took the free Exhibition Tour where the guide introduced us to the art exhibitions and talked about the library and the art.  The library has more art in their collection that the state art museum. It was pointed out that much of their art isn’t the greatest but that it is intended to tell a story.  Much of their art is from painters from the early days of Australia’s settlement and included early governors, business men and others responsible for building Australia.

There was a painting of Pixie O'Harris, a children's writer and illustrator.  The portrait of her was specifically pointed out by our tour guide...the artist, Mary Edwards, a friend to Pixie,  had painted very subtle pixies in the background of the portrait...very hard to see but definitely there.  

There was also some interesting aboriginal art and one display that listed the word “kangaroo” in over 100 aboriginal languages…there are something over 300 aboriginal languages although some have been lost. 

And there were lots of various displays such as old coins, copper plates, dinnerware and much more...including a display of the inside covers of books.

We watched a movie about the restoration of a badly damaged portrait of a young woman named Sophia Statham O'Brien, who died in 1841 at the age of 21.  The video gave the history of the painting and the people involved with the painting and then walked us step by step through the restoration.  It was very interesting.

Restored Painting of Sophia O'Brien

Tucked away in one corner of the old library building is the Shakespeare room.  

The docent in there must not get many visitors because he seemed amazed that we had purposely looked for the room.  And he immediately launched into stories about the room.  Apparently the room is modeled after one in Hampton Court in England.  The room looked very Elizabethan, with the beautiful wooden walls and bookshelves...

stained glass windows,

and the ceiling, complete with the Tudor Rose.

It was originally used for study of Shakespeare and the library has original copies of all four Shakespeare folios (the Holy Grail of book collecting).  They had a copy of the first folio in the room and the Shakespeare family arms over the door.

We then wandered through Hyde Park where we saw Australian White Ibis...

and the Archibald Fountain.  When we saw this fountain on our first trip many years ago it had a Santa Hat on its head.

We also saw nearby St. Mary's Cathedral,

the Anzac Memorial

and the Yininmadyei Memorial, honoring aborigines people who served in Australia’s military.  The standing shells represent those who survived, and the fallen shells are for those who died.

We wandered through the streets with interesting architecture

and lots of interesting reflections in the glass walls of the buildings.  

We ended up in Chinatown.  However, other than a lot of Asian restaurants and some signs in Chinese one really wouldn’t know that it was Chinatown.

We found Queen Victoria Building, a shopping mall dating to the mid-1800’s and looking quite Victorian.

In the evening we attended our first opera, Carmen, in the Sydney Opera House.  We both actually enjoyed it very much…helped that they had subtitles.

Upon leaving the opera house we saw a huge lightning storm playing over the skyline.  Accompanied by strong winds and a few downed branches (one fell right in front of us), but only a light rain.  Unfortunately, the skies opened up about halfway to the hotel and we were soaked to the skin by the tie we got there.  The doorman brought us towels so we wouldn’t drip quite so badly on their carpets. 

Gotta roll with whatever life throws your way.  What an exhilarating (Paul questions the use of this adjective) way to end the day.

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More Sydney Photos

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2020-02-19 – South Coast Tour and Evening Photo Tutorial

Today we are doing a sightseeing/photo tour along the coast south of Sydney.  The tour left late, and we will be out late in order to take advantage of the softer light in the evenings.  First stop was Sublime Point Lookout where we had lovely views.

We also had good views from the Minnamurra Lookout.

By lunchtime we were at the small, seaside town of Kiama.  While our guide headed out to get some stuff for lunch and started a BBQ we wandered down to the lighthouse…

and the nearby blowhole.

The small bay west of the lighthouse was very pretty.

After a leisurely picnic lunch, we headed out inland through dairy country.  Since the recent rains the hillsides were a beautiful, lush green.

We drove up through temperate rainforest to Saddleback Mountain to get some views of the surrounding hills, the Great Dividing Range, and the coastline. 

Then it was time to start working our way back to Sydney.  First stop was Austinmer Beach.  The surf was very rough so the ‘”no swimming” flags were out.

However, this beach also has rock pools.  These pools are artificial in that they have been carved into the coastal rock right by the ocean edge.  

They are fed/filled by waves from the oceans and with the rough seas there were a lot of waves hitting the ocean side wall.  And lots of kids hanging out on the wall getting really wet by the waves. 

Parts of the coastline were pretty amazing.  We stopped at Bald Hill for views along the coastline.  Bald Hill is a famous hang gliding/parasailing location but there was no one out today.  Probably because the winds were very strong and erratic.

In the parking lot there was an ice cream truck that had a couple of begging birds.  Steve, our guide, said they were rainbow lorikeets.  However, that just didn’t look right and a Google search suggests that they were actually juvenile crimson rosellas (getting pretty good at the birding thing).

We cut the tour a bit short so that we could join the excursion company owner for a technical photo tour.  We joined the group on the far side of the bay near the Harbor Bridge.  There he worked with us on our cameras and we took lots of pictures of the bridge, skyline and opera house as the sun set. 

We got some nice sunsets and the skyline and bridge light up for the night.  

Still have a ways to go on the technical aspects of photography but learning a little bit with each photography tour.  Will look for more photo tour opportunities.