iggirice New Zealand: Sydney Menu A

Sydney - Day 1

The day started early. Who would have thought that after a 39 hours journey that I could only manage a 4-hour sleep. After being awake for a while playing with the phone, I got up at 530am. That is still earlier than the very early opening time of the Supa IGA supermarket of 7am. It is good though that we have time to get breakfast items from the store for everyone. This is not downtown so fastfood breakfast is out. This is not a hotel either so we have to manage our own food, just the way we wanted it.

The first item in the itinerary is a 'free' walking tour. We started early and walked to the walking tour. Sydney is very walkable. We are definitely away from the business of downtown but only 20 min away from it on foot. So we walked through this old town type neighbourhood towards Darling Harbour, definitely a taste of local Sydney. We crossed Cockle Bay via the Pyrmont Bridge towards downtown. That was quite a nice leisurely walk in the morning but we could feel the heat coming on whenever the sun hit.

We arrived early to the square in front of Town Hall where we are supposed to meet for the tour. The square has a few people and lots of birds that I don't know the name of. That is a totally different experience from all the Plaza Mayor in towns big and small in South American or Spain. The Plaza Mayor in Latin countries are in the heart of downtown and often the major thoroughfare filled with people going everywhere.

Walking Tour

Eventually, the square was packed with people who are going on the tour. Perhaps I should not be surprised because I really did not see a lot of competitions for walking tours when I tried to research Sydney. We ended up with three large groups of people. As we were waiting, I thought there was an announcement of some sort but it turned out to be an activist standing among us arguing that 'free' walking tour is not good for the economy or something like that. Unlike the tour guides equipped with microphones, we couldn't really hear him among this three-group worth of people.

The tour itself is good but not excellent. She was scraping up a lots of tidbits about the city which is good but we prefer more on the history side of things. I do think that she has done a good job with the history side but there just may be not that much for this relatively new country.

After a quick lunch with crocodile, kangaroo, emu and beef skewers, we went on to Bondi Beach. We were assured by the tour guide that there are too many kangaroos in Australia and it is only to sample them.

Bondi Beach

Using our acquired Opal card, we hopped onto a city bus no. 333 to Bondi Beach. We are lucky that there is a cultural event, Sculpture by the Sea, going on at this time until November 4. Along the famous Bondi to Coogee Cosstal Walk that goes from Bondi Beach, passing Taramara Beach, Bronte Beach and Clovelly Beach to Coogee Beach, there a large variety of very interesting sculptures on public exhibition. We are lucky to run into such an event.

What is not so lucky is that Friday happened to be quite hot, at least to our standard, with a high of 37 deg. Of course, my Sydney friend told me that is not so bad compared to the 46.6 deg that they put up with once. We thought we were prepared with lots of fluids. As well, there are many sun screen stations and water stations along the way organized by Sculpture by the Sea. Still, the heat got to Gigi and she complained of feeling dizzy. That is a huge alarm bell. Fortunately, after a brief rest and plenty of water in her and on her, she recovered somewhat. Along with the fortuitous cloudy periods, we managed to get to Bronte Beach before quitting and got on a bus to head home.

When I was researching Sydney, I got used to using the NSW Transport web site to get route information and do route planning. That familiarity pays off now that I can go on their website and figure out which bus can get us back into town.

Overall, Bondi Beach did not disappoint. It is a huge beach and obviously lots and lots of people are enjoying it. Not sure whether it is because of the sculpture festival, there are also lots of people on the coastal walk. The walk is nice also, all the way along the coast as the name implies. We did not do the last part of the Walk between Bronte and Coogee but really did not expect it to be spectacularly different. We did miss seeing many other sculptures.

Chinatown

Today we used the NSW Transport system extensively. We took the bus to Bondi and bus back from Bronte to the nearest train station, Bondi Junction, took the train to downtown and the Light Rail from downtown back to the Airbnb next to the Fish Market. On our walk towards our last leg of the journey, we walked past Chinatown in the Haymarket area. We did not visit extensively but it seems rather spread out and not like the traditional Chinatown per se with a huge concentration of Chinese population. I should go visit again.

It was a rather full day with fair bit of walking and everyone is sore. But I think we are sharing Sydney with the locals riding the bus and the train with them. We also were tourists through and through with the walking tour. The heat is more than what we thought but we can manage it. A good day!!