Antipodean adventures: Part 3 - Australia

And on to Oz!

We left Queenstown, NZ, under clear skies.  I was seated next to a chatty young man from London (well, perhaps I was the chatty one).  Five minutes into the conversation, I had gleaned the following information:  he was travelling with his partner, his mom, and several other relatives.  They had attended a cousin's wedding in Queenstown.  I also knew that the cousin lived on a sheep farm!  The best part of our chat concerned his job.  He told me he worked at the world's largest Apple store (Regent Street).  I asked "Are you a Genius?", and he said "Yes!".  We talked about his qualifications (he's a college dropout, but a tech wiz), and the upside of working for Apple.  What a great job!  When we were handed landing cards as we approached Sydney, he started to chuckle.  He told me that he always laughs when he has to fill out "profession".  He didn't have the nerve to write "Genius", but penned "Retail" instead!

It was pouring cats and dogs when we landed in Sydney.  We had arranged for a shared taxi, but discovered that our meeting spot was a good ten minute walk through the airport.  The driver looked annoyed when we finally showed up.  This was not an auspicious beginning.  Our misery was multiplied when we arrived at our lodging - the Jacaranda B&B, which was not close to Manly (a suburb of Sydney) as advertised.  The house was dimly lit, and our hosts did not even help us with our bags (nor did they offer an umbrella), as we hoisted them up a flight of steps, through the house, and into our rooms at the back.  (We later discovered a flat path that ran from our back door to the street.  It puzzles me why we weren't directed here in the first place!).  The hostess was more interested in showing us the garden (it was 8 p.m. and raining) than in giving us information about transportation to and from the city centre.  To top it off, we were hungry, and I was cranky!  The closest restaurant was a 20 minute walk (did I mention it was pouring?).  Our Chinese meal was good, though, and we had a nice chat about Hong Kong with the owner.

The next morning, we ventured out in the rain before 7 a.m.  My Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb was scheduled for 9 a.m., and we didn't trust the bus schedule (misinformation once again from our hosts).  The bus ride to Manly took about 15 minutes, followed by a short walk, and then the half hour ferry ride to Sydney harbour.  We began to relax and get excited about being in Australia when we caught our first glimpse of the famous Opera House and Sydney Bridge.  When we disembarked, we ran through the streets and alleyways searching for the entrance to the Climb.  We got there with five minutes to spare - a two hour journey from our B&B!  Because it was raining, Jeff waited downstairs while I checked in for my climb.  He was concerned that either the climb would be cancelled, or that I would chicken out at the orientation.   After a short while, he surmised that my climb had indeed begun, so he went on his own adventure: The Aboriginal Heritage Walk in the Rocks, the birthplace of modern Sydney.  This historic precinct was the original settlement of convicts, soldiers and street gangs.  Today, The Rocks has morphed into the upscale "funky" neighbourhood full of bars and restaurants.  Jeff's Walk was led by an Aboriginal, and Jeff learned a lot about the local culture and history of these native Australians.
The Bridge Climb was the highlight of the Oz trip for me!  What an amazing, exhilarating adventure, and well worth the price (don't ask!).  Highly recommended, even in the rain.  Dressed in our overalls and rain gear, and linked by a thick chain to the guide railing, we began our climb through the guts of the bridge to reach the top section. Once there, we continued to walk until the half-way point of the bridge, all the while listening to the stories our guide told us about the construction of the bridge and the myths surrounding this marvellous structure.  We were transported back to the 1930s, and almost experienced what it would have been like to be part of the construction crew.  Imagine those days:  the Depression was in full swing, and millions were out of work.  In that era, thousands worked on the Sydney Bridge and other massive projects like the original New York skyscrapers and the Hoover Dam.  When we got to  the halfway point (40 stories high), we crossed over the span and made our way back on the opposite side.

After our interesting morning, we had lunch and explored the city.  I realized my mistake in booking our lodgings so far away from everything of interest.  The Rocks is definitely the best place to stay, but I hadn't wanted to pay the price.

Second highlight of Oz - Carmen at the Sydney Opera House!!  Great acoustics, but the decor is definitely dated.




As we began the ferry ride back to Manly, Jeff and I remarked that the boat seemed to be inching along very slowly.  The captain tried all sorts of manoeuvres to get the ferry back on track, but it was futile.  We limped back to Sydney, switched ferries, and managed to reach Manly just in time to catch the last bus to our B&B.

The following day, we had a great time visiting the Discovery Museum, having lunch in the street market, and then joining a free walking tour of the city.  Lots of Edwardian (Federation) architecture, parks, and interesting birds.

Our Hong Kong hiking friend, Kristen, is from Sydney.  She is a professional nanny (Mary Poppins lives on!).  Jeff and I were very happy to meet up with her for dinner, as we hadn't seen her since she had left Hong Kong several months before.  We ate at Garfish, an excellent upscale seafood restaurant in Manly.  At Kristen's suggestion, I ordered Moreton Bay bugs - i.e. Australian lobster.  Scrumptious!

Best sign in Sydney (at a personal training studio).

Brilliant sunshine the following day.  Because we were in such an inconvenient location, we did not have time to get to Bondi Beach (next visit).  We walked to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, to admire the spectacular view of the city, and had a relaxing time before catching our taxi to the airport for our flight to Hobart.

A close-up of the Opera House, and sailboats in the harbour.  Wish we had had fine weather the previous two days.






The two-hour flight to Hobart turned into an adventure.  I was sitting in the window seat, Jeff in the middle, and a young woman in her early twenties on the aisle.  As we took off, Jeff's seat mate appeared to be asleep.  About 15 minutes later, Jeff suddenly reached up and rang for the crew.  In a stupor, the woman had reached for the barf bag in the seat pocket in front of her.  Jeff feared the worst.  The crew responded quickly.  When they reached our row, the woman was comatose.  They tried giving her oxygen, but could not stabilize her, so they asked if there were doctors on board.  Three came forward, although one excused himself since he was a dentist!  They all managed to carry the woman to the back of the plane, and attempted to keep her stable until we landed.  The paramedics came on board as soon as we landed, and took the woman away in the ambulance.  Such excitement!  The staff couldn't thank Jeff enough for his assistance.  Jeff confided to me that his actions were a combination of altruism and self-preservation!

Our taxi driver at the airport turned out to be one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  We had a very interesting discussion as we drove through the dark streets of Hobart.  I told him I was familiar with his history, as I had read Dave Eggers' book, What is the What.  (Film recommendation - The Good Lie, which I saw at TIFF in September, 2014).  Our driver told us that the Lost Boys who ended up in Australia are faring very well.

I wasn't quite sure what to make of our quirky lodgings when we arrived at Bendalls, the mid-19th century home of merchant and ex-convict, Samuel Bendall.  Our twin-bed room was completely authentic, and, over the next few days, we began to see the charm of the house.  The best part of Bendalls is the owner, Karen, a former academic, who is lovingly restoring the house.  The main floor has the two guest rooms.  Karen and her husband live upstairs.  Karen couldn't have been nicer!  She gave us terrific recommendations on transportation and restaurants, as well as very helpful maps and brochures.  We also explained to her that we were in the process of negotiating the sale of our house in Toronto, 10,000 miles away, and asked her if we might be able to use her scanner and printer.  She gladly offered her printer, but explained that her scanner was not working properly.


The next morning (Sunday), we decided to stroll down to the centre of the city rather than take public transport.  The shopping area is a pedestrian mall, which reminded us of Sparks Street in Ottawa.  There's even a large Target department store!  Our destination was the tourist information centre on the waterfront, where we bought tickets to the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) for that afternoon as well as tickets to Port Arthur for the following day.  We also inquired about scanners and printers, and were told that we could find both at the public library close by.  Unfortunately, the library was closed, so we decided to check out the facilities at the Grand Chancellor Hotel nearby.  The friendly concierge assured us that even though we were not hotel guests, we would be able to use their business services when necessary.  Australians are just as nice as New Zealanders!

We spent the rest of the morning following Lonely Planet's walking tour of the historic buildings of Hobart.  There is a prominent statue of Abel Tasman, the first European explorer to reach Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and New Zealand in 1642.  Salamanca Place, on the left, is THE place to hang out, be seen, eat and drink.  Lots of bars and ethnic restaurants.  The pathways surrounding the government buildings nearby are lined with low-rise walls decorated with tombstones.  The land had originally been a cemetery, so the stones (and the memories of the dead) were respectfully maintained in this way.

We spent a wonderful afternoon at MONA.  The ferry ride to the museum was pleasant, and the captain gave us some history of the area en route.  The Museum is situated on the Berriedale Peninsula. At first glance, it appeared to be a windowless single-floor building, but the exhibit floors are built underground.  Visitors must descend three flights of stairs and then work their way back up.  This privately-owned museum is the brainchild of David Walsh, and a good part of the exhibits are from his personal collection.  Walsh made his fortune by developing a gambling system used to bet on horse racing and other sports.

The installations on the grounds of the museum are wacky!  My favourite is the distorted mirrored wall.



I cannot exaggerate how impressed I was with the Museum.  As we entered, we were given an audio guide (iPod) that was very technologically advanced.  The guide enabled us to determine which exhibits were near us, and we could also choose to receive more detailed information on the artists and their works, as well as critical response to the exhibits.

My favourite exhibit, Bit.Fall, was best viewed from above.  Streams of water fell at lightening speed and spelled out different words.  Ingenious!  With Jeff's help, I changed the speed of my camera so that I could capture one word as it fell.  Bit.Fall is the work of German artist Julius Popp.

The fat Porsche by Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm.  A not-too-subtle critique of consumer culture.

Images of the Buddha by Zhang Huan.  The aluminum Buddha reminds me of a hockey player.  The headless Buddha on the right is made of ash, and will disintegrate over time.

Jeff found the museum rather overdone, I think, but I would certainly recommend it as a must-see in Hobart.

That evening, we struggled to find a restaurant for dinner.  As much as I enjoyed Hobart, I didn't like its provincial atmosphere, whereby everything shuts down on Sundays.  We finally managed to locate a small Chinese restaurant, and had our "dinner-for-two" meal.

The next day was the highlight of Jeff's vacation:  our trip to the Port Arthur Historic Site, the former convict settlement dating back to 1830.




On the way to Port Arthur, our tour van stopped at Richmond, where we walked around the historic 19th century town, and admired the oldest road bridge in Australia, built by convicts in 1823.






Snacks for sale at a local deli where we purchased sandwiches for lunch en route.  Not at all appetizing!

A more interesting stop was Eaglehawk Neck, the isthmus connecting the mainland with the Port Arthur penal colony.  During the convict days, this strip of land had a row of ornery dogs chained across it to prevent escape - the famous Dogline.

Our interest in visiting Port Arthur dated back a few months.  In November, 2013, we watched a docudrama called The First Fagin, at the HK Jewish Film Festival.  The film centred around Ikey Solomon, a Jewish receiver and fencer of stolen goods, who inspired Dickens' Fagin.  Solomon, like many petty thieves of his time, ended up in Port Arthur.  The film, which was shot on location in Tasmania, grimly depicted the convict system in early colonial Australia.

The one-hour tour of Port Arthur was led by excellent guides.  After the tour we were free to wander the grounds at our leisure.  We marvelled at the size of the site - the equivalent of a self-sufficient town!  Although the prison functioned for less than 50 years, over those decades 12,500 convicts did hard, brutal time at Port Arthur.  Many of the buildings are in ruins, which adds to the creepy Gothic feel of the whole place.

The shell of the church was quite moving, but I was taken aback when I saw a young Chinese couple using it as a backdrop for their wedding photos!

Unfortunately, Port Arthur's tragic past did not end when the prison closed in 1877.  In 1996, a young gunman fired bullets indiscriminately, murdering 35 people, and injuring 37 others.  It was interesting for us to learn that the Australians have tried very hard to keep the incident from notoriety. There is a sombre memorial to the victims, but the shooting is rarely discussed and the gunman's name is never mentioned.

On the way back to Hobart, we stopped for several photo ops of the beautiful coastline.

That night, after a delicious Indian dinner, Jeff and I could hardly sleep!  Our Toronto house sale was happening 10,100 miles away, and we were hoping for bids the following morning.  When we got up at 8:30, our emails were already beeping.  We Skyped with Frank, our agent and close friend, and got very excited about the purchase offer that he had received.  Amazing that we could conduct this business over the Internet.  Karen, our landlady, got into the act too, printing the bid very quickly.  We made a couple of changes, especially with respect to the current date - the offer said it was valid until midnight on March 31st, but it was already April 1st (April Fools!!) in Hobart.  The purchasers agreed to all the changes while we were on Skype, so Jeff and I hustled downtown to the Grand Chancellor Hotel, where the manager witnessed our signatures, scanned the relevant pages, and emailed everything to Frank.

Done deal!  We were literally walking on air!  We had a congratulatory tea/coffee at the hotel (10 a.m., too early for wine), and then enjoyed a wonderful walk through the charming neighbourhood of Battery Point, with its tiny lanes and 19th-century bungalows, before heading down the hill to Salamanca Place for a pub lunch and the second congratulatory (and alcoholic) drink.

As we walked along the pedestrian mall towards our next destination, I suggested that we stop into a cafe with free Wifi so that we could verify that all was well with our house sale.  Good timing!  There were frantic messages from Frank telling us that we had forgotten to send him one vital signed page of the document.  Oy!!  We dashed down the street to an Internet cafe, quickly scanned and emailed the document, paid our $1, and exhaled.  We were pooped but happy once again.

On to the Penitentiary Chapel, rated by the TripAdvisor community as #2 of the top 30 things to do in Hobart.   I beg to differ.  Boring.  There was no way out for two hours of this interminable tour, because the guide kept locking doors (and any possible exits) behind him.  In light of the penal history of Tasmania, I suppose it was fitting that we too were "incarcerated" for a short time.

At Karen's suggestion, we decided to watch a film at the State Cinema.  This movie theatre has been in continuous use since 1913.  Recently restored, it now boasts several small screening rooms with leather sofas instead of chairs.  The experience is like watching a film in a comfortable family room.  There is also a rooftop cinema and bar.  We watched Muscle Shoals, a terrific documentary about the famous music studio in Alabama.

On to the final stop on our five-week trip the next morning:  Melbourne.  A perfect ending to our excellent adventure.  Ursula and Steve, wonderful friends we had made in Hong Kong, had recently moved home to Melbourne after many years of expat life.  Even though they were mired in home renovations, they proved to be the most gracious hosts.  That first afternoon, the four of us set out for a long walk along the waterfront (cold and drizzly), learning much about the Brighton neighbourhood where they live.  About an hour later, we reached the famous Brighton Bathing Boxes,  colourful huts that have dotted the beachfront for over a century.  Believe it or not, these unserviced (no water, no electricity) structures now sell for $250,000!!

Excellent dinner that night at Doyle's.  Look at the size of Steve's fish!

Jeff and I took the convenient tram into the downtown core the next morning.  When we reached Federation Square, we popped into the visitors' centre to pick up some maps and tourist information.  Our timing was great - a free walking tour of Federation Square was about to begin.  We followed the volunteer guide (a retired accountant, I think) as he described the 2002 renewal project that has resulted in an architecturally pleasing functional space.  Cultural events are held outdoors in a modern amphitheatre, and there are art galleries, restaurants and commercial spaces.  A formerly run-down, unsafe place has become Melbourne's premier public space.  Impressive!

Federation Square is right across the street from the century-old Flinders Street train station, the busiest railway station in the Southern Hemisphere.  Almost as impressive as the Mumbai station!

As much as I dislike graffiti, I must admit that I appreciated the street art that is confined to one long alley running off the main street.  Because it is allowed there, one doesn't see it defacing city buildings elsewhere.

Melbourne is a great walking city.  It has a mix of architectural styles, including beautiful Victorian arcades and modern skyscrapers.

At Ursula's suggestion, we visited the interior of the ANZ bank, built in the Gothic revival style that was popular in the 1880s.  I snuck a photo before being chastised and chased out of the premises.

My favourite building in Melbourne:  the State Library!  The domed reading room is impressive.  The librarians' desks are in the middle of the octagonal space. The State Library reading room was modelled after the reading room of the British Museum.






After lunch, we sought refuge from the rain in the Treasury Building as well as the superb Immigration Museum.  Melbourne has so much to offer!  It felt very liveable and multicultural, in fact, a lot like Toronto.

Ursula and Steve were busy that night, so Jeff and I checked TripAdvisor for restaurant suggestions.  We found a deservedly highly recommended Italian eatery, Gatto Rosso, about a fifteen minute walk from us.  We could smell the delicious food two blocks away!  A very homey, welcoming place with top-notch service and authentic cuisine.

A perfect way to end our vacation: a leisurely day at the Healesville Sanctuary with Ursula and Steve!
Sunshine and all of the animals "performed" for us!

Koalas - yes, they are even cuter in person.

Kangaroos - I must've taken 50 photos of them.

There's an infirmary on the premises.  Baby wombats lovingly cared for.

Wise looking emu.  Vicious Tasmanian devil.

The raptor show.  The birds barely missed my head as they flew around.

And my favourite - the wallabies.






Thank you to our Melbourne hosts for making the last few days of our Antipodean adventure so memorable.

This blog concludes the travels we had while living in Hong Kong.  However, now that we have resettled in Canada, our travels have continued. And so will our blog.