I See the Girls Walk by Dressed in Their Summer Clothes

Welcome to Oz and to the middle of what has been a stronger summer for weather than usual.
I first got to see Sydney out the window of my plane.  We came from the east but had to land from the west, so we got to do a picturesque flyby.  I stayed at a hostel that was like a hotel.  It had a pool, sauna, little movie theater, tv lounges, only you share rooms.  I quickly learned that Sydney is home to giant bats.  Yes that's right, really large bats that come out before twilight so you can get a real good look at them.  The beach at Manly is quite exceptional.  It was reminiscent of some Jersey shore beaches, but with a shallower grade, warmer water, and very fine sand that refuses to come off.  It was bright and sunny and warm, so essentially perfect for the beach.  I was surprised to see a Ben and Jerry's store right across the street.  The ferry ride to and from is well worth whatever I paid.  You get great views of the harbor and downtown, bridge, opera house, everything.

After my sunburn recovery day, I went to the Sydney aquarium, down on the waterfront.  They have many types of fish, a platypus, and a Great Barrier Reef tank.  Their highlight though is a pair of tanks that you get to walk under, through glass tunnels.  One has sharks and rays, the other has sea cows and big fish.  One strange thing that they did was have little displays for animals that don't exist, that could evolve from present species years from now.  The next door Wildlife World featured most of the big names on Australia's creature list: kangaroos, venomous snakes, and a huge saltwater crocodile.  I saw the big Chinese New Year Parade on my way back.

Watching the Super Bowl is an annual American tradition.  In Australia, not so much, unless you really want an excuse to skip work.  "Super Bowl Monday," as it is, is a Sydney tradition mainly limited to sports bars in tourist areas.  That said, the bar I was in got very crowded, as they ran out of seats and people had to stand to watch the game and halftime show.  The game was on Oz's ESPN (whereas it was on Fox in the States) and featured only generic Australian commercials.  This did, however, allow me to learn that ESPN here has an Australian version of Pardon the Interruption, and just hearing the guys argue in that commercial made me laugh.  In the end Green Bay had more supporters (though I did see a terrible towel), and I say it's because they wear yellow and green, the colors of Australia's national teams.

Sydney also has some great parks, including a large free botanical garden.  I spent almost a whole afternoon just walking through, stopping to read, watching guys play chess on the big board.  Many birds live in these places, pigeons of course but also parrots.  The old part of town, The Rocks, has a fun little charm to it.  It's at the southern foot of the Harbor Bridge and was the site of the original European settlement.  An old restaurant there named Pancakes on the Rocks serves some really fantastic pancakes dishes, both savory and dessert, including their yummy chocolate ones that I tried.

I'm in Melbourne now, which while being almost as big a city, comes with a noticeably different feel.  Sydney is very buttoned-up, very much about business.  Melbourne is more laid back.  It's the home to almost every major sporting event that happens in Australia, and to an indie film scene, and immigrant neighborhoods for the Greeks, Italians, and Chinese.  The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the most hallowed sports stadium in the country, let alone the city, but I witnessed my first Aussie Rules football game at the newer Etihad Stadium.  The roof was closed and 3 teams played 3 games in the first round of the preseason tournament.  Richmond got clubbed by both Carlton and Collingwood.  Then Collingwood outlasted Carlton to advance to the next round.  Things were very hectic inside the stadium, since all 3 of those teams are based in the Melbourne area, and 40,000 people (about half of capacity) came out to scream for their side.  Did I mention this was preseason?  I picked up on the rules fairly quickly, but I have to give some credit to the couple seated next to me, Deb and James, for clarifying some finer points for me (and for giving me a ride back to my hostel afterwards).  Thanks guys.

Just outside of Melbourne is the Yarra Valley, the Yarra being the river that runs right through the city.  The valley is very lush, especially at this time of year.  I went with a tour group to visit some of the wineries, like Chandon and Rochford.  The scenery is so beautiful here.  One place appropriately called itself "the shire."  Wines were plentiful and delicious.  Our guide made sure that we knew how to correctly assess each one.  Some chardonnays were a bit too oakey, but I generally like reds more anyways.  I think that a cabernet sauvignon that I tried at the place went to before Chandon was my favorite.  Sadly, I can't remember the name of the place (make your jokes now).  Rochford served us a fancy lunch.  I chose the trout on spaghetti.  Chandon served us cheese with baguette and, of course, excellent bubbly.  The one I tried had pinot noir grapes, so it was in fact dark red.  The tour came with nice people too, which fortunately is a common theme in this land.

Hot in the City Tonight

Well I've made it to Sydney, and it is damn hot here.  Today's high was 42, over 100 in Fahrenheit.  So of course yesterday I went to world-famous Manly Beach to stay cool.  But I did not show enough respect for the Australian Sun, and now my back, shoulders and face are pretty burnt.

Now back to some of the better times of these travels.  Snorkeling in the Cook Islands was good enough that I decided to try SCUBA.  I had to take the typical Discover Scuba course before getting out in the ocean, and it was all stuff that I remembered from previous times.  In the water, I had some trouble getting my buoyancy correct, so I had to work hard to avoid the reef.  It was enjoyable though, and there were many fish, including a lionfish that I spotted hiding in some rocks.  Since I know I'll be diving again on this, including here in Australia, I decided to go for certification.  I was back at Pacific Divers the next day for courses, skill work, and one more dive, and now I have the PADI SCUBA Diver certification.

After saying farewell, it was off to New Zealand.  Auckland is an extremely nice city.  Its actually built right on one of the hotspots in the Earth's crust, so there's a little bit of concern about where the next volcano will be and when it will go off, but for now the city is hilly, grassy, and beautiful.  Bus stops have digital readouts that display how long it will be until the next bus of each line will arrive there.  There are many parks, the biggest of which is the Domain which has tons of open space and fields for cricket and rugby.  Situated in the Domain is the Auckland Museum which had spectacular array of Maori (native New Zealander) artifacts and cultural items.  When I got lunch, there was a cricket game between the national teams of New Zealand and Pakistan.  When I went for dinner hours later, the game still had a long ways left to go.  The island of Rangitoto sits in Auckland's east harbor (Auckland is situated on the narrowest isthmus of the North Island and thus has a harbor on each side).  Rangitoto is the youngest volcano in the area, 600 yrs.  Hiking to the top makes for a great morning, and you get excellent views of the city.  I also walked around the rim, and through some caves that formed in the lava.

The only thing that didn't go well in Auckland was not having the key left for me at my hostel when I arrived.  It was late and all of the budget places' offices were closed, so I went looking for a place where guests could let me in.  I found one, and called their management and got the okay to stay over.  This may sound like a lot of mishaps for just couple of weeks in the trip, but that's just part of life on the road.